[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 17664-17665]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              THE RESTORATION OF AMERICA'S GLOBAL POSITION

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)

[[Page 17665]]


  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, when President Obama came into office, there 
was a hole in the ideas of America and the policy of America as great 
as the Grand Canyon, one of our great treasures.
  Unfortunately, the lack of ideas in policy, which shouldn't be a 
hallmark of this country, was so great that President Obama has had to 
do much, and this 111th Congress has tried to help him. We didn't have 
an energy policy, and the flora and the fauna of this Earth and this 
country's energy independence and this country's reliance on fossil 
fuels is a very scary proposition.
  We are the only industrialized country in the world without a health 
care policy, and we have 47 million people without health care. That is 
unacceptable. Our position among the nations of the world was at a low 
ebb. President Obama has restored that.
  This Congress is trying to put America where it should be as a place 
of great ideas and policies, and we have got an 8-year hole to fill. It 
has been difficult. But we are doing the best we can with the difficult 
situation we have been given.
  I'm proud to work with President Obama and this Congress and put 
America and the ship of state afloat and going in the right direction.

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