[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 191 (Wednesday, December 16, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H15421-H15427]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        PERMITTING CONTINUED FINANCING OF GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS

  Mr. STARK. Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 976, I call up 
the bill (H.R. 4314) to permit continued financing of Government 
operations, and ask for its immediate consideration.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 976, the bill 
is considered read.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 4314

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. CONTINUED FINANCING OF GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS.

       Subsection (b) of section 3101 of title 31, United States 
     Code, is amended by striking the dollar amount contained 
     therein and inserting ``$12,394,000,000,000''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from California (Mr. Stark) 
and the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Heller) each will control 30 
minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.

                              {time}  1415

  Mr. STARK. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  (Mr. STARK asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. STARK. This bill is necessary to allow the government to keep 
operating past the new year so that we can adjourn for the year. The 
Treasury Department has told us we will reach our current limit on the 
national debt on December 31--Happy New Year. Unlike past years, the 
Treasury Department has informed us they don't have the ability to 
maneuver and buy more time, so the United States would begin to default 
on its debt if we do not act.
  The bill would raise the debt limit by $290 billion, enough to last 
through February 11. Unfortunately, we will have to revisit this issue 
early next year. I wish we could have avoided that, but to do so, we 
would have had to resolve differences with the Senate over a budget 
commission and a statutory PAYGO. With the Senate preoccupied on other 
matters, that would be impossible before the holidays. Even if the 
Senate were to pass the larger debt limit increase we sent over to 
them, we would still have to act again next year.
  It's important that we do this, as I said, to keep the government 
running. I don't like to raise the debt limit, but I do like being in 
the majority, and I do like seeing us pay our bills because we have an 
international obligation to many of our creditors.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HELLER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes.
  Madam Speaker, here we go again. Christmas is a week away and 
Congress is scrambling at the last minute just so we can go home. While 
Americans are doing last-minute holiday shopping, the majority party is 
doing its last-minute spending. This year, many families are cutting 
back on their holiday shopping. The average holiday spending by 
Americans this year has dropped to $343 per person from $372 a year 
ago. You would think that during these tough times when most Americans 
are forced to tighten their belts, Congress would do the same. No 
chance under this majority.
  This majority stumbled into 2009 with a budget that raised the 
deficit by $1.8 trillion. Then Congress decided to pass an $800 billion 
stimulus bill, $3 billion on Cash for Clunkers, $1.3 trillion on the 
Democratic health care bill, a trillion dollars on cap-and-trade and, 
recently, another $447 billion was spent on Washington, D.C., 
bureaucrats. After all this spending, the national debt is now $12 
trillion. Every American citizen will now owe more than $39,000 to pay 
for Washington's spending.
  Now Democrats want to raise the debt limit to allow even more 
spending in 2010. The real fat cat is the Federal Government which 
spends, spends, spends while the American public gets stuck with the 
bill.
  I urge my colleagues to reject raising the debt limit. Give the gift 
that America deserves: a responsible Federal budget.
  Merry Christmas to everyone.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. STARK. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the 
distinguished committee member of Ways and Means, Mr. Neal of 
Massachusetts, be allowed to control the time for our side.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as 
I might consume.
  Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the debt limit legislation we are 
considering today, and I want to thank Mr. Rangel for his hard work on 
the bill in the waning days of the Congress this first session.
  Let me talk about what the bill does. This bill is simply about 
continuing operations for the Federal Government. That is the title of 
the legislation. ``Continuing operations'' means getting the Social 
Security checks out on time, an almost sacred duty that we have. This 
means providing support for our troops and keeping our museums and our 
parks open. That is what an increase in the debt limit will allow. 
Simply stated, this is about bills that have already been incurred.
  Now, I will, during my time here, resist the temptation to become 
overly

[[Page H15422]]

