On the recordJanuary 23, 2013
I don't think anyone challenges the fact that we have to stop overspending. You just can't simplify it and say, ``Stop spending.'' The problem that we have now is that the debt ceiling has nothing to do with the full faith and credit of money that has already been spent. We'd have plenty of time to talk about taxes and spending if we'd talk about concurrent resolutions, if we'd talk about sequestration; but if what you're saying is that if there is a budget that I have to vote ``yes'' or ``no'' on and if one budget says that one way to close and reduce the deficit is to go after the people who are the poorest, the most sick, and the oldest and call that ``entitlement cutbacks'' and if I don't vote for that then it means that the government is not going to pay me, well, I can go home very easily and tell them that a bad budget is worse than no budget and that, once again, we are holding hostage the spending cuts that a lot of people want that should be negotiated. Perhaps we've got a 3-month reprieve, but the fact remains that this is holding up the President and our country from getting on with what we should do when the fiscal impact of this in our country and throughout the world is dangerous.
