Ed Royce: “These are flush times for Washington, D.C. There has been much ado about the record surplus we are expecting and the…”

“These are flush times for Washington, D.C. There has been much ado about the record surplus we are expecting and the different ways we are going to spend that surplus. But in our eagerness to out do each other to spend the surplus, we overlook the long-term value of paying down the debt, a debt which is over $3 trillion, a debt which debt service alone runs $230 billion a year. We are saddled with that. That is the purpose behind this amendment, to try to do something, Mr. Chairman, to make certain that when we in fact put forward an amendment to cut spending, that it does just that. Mr. Chairman, the financial outlook for America may be good, but the past is mired in debt. We have maxed out on the credit card for Uncle Sam; and, frankly, until we pay this debt off, it is shortsighted for us to continue spending without restraint. It is shortsighted for us to claim on the floor that we are making an amendment to cut spending and then find out later that the appropriators have recommitted that spending. So what this lock box amendment does is to capture all the savings from amendments which reduce or cut funding and to vote to devote the savings to one thing, and that is debt reduction.”