Jim Banks: “A few billion dollars here, a few billion dollars there, $25 billion over there, eventually it adds up. That is why the…”

“A few billion dollars here, a few billion dollars there, $25 billion over there, eventually it adds up. That is why the American people are demanding now more than ever for their Nation's leaders to do something about a $22-trillion-and-growing national debt. Mr. Chairman, we are running out of time to put our fiscal house in order. Deficits will soon top $1 trillion and grow to nearly $2 trillion over the next decades. My constituents back home in northeast Indiana see this reckless spending and ever-growing national debt and they ask me every time I go home, Are you serious? It is a valid question, Mr. Chairman, and I honestly don't know what to tell them, when we have spending bills like the one before us that spends more than ever before on this particular division, just like the other seven divisions that we voted on previously. I have offered this amendment now seven other times in addition to today in an attempt to prevent sequestration and the devastating effects it will have on our Nation's military. Our national security is dependent upon the state of our fiscal house, and unfortunately, these spending bills do nothing to protect the security and prosperity of our Nation. Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support my amendment to cut 14 percent of nondefense spending in this bill, to rein in out-of-control spending. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.”