On the recordJuly 19, 2011
As the gentleman well knows, the President has put on the table a balanced approach, $4 trillion in 10 to 12 years, $3 in spending cuts to $1 in revenue. In fact, the Speaker of the House and the President of the United States, as my colleagues well know, were talking about a number of components of that plan. What was very clear is our colleagues didn't want to touch it because of this principle they have that not $1 from closing a tax loophole or revenue can go for the purpose of reducing the deficit. We heard a little rewrite of history. Let's just remember that when the President of the United States was sworn in, he immediately faced a record $1.3 trillion deficit. The guy took office, and it was $1.3 trillion that he inherited. And 700,000 jobs were going down the tubes every month. It took a little while to turn things around, and things are still very, very fragile. What would be a huge mistake is to go back to the same trickle-down on steroids policy that got us into this mess to begin with, because we know how the movie ended at the end of the Bush administration. They left this administration with a pile of debt, an economy that was falling through the floor. We need to work together to fix this problem.…
