Steve Kagen

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. In Wisconsin, we have got a number of companies which have run into problems with regard to ``buy American.'' We have buy American clauses in our government contracts today. Yet Miller Electric Company, which makes the finest welding apparatus in the world, put in a bid for a shipbuilding company, a government contract for the Navy. This foreign-owned shipbuilding corporation down in the South decided, instead of buying American, they would use a loophole, and they bought something from a competitor from Germany. Can you explain how this bill, this Buy American Improvement Act, would close the loopholes in these contracts?

Mr. KAGEN. I thank you. I will just summarize what everyone here on the House floor understands. We are about $2.1 trillion to $2.2 trillion behind in our investment in our infrastructure, our roads, our bridges, our schools, our wastewater treatment plants. What good would it be if we generate several million jobs, even 10 million jobs, when we manufacture things and then we don't have the railroads or have the highways and the water infrastructure to transmit our goods to the world's marketplace? So we are indeed several trillion dollars behind in our infrastructure development. I will just point out one of the facts about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that few people realize. Apart from the fact that it was the largest tax cut in American history, little known is the fact that the transportation and infrastructure investment, which was only 4 percent of that amount of money we invested in America, generated 25 percent of the jobs. Nearly 900,000 people are working because of that American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. It put people back to work in our infrastructure. And that multiplier is significant. For every person working in transportation, that money turns over many times over. So let me just see if I get this straight, if I understand where we are going with our ideas about rewarding people or encouraging people with the taxation code. If you are sitting in a boardroom on Wall Street and you are rewarding yourself for your failure with the taxpayers' money, according to the Populist Caucus, we would like to put a significant tax on that bonus and use that revenue and put it back into the American economy to generate small business activity through the SBA, put it back into people's hands. We do believe that people are more important than profits. We should in fact reward work rather than wealth. If I understand the transfer tax on Wall Street speculators, it is one-quarter of one penny of each dollar being traded on nanosecond trades. This is not going to be a fee or a transfer tax placed on those who are speculating for the long-term investment. It is going to exclude any tax-favored retirement accounts, any HSA, Health Savings Account, any Education Savings Account, and would exclude the first $100,000 of your income generated from your investment in America's future on our American exchanges. Some people have pushed back against that Wall Street transfer fee by saying then people will trade overseas. In London, which is the most active trading floor in the world, they do have a transfer fee twice what we are suggesting. So, again, the idea is we want to use the Tax Code to reward people for their good activity. And, most especially, we want to use existing structures like our community banks, our credit unions, and regional banks to find the finances and credit necessary for small businesses once again to have access to the credit they need to generate the economic activity and generate the jobs. Don't think for a minute that the Federal or State government can employ you and work our way through this recession with government- sponsored jobs. We can't do that. So it is the role of government to set up a system wherein you are rewarded for your work rather than your wealth. By focusing on our transportation and infrastructure needs, we can begin to generate millions and millions of jobs to do just that. We want people to stay in their own homes once again, rather than have this foreclosure crisis come back and bite us.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Mr. Speaker, during this last week, I traveled all across northeast Wisconsin listening to people in their kitchens, in their living rooms, and at the plants, shaking hands with people that had come out of work, people who are happy to have a job, because today no job is a bad job. But lest we forget, we should never forget how we got into this mess. We got into this mess because we had an administration that didn't live within its means. And without spending a single dime for it, we had two wars at the same time, two tax cuts to the rich, a gigantic handout to the drug companies, and then at the tail end of their administration, a bailout of Wall Street, nearly a trillion dollars, again without paying a single dime. It's time to live within our means. Moreover, it's time to pass a very simple piece of legislation that's three pages long, that guarantees transparency in all health care pricing so that any individual or business that offers health care products and services for sale to the public must at all times openly disclose all of their prices.