[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 149 (Thursday, September 18, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H8402]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              EIGHT DISASTROUS YEARS UNDER PRESIDENT BUSH

  (Mr. OLVER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. OLVER. Madam Speaker, as the stock market plunges, financial 
institutions fail and the economic pain Americans feel grows, our 
Republican colleagues' only answer is to drill.
  Drilling won't help the 2 million Americans who have lost jobs in the 
last year. Drilling won't protect 46 million Americans without health 
insurance, 7 million more than when George Bush took office. Drilling 
won't help nearly 6 million people who have slipped into poverty. 
Drilling won't bring back the huge surplus that George Bush inherited 
and squandered. And drilling won't help the 3 million families who have 
lost their homes to foreclosure in the last 3 years.
  Despite their cries for drilling, our Republican colleagues voted 
against accelerated drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve, already 
under lease, and against drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf. In 
fact, the drilling they do support wouldn't produce new oil for at 
least 8 years.
  In truth, they don't want to help American families. They only want 
to distract public attention from eight disastrous years under George 
Bush.

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