Lynn A. Westmoreland: “Thank you, Mr. Price, and I appreciate you doing this tonight. I have listened to the other side and your debate, and…”

“Thank you, Mr. Price, and I appreciate you doing this tonight. I have listened to the other side and your debate, and basically, Mr. Price, wouldn't you just assume that this basically comes down to a difference in philosophy? I heard about the deficit, I heard about the spending. But I believe that this Republican majority and the leadership in this House has given the other side every opportunity in the world to reduce that deficit. I believe we had the Deficit Reduction Act that the Republican majority had to pass themselves. And their philosophy is, to reduce the deficit, they would raise taxes. None of us like the deficit. We need to cut our spending. But every opportunity that the majority has had to cut spending, we have been opposed by the other side. So I think what the people, Mr. Speaker, and, Mr. Price, need to realize is that this is a difference in philosophy about how this government should be run and about where the priorities for our spending are. And I know you had the chart up there about Social Security and Medicaid and Medicare. And we all want people to get their benefits, but there is going to come a time of reckoning, and the majority party in this House has taken the leadership to try to address some of those things. {time} 2130 Not by cutting them but just by slowing the growth, and yet at every turn, at every turn you know that we have had opposition from the other side.…”