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Madam Speaker, everywhere I go in Wisconsin, people are saying the same thing: Government must live within its means. I agree. After all, being fiscally responsible is the Wisconsin way. People all across northeast Wisconsin pay their bills on time, and they're tired of seeing their money wasted on bailouts for Wall Street speculators. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is rightfully angry, and so am I. We simply don't believe in rewarding failure in Wisconsin, and that is why I voted against every single bailout that came along. And never forget, never forget how we fell into this mess. When I was elected in 2006, the people in power in Washington, D.C., were pursuing borrow-and-spend policies, policies that drove our economy into the ditch without paying a single dime for them. Without paying for a single dime, the previous administration spent money we did not have on two wars--two wars at the same time--two tax cuts for the rich, gigantic handouts to big drug companies on Wall Street, and a trillion-dollar bailout for their friends on Wall Street in the big banks, and asking, asking our children and grandchildren to pay for it all. Well, enough is enough. We must live within our means. Our government must invest in our own people right here at home, not on Wall Street and not overseas. We must rebuild our own economy and grow the jobs. We need to work our way back into prosperity. When voting for any legislation, I only have the best interests of my constituents in Wisconsin in mind. The pay-as-you-go rules which were enacted today will be successful, as they were in the 1990s, and this is exactly the medicine we need today to begin to turn today's enormous debts into future surpluses. That is why I strongly support the passage of pay-as-you-go rules, just as I have seven times previously during my public service. It's really a simple, responsible thing to do. Washington must live within its means and pay its bills on time, just as we do around our own kitchen tables every month across Wisconsin. Mandatory pay-as-you-go rules are critical to reducing our national debt. Over time, these responsible spending rules will contain Federal expenditures and balance our budgets, for when government attempts to spend money on one program, it must either raise revenues or cut spending on another program. It's just that simple. Live within our means.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Madam Speaker, I was detained in Wisconsin due to weather and missed votes on Tuesday, February 2, 2010. Had I been present for votes on that day, I would have voted ``yes'' on Rollcall 26, on H.R. 4495--To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 100 North Taylor Lane in Patagonia, Arizona, as the ``Jim Kolbe Post Office''; ``yes'' on Rollcall 27, on H. Res. 957--Honoring Jimmie Johnson, 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion; and ``yes'' on Rollcall 28, on H. Res. 1014--Recognizing and supporting the goals and ideals of North American Inclusion Month.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Mr. Speaker, tonight the President of the United States will be addressing the Nation on where we are at, how we got here, and what we must do now to dig out of this economic mess. Well, where are we? We're coming out of the deepest worldwide economic downturn of our time. And how did we get here? Never forget, never forget that it was George Bush's Republican policies that drove us into the ditch, and without paying a dime for them. Republicans gave away huge tax cuts to the rich, got us into two wars at the same time, created the biggest trillion-dollar prescription drug entitlement plan in American history, and deregulated the banks on Wall Street who looted our Treasury. And worse yet, they borrowed all the money from China, asking our children and grandchildren to pay it back. The fact is, we're cleaning up after the biggest elephant parade in American history. And never forget these facts. Well, folks in the middle class rescued Wall Street, and now it's Wall Street's turn to turn back the favor. We want our money back, and that's why we are proposing a transfer fee on all trades on Wall Street speculators.