partisan and speak specifically to the issue that is in front of us 
until there is a misstatement of the facts in opposition.
  What this bill does not do is increase or decrease spending. That is 
a key consideration. Those decisions have already been made through the 
regular order. Let me emphasize the following: This bill does not raise 
nor does it cut taxes. That is different legislation. I respect the 
opinion of all Members here--who, by the way, my hunch is have been on 
all sides of this issue during their time here in the Congress. But we 
all desire the same, and that is to bring our budget into balance with 
the future. Beyond that, there is broad agreement. But this bill is 
simply paying the check after the items have already been ordered. This 
bill would raise the limit by $290 billion, which is estimated to allow 
the government to operate through February 11 and allow us to adjourn 
for the year.
  Despite what some might say, the Treasury Department will reach the 
current limit on the national debt by December 31, and they have told 
us that there is no ability to do extraordinary measures that will, 
indeed, stretch that out.
  Now, I hope that the offering that I make to resist demagoguery on 
this issue will be met. If not, we certainly will have an opportunity 
during the course of the next hour to slug it out based upon the facts, 
and I hope that we will regard Social Security and veterans bills that 
have already been incurred to be paid. We certainly can have moments of 
instructions here--we're all indeed prepared for that on all sides--but 
I hope that the opportunity to resist the temptation to dismiss the 
reality of what we're doing here will be before all of us.
  I reserve my time.
  Mr. HELLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Herger).
  Mr. HERGER. Madam Speaker, President Obama and congressional 
Democrats have maxed out the national credit card with reckless 
spending, and they're back for more.
  The American people are tired of overspending and tired of policies 
that have done nothing to lift us out of this economic downturn. 
Democrats rammed through a so-called stimulus that left us asking: 
Where are the jobs? Now congressional Democrats are asking for more 
money that they will turn around later this afternoon and spend on 
another stimulus bill that spends even more on failed policies.
  Madam Speaker, it's time for Congress to say ``no'' to endless debt 
that is an albatross around the neck of our Nation's economy and future 
generations. Vote ``no'' on this increased debt limit.
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, I would like to yield to a 
voice of fiscal responsibility here in the House, to Mr. Boyd, the 
gentleman from Florida, for 2 minutes.
  Mr. BOYD. I thank my friend, Mr. Neal, for yielding.
  I think all of us here today--certainly in this game of inside 
baseball--understand that we have to raise the debt limit. We don't 
have a choice to let our Nation go into default on its bonds.
  But I do come today to ask you to support it. I come reluctantly. And 
I am glad to hear that my friends on both sides of the aisle now are 
for fiscal responsibility.
  I think many of us over here have been saying for years--particularly 
for the last 8, 9 years--that policies that we were pursuing starting 
in 2001 of spending more than we were taking in on an annual basis had 
to stop. We found ourselves in pretty good shape in 2001, and then we 
changed the policies, and you know the rest of the story, the history 
of that.
  Many of us have been working all during that 8-year period to try to 
reinstall the tools that we could use to return fiscal discipline to 
our government: the tools such as pay-as-you-go rules, something that 
we had in place in the 1990s that was allowed to expire by the Congress 
and the administration in 2002; discretionary spending limit.
  There are lots of tools that can be used, but in the last 9 years, 
this Congress and the administrations have rejected those tools, and 
it's time for us to put those back into place.
  We don't have the will here at the United States Congress to 
discipline ourselves. I think both parties have proven that over the 
years. So we have to come back with those tools such as pay-as-you-go, 
discretionary spending caps, sequestration, whatever it takes. There's 
a good idea floating around on both sides of the Capitol here. It's 
called the SAFE Commission.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. I yield the gentleman an additional 1 
minute.
  Mr. BOYD. So what we're trying to do here is hit the pause button for 
less than 60 days, and we will move forward, break for the Christmas 
holiday, and then come back, and we have to focus on this issue of 
fiscal responsibility.
  I have said to my party leaders, as I have said to the other party 
leaders over the last 8 years, we have to look beyond the ends of our 
nose and we have to focus on fiscal responsibility. And the first step 
we have to do is keep our country from going into default on its bonds. 
And then we have to move forward to reinstall such tools as PAYGO, 
commissions, whatever it takes to get us focused on getting our 
government back to the point of acting in a responsible way for fiscal 
matters.
  Mr. HERGER. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the Republican 
Conference Chair, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence).
  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. PENCE. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I rise today in opposition to H.R. 4314. It is a bill that will 
increase the statutory limit on the national debt by $290 billion.
  Now, my distinguished colleague and friend just called that ``hitting 
the pause button,'' and that was evidence of his characteristic candor, 
because as everybody in this body knows, this $290 billion increase in 
the statutory limit on the national debt is simply a down payment on 
the nearly $2 trillion increase in the national debt that this 
Democratic majority intends to move in this Congress after the first of 
the year.
  Increasing the national debt. You know, it's moments like this that I 
have really got to say that the American people have had it. I mean, at 
a time of economic difficulty for working families, small businesses, 
and family farmers all across this country, a time when families are 
sitting down at kitchen tables, huddled around aluminum desks in small 
businesses, in basements with fluorescent lights hanging, they're 
figuring out where to cut back. They're figuring out what expenses to 
put off. They're just figuring out how to make it from one month to the 
next.
  And those families and those small businesses don't have the ability 
to walk down to the bank and just increase their debt limit with the 
wave of the hand. I mean, they have got to make hard choices. And to 
their undying credit, the American people are making those hard 
choices. And the reason they're so frustrated looking at Washington, 
D.C., today is because they see a national government that is 
completely out of step with the character and the values and the 
sacrifice that the American people are practicing every day--not that 
it's anything new.
  As the distinguished chairman just said a few moments ago, when 
Republicans were in control, we did our share of spending and 
overspending. Republicans doubled the national debt in the 8 years of 
the last administration. But this Democratic majority just passed a 
budget that will double the national debt in the next 5 years and 
triple it in 10.

