Mario Diaz-Balart

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on the subject of my Special Order.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, by the way, I have been very impressed with the quality of the speeches. Sometimes the rhetoric is really, really good. I mean, there is some great eloquence on the floor of the House. We heard some great eloquence today bashing the plan to create more jobs. We heard that tonight. We have heard eloquent speeches bashing the President's plan to create more jobs. We have heard eloquent speeches bashing and bashing and bashing. We also heard, the gentleman will recall, very eloquent speeches from our friends on the Democratic side bashing when we were talking about trying to cut wasteful spending. They just hate that. They hate when we talk about that. I mentioned some examples, but I want to make sure that nobody thinks that, well, because when we add that up, it is only $100 million. Some people say that. We have heard that here, it is only $100 million.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman, and I know that we do not have a lot of time left, and I would like to see if I could ask my colleague to give us a bit of an update, because one of the bills that I am really excited about is one that he has sponsored dealing with health care. Health care is such a crucial issue, the cost of health care. The cost of health insurance is really getting to the point where it is unobtainable to many American families, and we cannot survive without health insurance. And we hear a lot of people cannot afford health insurance, and we have what I think is a model piece of legislation. And I know we do not have a lot of time, but if the gentleman could just briefly let us know about that bill that my colleague has been so generous to allow me to cosponsor and work with him. I think I would like to hear a little bit about that.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Minnesota for coming here today and shedding some light on the facts; not showering with us rhetoric, but getting to the facts, speaking about the facts. He is absolutely right. We did pass legislation to create jobs, and so we are not complaining. We are not just spewing rhetoric. We have results here, and that is a huge difference between, I think, the two sides. And I again thank the gentleman for his work on health care. I thank him for his work on the budget and transportation. And yes, I think we have to be very proud that we are not going to sit back and just let things happen. We are going to do everything in our power to incentivize this economy so more Americans can have more high-paying jobs, because that is what really it is all about.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. You also get taxed when you die. When you die you get taxed again on money you have already paid taxes on, by the way, to the government. So it is one tax after another tax after another tax. It seems some people are never satisfied. There is never enough that we can take away from the American people; and that has to stop, that attitude, that philosophy, that approach, that culture. We have to change the culture from a culture of just grabbing as much money as we can from the taxpayer and spending it whichever way we can, regardless of the waste, of the fraud and abuse, to a culture of responsibility, a culture of real responsibility. Again, we misspend so much money. It is not only we misspend money but it is the bureaucracy we create that forces the American people to spend a ton of money. For example, the IRS, which by the way spent $8.9 billion administering the Tax Code.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I think one of the things that we have to note as well is that we keep hearing that government can give these small businesses, is going to give them something. It is not the government's to give. That is the people's money. What we are talking about is allowing hard-working people to keep a little bit more of their money; in other words, for the government to take less of their money. But when we talk about that, we hear that, oh, it is horrible, because it is going to cost government. We are going to be giving away these things. Excuse me? Giving away? I think that is part of where we have a huge ideological difference, a philosophical difference. It is not government's money to give away. What we are saying is that government is going to take less money of the small businessperson, of the small business. He is going to take a little bit less money, just a little bit less money, take a little bit less so that that person, that small business, can reinvest it in their business. The gentleman mentioned some great examples to create more jobs. I know that for some people, that is a theory. That is a theory. Why do we have to create more jobs? Let us just criticize the President. They have done that from day one about every issue; whether it is the war to liberate Iraq, they criticize the President. They do not criticize him that much anymore, but they sure were criticizing because it is the thing to do, just criticize the President. Now they criticize this job creation plan, and they say that, well, we are going to give these people, these small businesses, money. No. What we are saying and what the President is saying is it is the people's money, it is not government's money. The government should allow those small businesses, those individuals, to keep some more of their money so that they can use it back home, in Florida, in Minnesota, and in Texas, in Wyoming. And they tend to do it much better than we do, than government does, because we tend to waste a lot of money. Allow them to keep some of their money, and that will create 1.2 million jobs in 1 year. But some people say, well, it is only $100,000. It is only $100,000 that we are going to cut, it is only $10,000, it is only $1,000 that businesses are going to be able to reinvest. I guess that think that