On the recordJune 7, 2012
I thank the gentleman for yielding and I thank the gentleman for offering his motion. We've heard all kinds of emotional stuff and language here. But let's just cut to the chase. This doesn't cut anything. It doesn't slash anything. This is a motion to instruct conferees in the transportation bill, the conferees on that legislation, to limit spending in the transportation legislation to the amount of money that's in the highway trust fund. It's as simple as that. Here's the money that came in. All you can do is spend what you have. Imagine that concept. Imagine government actually just following that simple concept. Here's what came in. That's all you can spend. If we'd been doing that, we wouldn't have this debt that Mr. Duncan so eloquently spoke about. We wouldn't have the problems we see. You can say all the things you want, but it is that simple. This is apple pie, this is baseball. This is as plain as it gets. This is what every family has to do. This is what every small business has to do. This is what every township has to do. This is what every village has to do, every county has to do, every city has to do, every State has to do. The only entity that doesn't have to do this is, Oh, by the way, that entity that happens to have a $16 trillion national debt. This is as simple as it gets. What you take in is all you can spend. You can't do what the politicians love to do: borrow from someone else.…
