On the recordJanuary 27, 2010
With all due respect to the great people of the Virgin Islands and to my colleague, I stand in opposition to this bill. No doubt, the Virgin Islands is one of the most spectacular, beautiful places on the face of the planet. But this bill is about priorities of the United States of America. We are $12 trillion in debt. We are spending $600 million a day just in interest on that debt. This Congress momentarily is going to have to raise the debt ceiling another $1.8 trillion. We don't have the money to do this. Currently, the National Park Service has an estimated $9 billion in backlog, $9 billion that they need to help with the national parks to preserve and to upgrade what we already have in our current holdings. We don't have the money. We don't have the resources. If you look at what the President is probably going to say here in less than 8 hours, he might come in and try to create this air of, oh, we have to be a little fiscally responsible. We should probably freeze a few things. For the second time in just over a week here, we are going to actually come and look at this bill to acquire at the cost of $40 million to $50 million property with funds that we don't have. No longer can this government continue to use the government credit card to rack up debt. Those that decide to vote in favor of this bill, although it's just an authorization--I know it's not an appropriation-- are saying, sure, yeah, let's go buy some beachfront property. We don't have the money.