they have better plans for that money in D.C. But I am, frankly, a little shocked. I have been doing a little research about some of the waste up here. Our dear friends on the Democratic side hate when we talk about waste and fraud and abuse. But I have been doing just a little research. I have not spent a lot of time on it because the gentleman knows I just got here recently, but I found some very interesting things. Just one issue, for example. Government purchase cards and travel cards wasted approximately $97 million annually. But let me tell my colleagues what some of those really bright things are that we should take more of the people's money for. This is the kind of thing that we need to tax people more for, to spend it on some of these things. This is $97 million worth of escort services, jewelry, clothing from Victoria's Secret, Macy's, Nordstrom, Calvin Klein; taxpayer money to buy a dog for an individual. Taxpayers' money was spent on pornography for some employees, on expensive luggage. There was one incident of one dinner for $2,100 at Treasure Island Hotel and Casino. That is why we need to raise more taxes. Take it away from the hard- working American men and women, bring it up here to D.C. so we can spend it and waste it on some really good things such as this: designer leather goods from a prestigious store, Lego toys, expensive sunglasses, beer, wine, and cigars. There is also, do we remember the travel cards? That is a separate issue altogether. That was used for, well, for interesting places I do not really want to mention. Some of these things I really would rather not talk about, including some gentlemen's clubs, some plastic surgery, down payments on a home. So that is why we have to tax the American people more, because Washington knows how to spend the people's money better; oh, yes, on a down payment for a home for a member of the bureaucracy. That is why we have to take more of their money, on cruises. No, no, no, no. Wait a second. The reason that some of us, the gentleman from Minnesota and others, have been speaking about waste, fraud and abuse, because it is not a laughing matter, because this is hard-earned money. This is money that government takes from the American people and then misspends it. Government does some really good things with taxpayers' money as well, but we throw a lot of it away. And for anybody to say that government is so efficient, so well run, so lean and mean that we have to take more of the hard-working American people's money, people that are having a hard time because the economy is not as good as we would like it to be; for us to take more of their money to spend it up here as opposed to what we want to do, which is allow them to keep more of their money so that they can spend it on some of the issues that the gentleman mentioned, on their families, on creating wealth within their businesses, of creating more jobs within small businesses, I think is absolutely ludicrous. But these examples are not new. We have been hearing about waste, fraud and abuse for a long time. So again, I am having a hard time. I know that the gentleman, like me, believes that we need to incentivize this economy, but since the gentleman has been here longer, maybe the gentleman has heard some of the words of wisdom from the other side stating how raising taxes on hard-working Americans, particularly when they are having a hard time, helps create jobs. I do not buy it.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. One of the things that I keep hearing, and the gentleman just mentioned small businesses, which is a big part of this economic stimulus-job creation package, it is to provide relief for small businesses. That is where most of the jobs are created, in small businesses. In the State of Florida it is even more dramatic. The numbers are staggering, the number of jobs created by small business. That is the entire economy of the State of Florida. But we hear when we want to cut taxes on small business owners to help small businesses do well, to incentivize them to spend more money, to hire more people, to create more jobs, you hear that we are cutting taxes on the rich. Yet, when you look at the proposals from our good friends on the minority party, the Democratic Party, everything that they do seems to be trying to raise taxes on working Americans. By the way, many of those working Americans are now struggling, which is why it is important to pass this package. But yet their proposals seem to be, and I have them here, seem to be raise taxes on the working people, on the hardworking Americans, who are having a hard time paying the mortgage and rent, who are having a hard time staying employed. Some of them have actually lost their jobs. Yet they want to raise taxes on them. It seems in many cases just to create larger bureaucracies up here in Washington, DC. I do not think one has to be a brilliant economist to realize when you are further taxing people and you are creating more bureaucracy in DC, that does absolutely nothing to help the economy. What it does, it actually helps stagnate the economy; it hurts the economy. It makes sure that the economy does not grow. Again, the gentleman has been here longer than me. Is that just a normal theme for them, that they always use these blank statements when we are asking to or suggesting or trying to cut taxes on small business owners, that they say those are the rich? The small business owners in my district, the district that I represent, it is not my district, that I represent, are not rich. They are struggling. They are struggling to pay their employees, to pay for their health care, to keep that business, those small businesses, alive. To call those people rich people and say that cutting the taxes on those people is cutting the taxes on rich people, and, at the same time what they want to do is raise the taxes on the working people of this country, to create a larger bureaucracy, how is that good for the economy?

