Lynn A. Westmoreland: “Because, Mr. Speaker and my friend from Georgia, people are reinvesting their money. They have more money to spend. That…”

“Because, Mr. Speaker and my friend from Georgia, people are reinvesting their money. They have more money to spend. That is a direct result of the tax cuts. In fact, we need to make these tax cuts permanent; and I think the people of this country would like to see that also. Despite this growth in revenue, we have seen an even greater growth in spending, and this has got to stop. The fact is we can and have cut back on discretionary spending in this Congress, but in order to really return our budget to fiscal sanity, we have no choice but to tackle serious entitlement reform. On this floor, our colleagues from the Democratic Caucus, the other side of the aisle, complain about the deficit. Yet when this Republican Congress and our Republican leadership took a stand to modestly reform entitlements and modestly curb the rate of growth and spending in the Deficit Reduction Act, no Democrats voted for that bill. Where were the so-called deficit hawks and the Blue Dog Democrats? Where were the Democrats in the 30-Something Group who say they would do a better job of taming the deficit? When it came time to make the tough choices, their votes did not match their rhetoric on the deficit. In fact, when it comes to offering solutions, attacks and hollow rhetoric are all we hear from the other side. What we do not hear from the other side is a plan of action. What we don't hear from the other side is a set of principles.…”