Student Loans

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Ms. FOXX. Thank you, Congressman Gohmert. I wasn't subjected to listening to the entire last hour, but I am responding to your email.

We know for a long time that our colleagues who just preceded us have often been on the floor and made some really outrageous comments where they rewrite history and present things as facts that just can't be backed up with facts. And in response to your plea to come share some of the truth telling with you, I'm glad to join you this evening. I did bring a few facts with me that I want to share.

But I heard the last 5 minutes or so of our colleagues, and I was really astounded at some of the words that they used, like their ``pro-growth agenda'' and how our tax-cutting policy was not paid for and how they did everything under PAYGO except very, very rare emergencies where they had to go outside of PAYGO and that we were so irresponsible that we would just not vote for the PAYGO bill.

I find it really like the book ``1984.'' I would say to people, if you haven't read the book ``1984'' or if you haven't read it in a long time, take some time to read it, because what you're seeing here from our colleagues on the other side of the aisle is ``1984'' being played out in the year 2010.

I do want to bring some facts to it, and I'm glad, Madam Speaker, that Congressman Gohmert is explaining the fact that under the Clinton years, which we hear so much about and which I, on the Rules Committee, am often having to correct various chairmen, such as the chairman of the Budget Committee when he came to the Rules Committee who bragged about the surplus at the end of the Clinton years. And I asked him, well, who was in charge of the Congress the last 6 years of President Clinton's administration? And he really didn't want to have to say, but he had to finally admit it was Republicans.

And then he talked about the terrible situation under the last 2 years of the Bush administration. I had to again say, Now, remind me again who was in charge of the Congress under the last 2 years of the Bush administration. And of course it was our colleagues across the aisle, the Democrats.

And we have to constantly remind them, as my colleague from Texas has done, that the President is not able to spend money. The President doesn't set up the appropriations bills. It's the House of Representatives that's charged with that in the Constitution. The President can veto a bill, and the Congress can override the veto.

But, you know, our colleagues across the aisle wouldn't even put in an appropriations bill in the last year of President Bush's administration because they were afraid that President Bush would veto those bills, and they wouldn't be able to override them.

And they wouldn't be able to override them because I agree with Mr. Gohmert that Republicans did lose their way for a short period of time when President Bush was President and the Republicans were in control of Congress. They spent too much money. When I came here and Mr. Gohmert came here in 2005, we brought that message from our districts and our colleagues from all across the country brought that message, and actually what a lot of people don't know is that we actually cut spending in 2005 and 2006, but we get absolutely no credit for it.

Let me say, contrary to what our colleagues were saying, I did hear them talk about what the deficit was when President Bush left office. The little piece of fact that they left out was they were in charge of the Congress the last 2 years of Mr. Bush's administration. When they took over the Congress in January 2007, the deficit happened to be $458 billion and was on a trajectory to go to zero again. That would have been wonderful.

Now, let me say, that's more of a deficit than I wanted to see, but it was not the trillion dollar deficit that they talk about which they created in the last 2 years of President Bush's administration. At the end of 2008, the deficit was $1.4 trillion. In 2 years, the deficit quadrupled. It went from $458 billion to $1.4 trillion, the largest deficit ever. And what is it going to be this year? It's going to be the largest deficit ever again and be even larger than the deficit that they created in 2008.

My colleague was talking about the health care bill that passed with only one Republican voting for it in the House, and we're all very proud of that. Republicans are very proud of the fact that we all voted against the health care bill the first time. The second time, no Republicans voted for it. And what does that health care bill do exactly? It's been extolled as such a virtuous thing but it imposes $569 billion in new and higher taxes on businesses and individuals, and the cost for this health care overall bill jumps to more than $1.2 trillion.

The American people are very concerned about where these folks who are in control--I will not say anything about leadership on their side--but they're in control, they're in charge, and they are leading us down a path of ruin in this country.

Mr. Gohmert talked about the education situation in Washington. Basically, the trend of these folks, the student loans, what to do about education in Washington, the health care bill, everything that has been done by our colleagues across the aisle, Mr. Speaker, has been to put the government in control of our lives. Republicans don't believe in that. That's not an American ideal. We're the freest country in the world. That's what's made us the greatest country in the world over the years, and we will remain the greatest country in the world as soon as we can replace our colleagues across the aisle and put this government on a sound footing economically.

What's threatening our freedom is the control and the bills that have been passed that say government knows best. The government bureaucracy is what they believe in. We believe in the American people. We believe in government of, by, and for the American people, not government to control the American people.

So we have to do something to stop this slide that is occurring, and I want to give just one little example, if my colleague from Texas would let me. There is a Web site called republicanwhip.house.gov which has many of these items on it, and I would invite people watching to go to this Web site. I'm just going to share with you something that our Republican whip has put out called Weekly Waste Watch; Week 52 is this one:

``$2 Million to Hire Goats (not people) and Fight Weeds.

``Benewah County, Idaho, recently received a $2 million Stimulus grant for weed control. Heyburn State Park, located within the county, will use a portion of the $2 million to fight weeds across Plummer Creek. Their solution? Renting 540 goats to graze on the weeds.

``The South African Boer goat is the `latest weapon' in Benewah County's fight against invasive weeds. The goats have already been put to work munching on weeds like knapweed, tansy, and St. John's wort. Each goat eats about 3 1/2 pounds of weeds per day and should be finished pruning the creek shoreline within the next 2 weeks.''

Now, this is the cost of the dollar per goat per day, and with 2 weeks and the taxpayer expenditure on goat employment, it should come to roughly $7,560.

``Idaho's unemployment rate is currently at 8.8 percent. While invasive weeds on State park land may be a problem, it is unclear how fighting their growth by employing 540 goats and two foreign herders''--by the way, the herders are not Americans--``will get Americans back to work.''

This is the way they think you should spend money. They're out of touch with reality. Most of them have never worked a job in their lives. Many of them have been in Washington 40-plus years. They have no idea what the average American is doing out there. They don't go home. They won't hold town hall meetings. They're out of touch. And to provide this kind of money to take goats to eat weeds, when we have a 9.5 percent unemployment rate--it is probably closer to 16 percent--is really a shame.

I'd be embarrassed. I would be embarrassed if I had voted for that stimulus package. I'd be embarrassed if I'd voted for the health care bill. I'd be embarrassed if I'd voted for the bailouts of the automobile companies. I'd be embarrassed if I'd done any of the things that our colleagues across the aisle have done in the last 3 1/2 years, almost 4 years that they've been in control while our economy has been going in the ditch. Talk about things going in the ditch. They've taken the economy in the ditch, and they're totally out of touch with the American people.

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