[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 25788]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         THE TEA PARTY MINORITY

  (Ms. NORTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, the TEA Party minority didn't succeed this 
summer as they thought they had, so they have come to the floor this 
afternoon. And they are not going to succeed any more on the floor than 
they succeeded with the noise of the summer. And how do we know it? The 
public option has come roaring back.
  The people got through the noise, and they understand now to a fare-
thee-well. In fact, my greatest fear is that now more people want the 
public option than will qualify for the public option in the bill, once 
they came to understand the relationship between what they're paying 
for insurance, that health insurance has been going up at a rate three 
times their wages, and that is why the wages of the residents of our 
country have been flat for decades. Once they understood that, they put 
two and two together.
  The American people are smart. They are smarter than the TEA Party 
crowd that has taken to the floor this afternoon.

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