A US Congressman found himself in a spot of bother with the chairman of a committee over his language during a debate on the healthcare system.

In an impassioned speech, Anthony Weiner lapsed into the Yiddish vernacular.

He said: “We’re not going to take hundreds of billions of dollars every single year and give it to insurance companies who give us bupkis [nothing].”

“The gentleman will speak English,” Weiner was told, to much mirth, by the Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Henry Waxman.