What a difference a new Congress makes. We have seen in the last 4 years on the Appropriations Committee a lack of any kind of transparent open process. This last year on the other side of the aisle when they were in control, they didn't even pass a budget, a blueprint for spending. And that is why this year, Mr. Speaker, we have a $1.65 trillion deficit. One year, $1.65 trillion. We can't continue. The President's budget that he brought up, which is not just dead on arrival, it is debt on arrival, what this says is that we are going to double the privately held national debt, another $7 trillion. This is not fiscal restraint. This is not sanity. I have four grandchildren, and the reason I am here is to make sure that they have a future. We cannot continue this outrageous spending that is going on in Washington. This thing has totally grown way beyond what is comprehensible by any normal person. That is why, Mr. Speaker, this is the first step to bring some fiscal sanity back to Washington, D.C.
Editor's note · Context
The speaker addresses the need for fiscal restraint and critiques the previous Congress's budget practices.
Share
More from Tom Latham
I think we all know in section 8 there are reforms that are needed. This amendment does nothing to those reforms, and it should be to the authorizing Financial Services Committee to initiate the reform so that, in fact, we can change it…
First of all, I will say ``thank you'' to Mr. Simpson--a great, great friend--for doing this this evening; to Mr. Nunes, who is still on the floor here; to Steve King and Dave Loebsack, who were down here. I am not going to sing--we will…
The gentleman's amendment would shut down Amtrak. I concede that Amtrak could be more efficient. However, it has made significant improvements in this area recently, and it is moving in the right direction. The bill provides $340 million…
I reluctantly rise in opposition to the amendment. I very much understand where the gentlewoman is coming from with the tremendous needs that we have today in infrastructure, to have some of this money being diverted to other uses. I…





