Click here to view Congresswoman Miller’s speech on YouTube

WASHINGTON – U.S. Congresswoman Candice Miller (MI-10) today made the following statement on the Floor of the U.S. House of Representatives:

“Mr. Speaker, I was absolutely dumfounded recently when I heard the Senate Majority Leader slamming the long-term Continuing Resolution passed by this house which cut government spending by more than $100 billion dollars below the President’s FY2011 budget request. And he particularly lamented the elimination of funding for an Annual Cowboy Poetry Festival in Nevada.

“Mr. Speaker, I can assure the Senate Majority Leader that the rugged individualism of the American Cowboy will not be snuffed out due to the lack of a federal subsidy. In fact, I believe that the American Cowboy supports our efforts to get the out-of-control spending under control. Let me quote, Mr. Speaker, from a poem written by Yvonne Hollenbeck who has been featured at the national poetry gatherings in Elko, Nevada. The title of her poem is, How to Cut Taxes. And I quote: ‘So, I think if I was the President of this ‘home of the free and the brave;’ I close up all those departments and think of the money I'd save.’

“Mr. Speaker, this is a poet that I would give a personal subsidy to. And I would hope that our colleagues in the other body take that good old American Cowboy common sense and start saving the American people’s money.”

###