Connie Mack: “in closing, I think this is an amendment that needs to be supported by my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. As the…”

“in closing, I think this is an amendment that needs to be supported by my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. As the Senator from Texas indicated a moment ago, you can oppose this amendment if you do not believe that, fundamentally, the problem is spending. I happen to believe our deficit is driven by our failure to control spending all of these years. The second point, that is one of the strengths in this proposal is that we are not giving up our responsibility. In fact, the Budget Committee would still do its work and should they meet the targets outlined in the resolution, there would be no reason for the Spending Reduction Commission to take any action. Moreover, if the Commission has to act, Congress still has to deal with the Commission's recommendations with an up-or-down vote. The important distinction to note is that such a vote would be an up-or-down vote, with no amendments. Again, neither I nor any other Member of the Senate would be able to come to the floor to offer an amendment to protect something of interest to our States. There may be people who would claim that is a terrible thing to do. But I happen to believe that the accumulation of the debt and the increase in spending year after year has to stop. So the conclusion I have come to is that the most significant way to go about cutting spending is to put into place a Spending Reduction Commission.”