Accomplishments of the 110th Congress
Floor Speech
ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE 110TH CONGRESS -- (House of Representatives - October 31, 2007)
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Mr. WELCH of Vermont. Thank you. I really think that everything that the gentleman from Tennessee said is right.
The question that I ask myself at times is how is it, if we have been doing a good job and accomplishing the things that you recited, so many of the American people think we are not doing much at all, or we are doing a bad job? That is a sentiment that a lot of folks have. It's in conflict, in my view, with many of the concrete things that we have done here in the House.
I will tell you what I think it is. Back in Vermont, people are asking me, when are we going to the stop the war, and when are we going to change the priorities of this country so that we are standing up for the needs of average, middle-income families and not just the wealthy, not just corporations who can get legislation passed.
They are also asking the question that Mr. Yarmuth has presented in very stark form, when are we going to reassert our own constitutional authority and be willing to stand up to the President? I am hearing from people in my State, really good people, real Democrats, real Republicans, and they are saying even when Congress is right, it seems that they are not willing to stand up to the President.
I think some of the frustration is that on the war there has been no change by the President, despite the efforts of many of us in Congress, and that's a fact.
Number two, there has been some sense that even when we are right here in Congress, we are not willing to hold our ground.
I want to address both of those.
First of all, on the war, the bottom line reality is that the President of the United States has an immense amount of power. We have article I power, but he has executive power. Despite the fact that the people of this country voted across the country from Vermont to Ohio to Pennsylvania to California and chose a new Congress, and a clear message of that election and decision by the people was that we wanted a new direction in Iraq, the President ignored that election.
He then ignored that March vote of the House of Representatives where we put a date certain on ending the war, August of 2008. Think about where we would be and what kind of optimism we would have in this country if that legislation was signed by the President instead of vetoed.
Then the President, of course, dismissed the advice of retired generals who are critical of the war, and, of course, paid no attention whatsoever to the Iraq Study Commission. I have come to the conclusion that the President is not at all going to bend, no matter what, and we have to be willing to fight that battle with him day in and day out.
Second, on the priorities, there is good news. I mean, this House, oftentimes with a bipartisan vote, has shifted the priorities to middle-class needs. The minimum wage was raised. The student loan cost of interest was cut in half. Prescription drugs are going to be negotiated, price negotiations so we can lower the cost, make it more accessible to seniors, less costly to taxpayers.
All of this we did by returning to pay-as-you-go principles, so we are not going to bankrupt future generations. The largest increase in the veterans budget in the history of the country.
All of that is important. It reflects that we are actually walking the walk of trying to change priorities. It's not getting out into the public either because it can't get through the Senate or it gets vetoed by the President.
We are going to be talking, I guess, a little bit about children's health care. But that's an example where it was the right thing we did to insure 10 million kids in this country. The President vetoed it. We made some minor adjustments, not nickel and diming about which kids we take off of health care, passed it again, and we will be sending it back to the President. I think that's the type of thing that we need to do.
But I also do believe that any time this Congress has an opportunity to hold its ground and essentially embrace and accept the responsibility that the Constitution gives this Congress under article I, we have to do it, whether it's on war funding, when we believe we are right, we have to be able to weather the storm; whether it's on budgets that are going to get vetoed when those budgets reflect the bipartisan consensus in this body that they meet the needs of average people, and that they comply with our obligation to pay our bill as we go.
There is good news, but we also have to acknowledge that there is much more fighting to be done, and that it's time for us in the right circumstances to hold our ground, to be willing to weather the storm of criticism that will come from the White House machine and to stand up for that change and direction that I believe the people of this country voted for in November.
I thank the gentleman from Florida.
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