On the recordJuly 29, 2010
I appreciate the gentleman's concern for spending. I just wanted to see if we could just step back for a second. We're going to have a $1.47 trillion deficit this year. Forty-three cents on every dollar that we're spending is borrowed money, and our kids, our grandchildren are going to have to pay for it--or our great-great-grandchildren, the way we're going--and it simply is not sustainable. This is an extraordinarily modest amendment, and the gentleman says this is critical funding, absolutely necessary, that we have to fund these things. Maybe you should tell your President, the President of your own party, that he should have asked for these things. These are not my reductions. This is what the President says is needed for these programs, the high-speed rail. There's a billion dollars in this bill-- would be after the cut. He's got $1.4. We're taking $400 million out of it. The President asked for a billion dollars. He's had $12 billion, in total, with $8 billion in the stimulus package, $2.5 billion last year, another billion dollars this year. And the money hasn't been spent yet, hasn't even been allotted or a contract signed. There is no need for this spending here to have current contracts go on. It just goes beyond rationale, as far as I'm concerned. When we are digging ourselves in a financial hole like we are and we continue to keep digging, why don't we say, Stop, let's cut some spending.