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Reclaiming my time for a second, as the gentleman knows, I am new in Washington. This is my first year. One of the things that has surprised me a little bit is the ability by some Members, very eloquently, to just espouse things, yet with no facts whatsoever, and sometimes even distorting some facts that are used. The gentleman mentioned something that is very important. There has to be a proposal. In other words, if we want to create jobs, which is I think the emphasis of this, clearly of the President and the majority of this Congress, we have to put something forward that creates jobs. One of the ways to create jobs, and that is a bipartisan goal, we have agreed to that, I think, one of the ways you create jobs is by cutting taxes, making sure the people can keep more of their money. Another way I think we can create jobs is by controlling government spending. Yet, since I have been here, I have never heard one moment where our friends from the other party have ever asked for controlling government spending. Every time I turn around, they are asking for more government, bigger government; more bureaucracy, more money for that bureaucracy; more taxes from the people for that bureaucracy. That is a common theme I have been hearing in these debates. I was wondering if the gentleman could shed some light on how does creating a larger government, more bureaucracy, more taxes, how does that help create more jobs for the American people.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Absolutely. You mention a specific issue that, by the way, is in the bill that we passed which would create jobs. Another thing that would create jobs that is also in the bill that we passed, and by the way, it would also save, it would provide relief for 92 million Americans, 92 million Americans, an average of $1,083 in the year 2003, allowing them to keep more of their money. That would put more than a hundred million dollars into the economy of our country over the next 12 months, creating jobs, turning over that economic engine. You mentioned a little while ago that the way to get out of the deficit, by the way, to pay for the essential service that we all want to pay for, including what the Republican majority is doing with, for example, the prescription drug coverage under Medicare, is to expand the economy. That is not to raise taxes to the point where people cannot pay them and you destroy business. It is to grow the economy. One way to grow the economy is, again, by allowing the 2 million Americans, now I know, I know, some of our friends on the Democratic side will say, those are rich folk. You are going to cut $1,083 in the year 2003 on 92 million Americans. Those are rich folks. I wish, by the way, there were 92 million rich people in the United States. Those are not the facts. But that will allow Americans to keep more of their money, to spend more of their money, to invest more of their money, to put it into their businesses; and that alone is a hundred million dollars into the economy that right now is being sucked in, this huge sucking sound that goes from every single city, town, village in our country of money coming up here to D.C. to do with it as we know the government does with it, including some of the things that we mentioned. The plan that we passed also would see the tax burden eliminated entirely on 3 million moderate-income families. Three million moderate- income families would pay zippo, zilch, nada, zero. Those are rich people? No. Those are working families. Those are working families. How about the child tax credit that will be raised from $600 to $1,000? Tell me that is not something that has to happen. Tell me that is not something that the American people deserve. Tell me that is not something that the American people can do better with their money than us in D.C., with the bureaucracies, and the size of this government, again, 23 million small businesses would, again, in H.R. 2, the bill that we passed, House Resolution 2, by having more capital to expand on their businesses. That is what this country needs. And I know that some are content to think, no, we should not do anything. We should just kind of pretend that things are okay. They will complain here on the floor, but they will not propose anything that creates any jobs. I am so proud to have been able to support this package that actually will create, just create so many jobs for the hardworking people of this country. I do not know about the area that the gentleman represents, but in the State of Florida, the area that I represent, people are concerned. People want jobs. People want to work. People want to have good high-paying jobs. And they are looking for government to do something to incentivize this economy, not to just sit back and pretend that things are okay. I am pretty sure it has got to be the same where you are.