Charles W. Stenholm: “I think it is very critical for all Members to understand, when you vote for this rule you are setting in motion the…”

“I think it is very critical for all Members to understand, when you vote for this rule you are setting in motion the passage of a budget that no one on this side of the aisle has read and I doubt very many on that side has read, and we are going to borrow 984 billion additional dollars. That is on top of $450 billion we have borrowed since we increased the debt ceiling 8 months ago. That is $1.430 trillion. Now, Mr. Speaker, I arrived in this body in 1979. In 1981 I watched our debt ceiling for our country increase through the $1 trillion mark. We are about to borrow and spend $1.400 trillion more than we have got, and we are going to do that within a period of 1 year following the economic game plan that we cannot get a majority on this side of the aisle to say is not working. But I honestly do not understand when so many of you privately are concerned about this but publicly feel like, at 11:20 at night, you have got to have a martial rule, jam it through, pass it, which is every right of the majority to do; but when you do, you are going to be voting to increase the debt ceiling by $1.400 trillion in less than a year's time.”