Dan Coats: “I find myself echoing the words of the previous speaker, my good friend from Ohio. I could have given his speech and he…”

“I find myself echoing the words of the previous speaker, my good friend from Ohio. I could have given his speech and he probably could give mine because we are both on the same track. This is an important day. The President will release his budget for 2014. While it is late, it is welcome. We now have three budgets in place. The Senate has voted on a budget, the House has voted on a budget, and the President will be bringing his budget before us. We now have the outlines of the beginning of a discussion and a debate and action that must take place in the next several months. We have wide differences on of how we need to get to where we need to arrive, but at least now we have something from which to work. I urge my colleagues and the President to work together to achieve what is necessary to put this country on a path to fiscal health. It may be over a period of years. It may be measured out in terms of where we are now in the economy, what needs to be applied now versus what needs to be applied later. I have said over and over from this platform and others, if we do not incorporate discipline in our spending, we will have clearly out-of- control spending which will continue to grow year after year. This will also grow the deficit and lead to more borrowing each year, putting our country in an ever-more difficult position. If we do not include disciplined spending within this budget, we will not achieve what we need to achieve.…”