On the recordMarch 4, 2011
when an American family sits at their table in the kitchen and sorts through their finances, as they often do, partisan politics do not figure into that equation. When the families we represent calculate their own budgets, when they add up the cost of gas and groceries, tuition in some instances, and other necessities, they care more about the bottom lines than news headlines. When a family desperately counts the dwindling number of weeks before its unemployment insurance runs out, that family does not have the time to keep track of which side scored the most political points during any given week. That is because when you have to make the tough decisions that go into any budget, those decisions have to be practical, not political. They have to be realistic, not ideological. We often tell ourselves and our colleagues that we should be as responsible as the American people. As their representatives, we absolutely must be sympathetic to the challenges outside this Chamber, and we need to come quickly to a resolution that benefits them before worrying about whether it benefits us. As careful as we must be not to waste the American people's money, we must be just as mindful not to waste their time. Regrettably, though, the budget debate has turned into a political exercise, and I am sorry to say not much more. That is counterproductive. We need to be as serious as the challenge before us.
