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




                            HOPE AND PROMISE

  (Mr. BOCCIERI asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BOCCIERI. Mr. Speaker, when President Barack Obama came to town, 
he brought hope and promise: hope that our best days were still ahead 
of us and that we would work together; promise that if we invested in 
our country and in our people, we could overcome any challenge in our 
country.
  However, my friends on the other side have come with hope and promise 
as well. They hoped that the President would fail and they promised to 
vote against every piece of legislation that he offered and that we 
offered in this House.
  My friends, when President Clinton left office, there was a $5.6 
trillion projected surplus. What we have been left with is a $13 
trillion debt. Our economy was in free-fall: two undeclared, unfunded 
wars; a banking system in chaos and greed on Wall Street.
  Now, if you don't stand with the stimulus that's going to invest in 
our country, in our people, and you voted against us, what did you 
stand for?
  Well, we don't know what they are standing for but we certainly know 
what they are against: a cost of living adjustment for seniors on 
Social Security, extensions of unemployment for out-of-place workers, 
extensions of COBRA insurance so that folks who lost their jobs can 
have insurance, and the largest tax cut in America's history.
  The world is changed not by critics but by leaders, Mr. Speaker.

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