C. W. Bill Young: “reclaiming my time, I must respond that offsetting spending when we are trying to balance the Federal budget is not…”

“reclaiming my time, I must respond that offsetting spending when we are trying to balance the Federal budget is not stupid. When we have a national debt that has debt service that is equal to or exceeds what we invest in our only national security, it is not stupid to try to do something about that debt and to try to balance the budget. And if we are going to spend on one hand without taking the budget into a deficit situation, we have got to take it away somewhere else. And we cannot go visiting around the world dropping off commitments for money for one thing or another without even consulting with the Congress and expect the Congress to just pay the bill when it gets here. Now, that is not partisan either. What it is is trying to be responsible and keep the commitment that all of us have made. I do not know of anyone, there may be one or two, that have said we should not balance the budget. But everyone that I know in this House has committed themselves to a balanced budget. And you cannot balance the budget by continuing to spend. So we take some of the items that are not quite as important as responding to the disaster and we offset them.”