[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 25446]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                   CONGRESS HAS MORE TIME THAN MONEY

  (Mr. THUNE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. Speaker, we are still here this evening because we 
have more time than we have money. And when it comes right down do it, 
the question of the day is ``how much is enough?'' We have passed 
appropriations bills through this House. We have passed appropriation 
bills that met our budget. As we went into the conference negotiations 
with the Senate, the numbers got bid up.
  The President now has gotten almost everything I think he had asked 
for originally as far as the dollars included in his original budget. 
But he is demanding more. And that is why we are still here, because we 
have more time than we have money and more time than the American 
people have in their tax dollars to continue shoveling into Washington, 
D.C.
  We have an opportunity, Mr. Speaker, to pass a Medicare package, to 
pass a tax relief package. And all those things are going down to the 
President, and he is insisting on a veto. I think that is a wrong thing 
to do. It is the wrong thing to do for the people of this country, for 
the people of South Dakota, to the rural hospitals, the home health 
care agencies, the nursing homes, those who need this assistance. We do 
the right thing.
  Let us pass this legislation, and let us get the President to sign 
it, and then we can go home.

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