Christopher Shays: “I want to congratulate, as well as my colleagues, the Congressional Black Caucus and the gentleman from Maryland, Mr.…”

“I want to congratulate, as well as my colleagues, the Congressional Black Caucus and the gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Kweisi Mfume, for the tremendous work he has done in this Congress over a number of years and congratulate him for a very thorough and, I think, extraordinarily comprehensive plan. We basically have 4 plans before us. We have the Democratic plan brought out by the Committee on the Budget; we have the Kasich Republican plan that is presented by the Republican members of the Committee on the Budget and endorsed by most members of the Republican caucus; we have the Solomon plan; and we have the Black Caucus plan. I would submit to the Members that the Kasich plan is far superior to any of the other three, but I would say that if the choice were between the Black Caucus plan and the Democratic proposal, I would go with the Black Caucus plan. What I find of concern, though, in general, is that we have simply ignored the fact that when the plan passed last year by just 2 votes in the House and a tie vote in the Senate broken by the Vice President, that plan simply has allowed the national debt to grow too far.”