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. The numbers are astounding. Americans, hardworking Americans spent $135 billion complying with the Tax Code. And yet the other side insists on raising taxes. And, again, let me bring up some facts because I want to make sure we bring up the facts. I have got three proposals that the other side had. I sit on the Committee on the Budget, and we discussed these at length in the Committee on the Budget. We also discussed them at length, some of them, on the floor. One of them, the CBC/Progressive Caucus tax substitute, that is the substitute to what we are doing which is a plan to incentivize the economy by allowing Americans to keep more of their money so they can spend it, invest it, creating more jobs. This plan raised taxes, increased taxes by $44 billion in 2004, by then $420 billion over 5 years and $875 billion over 10 years. And, by the way, it also cuts defense spending at the same time. So they raise taxes, but they cannot fund or did not want to fund defense; and we know how important that is. This was, of course, the Blue Dog budget proposal that was discussed here on the floor. And I was here for that debate which basically has no support to increase, to get the economy going; but it balanced the budget by raising taxes. What a concept. Think about it. The economy is not doing too well so you raise taxes to balance the budget. This proposal would have raised taxes by $124 billion in 2006 to 2011. These are their proposals. Here they are. And then, of course, you had another one which raised taxes by $128 billion over 10 years and had much more in government spending as well. Let us just spend more. Let us spend more money, send more money to the bureaucracy in D.C. But then they will say when we say, no, we have to look at fraud and cut fraud, abuse and misspending of money, they say, oh, but you are cutting essential services. We have heard about the cuts in, for example, Medicare. I have heard that on the floor of this House many, many times. We heard it tonight. We will probably hear it later on tonight and the day after and the day after. In fact, when we look at the facts, what is in the bill, in Medicare, it is a 7.2 percent increase in Medicare. There is no cut. It is an increase. It is a rather substantial increase in Medicare. Then Medicaid cuts, I have had people talk to me about Medicaid cuts. I have gotten e-mails, how come we are cutting Medicaid, we are so nasty and rude, how come we are cutting Medicaid. Let us look at those cuts of Medicaid in our budget. It is a 9 percent increase in Medicaid. There is not a cut there. It is a 9 percent increase. Washington is the only place in the world where a 9 percent increase is said to be a cut. Nine percent increase is a 9 percent increase. The facts are the facts. Here it is. Yet we have heard that before, I am sure, accused of cutting Medicaid. Then, of course, we are cutting education. That is why we have to raise taxes, because we are cutting education. If we do not raise taxes, we have to cut education. Oh, really? Except that it is a 6 percent increase in our budget in education spending, a 6 percent increase. Oh, one that I have heard time and time again, and this one is annoying because of trying to use veterans, saying that we are cutting veterans, funding for veterans. That is just not true. It is a 10.7 percent increase for 2003. It is a 10.7 percent increase. That is not a cut. They do not exist. It is not there. It is not true, but again, some will say, do not let the facts confuse the rhetoric. Do not let the facts confuse the issue. The facts are that the plan that we passed, the plan that is very similar to the President's plan, provides for jobs, creates jobs, keeps more money, allows the American people to keep more of their money. It is not a gift from government. It allows the American people to keep more of their money, provides increases in spending for the essential services like Medicaid, Medicare, education, veterans services. It does so in a responsible fashion, and those are the facts. Again, I assume, though, that my colleague would probably tell me that that is nothing new, right, saying that a 10.7 percent increase is a cut. That is something that I guess the other side is used to saying quite a bit.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. The gentleman just mentioned part of this plan is to create jobs, which is what we are talking about here. The gentleman just mentioned a big part of it and that is the thing that our friends on the Democratic side say is reckless. It is reckless to give that tax credit. It is reckless to cut the marriage tax. You are taxing people because they are married. What is that all about? It is hard to believe. And yet when we here in the House are focused on trying to create jobs and we are focused on trying to get some tax relief to families, get rid of some of those just incredible taxes, they say that we are reckless. Reckless because you want to give a tax break for the children that a family has? Is that reckless? By the way, what is a tax break? It is not a gift. All we are saying is we are going to allow those families to keep a little bit more of their money and not bring it up here. That is reckless?

