Jerry Moran: “I might remind the gentleman from Texas that one of the reasons why we are the strongest military power is that we spent…”

“I might remind the gentleman from Texas that one of the reasons why we are the strongest military power is that we spent money that we did not have, particularly during the 1980's. But what I think is more important to remind the gentleman is that none of the budget reconciliation measures proposed by President Reagan would have passed during the 1980's. None of them got two-thirds of a vote. There is only one budget reconciliation measure, which was a minor one, in 1989 that passed with more than two-thirds. But it passed because it was minor. It was an easy vote. These others were not easy votes. It is never an easy vote to balance the budget, to come even closer to balancing the budget than we are doing today. It certainly was not an easy vote to vote for the budget reconciliation measure in 1993, even though it raised money from the top 1.2 percent of Americans and, in fact, through any number of other measures actually reduced our deficit for 3 years in a row, generated over $500 billion of deficit reduction. That passed, as was suggested. If one Member of Congress had switched their vote, it would not have passed. Now if you think that any responsible budget balancing measure is going to get through this House with a two-thirds requirement, you do not understand the dynamics of politics in America today.”