[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16152-16153]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          WHERE IS THE VISION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Berry) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I come here night after night, and I see 
these Howdy Doody neo-cons come to the well and present this ridiculous 
idea that everything is all right, everything is wonderful. All we need 
to do is just keep cutting taxes and borrowing money and acting like we 
have not got good sense, and everything is just going to be wonderful.
  I heard a speech this evening about how great the economy is in 
Tennessee, and I just ask you one question, Mr. Speaker, if things are 
so doggone good, how come we are broke?
  I met with the manufacturer of Army boots last week. He was not 
complaining. I just happened to run into him, and we had a 
conversation. He was not asking me to do anything. He said, We do not 
have money to warehouse Army boots for our troops. We have to ship them 
directly to the field because we do not have the money to buy any more 
Army boots for the troops until the year comes in, until October. He 
said, We are making boots and warehousing them at our own expense so 
that they will be ready when the time comes because we do not want our 
men and women in the battlefields to not have boots.
  I was just astounded because I hear these folks come down here and 
talk about how wonderful it is. This is insane what is going on here. 
We cut taxes and brag about what happens that is good about it. We 
borrow money that our children, our grandchildren will not even be able 
to pay back, and act like we do not know what the consequences of all 
this is going to be. And it is the Republicans that are doing it.
  All we get to do is come down here and have a 5-minute discussion 
about why it is the wrong idea. You have heard tonight, 70 percent of 
our debt is being bought by foreigners; we have borrowed $2.5 trillion, 
and we owe another $2 trillion in current account deficits. You cannot 
be broke and free. Everybody knows that.
  Health care costs are in runaway conditions because the Republicans 
and

[[Page 16153]]

the Republican administration are so determined to pass public law and 
public policy that gives the pharmaceutical companies the exclusive 
right to rob the American people.
  You cannot fund veterans, you vote to send men and women on the 
battlefields and then you do not have enough money to pay for the 
veterans benefits that they are entitled to, and you keep coming back 
with budgets that cut that and then come back here and talk about how 
wonderful things are.
  I do not know what in the world they are thinking about. Where I come 
from it is just as bad to be lying as it is to be stealing.
  I just wonder, where is the vision?
  There was an article in The Washington Post yesterday about where are 
the patriotic businessmen; where are the people in this country, the 
leaders in the business community that used to stand up and say, This 
is a bad idea, do not do this. It will hurt everybody. It will hurt our 
children and grandchildren. We want this country to continue to be good 
and strong and wonderful like we have had it. And yet these people come 
down here and try to blow smoke at everybody and tell them everything 
is going to be all right and it is going to be wonderful; and then they 
put everybody's children and grandchildren at risk.
  I just wonder where is the vision. What were you people thinking 
about?
  We met with Mr. Cheney, the Blue Dogs, we met with Vice President 
Cheney back in the Spring of 2001. He said, we think you are nice 
people, but we can cram this down your throat and that is what we are 
going to do. And they did. We voted against it.
  Then they send that little fellow over there from OMB, I cannot 
remember his name. He is running for Governor of Indiana today. And he 
said, Do not worry. We are going to have so much money, we will not 
even have any bonds to sell. Now look at this mess we have got.
  It is time for us to do something about it. And the good news is it 
is up to the American people, and we still get to vote in November, and 
we are going to make the decision.

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