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Well, if the gentleman will yield, I have a hard time understanding in particular how a country like France who has twice had to first suffer the humiliation of being taken over and then had to wait for the American GIs to liberate them. How, out of anybody in the world, how France, how France could have taken up the attitude that they did. Look, they have the right to do what they want, they are free, they are a democratic government; but I think it is important that we recognize and we realize what that attitude was. Americans, bright, vibrant, with a lifetime to live, Americans gave their lives, gave their lives to liberate the people of Iraq. And the French know it is not that they were praising them, which is what they should have been doing, they were criticizing them. They were again doing everything in their power to make it not succeed to the point of giving passports to the leaders of that regime. I have a hard time believing that. Out of everybody in this entire world, if there is one group of people that should have understood the beauty of freedom, how frail it is and how sometimes you need some help from outside, it is the French, it is the French. And I will never forget the writing, the graffiti on that grave of British soldiers on French soil, British soldiers that died also liberating France in World War II. The writing of graffiti on this grave that basically said take this trash, trash, these are people who died to liberate a different country, off our soil because it is polluting our soil. It is a very sad, sad, sad day for the entire world when people just disregard the truth, disregard reality, have no semblance of gratitude, of respect, and who, I guess, believe that they are the only ones that deserve others to die for their freedom and then they criticize those that died for their freedom. That is frankly for me very hard to stomach. I am optimistic, I am hopeful that they will realize how wrong they were. But still those that painted that graffiti, those have no forgiveness in my heart.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. I think that is a big part of the problem here, a big part of the philosophical difference between the two sides. The other side, and they have the belief that every dollar the government has is government's money, that it is government's right to have that money, that that is where it belongs. We believe, which what I think is pretty obvious, that is not government's money. Government takes it from the people, by the way, forcefully takes it from the people. The people do not have a choice. They have to send it up here; otherwise the IRS will be knocking on their door soon. So, no, it is not government's money. It is the people's money. So they claim we are reckless because we want government to take a little bit less of their money so they can reinvest it in their children? So they do not get taxed, we take less money, and the government takes more when they get married? No. No. It is not government's money. If the issue is, well, the government does not have enough money, hey, we all understand that we have to do what we have to do. But when you look at the fraud and the waste that exists within our government, and I have been doing a little bit of work on that and doing some research, it does not take long, you do not have to scratch real deep to see where some of the money is just thrown away, bucket loads of money is thrown away. If you ask the American people is the government, is their government, the U.S. Federal Government, is it totally efficient? Do we not waste any money? Of course we waste money. The American people know that and they do not have the ability to see what we get to see on a daily basis where the money is wasted. So for anybody to say that, no, we cannot let the people keep a little bit more of their money and we are going to take it because they got married, we are going to take it and not allow them to spend it on their kids because it is the government's money, I think that is what is reckless. That is what is irresponsible, particularly in a time like this, and that is why I have to commend one more time our President. Our President has had a lot on his mind, a lot on his plate, and yet he has maintained a strong focus on the war on terrorism. He said what he was going to do, and I know a lot of people are not used to this, he said what he was going to do and he has done what he said. But he has also maintained his focus on making sure we can provide jobs for the American people. Some I guess are happy with the status quo. The President and this House, the majority in this House are not content with the status quo. People need to be able to find jobs, high paying jobs, productive jobs. The plan this House has passed and we continue to work on provides jobs. And those that want to criticize his plan are basically saying we think the situation is fine. Everybody is okay. What we need to do is just take more money. No, we need to take less money, provide more jobs, and leave more money in their pockets.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. It does not affect me.