[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 30 (Friday, February 13, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H1594-H1595]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1515
                           DOES CONGRESS KNOW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. McCotter) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McCOTTER. You know, the Chamber is empty, the voting is over. But 
as regards to the stimulus bill that was in front of us today, I had a 
request from Greg, who lives in Milford in my district, if I could read 
a part of his letter to me regarding that bill.
  ``Dear Congressman McCotter, I spoke with you on WJR Friday morning. 
I couldn't get out everything I wanted to say because of my 
frustration. I would love to talk before Congress and the Senate. I 
would like to talk to them about the deplorable, reprehensible, and 
egregious waste they are considering with our tax dollars. I'm sorry 
this is long, but I want them to see what I see. And I want to ask them 
a few questions.
  ``You see, I just lost my job. The company I worked for is 
eliminating 700 sales positions nationwide, about 15 will be affected 
in Michigan.
  ``I would like to ask the Congress and Senate if they know what it's 
like to sit at the dinner table and tell your 11-year-old daughter that 
she can't get a school yearbook because we need the money to buy 
groceries. Do they know what it's like to see the tears in your wife's 
eyes when you tell her the conference call you were just on eliminated 
your position?
  ``Do they know what it feels like to tell your father-in-law that the 
daughter I married and promised to provide for that you just lost your 
job?
  ``Do they know what it feels like to return the shirts you just 
bought for work on clearance, because you really needed new shirts, and 
now you don't even have a job?
  ``Do they know that when I told my 7-year-old son we just had to make 
cuts, and he responded, `Can we still have our donut on Sunday morning 
before church?' That's all he said he wanted. I had to tell him we'd 
try our best.
  ``Do they know we've made sacrifices but you haven't?
  ``Do they know what it's like to speak with someone who was in tears 
over losing their job because they think they will lose their house? 
How about the always upbeat guy who sounded depressed that he could 
lose his house because he had just lost his job?
  ``Do they know what it's like to have another coworker lose their job 
and are worried their spouse's job could be next?
  ``Do they know how fearful it is to turn your heat down at night to 
59 degrees and 65 in the day when your child is asthmatic and it can 
flare up from the cold?
  ``Do they know about the guy I just met whose entire company just 
took a 20-percent pay cut so they wouldn't have to lay off employees?
  ``Congressman McCotter, why doesn't the Senate have the guts to 
reject the pork spending portions of this bill and start over? Why 
don't you get off your ivory tower, pork barrel, earmarked, pet project 
behinds and do what we need you to do?''
  And Greg finished, ``The wasteful spending they are considering is 
unconscionable to me. What jobs in the U.S. does that create?''
  Earlier today we heard the Speaker ask Members of this body to 
remember the people at home and feel their hand upon theirs as they 
cast their vote upon this bill. I did not need to feel the hand upon 
mine. I felt their pain in my heart because I saw it every day in our 
Michigan neighborhood, our Michigan community.
  And the reality was that the bill before us was a trillion-dollar 
mistake that will harm working families like Greg, deprive them of 
hope, and damage our already recessed economy.
  So before today's vote, I called Greg and I talked to him. He was as 
set in his position as he was when he wrote me this letter. And Greg 
thanked me for voting against it. And the fundamental reason was this: 
I live in Lavonia, Michigan. I live with people who are suffering. And 
they sent me here to work for them to try to make things better.
  And when I go home, after a vote, to my wife and children, I go home 
to the people who are suffering as well; and I will have to look them 
in the eye and tell them whether this trillion-dollar bill helped them 
or not. And with God as my witness, I will at least be able to tell 
them the truth that it will not.

[[Page H1595]]

And I will tell them that we will keep trying until we do right by 
them.

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