The Public Record
let me just wrap up by saying that this is our concern: $2.2 trillion of additional debt in 3 fiscal years, and what is waiting in the wings is a reform in Social Security which is likely to propose that a person not on Social Security can…
It narrows our options, that is for sure. If we put too much pressure on them at the WTO, for example, trying to get them to unpeg their currency so that their exports are much more fairly priced vis-a-vis our imports, then they could get…
There are certain items in the budget that are obligatory. Clearly, one of those obligatory items is interest on the national debt. We have a sovereign responsibility to pay it, and if we do not pay it or if we ever default in payment of…
the first time I saw H.R. 10, the base bill, was 5 minutes before markup. As I leafed through all 609 pages of it to see what was in it, I quickly saw there were two glaring deficiencies. The first is the National Intelligence Director…
reclaiming my time, to wrap it up, looking back, we started off talking about the deficit and accumulation of debt. Here is what we have accomplished, this Congress and this administration, in 3 years: The first year, instead of paying…
Well, I said what we should be doing is saving, paying down our debt, not building up our debt. Now, some may discover that, some might say, when did the United States Government ever pay down any debt? Well, in case you do not know it, in…
in less than 10 days we will close the books on fiscal year 2004, and what a year it has been. A few days after that we will declare a deficit of $422 billion. You got it, $422 billion. Now, there will be all sorts of spin to make that…
The blue line on the top is the path plotted by the Bush administration in 2001 when they brought us their first budget. They said, this is the path that we expect to follow. This was the basic baseline of the budget, before the Bush…
we are one million jobs short to the number of jobs we had on March 1, 2001, when the last recession started. It was over in November. And we are still a million jobs short of that despite the supposed economic stimulus which obviously did…
Mr. Chairman, the Kirk substitute is Hensarling light, just as objectionable for most of the same reasons, only less so. He just put up his sign over there which said it would save $445 billion and which could be spent on Medicare and…
The chief feature of this bill which is objectionable is the effort it makes to put a cap on entitlement spending. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, if enacted, this particular provision would trigger the most severe…
Mr. Chairman, once again what we are trying to do here is to cut through all the rhetoric, go through all of these complicated rules, sometimes convoluted rules, and come up with two basic rules, two pragmatic rules that have proven…
Mr. Chairman, I have actually sponsored legislation like this in the past. I have voted for it and argued for it on the House floor. When we had the vote on the line item veto, I came over here and tried to offer an alternate amendment to…
the core idea is basically an appealing idea and lots of Members around here have had the experience where they have found something that they thought could be a legitimate saving, they have offered the amendment and prevailed, only to see…
Mr. Chairman, like many of the amendments that were offered to this base bill, I have only had the chance to peruse quickly this one. This is an idea that has been around the track before. In the late 1980s, early 1990s, we were searching…
keep in mind that other body called the Senate moves in a separate orbit from this body, and somebody over there is going to have a different idea, and there is going to be an entry under a different program. When we go to conference, the…
Well, I am convinced it will prolong the process, complicate the process, and lead to less results rather than better results. It is something we can long argue about.
Mr. Chairman, I honestly fail to see what we will accomplish, except protracting the process; what we will accomplish positively by making this concurrent resolution a joint resolution that has the effect of law. I really do not know what…
This clearly is a shift of leverage from the House and the Senate, the Congress, to the Presidency. The President would emerge from this kind of deal with much, much greater authority in dictating what the budget is going to be. My concern…
This process needs to be fixed. If the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) will remember, we had a conference in 1997 when we did the balanced budget agreement of 1997. Most of the budget principles, when they were affected, the…
that is an excellent idea. The three of us can sit down with CBO and our staff and come up with the information the gentleman wants, and we will not be bound by statutory language, but by a good-faith commitment to get it done.
Mr. Chairman, the caps that are being proposed here could create shortfalls of billions of dollars over the next 10 years, triggering huge cuts. And let me tell the Members the programs that would be cut: veterans compensation, veterans…
This would be making a distinction between defense and nondefense spending. This gives you one big aggregate for all discretionary spending. That is how far back it takes us and how little definition it leaves to what we end up doing. We…
I am just suggesting to my good friend and someone for whom I have great respect that he gives so much flexibility to it that it is limp when we get through with it. There is nothing left. It is a process without any teeth, without any…
I wish there were some procedure in the House where we could give a hand signal or maybe use a code word and incorporate by reference all of our comments previously made on the same subject. I have to repeat myself because this amendment…
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