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. The gentleman knows that in the State of Florida, I think it is probably similar to your State, small business is the economy of Florida. It is an incredible percentage, and yet when we try to help small business again by allowing those businesses to keep a little bit more of the money that they generate of their money, we are told that we are helping the rich. We are not helping the rich. We are helping the small business people in this country in the State of Florida that create the economy, that hire the people, that pay the wages, that provide the health care, that pay the taxes. I wish that the opposition would do a couple things. First, that they would bring up a plan of their own, which they have not done. Number two is that they would talk and discuss the ideas as opposed to just throw out labels to see if they will stick that are just not based on fact because somebody should tell them that small business people in this country are not rich. They are struggling to earn a living. They are struggling to pay the rent. They are struggling to keep their employees and pay their employees and pay their insurance. You better believe it that I am proud that this plan helps those businesses. It provides relief for those small businesses, but they do not want to talk about the issues and the specifics because they lose on that. So, therefore, they have to say it is irresponsible and reckless to provide tax relief to small businesses. It is not reckless, but they cannot talk about the specifics; therefore, they have to throw out words hoping that, like a big PR campaign, people will buy it and people will not look at the facts. The problem is the American people are very wise.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Also, we have to remember it is their money. It is not a gift. That is the thing that I keep hearing. I keep hearing it over and over again how government is going to give these people this capital gains reduction money. No, no, no. All we are talking about is we are going to allow the people who own that money to be able to keep it, as opposed to send it to Washington so Washington can spend it on all sorts of things. No, we are going to allow the people to keep a little bit more of their money. It is not a gift. It is not government's money. It is their money. We should not be apologetic to want to take less of the people's money, in particular when we see some of the waste and the fraud that goes on in Washington where we spend money on things that are frankly, for example, the debit cards that we have seen recently where people have used them to buy and to use them for personal issues, including some rather offensive things. We are talking about millions of dollars. And so we need to take more money from the people to do more of that? No, no. We need to make sure the people keep their money, as much of it as possible. I for one think we should do a lot more of that and allow people to keep even more of their money because that stays in the economy. They use it to buy things, to save and provide more jobs. That is the way this country was built. That is the greatness of this country, and for anybody to say that that is reckless is hard for me to believe.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Transportation is key for all of it, key for all of it. Matter of fact, you look at Florida and the rest of the country, but if you look at Florida, if you look at the three biggest industries, among them are agriculture, like it is in your State, commerce, and tourism. You cannot do any of those without a good infrastructure, and the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young) is working awfully hard coming up with a package that I know we will all feel very proud of to make sure we have the infrastructure and, again, that also provides jobs. The building of those roads provides jobs and then everything that goes along with that.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. It is amazing how almost every job out there, whether we know it or not, is dependent on that transportation infrastructure. Without that we would not be able to get products in and out, people in and out, nothing. It is totally dependent.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. We thought it was the other way around, but there are obviously major infrastructure problems, and we clearly need to emphasize the roads; and I know that this Congress will be doing that, and the gentleman from Alaska's (Mr. Young) committee, that I have the privilege to serve on, is going to be working on that. There are areas, whether it is Miami or Collier County where you have I-75 as well, that needs a lot of help; and I am optimistic that we will be able to do that for the economy's sake, for jobs' sake, and also to be able to get goods and people in and out. I have an unrelated question, and I do not know if this is the right time to ask it. One of the things that has struck me in all the debates out there, and I frankly admit it caught me a little bit by surprise is when you see the increases that our budget has put for Medicare, for example, and Medicaid and also Medicare would drop, and on top of that we are doing the drug prescription plan, and yet I keep hearing the other side saying that we are actually cutting those programs, which is just factually incorrect. I have to admit to you that I have never seen a place where everywhere except for government where huge increases, certain people say are cuts, and I just want to make it very clear that we have not cut. Not only have we not cut all those things that we keep hearing about, we have increased funding for all those things; and yet I keep hearing the Democrats saying that we are cutting. The Democrats keep saying we are going to do all of these horrible things; we are cutting these funds. That is not what we passed. That is not what has been on the table. Is that something that is usual here? Do the Democrats always just make up the facts? Is their attitude do not let the facts confuse the issue?

