[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 23 (Tuesday, February 23, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H660-H661]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1300
                   IT'S TIME TO LIVE WITHIN OUR MEANS

  (Mr. KAGEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

[[Page H661]]

  Mr. KAGEN. Mr. Speaker, during this last week, I traveled all across 
northeast Wisconsin listening to people in their kitchens, in their 
living rooms, and at the plants, shaking hands with people that had 
come out of work, people who are happy to have a job, because today no 
job is a bad job.
  But lest we forget, we should never forget how we got into this mess. 
We got into this mess because we had an administration that didn't live 
within its means. And without spending a single dime for it, we had two 
wars at the same time, two tax cuts to the rich, a gigantic handout to 
the drug companies, and then at the tail end of their administration, a 
bailout of Wall Street, nearly a trillion dollars, again without paying 
a single dime.
  It's time to live within our means. Moreover, it's time to pass a 
very simple piece of legislation that's three pages long, that 
guarantees transparency in all health care pricing so that any 
individual or business that offers health care products and services 
for sale to the public must at all times openly disclose all of their 
prices.

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