[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 40 (Thursday, March 18, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H1600]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  (Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California asked and was given permission 
to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, it occurs to me 
that one of the strangest things that happens on this floor is when you 
bring the gavel down and say, The time has expired, and then people 
keep on talking and then turn to you and they say, I yield back the 
balance of my time. That is sort of a metaphor for the problem here in 
Congress. When we announce a tax cut, we say we are giving something 
back to you as if we had the call on your money in the first instance.
  It's just one of the fictions we deal with, such as the fiction that 
this bill isn't going to cost us any money, or the fiction that the 
American people don't know what's in the bill, or the fiction that the 
American people will love it once we pass it.
  Let's remember August. It did occur. It's something that is a 
manifestation of the American people and how they feel. Let's not 
ignore the American people. Let's be the House of Representatives.

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