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I worry if we do not do that a lot of people depend on their jobs to provide health care. If it gets to where it is not affordable to employers, they are not going to provide that benefit. Just like it took this leadership to finally forget about all of the rhetoric, it took the Republican leadership to finally pass a Medicare prescription drug plan. And with all due respect, the Democrats were here for 40 years. They always talked about it and never did it. I can understand it falling through the cracks 1 or 2 years, but they never did it. It took the Republicans to do the prescription drug plan under Medicare. I was hoping that those that legitimately wanted to do it for 40 years, would have said, wow, it is about time, as opposed to criticizing it. I am confident it will have to be, once again, the Republican leadership, the Republican Congress that is going to have to lead to make sure we have health care that is accessible, affordable, that is quality health care for Americans. I do not know of a more important issue for American families and American small businesses, and, frankly, for even some of the larger businesses as well than to provide good quality, affordable health care. But there again, the Republican Party is going to show the leadership that it has shown on every single issue from welfare reform to Medicare prescription drug benefits, and health care is one of the issues that the Republican Party is showing that it can tackle with results.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. It is even worse than the gentleman states. It is not only that they do not want to vote for him, they do not want a vote to take place; and they are doing all of these parliamentary procedures to avoid taking a vote on Mr. Estrada. It has been a very interesting ride we have been watching. Every excuse in the book has been used against this gentleman, and they are just excuses because they are not based on facts. As we are speaking, there is kind of a pattern emerging. For some reason, they do not want to discuss the facts; and, therefore, they throw out other things. One of the reasons that they said Mr. Estrada should not be a judge on this court in D.C. is he is not qualified enough because he had never been a judge before. I would not have a problem if that is the standard. It just happens to be on that same court those same people that are saying that about Mr. Estrada supported other judges that were never judges before that now sit on that court. If it is okay for them not to have had previous judicial experience to sit on that bench, why is it not all right for Mr. Estrada? What is the real reason? They say there are certain memoranda that he has. That is the criteria. If the Department of Justice does not show us certain memoranda that were internal memoranda that were written, that would disqualify him. If that is the standard, I do not have a problem; except there are seven judges currently that have come out of that same office where Mr. Estrada was and those documents were never requested. That is clearly not the reason. If that was the reason, the other judges would not have been able to move forward. There is a real weird double standard with Mr. Estrada, and it is so much so they do not even want it to come up for a vote on the floor. I do not have a problem with objecting to somebody. I do not have a problem with disagreeing with somebody. Thank God we can do that here in a free Democratic society. But they do not want to discuss it or debate it. They do not want to vote on it. I do not know what their agenda is. I know that the reasons that they give are not the real reasons, and that is a sad statement. It is also particularly sad because Mr. Estrada is a man who got here at age 17. He studied and worked. He did very well for himself. He went to Columbia and then Harvard Law School and graduated magna cum laude. He worked as a clerk for a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. He worked as a prosecutor in the State of New York. He worked in the Department of Justice under two Presidents, one Republican and one Democrat; and all of those people that he worked for him said this man is a man of integrity and would be a great judge. Yet the Democratic leadership does not want him to even have a vote. That is difficult to believe.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia. Before I say anything else, I think it is important to once again commend the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston). I recall his words before the war talking about the importance of liberating the people of Iraq and how frustrated I think many in this country and the gentleman was by the reaction of some of the extreme left that was really just denigrating really the Iraqi people, saying that they could not be free, saying that they did not want to be free, saying that they were not going to welcome the liberating troops. And the gentleman was very clear then, and he continues to be very clear; and I want to thank him for that. It is amazing how common sense does prevail. The gentleman was just mentioning that now that the left has to admit that the people of Iraq deserve to be free, wanted to be free, deserve to be free, now they are saying, well, democracy is going to be very difficult. I can tell my colleagues one thing: it is not going to be as difficult as it would have been if Saddam Hussein were still there. So I think it is once again the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces, who put their lives on the line, once again, to protect our freedoms, to protect our liberties, and to liberate a people who have been suffering for a generation, who deserve our thanks and our praise. I think our President deserves our thanks and our praise for his leadership, for the way that he has shown steadfast leadership. I think we all must admire his convictions and his love for freedom. And I think the Iraqi people as well as the American people are so much better off, because we have gotten rid of, through our armed services, those brave young men and women and the leadership of our President have gotten rid of a dictator who was a threat not only to the Iraqi people and to the region, but clearly a grave threat to the American people.