On the recordJuly 25, 2011
what we have done is put in the process our efforts, sound legislation to end the budget crisis we are in. It, in effect, does everything the Republicans have asked. It is dollar-for- dollar; that is, it increases the amount of spending cuts we make to arrive at $2.7 trillion, which, in effect, would carry the country into sometime in 2013. It consists of, as I indicated, what Republicans have agreed upon: discretionary spending, $1.2 trillion; mandatory, $100 billion; something called the Overseas Contingency Fund, which is warfighting, that is scored both by CBO and the Office of Management and Budget to the tune of about $1 trillion. That saves about $400 billion in interest. That is $2.7 trillion. There are other issues in this matter, including it allows us to finish our appropriations bills for the next 2 years. We have a joint committee that will allow us to work to do more for the long term. So it is a sound piece of legislation. As I indicated, virtually everything we have in there has been suggested by the Republicans, and now they need to take ``yes'' for an answer. We have given them ``yes.'' For example, the Overseas Contingency Fund--this passed the House of Representatives with 5 Republicans voting no; 230, approximately, Republicans voted yes. Over here in the Senate, the same thing came up. Forty Republicans voted for it. So we should move on.…





