[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26286]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  STOP PLAYING POLITICAL GOTCHA AND START SERVING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

  (Mr. AKIN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. AKIN. Mr. Speaker, one of the things that I think most people in 
politics know is that the ratings of Congressmen are very, very low. 
And perhaps part of the reason for that is the public can see that we 
are playing more political gotcha than we are in really solving 
problems.
  Today we have just seen an example of that as Democrat after Democrat 
condemned the President for this SCHIP bill, which has all these little 
hidden gizmos, among other things that we are going to provide health 
care to the children of illegal immigrants. It is a massive expansion 
of basically Hillary socialized medicine. And yet we are going to use 
this children's health issue as a way to play political gotcha.
  We don't need to do that with the veterans bill. The House and the 
Senate have both approved funding for veterans, which comes down to 
$18.5 million of extra money for veterans hospitals, for prosthetics, 
for our wounded soldiers. Those bills are just sitting, waiting.
  Are we going to use that as another way of doing political gotcha, or 
shall we just start solving problems and serving the American people?
  Mr. Speaker, for the past few years we have heard the Democrats in 
Congress say they support our troops and veterans even if they do not 
support the war in Iraq.
  Yet, many of those brave veterans who served in Iraq, as well as 
other military campaigns, are being denied as much as $18.5 million a 
day in veteran's care that was promised to them.
  The Democrat majority has delayed a vote on a bill to fund veterans 
care. These delays are denying our veterans millions of dollars that 
would fund prosthetics for our wounded warriors and amputees.
  Are the Democrats hoping to save a vote on veteran's health for later 
in the year? Maybe, they plan to attach wasteful earmarks to that bill?
  Members of Congress, you can't say that you support our troops and 
veterans if you won't fund their care. It's time we make good on our 
promises. Give our veterans what they need.

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