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to state one more time that every day that goes by, we have to remember there are thousands of men and women in uniform that heroically defend our freedoms, and they do so without asking for anything. They do not get paid a lot of money. They are not there for the publicity. Every day our freedoms are being protected by men and women in uniform who are heroes every single day. Sometimes they are asked to put their lives on the line to protect our freedoms and to even sometimes within that scope of protecting us, to protect and liberate other people. They have been doing it for generations. They continue doing it today. Right now as the Iraqi theater is looking good and the Iraqi people are free and they are celebrating their freedom, we have to remember today there are men and women who are in harm's way. We cannot forget that for one single moment, and we have to be grateful and thankful that there are people like them who are willing to do one of the greatest sacrifices one can ever do to protect our freedoms, and we can never thank them enough.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. I can tell the gentleman without any doubt that the reasons that they are going to block even the possibility of him having a vote on the floor of the other body to the point of using parliamentary procedures that have not been used for a candidate of that court before, I can tell the gentleman the reasons they are giving are not the real reasons because we have gone through them and analyzed them. We have talked about them here on the floor of this Chamber, and the bottom line is those are not the real reasons. If those are not the real reasons, then what is the real reason? It is very sad that a person like Mr. Estrada, who has worked so hard and studied so hard and who has lived his little part of the American dream, has done what this society has asked him to do and much more, has been an example to so many, that his case is not even being allowed to be debated on the floor and is not allowed to have a vote. The reasons given are not the real reasons. It is a sad day for the country. He is 41 years old. He had argued 15 cases in front of the Supreme Court of the United States before he was 40. Think about that. It is a shame not to have somebody of that quality on the court. It is also a shame for those of us who believe in diversity, who believe that one should be judged by your qualifications and not by your race. I say that because people have used race publicly. They have said that one of the reasons that he should not be on there is because of his race, and that to me is highly offensive. You should not get a position because of your race, and you should not be denied a position that you are qualified for because of your race. Yet those are the reasons that they have given. They have given others, by the way as well, but those have proven to be false. The only one that still remains out there is when they have said that Mr. Estrada should not be on that court because of his race.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker. I would like to honor two great Americans, Ann Miller and Ted Maliaris, for their patriotic commitment to this nation. Ann Miller has written ``A Tribute to America--A 21st Century Anthem,'' which highlights the greatness of America and its ability to overcome recent tragedies. Her son, Ted Maliaris, delivers this anthem with an unparalleled sense of patriotism. America was founded on principles of freedom and democracy that stand as the very foundation of our society today. While our troops are abroad, we must never forget the importance of the very principles that make this nation great. ``A Tribute to America--A 21st Century Anthem'' clearly illustrates the power of freedom that America represents. Its patriotic message highlights the very strength that has served as the foundation of the American spirit since the tragedies of September 11. I would like to thank Ann Miller and Ted Maliaris for their dedication to America and their commitment to spreading their important message across the Nation. I proudly insert the following lyrics of ``A Tribute to America--A 21st Century Anthem'' in the Record: Our tears may fall and our hearts may be shattered, but deep down in our souls we are strong, we are proud, we are bold. We have freedom in our land, we will fight for our rights, we will stand up for the brotherhood of man. America America America America you're Grand. We have strength, we have the power, no terrorist could ever withstand. We will not hide, we will not cower, we will stand up for the rights of our land. We're America, America Strong, Proud, Brave, Bold We're America, America Strong, Proud, Brave, Bold America red, white, and blue America, this song we sing for you. In time of need, compassion fills our hearts, in times of dismay we are strong. We're a land of freedom, a land of peace, and no one can take this away. We're America, America America you're Grand No one can destroy us through thick or thin, we're a nation that was built to survive. No terrorist's plight can destroy our sight or the strength of this motherland. We're America, America, America America you're Grand. God extended his hand and has given us faith, for we will stand tall and proud. We're a land of freedom, a land of peace, a land like no other land. We're America, America Strong, Proud, Brave, Bold We're America, America Strong, Proud, Brave, Bold America, America you're Grand America, America you're Grand America!