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Madam Speaker, the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin is sovereign government with a long and proud history of self-government. We are a federally recognized treaty tribe of the United States. We have faced threats and continue to face threats to our homelands. The Oneida have persevered in the face of adversity for centuries, and we proudly and passionately continue to protect and preserve our homelands. The Oneidas, along with the Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga and Onondaga comprised the original Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy that dates back to the 1500s, which later became the Six Nations when the Tuscarora joined in the 1700s. The Iroquois held millions of acres of land in what is now the State of New York, which entered statehood in 1776. During the Revolutionary War, the Oneida and the Tuscarora supported the colonies and served in General George Washington's army. For this service, our lands were to be protected forever, a promise reflected in the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua between the Oneida and United States. The 1784 Treaty of Fort Stanwix was the first treaty between the Oneida and United States that established peace between the Iroquois Confederacy and the colonial states, which operated under the Articles of Confederation at the time. This treaty of peace established the government-to-government relationship between the Oneida Tribe and the United States that continues to exist today. Through the 1785 Treaty of Fort Herkimer and the 1788 Treaty of Fort Schuyler with the State of New York, the Oneida lost more than 5 million acres of their ancestral homelands to the State of New York. In 1789, the States ratified the United States Constitution, which declared treaties of the United States to be the law of the land. The United States adopted the Non-Intercourse Act of 1793, which prohibited the purchase of any Indian land by any person or entity without the Federal Government's approval. In spite of the Non-Intercourse Act, the State of New York continued to enter into a series of land transactions between 1795 and 1846 with the Oneida in direct violation of Federal law. These land transactions continued to deplete the Oneida land holdings in New York until only 32 acres remained in Oneida possession by the 1820s. During the 1820s, Oneidas relocated to what would become the State of Wisconsin to establish new homelands. The Oneidas purchased 5 million acres of land from the Winnebago and Menominee Tribes for the purpose of preserving sovereignty as a self-governing sovereign nation. This band of Oneidas became recognized as the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin, who entered their final treaty with the United States in 1838, 10 years before Wisconsin entered statehood. The Treaty of 1838 between the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin and the United States established the present day Oneida Reservation boundaries located in northeast Wisconsin and comprised of 65,430 acres. To the present day, the Oneida Reservation has not been diminished or disestablished by an Act of Congress and our reservation boundaries as established by treaty continue to exist under the full force and effect of Federal law and the United States Constitution. The Dawes Allotment Act of 1887 enacted by Congress was the next challenge of maintaining our homelands. Our lands were divided into individual parcels that resulted in a significant loss of tribal land ownership because our members did not understand the English language and did not understand land taxation. Consequently, tribal land ownership was reduced to a few thousand acres within the Oneida Reservation boundaries. The Dawes Allotment Act and the loss of tribal land ownership were ended when Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, IRA. The Federal policy of the IRA was to recognize and strengthen the authority and autonomy of tribal governments, and implicit in the recognition of tribal authority is a tribe's right of self-government. The IRA provided the foundation for adopting a tribal constitution that would govern tribal members. In 1936, the Oneida membership adopted the Oneida Constitution that established an elected governing body for the Oneida membership. Upon adoption of the Oneida Constitution, the United States Federal Government purchased 1,270 acres of land within the Oneida Reservation and placed that land into trust for the benefit of the Oneida Tribe. Since passage of the IRA, the Oneida Tribe has taken the initiative to actively acquire ownership of land within the Oneida Reservation boundaries, and to provide for its membership through governmental programs and services that meet the needs of the people. More importantly, the Oneida Tribe has strengthened its authority by the adoption, implementation and enforcement of tribal laws. The Oneida Tribe preserves its sovereignty by exercising the inherent right of self-government over our lands and members within the Oneida Reservation boundaries. Among the most significant of our continuing initiatives is the Oneida Land Claim and the resolution of that claim. The Oneida Land Claim is the oldest and largest land claim in the United States. Oneida has twice prevailed before the Federal courts, most recently in 1985 when the United States Supreme Court recognized the Oneida's rightful claim against the State of New York for its violations of Federal law more than 200 years ago. The Oneida Tribe entered into treaties with the United