On the recordJuly 19, 2011
I thank the gentleman. I've listened to this debate for a while now. The American people want us to compromise. The American people are in the middle. That's where most of the American people are. And they don't want extremes from either side. So what would we do logically to find a solution in the middle to close our budget deficit? We would, first of all, cut spending. Secondly, we would close tax loopholes to big corporations. And, thirdly, we would let those who can afford to pay more, pay more. The President has proposed something like this, a $4 trillion reduction in the deficit, and the Republicans have refused to do it. They refuse to even plug loopholes from Big Oil and Gas. So this is where we are now. It takes two to tango. If they're going to vote ``no'' on anything that closes tax loopholes, then we have to just raise the debt ceiling. Now, we voted seven times under President Bush to have a clean debt ceiling raised, 28 times under President Reagan to have a clean debt ceiling raised, and yet the Republicans won't do it and they bring us to the brink of disaster. The truth of the matter is we don't need extremes. And, as was pointed out here before, this will end Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security as we know it because it will make it easier to cut those programs than it is to cut subsidies to Big Oil. That is shameful, and this should be rejected.
