Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2008

Floor Speech

FINANCIAL SERVICES AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008 -- (House of Representatives - June 28, 2007)

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Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding time and I appreciate his leadership on this.

Mr. Chairman, freedom is the foundational principle of our society. Our Founders were champions of this God-given right and charged future generations with eternal vigilance to protect it.

We are here today because some very prominent Democrat leaders, including the Senate whip, want Uncle Sam to start telling radio and TV personalities what to talk about, to limit their freedom and ours. Rather than fight in the marketplace of ideas, they want to bring back a 1929 radio regulation known as the Fairness Doctrine, which has nothing to do with fairness.

A so-called ``fairness doctrine'' today tramples upon freedom of speech and freedom of the press. It dictates to Americans that in an open and free and flooded marketplace of ideas, they need Washington politicians to sort it all out.

Mr. Chairman, real freedom means a government that listens to the people, not one that dictates to the people whom they must listen to.

Let's keep the Fairness Doctrine off our airwaves and in the history books where it belongs.

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Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, I thank my colleagues, at least on this side of the aisle, for working as diligently as possible to introduce amendments that will result in fiscal responsibility, or at least the start of fiscal responsibility, here in Washington.

This amendment is affectionately known as the Hefley amendment. A former Member here from Colorado, Mr. Hefley often introduced an amendment that would reduce the increase in appropriations bills by 1 percent. I suspect we will hear another cry of ``devastating cuts'' from the majority party, but in fact, Mr. Chairman, this is a minimal reduction for the Federal budget, but a huge win for the American people.

When we talk about amendments that are reducing appropriately the spending that goes on by the Federal Government, it is always important to remember whose money we are spending. This isn't the government's money. This is the people's money, and they work extremely hard to make certain that they can make their ends meet. And in so doing, they generously, they generously, provide the Federal Government with the resources with which to run our government and our country. It is incumbent upon us to be as responsible as possible with that spending. I would suggest, Mr. Chairman, that we can be more responsible than we are being.

We have heard a lot of pronouns bantied about on the floor today, mostly ``I'' and ``you.'' I wish, Mr. Chairman, we would have a few more ``we's,'' because when we work together on behalf of the American people to decrease spending, to responsibly spend, what we do is come together in a way that I think the American people desire us to, and certainly I believe that is one of the messages they sent last November.

We have heard also discussions or comments saying this is a big waste of time. Well, Mr. Chairman, I would suggest to you that any time we are fighting on behalf of the American taxpayer, that is not time wasted. I would also suggest that they don't believe that fighting on their behalf to make sure that the Federal Government spends less than is planned by this majority, that that is a waste of time.

Now, what is the big picture in this bill? The big picture is that last year the programs under this bill spent $19.5 billion. The committee has come forward with a proposal to spend $21.4 billion, an increase of $1.9 billion, nearly 10 percent.

This amendment, this amendment that is before us right now, is to decrease that increase, that nearly 10 percent increase, decrease that increase by 1 percent. So it is not, it is not, something that could be described as a devastating cut.

The numbers again: Last year we spent $19.5 billion. The committee proposes $21.4 billion. When this amendment is enacted, we will spend $21.2 billion on behalf of financial services and general government operations.

Mr. Chairman, I would suggest that the American people have lost a great deal of trust, a great deal of trust, in our Federal Government, and part of that is the irresponsible way in which we spend the people's money. This is a small step, a small step forward in order to begin to regain that trust.

So I urge my colleagues to support the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, before I yield 3 minutes to my colleague from Georgia, I would like to ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling) be allowed to control the time for the remaining portion of the time for the amendment.

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