States that are recognized as the law of the land under the United States Constitution. Federal law, United States Supreme Court decisions and Federal Indian policy recognize the treaty obligations of the Federal Government to the federally-recognized tribes of the United States. The Oneida treaties also established the government-to-government relationship between the Oneida Tribe and the United States, and form the basis for the Federal trust responsibility that is also recognized by Federal law, United States Supreme Court decisions and Federal Indian policy. The Oneida Land Claim is deeply intertwined with the history of the United States. We have strived to resolve this claim through continued negotiation and mediation and will continue to do so as a means to protect and preserve our Tribal homelands. The Oneida will continue to act in an honorable manner to resolve the land claim that allows the United States, under the Federal trust responsibility owed to the Oneida Tribe by virtue of our treaties with the United States, to right the wrongs of the past that continue to exist today.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Madam Speaker, I rise this evening to begin a bipartisan conversation about the future investments of our resources in both human and capital resources in the region of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Everyone will agree that we must do whatever it takes to protect America and keep hostilities from our shores. And over time, I believe we'll also come to understand that religious fundamentalism is civilization's real enemy, no matter if it is disguised in Muslim, Judeo-Christian, Hindu, Sikh or any other religious clothing. Terrorism is not really the enemy, for violent extremists simply use terrorism as a tactic. Overcoming the violent extremists will require skilled and talented police work as coordinated between civilized nations, not only our mutual military might. And we must hunt, capture and prosecute the violent extremists wherever they seek to establish themselves, sharing the expense and doing so with our colleagues in our mutual nations overseas, our friends, particularly in NATO. Most importantly, throughout this process, we must continue to defend ourselves within the laws as established by our United States Constitution. We're still paying for the poor judgments of the previous administration which, in 2003, placed our children in the middle of a centuries' old religious civil war in Iraq, when, in fact, our invasion of Iraq was not necessary. By continuing to spend millions of our hard- earned tax dollars over there, we are unable to solve our own problems here at home. The truth about Iraq is this: no weapons of mass destruction were present in Iraq, and al Qaeda extremists were not based there before President Bush convinced Congress to go to war. And remember this: Iraq was not involved in the attacks against America, and did not pose a risk to our national security, and it was not a danger to our national security at all. We all have the same goal, to support our troops before, during and after they've served in harm's way, as we begin to build a better and safer and more secure Nation for all of us. Recent testimony before Congress, before the Armed Services Committee in the last several weeks, by our military leaders has made it clear: first, that they all don't agree on what we should be doing in the region, and secondly, that there is no purely military solution in either Iraq or Afghanistan, only a political one. We must, therefore, move our troops away from Iraq, focusing again upon al Qaeda. Tonight, here on the House floor we will be discussing our ongoing involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which for centuries has been the graveyard of invading empires, a place where our Nation's most precious resources, our soldiers, are presently engaged in efforts to, as President Obama has stated, ``disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda and its safe havens in Pakistan and to prevent their return to Pakistan and Afghanistan.'' I'm very grateful that President Obama has taken time to listen, taken time as well and trust that he will design a strategy that has as its first goal the safe return of all of our troops as soon as possible, for there is really no purely military solution to the complex global problems that we're all facing. And as history has proven time and time again, making war is our worst human failure. So what are some of the numbers in Afghanistan? Suicides, post- traumatic stress disorder, a wound that we cannot see, but which our soldiers carry with them all their lives, a wound that damages not just themselves but their families and their businesses when they come home, amputations, burns, shrapnel wounds, fractured spines. Thirty percent of our returning servicemen have PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. Seventy thousand of our soldiers have traumatic brain injury since 2007. In January of this year through October of this year, 1,800 have been