House Proceeding 02-13-09 on Feb 13th, 2009 :: 0:34:10 to 0:38:35
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0:34:07 to 0:34:27( Edit History Discussion )

Thaddeus G. McCotter: it on its own history and help to end the genocide in darfur. i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: mr. mccotter from michigan. the speaker recognizes you for five minutes.

0:34:10 to 0:38:35( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Thaddeus G. McCotter
Bill: H.R. 1: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

0:34:28 to 0:34:49( Edit History Discussion )

Thaddeus G. McCotter: mr. mccotter: i know the chamber is empty, the voting is over, but as regards the stimulus bill in front of us today, i had a request from greg who lives in milford, in my district, if i could read a part of his letter to me regarding that bill. dear congressman mccotter, i spoke with you on friday

0:34:50 to 0:35:10( Edit History Discussion )

Thaddeus G. McCotter: morning. i couldn't get out everything i wanted to say because of my frustration. i would love to talk before congress and the senate, i would like to talk to them about the deplorable, reprehensible and egregious waste they are considering with our tax dollars. i'm sorry this is long. but i want them to see what i see. and i want to ask them a few

0:35:11 to 0:35:33( Edit History Discussion )

Thaddeus G. McCotter: questions. you see, i just lost my job. a company i worked for is eliminating 700 sales positions nationwide. about 15 will be affected in michigan. i would like to ask the congress and senate if they know what it's like to sit at the dinner table and tell your 11-year-old daughter that she can't get a school yearbook because we need

0:35:34 to 0:35:54( Edit History Discussion )

Thaddeus G. McCotter: the money to buy groceries. do they know what it's like to see the tears in your wife's eyes when you tell her the conference call you were just on eliminated your position? do they know what it feels like to tell your father-in-law that the daughter i married and promised to provide for, that you just lost your job? do they know what it feels like to return the shirt you just

0:35:55 to 0:36:16( Edit History Discussion )

Thaddeus G. McCotter: bought for work on clearance because you really needed new shirts and now you don't even have a job? do they know that when i told my 7-year-old son we had just had to make cuts and he responded, can we still have our doughnut on sunday morning before church, that's all he said he wanted, i had to tell him we'd try our best?

0:36:17 to 0:36:38( Edit History Discussion )

Thaddeus G. McCotter: do they know we've made sacrifices but you haven't? do they know what it's like to speak with someone who was in tears over losing their job because they think they'll lose their house? how about the always upbeat guy who sounded depressed that he could lose his house because he had just lost his job? do they know what it's like to have another co-worker lose

0:36:39 to 0:37:00( Edit History Discussion )

Thaddeus G. McCotter: their job and they're worried that their spouse's job could be next? do they now how fearful it is to turn your heat down to 59 degrees at night and 65 during the day? do they know about the guy i just met whose entire company just took 20% pay cuts so they wouldn't have to lay off employees? congressman mccotter, why

0:37:01 to 0:37:21( Edit History Discussion )

Thaddeus G. McCotter: doesn't the senate have the guts to reject the pork barrel spending provisions of this bill and start over? why doesn't everybody out there get off their ivory tower, pet projects, put them behd them and do what we need you to do? and gregg finished, the wteful spending they are considering is unconscionable to me. what jobs in the u.s. does that

0:37:22 to 0:37:42( Edit History Discussion )

Thaddeus G. McCotter: create? earlier today we heard the speaker ask members of this body to rember the people at home and feel their hand upon theirs as they cast their vote upon this bill. i did not need to feel that hand upon mine. i felt their pain in my heart because i saw it every day in our michigan neighborhood, our michigan community.

0:37:43 to 0:38:04( Edit History Discussion )

Thaddeus G. McCotter: and the reality was that the bill before us is a trillion mistake that will harm working families like gregg's, deprive them of hope and damage our already recessed economy. so before today's vote, i called gregg and i talked to him. he was as set in his position as he was when he wrote me this letter and gregg thanked me for

0:38:05 to 0:38:25( Edit History Discussion )

Thaddeus G. McCotter: voting against it. and the fundamental reason was this, i live in michigan, i live with people who are suffering and they send me here to work for them to try to make things better. and when i go home after a vote to my wife and children, i go home to the people who are

0:38:26 to 0:38:35( Edit History Discussion )

Thaddeus G. McCotter: suffering as well and i will have to look them in the eye and tell them whether this trilon-dollar bill helped them or not. and as good as -- god as my