[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19188]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        STAND UP AND BE COUNTED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Burgess) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURGESS. Before I came to the United States Congress, in another 
life, I was a physician, and oftentimes when I was introduced to speak 
at an engagement back home, the person doing the introductions will 
say, Do you want to be referred to as Doctor or Congressman? I usually 
start off with perhaps a little lighthearted humor in that, Well, 
physicians still enjoy about a 70 to 80 percent approval rating with 
the American public, and Members of Congress enjoy about a 7 to 8 
percent approval rating with the country. So, mother always called me 
Doctor, and that is what I'd prefer to be called. But it's really a sad 
commentary on the institution that our credibility is at such a low 
ebb.
  Now we just had the gentleman from Tennessee talk about an editorial 
in the New York Times. Since he brought it up, let me refer attention 
to the New York Times from yesterday. Reading it on the airplane up 
here, they referenced the fact that we have a serious problem with the 
chairman of our Ways and Means Committee and the credibility has been 
lost for the individual who is head of the largest tax-writing body in 
the House of Representatives.
  The Tax Code in this country is complex. No one understands it. 
People understand how mistakes can be made. But the chairman of that 
body, at the very least, ought to hold himself above reproach. And yes, 
maybe one transgression, perhaps two, but transgression after 
transgression after transgression is more than the American people can 
tolerate.
  We are going to debate an energy bill today. But the fact is we are 
not really going to accomplish anything on energy. Yes, I know they 
have the votes. They can pass pretty much whatever they want. They can 
ram it to the floor, like they did last night, 15 minutes before it 
goes to the Rules Committee, and then here on the floor, as if by 
magic, today. But this bill is dead on arrival in the Senate. It is 
going to do nothing to help the American people.
  Here's the tragedy. Out in the countryside, no one believes that we 
have the ability to do much of anything. We couldn't talk about border 
security or immigration reform because we have no credibility. We can't 
talk about what we are going to do with the economy because we have no 
credibility.
  The credibility of this institution was badly damaged prior to the 
2006 election, and I grant you it was an election strategy by the other 
side that worked. Paint the working majority at that time as one that 
wasn't working, and we will get to take credit for it and we will get 
to take power.
  So look at where we are today, 22\1/2\ months later. Are we out of 
Iraq? I don't think so. Are gas prices lower? I don't think so. All of 
those things were promised during the run-up to the last election. And, 
yes, they promised to be the most ethical and competent Congress that 
the country had seen in quite some time.
  Now I call on the 30 new Members on the majority side who were 
elected on this platform to stand up. Stand up in your conference and 
be counted. Now is the time. We have a serious crisis of credibility on 
one of the major committees in the United States Congress, and we can't 
get past that point. One individual holds in his hand the power to 
begin to restore some of the credibility to the institution that we so 
sorely need.
  I call on the freshmen Democrats to ask the chairman to step aside, 
whether temporarily or permanently, but step aside until he solves his 
own problems so that the institution is not left carrying that weight. 
I think the institution of the House of Representatives deserves no 
less than that courtesy at a time when our economy is suffering, our 
energy prices are high, and certainly the ability of the country to 
defend the border has been seriously questioned. This is the time.
  This is the time that the House needs to have maximum credibility to 
get these issues accomplished and, at the same time, here we are 
talking about the same things and over and over again.
  Again, I call on the freshmen Members, stand up to your Speaker, 
stand up to the powerful committee chairmen. Let's move past this 
point. You have other capable members on the majority side on the 
Committee on Ways and Means who can serve, either temporarily or 
permanently, to serve that body, and let's move past this point.
  It's time. The American people are waiting on us to do the big work, 
and we can't do it because we are bound up in these seemingly endless 
quandaries that we find ourselves in. Let's show the American people 
that we can lead. Maybe then they will restore some of the credibility 
to us.

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