[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 74 (Tuesday, June 7, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H4162]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                HOWARD DEAN AND WASTE, FRAUD, AND ABUSE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I had planned to come down to the floor 
tonight and talk a little bit about some of the things that I had heard 
from the constituents in my district; but before I get to that, I have 
to address some of the comments that have been made by Democratic 
National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.
  Everyone knows that Mr. Dean has a reputation for making outrageous 
and inaccurate statements, and that is really no secret. But one would 
think he would have toned down the false statements and the unfounded 
insults, given his new role as leader of the Democratic Party.
  In the past month, Mr. Dean has said the House majority leader ought 
to ``go back to Houston where he can serve his jail sentence.'' Mr. 
Speaker, that is despite the fact that the leader has not been accused 
or convicted of a crime.
  This past week, Mr. Dean said, Republicans never made an honest 
living in their lives. He actually thought that was a reasonable, 
responsible comment. And this is just so asinine, so juvenile, that it 
is hard to believe that the Democratic Party would choose him to lead 
their party.
  Mr. Speaker, the next example is so awful and so incredibly sad, I 
really hate to repeat it, but sometimes it is the light of truth that 
is the only thing that will stop people from saying things like this. 
In February, while addressing a group of African American Democrats, 
Mr. Dean said, ``You think the Republican National Committee could get 
this many people of color in a single room? Only if they had the hotel 
staff in here.''
  I cannot fathom what is going through his head when he makes comments 
like these. It is increasingly apparent that he is out of touch with 
America and with people who do not march in lockstep with his view. We 
should not just let these comments slide. He is speaking for one of the 
Nation's major political parties, and his comments are out of line. I 
am glad to see that several Democratic Members in the House and Senate 
have disavowed his remarks, and I would hope that minority leaders 
Pelosi and Reid would join them.
  If Mr. Dean would like, maybe we should introduce him to plenty of 
good, hard-working conservatives who have never been given a single 
solitary thing, people who have made it on their own; people who have 
built a business, who talk about the sweat equity that is in their 
business, because they have not only built it with their heart, they 
have built that business with their hands. They deserve the same 
respect any other American deserves, regardless of the party, because 
they know what a hard day's work is all about.
  Mr. Dean's attitude and his comments are exactly why his party has 
failed for a decade to win back either the White House or Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, I do not want to end my comments today without 
discussing some of the things my constituents and I have been talking 
about back in Tennessee. Like many of my colleagues, I have spent a 
great week talking with people in my district and getting their take on 
what we are doing or not doing here in Washington. This is one of the 
very best parts of my job.
  I learned so much from the listening sessions in my district. We 
talked about our military; we honored our veterans; and, Mr. Speaker, 
we talked about issues like government spending, illegal immigration, 
and waste, fraud, and abuse, which are at the top of the list. And it 
is waste, fraud, and abuse that I want to touch on tonight for just a 
few minutes.
  I have been working over the past months to target the tremendous 
number of taxpayer dollars that get wasted each and every year right 
here in Washington, and I want my colleagues to know that the folks 
back home are talking about this issue. They want to remind us that 
government has a spending problem, and that when we spend wisely, we 
spend less. I heard time and again from my constituents, it is a 
spending problem, it is a spending problem that you folks in Washington 
have. You do not know how to say no. They know that when we spend less 
and when we spend wisely, everybody benefits, especially future 
generations; and they know there is plenty of room, ample room for 
reform when it comes to government spending. They support the 
President's plan to reduce and eliminate underperforming programs and 
agencies, and they support the budget that this Congress passed that 
reduces by nearly 1 percent discretionary nonhomeland, nondefense 
spending. They want us to make even larger strides in that same 
direction.
  We know that rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse is not going to be 
an easy project; it will be a long-term project, but over the next few 
months, we will be coming back to the floor to talk just about that 
issue, and I invite my colleagues to join me.

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