wounded in Afghanistan, 1,000 being wounded in the last 3 months alone. And for the cause? The cause of helping, in part, to support the very fraudulent government, a government that has been formed by an election process not witnessed in our country, no matter what election you take a look at. I will quote now from an article: ``You can't build a new political system with old politician accused of war crimes,'' said lawmaker, Ramazan Bashardost, who finished third in the country's fraud-marred August election. ``You can't have peace with warlords in control.'' Rights groups have accused soldiers and police loyal to the warlords of kidnapping, extortion, robbery and the rape of women, girls and boys. In the countryside, local commanders run their own fiefdoms with illegal militias. They intimidate people into paying them taxes, extracting bribes, steal their land, and trade drugs. They essentially rule with impunity, and no government official, no judge, no policeman can stand up to them. This is the Afghanistan world as we know it. This is the Afghanistan situation as President Karzai may soon be sworn in and give his speech in several hours in Kabul. Earlier today, there was a newspaper report that is entitled Afghan Official Said to Take Bribe for Copper Deal. This is how business is being done in Afghanistan. $20 million bribe to a minister who gave a contract to a Chinese corporation who was coming in to mine their copper. Fraud and bribery are the rule of the day today in Afghanistan, where nearly 40 percent of the money that our taxpayers are sending into the region is taken down in bribes and plain thievery. Well, some of the testimony that has been offered by the Armed Services Committee was put forward by people that we know and people we trust. Wesley Clark finished his testimony with these words: ``But it is important to face the reality of the situation at this point: much has already been accomplished: our obligations are limited; there will never be a complete and wholly satisfactory solution, and we must focus on meeting our own--the United States' and NATO's--security needs. And the real security need in the region now is to reduce the continuing threat of al Qaeda, reportedly located principally in Pakistan. It is their decisive defeat that we must seek.'' These are the counsel and opinion of the former NATO commander, Wesley Clark. There is somebody else that testified, Kimberly Kagan. And she spells it with an A-N, so we are not related by marriage or by genealogy. Perhaps the most interesting sentence in her publication, which is entitled--I want you to read it some day--``Why the Taliban Are Winning for Now,'' Kimberly Kagan, Foreign Policy Magazine, August 10, 2009, was ``The fact that we have not been doing the right things for the past few years in Afghanistan is actually good news at this moment.'' I don't know if that is ``Saturday Night Live'' material, but I've got to tell you, this is not something we should be sending our troops in to when we are doing the wrong thing. Andrew Krepinevich wrote: ``Simply stated, the military foundation of our global dominance is eroding.'' That's his opinion. It's also a fact. The empire of the United States, the global reach, may be coming to an end. And the final quote I will offer as we begin our discussions comes from Gilles Dorronsoro, who is a visiting scholar with South Asia Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. And he concludes his remarks before the Armed Services Committee with this sentence: ``The only solution to this problem is a political negotiation and the awareness of what is really at stake here: the credibility of NATO as a military alliance.'' These are some of the problems that we face today, but this is not a new problem. For 2,300 years ago, 1 day after the Battle of Kalinga, in 265 B.C., where over 100,000 people perished in the lands our Nation has sent its own children, trained in war, the then-King of Maurya dynasty, Ashoka, recorded his thoughts for our Nation's guidance today. And Ashoka wrote: ``What have I done? Is this a victory? What is a defeat then? This is a victory or a defeat. This is justice or injustice. It's gallantry or a rout. Is it a valor to kill innocent children and women? I do it to enwiden the empire or for prosperity or to destroy the other's kingdom or splendor? Someone has lost her husband, someone a father, someone a child, someone an unborn infant. What is this debris of corpses? Are these marks of victory or defeat? Are these vultures, crows, eagles, the messengers of death or evil? What have I done? What have I done?'' After he conquered the region of Afghanistan, he transformed his own personal philosophies and his kingdoms to promote peace, to promote Buddhism and a nonviolent way of solving problems. I believe there is a better way of doing things in America; and I am convinced that by working together, we are going to be able to find it and to do that in a very bipartisan way. I yield to my friend, my colleague, a physician and Congressman, Ron Paul of Texas.

