Mike Pence: “earlier today, my good friend Rahm Emanuel, a Democrat from Illinois, said, ``Tomorrow the House will vote on America's…”

“earlier today, my good friend Rahm Emanuel, a Democrat from Illinois, said, ``Tomorrow the House will vote on America's future, with an $8 trillion national debt and with a Congress that spent $60 billion in 6 days without a thought as to how we were going to pay for it.'' I could not agree more. The gentleman from Illinois went on to say, ``Where else could we cut food stamps and Medicaid?'' and he answered, ``With a Republican Congress'' and a lament. And I would ask, where else but in Washington, DC could a deficit reduction act that actually increases entitlements by 6.3 percent, instead of the planned 6.4 percent, be called a cut? The budget cuts we will pass tomorrow, let me say again, will still increase spending in Medicaid student loans and aid to dependent families. As a conservative, as some of my Blue Dog colleagues have said, I do not think this deficit reduction act goes nearly far enough to do right by those children and grandchildren that we raise. But it is a good first step. It is a modest start in the direction of putting our fiscal house in order. I urge my Republican and Democrat colleagues of goodwill to support it. ____________________”