Gilbert Gutknecht: “As we adjourn today and Members begin to return to their districts to celebrate the Fourth of July, I think we should…”

“As we adjourn today and Members begin to return to their districts to celebrate the Fourth of July, I think we should remember what we are really celebrating is Independence Day. There were two events, two news items this week coming out of Washington that I think deserve some attention and may seem in some respects disparate but I think they are related. Like the fireworks displays that we are going to see in communities all across America next Tuesday, we should be talking about independence, we should be talking about freedom, but more importantly I think as it relates to government programs, we ought to be looking for ways that we can get the most bang for our buck. And so I would like to talk about a couple of news items. First of all, we have an expression back in the Midwest, 'When pigs fly,' which is another way of saying that that is never going to happen. And I think if you would have asked people several years ago, Do you think the Congress will really get serious about balancing the budget? I think a lot of people would have said, 'When pigs fly.' This week the House and Senate conferees came together and we now have a budget blueprint which will, in fact, balance the Federal budget.”