Roland Gutierrez: “It is interesting to see so many of my colleagues so eager to vote on this spending bill. They are excited. They cannot…”

“It is interesting to see so many of my colleagues so eager to vote on this spending bill. They are excited. They cannot wait. And I know what it feels like. I know what it is like to vote for a deficit reduction package, to vote for a bill that puts our fiscal house in order. I already cast my vote that makes a balanced budget a reality. None of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have ever done so. But I already did it. Did I sneak onto the floor last night to cast that vote? Or is it true what they say about Chicagoans, that we vote early and often? Mr. Speaker, I cast that vote 4 years ago in 1993. I passed and voted for the largest deficit reduction package in U.S. history. It was a package that represented fairness, demanded shared sacrifice in the name of common good asked those of us who were doing well to share in the burden. Unfortunately those principles that just 4 short years ago appeared to be antiquated, out of style, and politically unpopular today, it was a package that passed without the vote of a single solitary member of the Republican Party. In fact, rather than standing with us in 1993, they stood and they jeered and they taunted us who voted for it. And yet look at the facts. It is only thanks to what we did in 1993 that we can even consider this package today.”