Mr. KAGEN. Would the gentleman yield for a moment?

Mr. KAGEN. In the beginning in the formation of the United States, we had an outside observer come over here, Alexis de Tocqueville. And de Tocqueville observed that with our Republic, it would be very difficult to get this country, this Nation, to go to war. But once involved in a war, it would be very difficult to stop it. And I think that MO, that picture, that frame is in part what is happening here. Now that we are involved in a ground game in other areas of the world, it's very difficult for our Republic to pull back. I would like now to welcome to the floor Congressman McGovern from the State of Massachusetts. And I thank you for joining us on this discussion on Afghanistan and Pakistan and where do we go from here.

Mr. KAGEN. Will the gentleman yield for a question?

Mr. KAGEN. Mr. McGovern, is there any word or any sentence or phrase that the newly ``elected'' President of Afghanistan could say to convince you that the fraud is behind him, he didn't mean it?

Mr. KAGEN. I couldn't agree more. I really appreciate your being here with your busy schedule. I align myself with your remarks. We're also joined by Walter Jones from North Carolina. You've had some experience in representing soldiers, haven't you?

Mr. KAGEN. I thank you for your remarks, and I align myself with everything you just said. And I want to just express for a few moments some of the experiences I've had as a physician caring for our soldiers--our soldiers who served not just in World War II, but also Korea and Vietnam and elsewhere. And having served as a physician taking care of our soldiers, I can just say it this way. You know, it's really hard to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Once a soldier has been broken mentally and physically, it is very difficult to put him or her back into the world they came from. More recently, one of my son's friends from his speed skating days, who was a tremendous athlete, signed up and served in Iraq. And then we got the phone call from Andy's mother that when he came back she was afraid to be in the same house with him because of his anger that would just come out. The only place he felt safe was back in theater in Iraq, guarding not just the people visiting Iraq and Congressmen and women, but the Vice President, then-Vice President Cheney. A story about a four-star general whom I took care of in 1976, giving him his chemotherapy. I spent a lot of time with him on his way out. And he told me this about the Marines, and it stuck with me forever. The Marines, Dr. Kagen, the Marines are a killing machine. When politicians call us into a theater, we already know before we go in, within 2 percent, how many body bags to bring. Our purpose is to destroy human life. Don't ask us to build a bridge, don't ask us to build institutions or a new financial system. Our purpose is to destroy human life. That is what the military's job is to do, from his perspective. To destroy human life. That is the instrument of the military that is being used with a very wide swath today. I think we can do better. I am so proud of this President. And I understand, judging not only by the time that he's taking but also by the number of gray hairs he's generated on his head, that he really is taking this very seriously, trying to find a way forward. In my view, it's incumbent upon all of us Members of the House to find a way, to help find a way to debate this issue. And I think there are going to be three questions. It's the three questions I ask myself when I look at any bill before the Congress. Number one: Will it work? So, Mr. President, whatever strategy you're putting together, if you're listening tonight, make sure it's a strategy that's comprehensive, something that's going to work for the American people, because right now we need the help here at home. We should be building a better Nation not overseas but here at home, rebuilding our own infrastructure, the lives and families that we represent. Will it work? Secondly, can we afford it? What's the real price, not just in dollars and cents, not just in debt accumulation, but in human cost. The third question is: Is it the right thing to do? Is it ethical? These are the three questions. Mr. McGovern.

Mr. KAGEN. Mr. Paul?

Mr. KAGEN. You would lose your license.

Mr. KAGEN. Thank you very much. And Gorbachev also publicly said recently that there is no military solution. In his words, he said, Say ``yes'' to domestic considerations, ``no'' to war. And dialogue, he said, is best along with an international solution. Why? Because there is a dangerous concentration of terrorism and violent extremists in the Hindu Kush area. There is a concentration of violent extremists who seek to solve their problems not by dialogue, not by debate and conversation, but by vengeance and violence. There is a better way of doing things. Mr. Jones.

Mr. KAGEN. I thank you and align myself with those comments. Mr. McGovern.

Mr. KAGEN. Thank you, Mr. McGovern. There has never been a more important time in our Nation's history to get it right, to think it all the way through, and to make certain that we carry out our constitutional duties here in the House of Representatives. Mr. Paul.

Mr. KAGEN. Thank you, Mr. Paul. Mr. Jones, go ahead, and I will wrap up afterwards.

