Jay Obernolte: “I thank my colleague from Louisiana for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I will talk for a few minutes tonight about a critically…”

“I thank my colleague from Louisiana for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I will talk for a few minutes tonight about a critically important bill that we are debating on the House floor this week. It is one of the must-pass bills for us this year, the appropriations bills for military construction and funding for the Veterans Affairs. MILCON- VA we call it. This will establish funding levels for these critically important programs for the next fiscal year. The job of crafting this legislation was particularly problematic this year because many people have heard about our commitment to fiscal responsibility and about the dire consequences of our inability to reduce Federal spending. Our deficit this year will be almost 6 percent of our gross domestic product--6 percent of everything our country makes just in deficit spending. Our national debt this year will be the highest it has ever been in the history of our country, and it is going to get even worse if we don't get this problem under control. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office in their 30-year projection says that 30 years from now at the rate we are going, our national debt in current dollars will exceed $1 million for every American household. That is clearly an unsustainable fiscal trajectory for our country.…”