[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13465-13466]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     BEST GOVERNMENT MONEY CAN BUY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, we often hear that the American people have 
a negative opinion of the job we do here in Congress. In fact, recent 
polling indicates that 53 percent of the country disapproves of the way 
Congress handles its job.
  In a recent CNN poll, 71 percent of the American people said Congress 
fails to share their priorities and values. Some around here may wonder 
why that is. Could it be because while American families struggle to 
pay their education bills, their medical bills, save for their 
retirement, this Congress has come to be handing out special favors, 
and that is all they see of this Congress?
  Could it be because ours has become a government of the special 
interests, for the special interests? Mr. Speaker, when your gavel 
comes down, it is to open the people's House, not the auction house. 
What have the American people seen of late?
  They have seen that when we had a tax bill problem of $4 billion on 
the corporate side, we were trying to fix a $4 billion problem, it 
ended up costing the taxpayers $150 billion in special interest favors. 
Only in this Congress, only in this country could you stick the 
taxpayers with a $150 billion bill to bail out corporate interests, 
when you were trying to fix only a $4 billion problem.
  And rather than creating jobs as the bill was intended, it is 
creatively named the Jobs Creation Bill, it was nothing more than a 
multi-billion dollar giveaway to special interests. Or consider last 
year's prescription drug bill for Medicare.
  It is about an $800 billion handout to the prescription drug industry 
after having been one of the largest contributors to the campaign 
committee, both for Democrats and Republicans; and it actually ended up 
with producing an additional $153 billion in profits for the 
pharmaceutical industry.

[[Page 13466]]

  While we were working on that legislation, a Member of this body was 
actually negotiating a job to go to work for that industry and 
represent it. Or now that we are talking about the energy bill, we are 
talking about a $14 billion taxpayer giveaway to the energy industry, 
and oil is now being charged at $59 a barrel.
  If it is not profitable at $59 a barrel, what more do we have to give 
them? Neither does it ever reduce our dependence on foreign oil. And 
the pundits here in Washington wonder why the American people out in 
the country do not like their Congress?
  But it is not just the administration and their congressional allies 
that have worked to craft legislation benefiting a single industry. In 
some cases the special interests actually sit at the table drafting the 
legislation that impacts them.
  For instance, recently we were all shocked to learn that Philip 
Cooney, the former chief of staff for the White House counsel on 
environmental quality and a former lobbyist at the American Petroleum 
Institute, consistently changed government reports on global warming.
  After leaving the White House, and having been discovered having 
literally changed government reports on the impacts of global warming, 
where does he end up with a job? Exxon, a company opposed to any 
legislation on global warming. Then there is the tobacco lawsuit. The 
U.S. Government won its case handily against Big Tobacco; but rather 
then seeking the maximum penalty of $130 billion, the government 
suddenly decided to only ask for $10 billion where Philip Morris' 
attorney said they were very surprised at this decision.
  Nobody seems to know how the decision was made, but in the past weeks 
it has become clear that the associate attorney general, Robert 
McCalum, a former employee at a firm representing tobacco executives 
and industry, forced the government to reduce its own penalties to 
pennies on the dollar.
  But if Americans are not turned off by the corporate goodies dished 
out by Congress, and if industry execs crafting the policies that 
benefit their own companies do not get them worked up, maybe it is the 
revolving door between the public and private sector.
  As I mentioned, a colleague of ours went off to represent the 
prescription drug industry known as Big Pharma, after having passed an 
$800 billion prescription drug bill.
  And, by the way, the chairman of the health subcommittee dealing with 
the very same bill is now employed by other drug companies. Mr. 
Speaker, the American people are concerned that Congress does not 
reflect their priorities or their values. Sadly, they are right.
  We have a government that has become beholden to the special 
interests; and their voices, the voices of the American people have 
been quieted by the voices of the special interests.
  And as far as the government special interests are concerned, this is 
the best government money can buy. Mr. Speaker, the gavel marks the 
opening of the people's HOUSE, not the auction house. This election is 
about returning that gavel to its rightful owners, the American people.
  The President and his advisors tout the fact that they do not pay 
attention to polling data. Well, maybe, it is time they did, because 
the message is loud and clear, the American people want their House 
back.

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