Mr. KAGEN. I want to thank you, Mr. Jones, Mr. Paul, Mr. McGovern for this commencement of a conversation and a real discussion about what America's best interests are. I know that when we put our heads together, put our minds together, we'll find a more positive way forward in beginning to solve this problem. I will finish with a brief story. In 1979, I was in training, in Milwaukee, at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and there training in the specialty of allergy and immunology with me was the son of a senator of Pakistan. And that was the time when Russia invaded Afghanistan. I came into the laboratory, and I said, Nassir, your country is going to be next. And he looked up at me, and he said, Oh, Steve, don't worry. It's easy to get into Afghanistan. It's very hard to get out, and when the Russians leave in 5 or 10 years, they'll be shot in the ``blank'' when they leave. That same experience is being experienced today by our soldiers, by our Nation, by our pocketbook. So every time we hear about someone being wounded and injured, whether it's our own soldier or a civilian or an enemy, that bomb and that bullet has real echoes economically here at home. In the end, the exit strategy may be determined, as Mr. Paul said, by our economy. The question is: Will the strategy work? Can we afford it? And is it the ethical thing to do? At this point in time, I don't believe we can afford to stay on the current path we're on in Afghanistan and in Iraq. We have to make certain that our soldiers are safe here at home and that we have an economy that can support all of the people that we have the honor of representing.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairwoman Slaughter for this opportunity to speak on behalf of this rule, a rule that will guarantee that we will get an opportunity to pass legislation to help everyone in Wisconsin that I represent; a rule that will help everybody that I have cared for as a physician for the past 33 years. What are we doing? We are fixing what is broken, we are improving on what we already have, and making certain it is at a price we can all afford to pay. We are putting patients first. We are putting patients first so no longer will a family lose their home and go bankrupt simply because their children become sick and they can't afford their health care bills. We are putting patients first by reforming the rules, reforming the rules by making sure that we are going to close the doughnut hole in Medicare part D, and making certain that we are going to reform the medical malpractice rules to guarantee that patients and their doctors can decide their decisions amongst themselves. We are putting people first because people are more important than corporate profits.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Madam Speaker, I rise this morning to speak out in favor of reforming our health care system to guarantee that every citizen has access to the care that they need when and where they need it, at a price they can afford to pay. People like Jenny, who is a single mother of two asthmatic children who I got the fortune of taking care of. With two asthmatic children, she couldn't afford the price of the prescription drugs they needed to keep her children healthy. People like Mary with rheumatoid arthritis so severe that she is an expensive date to the insurance companies and for which no other insurance company would take her because of her preexisting condition. People like Stacie, who had cancer of her thyroid and had it surgically cured, and yet, because of a preexisting condition, would be denied access to the care she needs. And, finally, people like a 6-day-old child named Hope, who at 6 days of age, through no fault of her own, had to have heart surgery to correct a heart deformity. We are going to change this health care system and guarantee that no one shall suffer from discrimination any longer in this country.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Mr. Speaker, this House of Representatives is the people's voice, and we are about to deliver exactly what they have been asking for: reforms in our health care system, reforms that were asked of us by our people back home in our districts. Ideas, great ideas come from our people, including closing the doughnut hole in Medicare part D, reforming medical malpractice to make sure it is affordable for every practitioner and their patients, and to negotiate finally for deeper discounts from prescription drug companies. We are also going to eliminate the antitrust exemption that the Wall Street-run health insurance corporations have been benefiting from for several decades. We are also going to begin to look at purchasing health care policies across State lines. This is what the people want: They want private doctors and private hospitals. They want to be in charge of their health care again. We are going to put patients first in this House of Representatives.

Mr. KAGEN

Mr. KAGEN. Madam Speaker, it is with profound sadness that we commemorate the death of a Wisconsin native son, 26-year-old Sergeant Nickolas Mueller, who was killed in action on October 26 during military operations in Afghanistan. In 2002, a graduate of Little Chute High School, Sergeant Mueller was a member of the U.S. Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, stationed in Savannah, Georgia. And after serving 2 years in Korea, Sergeant Mueller became crew chief on an elite Chinook helicopter unit, known as the Night Stalkers, whose duties included inserting and taking out our troops from dangerous territory. That Sergeant Mueller was several times decorated is not surprising to those who knew him. In high school, he was a member of the Mustangs' football team and wrestling teams. He was a regular participant. He was the king of homecoming in 2001. That he was entrusted with the highly technical responsibilities of a crew chief is not surprising either. Nick is remembered by his family and friends for his fearless willingness to accept any challenge. On behalf of the people of northeast Wisconsin, we offer our deepest condolences to his mother and father, Sharon and Larry Mueller, and his brother, John. Sergeant Nick Mueller shall not be forgotten.