Roy Cooper: “We are all sinners. None of us has clean hands, particularly on spending issues. But there is one among us who over the…”

“We are all sinners. None of us has clean hands, particularly on spending issues. But there is one among us who over the last 26 years has the cleanest record and the best record of doing the right thing on Federal budget deficits. That man's name is Charlie Stenholm, and he is proudly from Texas. Sadly, tragically, due to the last election and very unfair partisan gerrymandering, he will no longer be with us. But we need to carry Charlie Stenholm's message in our hearts, in both parties, every day, because this man has lived it for 26 years and in a friendly and bipartisan fashion tried to carry each one of us on his ample shoulders. It is a tough job, even in the greatest country in the history of the world, to do the right thing when it comes to future generations like his grandson sitting right there. It is a tough job to live within the budget that you set. But Charlie has done the best job of any of us. So I hope that in this debate tonight, as we are literally borrowing nearly $1 million a minute against our children and grandchildren, that we will learn to reform, because this debate is really about whether we reform our ways starting tonight. Not next Congress, not next year. Starting now. Will we adopt pay-as-you-go? Because that is the only thing that has worked around here. Charlie Stenholm has championed that. It has worked. It worked for 12 years magnificently. We all need to get behind Charlie Stenholm and adopt pay-as-you-go as the policy of this House.”