[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 18 (Tuesday, February 14, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H229]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     RUNAWAY SPENDING IN WASHINGTON

  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, the headlines announcing one scandal after 
another have grieved the heart of the American people and have eroded 
public confidence in our national government's commitment to governing 
of the highest moral caliber.
  The Bible says that righteousness exalts a nation, so the converse 
must also be true. So Congress is preparing to fight for ethics reform, 
not because such scandals hurt our party but because they do hurt the 
Nation. But as we reform our rules of ethics we will do so with the 
understanding that these are but symptoms of the core problem. The real 
scandal in Washington, D.C., is runaway Federal spending.
  Fiscal and moral integrity are inseparable issues. So it is not 
enough to change the way lobbyists spend their money, Mr. Speaker. We 
must change the way Congress spends the people's money. Only by 
marrying budget reform and ethics reform can we hope to restore the 
confidence of the American people in the fiscal and moral integrity of 
our national legislature.

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