[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 63 (Thursday, April 19, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H3674-H3675]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             STATUS OF THE SIX FOR '06 AGENDA: ZERO FOR SIX

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, the Democrat majority has been in 
control of this House now for about 4 months, and they made a lot of 
commitments to the American people during the campaign just passed. And 
I thought tonight I would give a report on the success of their agenda.
  They had six bills that they said they wanted to pass in the first 
100 days or first 100 hours to get moving, and I would like to go 
through those bills one at a time:
  H.R. 1, the first bill they introduced, Implementing the 9/11 
Commission Recommendations Act of 2007 is stalled.
  The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 is stalled.
  The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007, stalled.
  H.R. 4, the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2007, 
stalled.
  H.R. 5, the College Student Relief Act of 2007, stalled.
  And the CLEAN Energy Act of 2007, still stalled.
  They have control of both Houses of the Congress, and these bills 
have not yet reached the President's desk, although they pledged to get 
these things done as quickly as possible after the election.

[[Page H3675]]

  They have passed only 17 bills into law. Ten of those bills named 
Federal post offices and Federal buildings. None of the legislative 
impact on fighting the war against Islamic extremists, balancing the 
Federal budget, creating jobs, cutting pork barrel spending, or saving 
Social Security have been addressed or passed.
  They have passed a budget. And the budget that they passed assumes 
that the President's tax cuts, which we passed early in the Bush 
administration that led to our economic recovery and low interest rates 
and low unemployment and low inflation, they want to do away with those 
tax cuts. And that, in effect, will amount to a $392.5 billion 
additional tax burden on the American people.
  The Democrats' budget also includes an immediate $24 billion increase 
in nondefense, nonsecurity spending above the President's request. This 
is on top of the $23 billion of unrequested spending in the 
supplemental and $6 billion in the omnibus spending bill.
  In addition, the Democrat budget includes 12 reserve funds, promising 
more than $115 billion in higher spending, which, if offset as required 
by the House rules, would almost surely mean another $115 billion in 
higher taxes. This would be on top of the $392.5 billion in tax 
increases they have already built into their revenue numbers.
  The average taxpayer in Indiana, if this budget were to pass, would 
be saddled with $2,729 in additional taxes and more than 2.3 million 
Hoosiers would be affected just this year under the Democrat budget.
  Now, I want to talk a little bit about the Democrat Iraq 
supplemental. That was for the defense of this country and for 
supplementing our troops and giving them the equipment and the support 
that they need to fight the war in Iraq and to fight around the world 
in places like the Balkans and in Afghanistan. The Democrat 
supplemental legislates defeat and funds favors at the troops' expense.
  Let me just tell you what is in this bill. It is supposed to be for 
our troops and for the defense of the Nation. But in that bill they 
have added $120 million for the shrimp industry, which has nothing to 
do with defense; $74 million to store peanuts, which has nothing to do 
with defense; $25 million for growing spinach, which has nothing to do 
with defense; and $5 million for ``aquaculture,'' or to put it in a 
less fancy term, it is tropical fish. Five million dollars for research 
on tropical fish. These are things that shouldn't be in the defense 
supplemental, and yet my colleagues on the other side of the aisle put 
them in that bill.
  I think the American people need to know that while they made these 
commitments during the campaign, they have not fulfilled those 
commitments. And this is a report card on the first 4 months of their 
reign in this House. I will try to, in every 3- or 4-month period, give 
another report on the progress of the Democrats' agenda, and I hope it 
is a lot better than this one has been.

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