Issues of the Day
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Wisconsin, my fellow Budget Committee member, for his passion to save this country from a sovereign debt crisis and protect our Nation's next generation from reaping the whirlwind of this reckless spending and unsustainable debt path that we are on.
We must fight for the future of our country. All the things that are talked about in this great Chamber, all the great ideas, and all the threats that are posed to this country of ours and its future will all be undermined and jeopardized because we will have failed to simply steward the taxpayers' resources and our children's future.
I thank the gentleman for his leadership and his passion. Celebrating the Life of General Bernhard Mittemeyer
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the life of a true American hero and a very dear friend, General Bernhard Mittemeyer, who passed away this January after 92 rich, full, extraordinary years. He was a first-generation immigrant from South America who really lived the American Dream.
After 28 years in the military, he rose to the rank of general. He served as surgeon general of the Army under President Reagan, and he received a number of awards and recognitions, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, which is the highest peacetime award in the military.
I worked with him at Texas Tech, where he was a physician. He was the dean of the medical school, and he was the president of the Health Sciences Center.
He had an indomitable spirit. He had an infectious optimism. All of those things helped culminate in his leadership efforts to create the super-clinic for treating and servicing our wounded warriors in west Texas, in partnership with Texas Tech. It has been a phenomenal asset for veterans in the western part of Texas. That is going to be one of many, but, I am sure, for him, it was the most special legacy that he left for the people of west Texas.
Mr. Speaker, it was an honor to know him. I am a better man for having come alongside him in my time at Texas Tech.
I also want to say of his wife, Marie Beth, that we love her and the Mittemeyer family. We are praying for them. We know that the general has gone to the great commander in chief in Heaven, and he is in a great place. He is alive as he has ever been.
We will be with General Mittemeyer once again. I take great hope and joy in that.
Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to the gentleman from Wisconsin for his indulgence.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source