I believe that our Member of Congress is not listening to our citizens.  There's no explanation for a Member of Congress to go on a Congressional junket for 6 days, and to believe that it serves anybody in any way in this district.  Kuhl provided headlines by saying he wasn't elected to go to Congress to raise taxes, but by spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to go on a military chartered jet, and to stay in five-star hotels, Randy Kuhl is doing that

My response was that this is incorrect information.  There's no way a Member of Congress with as many challenges in his district would be so callous as to get on a military luxury jet and fly to Brazil on vacation, and say that he's doing it to study ethanol.  If you want to study that, might I invite you to go to Iowa.  If you want to know about sugarcane, National Geographic had a full-color story on sugarcane a couple of months ago.  I think it costs $3.50, and I'll buy him a copy.

Absolutely not.  What is the connection between the 29th Congressional District and this trip?  Randy Kuhl will say it is to talk about ethanol production.  Like I said, there's a state called Iowa.  It's very close.  Arguably, it's cold, and not very comfortable.  There aren't a lot of five-star hotels.  I've been to Brazil.  Trust me, there's nothing in Rio that connects to New York State.  [I read in the Washington Post that] Randy Kuhl is going to see waterfalls.  There's a place called Niagara...

Absolutely not.  My life experience has given me the ability to know where Brazil is, or Israel, or Iraq.  If you want to talk with foreign countries, invite them here to meet with you.  They can pay the money to come here.  That's not why we send people to Washington [...]

Randy Kuhl ran against the cesspool in Washington, and then he went there and made it his personal hot tub.

I was just down at Donna's [a restaurant in Corning], my home away from home.  I go there on Wednesday because she makes the best cinnamon buns.  Donna's was full of people who don't know whether they're going to be able to pay their heating bill next month.  That's no exaggeration.

The home heating assistance money, called HEAP, is in the labor bill.  Randy Kuhl just voted against it.  He voted against people getting federal tax money, that they've paid in, back.  [...]  Then he goes on vacation in Brazil.

If the voters of this district favor me with election, under no circumstances can I see taking one of these junkets, unless it's related to national security.  Last year, or the year before, Kuhl went to Iraq and said that the troops were gaining weight eating lobster.  This year he went to Brazil.  Next year, he needs to be home.

[For carbohydrate ethanol], in the US, you take corn, separate out the corn sugar, distill to alcohol, and burn it as fuel.  [...]  The problem with our current carbohydrate ethanol system is that it takes a much, or maybe a little bit more, energy to make it.

The future of ethanol lies in enzyme-based ethanol.  This is where organic enzymes break down sugars to make alcohol.  That takes a fraction of the heat necessary [for carbohydrate ethanol].  That's why things like switchgrass are so promising.  A lot of work is being done at Cornell extension on this -- it would be a great thing for New York State to grow a crop like switchgrass.

I didn't need to go to Brazil and spend $100,000 to figure that out.  Congress didn't need to be sending Members of Congress and their wives on shopping trips.  They actually have a "spouse coordinator" to put together shopping trips.

By the way, I think that the plane they took was a 757, all fitted out with first-class accomodations.  They eat steaks and fancy desserts [...] all paid for by taxpayers money.  The government reimburses the Air Force at the rate of a first-class ticket purchased within 48 hours.