mr. speaker , i appreciate the opportunity to address the house again . 
unfortunately , we are missing a couple of our standard-bearers who are usually here , our two members from florida , the gentleman from florida ( mr. meek ) xz4002700 and the gentlewoman from florida ( ms. wasserman schultz ) , who are down dealing with the hurricane and the storm down in florida . 
so we want to send out to them our thoughts and our prayers . 
we are thinking about them and their constituents and all the citizens of florida at this time . 
and we are glad they are down there where they should be , with their constituents . 
i would also like to say hello briefly , mr. speaker , not only to those citizens of florida but some friends of mine who are paying attention to what is happening here tonight and good friends of mine who are back in ohio now , bill and molly gales , who are watching us , paying attention , trying to understand some of the issues of the day , and i would like to give a shout out , mr. speaker . 
but let me say this , mr. speaker , we spent the last hour listening to , quite frankly , a lot of rhetoric , a lot of empty rhetoric . 
and normally the 30-something group comes out and we talk about and criticize and critique the performance of the republican majority . 
and i want the american people to understand this : the democrats do not have any power in this chamber . 
the republican party just spent the last hour blaming the democrats . 
like we had any lever of government to pull . 
the republican party controls the house by a large margin . 
they control the senate . 
and the republican party controls the white house . 
they control every legislative and executive branch of government in the united states of america right now , federal government . 
so to look over here like we are the ones running these huge budget deficits is an absolute joke . 
i would like to say , my friends on the other side who were talking about saving money and controlling the deficits that are projected as far as the eye can see , $ 500 billion , i would like to say to our friends , mr. speaker , go to www.thomas.gov and you can get the votes for two particular votes that i think the american people and members of this chamber would be interested in . 
go check out h.r. 1 , this is www.thomas.gov , h.r. 1 in the 108th congress . 
that is the prescription drug bill . 
that is a bill that spent 700-plus billion dollars on the medicare prescription drug program and did absolutely nothing to control the costs of drugs by allowing for reimportation from canada that would drive the costs down , or allow for the secretary of health now , my friends on the other side who have spent the last hour being so critical , i find their names on the `` aye '' column . 
there were only 25 republicans who voted against the prescription drug bill . 
so the republicans passed a prescription drug bill full of pork that did not control costs . 
before i yield to the gentleman , let me first give him a formal 30-something welcome . 
do not let the gray hair fool you . 
this guy is 39 1/2 . 
i would be happy to yield to the gentleman from massachusetts ( mr. delahunt ) xz4001020 . 
