[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 22 (Wednesday, February 4, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H928]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           RECKLESS SPENDING

  (Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, the American people understand the need 
for a stimulus. They understand the need for job creation. What they 
don't understand is why we are pursuing this reckless path of aimless 
spending.
  Now we have heard it over and over again. Elections have 
consequences, they won, and we understand that. We also hear the need 
for bipartisan bills. But I have to ask you, Madam Speaker, doesn't 
legislation also have consequences?
  We often ask ourselves what makes a bill bipartisan? Is it just 
because we all have a chance to vote one way or the other and for that 
reason it is a bipartisan effort even if you vote against it or for it.
  In reality, a bipartisan bill begins at its inception where the ideas 
are talked about among Members and typically amongst their staff. 
Certainly it involves hearings and markups at the subcommittee level, 
and certainly it involves hearings and markups at the full committee 
level. But many of the bills we have before us fail to achieve that 
lofty goal.
  We are about to pass a stimulus bill that will vastly increase 
Medicaid spending, but at the same time in this great wash of cash, we 
can do nothing to provide adequate payments to providers. That would 
have been a bipartisan effort.

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