There is an auctioneer in Congress. Two, in fact. In a Wednesday speech on the House floor, Missouri Republican Rep. Billy Long paid tribute to his profession of thirty years and announced a bill to establish National Auctioneers’ Day.
Long said that he and South Carolina Republican Rep. Jeff Duncan, the other auctioneer serving in Congress, “want to make this, the third Saturday in April, National Auctioneers’ Day. We’ll be dropping a bill to that effect.”
The new national holiday would, according to Long, “heighten the awareness of people in the United States to the contributions made by auctions and auctioneers to the history of the nation and its economy.”
Long praised auctions as “the last stronghold of competitive free market enterprise system” and said that they “continue to be the most effective means of establishing a fair market value.”
Of course, the congressman did not miss an opportunity to exhibit his trade on the floor, displaying a unique ability to keep up with the national debt.
“Being an auctioneer in Congress, the way our debt is running out of control, they find it very handy to have Jeff Duncan and myself here in Washington. We are one of the few people who can actually keep up with the national debt,” Duncan said before rapidly rattling off a mushrooming figure into the trillions.
“Thankfully, Mr. Speaker, we also can say those numbers backwards. So when we get the spending under control here, I’ll be back,” Long concluded.