[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 68]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        THE PRESIDENT'S BIG IDEA

  (Mr. WYNN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WYNN. Mr. Speaker, good afternoon. Happy New Year. Welcome back.
  Last year, the President's advisers decided that in 2004 the 
President was going to talk about big ideas. Good, that is what 
Presidents are supposed to do, but then the President decided what we 
ought to do is go to the moon and Mars and cost the taxpayers $1 
trillion. We have explored the moon in 1969 and 1970. It is a rock. We 
have seen pictures of Mars. It is also a rock.
  It seems to me the big idea is to help the working families in 
America. This economy has lost 3 million jobs under President George 
Bush. Two million workers have been unemployed for more than 6 months; 
1.4 million workers have exhausted their unemployment benefits but 
still have not found work.
  A big idea would be to put people to work like Franklin Roosevelt 
did. Another big idea would be to provide health insurance for all 41 
million Americans who do not have health insurance. Health insurance 
costs for those who have it are rising, and pretty soon more people 
will not have it. That would be a big idea. Health insurance. Funding 
medical research to fight cancer and AIDS and ending poverty and hunger 
would be big ideas that we ought to be pursuing in the 21st century.
  Instead, when the President's big idea is to go to Mars, it seems to 
me he has lost contact with the American people. Democrats have big 
ideas, making America a better place in which to live.

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