On the recordJanuary 5, 2011
I think the gentleman, Mr. Speaker, aptly points out, the majority promised accountability but they are delivering hypocrisy. They said that their number one goal would be job creation. There is not a bill, not a word, not an idea about job creation the first 2 weeks of the new Congress. They said they were running on reducing the debt and the deficit. Well, as Mr. Van Hollen very accurately points out, this rule says, We will reduce the deficit, except when we deal with health care or tax cuts for the wealthy, in which case we'll pretend it doesn't exist. We'll pretend there is no deficit when it comes to health care, the largest Federal expenditure, at least one of the largest, and tax cuts for the wealthy. Then finally, hours ago, the majority said: We're going to cut $100 billion from this year's budget. And then they said, well, we didn't really mean $100 billion. We're going to cut something, but we'll tell you later what it is. Americans who are concerned about the debt and the deficit should be very concerned about the lack of accountability they are seeing here today: A rule that blows open the deficit, a procedure that ignores job creation, and a $100 billion promise that just vanished like the champagne bubbles at their fund raiser last night.
