[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 36 (Monday, March 2, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H2877]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       AMERICA IS FACING A CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Wolf) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, America is facing a crisis. The budget 
request projects a $1.8 trillion deficit this year and a $533 billion 
deficit in fiscal year 2013, and red ink is as far as the eye can see.
  We have over $56 trillion in unfunded obligations for Social 
Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The national debt is nearing $11 
trillion and growing every day.
  Standard & Poor's investment service predicts the loss of America's 
AAA bond rating as early as 2012, and that will be devastating.
  Every day seems to bring more bad news. The stock market continues to 
plummet, dropping below 7,000 this morning, and Americans everywhere 
understand that our Nation is in trouble. When I left my office today, 
the stock market was down over 200 points.
  Most Americans realize that Congress is broken, and it will take a 
special process to address this runaway spending.
  The action that will lead to a solution is the bipartisan commission 
that Congressman Cooper of Tennessee and I have proposed, with every 
spending program on the table along with tax policy. Congress, under 
this process, would be forced to vote on the commission's 
recommendations, and over 111 Members of the House pledged their 
support to this last year, and it would be bipartisan.
  This process, which also would have outside experts, would help 
establish confidence. In the Webster Dictionary it says in the 
definition of confidence, ``the faith or belief that one will act in a 
right, or effective, way.'' And boy, do we need that now.
  Congress is paralyzed by partisan bickering, and so far, this 
Congress has chosen to hide behind the mantra of ``regular order.'' But 
this problem will not fix itself.
  There is a bridge linking Trenton, New Jersey, with Morrisville, 
Pennsylvania, and there's a sign on the bridge that said, ``Trenton 
Makes, the World Takes.'' Well, Trenton doesn't make anything anymore, 
and the sign ought to say, ``The World Makes, Trenton Takes.'' And all 
you have to do is get on the train from Washington going up to New 
York, and all the factories are closed and in decay, and the windows 
are broken.
  A bipartisan commission would renew America's confidence in the 
economy. It would create a renaissance in the ability of our elected 
leaders to act. It would provide a bigger and brighter future for the 
next generation of America's young people and ensure that we have 
discretionary dollars for math and science and physics and chemistry 
and biology and cancer research, research for autism, research for 
Alzheimer's. It would also help create manufacturing.
  For the sake of this country, this Congress and this administration 
should act to set up a bipartisan panel to help us give some hope to 
our children and our grandchildren.
  In closing, Madam Speaker, I would also say to the leaders of this 
Congress, this is also a moral issue. This is also a moral issue. Is it 
appropriate for one generation to be living so well, knowing that their 
children and grandchildren will have to pay?
  And to close, I read a quote by Deitrich Bonhoeffer, who was a 
Lutheran pastor who stood up to the Nazis and was killed, hung, by the 
Nazis in Flossenberg Prison just before the end of the war. Deitrich 
Bonhoeffer said, ``The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of 
world that it leaves to its children.''
  This Congress, as of now, is failing that moral test.

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