                              {time}  1430

  After 3 years of Democratic control in the House, the national debt 
has increased by 39 percent. The national deficit hit a record of $1.4 
trillion. In this fiscal year, it's expected to reach a new record of 
$1.8 trillion. Millions of Americans are asking, Madam Speaker, when 
will it stop? When will Washington get the message that we can't 
borrow, spend and bail our way back to a growing America, that we've 
got to begin, Republicans and Democrats, to practice what we so love to 
preach when we are home: fiscal discipline, fiscal responsibility? And 
then we come here right before the Christmas break

[[Page H15423]]

on the day we are probably headed out of this building, and we're going 
to pass a $290 billion increase in the statutory limit on the national 
debt.
  The American people don't want more debt for Christmas. This Congress 
ought to be sticking around, making the hard choices, reducing the size 
and scope of government and reforming these entitlements. Do the work 
the way the American people are doing the work, so help us, God.
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, before I come to my 
friend's comments, I want to yield myself such time as I might consume.
  Madam Speaker, I spoke with Chairman Rangel earlier, and it is our 
intention, as we did this month in passing the Tax Extenders Act of 
2009, to make sure that those provisions hold. That bill contains a 1-
year extension of dozens of important expiring provisions, including 
the popular R&D credit, the sales tax deduction and the college tuition 
deduction, among many others.
  We are now hearing the Senate may not take up this provision, or 
provisions, and pass the bill before they expire on December 31. It is 
our intention to insist upon the House position and to work to ensure 
that our bill providing a seamless extension of these tax benefits will 
be enacted as soon as possible in the new year.
  These provisions are crucial for both American business and 
individual taxpayers, and I am pleased that we were able to get the 
House to pass this bill before the year concluded, but it is 
disappointing that the other body will not be able to take it up this 
year. It is our goal, however, to ensure that this bill will provide a 
seamless extension when enacted based upon the House measure.
  Madam Speaker, I want to thank Mr. Pence because I thought that the 
tone of what he offered was entirely reasonable because he didn't pass 
out partisan blame in the instance that brings us here at this time. 
But a gentle reminder, I don't know how you could have voted for the 
war in Iraq and not vote now to pay the bill, because that's part of 
what we are being asked to do today. I understand how difficult this 
is, why it causes heartburn. But having said that, how can you say that 
you were willing to commit 160,000 soldiers to Iraq, and when the bill 
comes due, not pay it? That essentially is the argument that is in 
front of us today.
  And I understand the arguments about those American families who are 
having a difficult time as we proceed to this holiday season, and we 
want to be as helpful to them as we can. And as they gather around the 
kitchen table to talk about the problems they have, we understand that 
we want to provide as much support for them as we can. But let's not 
forget the Social Security recipients who are currently sitting around 
the table as they watch this debate, wondering if their checks are 
going to be mailed to them on time at the first of the year.
  With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HELLER. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
ranking member of Ways and Means, the gentleman from Michigan, Mr. 
Camp.
  Mr. CAMP. I thank the gentleman from Nevada for yielding, and also I 
want to thank him for his leadership on the Ways and Means Committee 
this year.
  The bill before us is a candid admission by the majority that their 
tax, borrow, and spend ways have driven America deeper and deeper into 
debt. In fact, because of the failed trillion-dollar stimulus spending 
bill, America's unemployment is higher than predicted and revenues are 
lower. But that hasn't stopped the majority from continuing to spend, 
spend, spend.
  Just last week, the majority rolled six major spending bills into one 
omnibus bill that increased, on average, Federal spending by 11 
percent. Now, the bill before us asks us to increase the debt limit 
another $290 billion. The American people are asking: where are the 
jobs? But all they have been shown is more deficits and more debt.
  Let's be honest with the American people. It really isn't $290 
billion the majority wants to increase the debt limit by. It's more 
like $1.8 trillion. In a few short months, we'll be right back here 
voting on another bill to increase the debt limit, probably by another 
$1.5 trillion.
  At the end of 2007, the public debt equaled 65 percent of our gross 
domestic product, or GDP. By the end of 2009, the figure will exceed 83 
percent, and according to President Obama's own budget projections, it 
will exceed 100 percent of gross domestic product by 2011. Think about 
it: at the rate the majority is spending, the Federal debt in 2011 will 
exceed the value of all goods and services produced by the economy that 
year.
  This isn't just a Democrat or a Republican problem. It's a huge 
problem for every single American. It threatens our economic recovery 
and our future prosperity. So let's remember the words of then-Senator 
Obama in 2006 who warned of the dangers of raising the debt limit 
without addressing the underlying cause. Here is what he said: ``The 
fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a 
sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can't 
pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial 
assistance from foreign countries to finance our government's reckless 
fiscal policies.
  ``Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and 
internationally. Leadership means `that the buck stops here.' Instead, 
Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs 
of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a 
failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.''
  Americans do indeed deserve better than what they have received this 
year. But rather than heed that warning, Appropriations Committee 
Chairman Obey recently said: ``We don't really have a choice. The 
bill's already been run up; the credit card has already been used. When 
you get the bill in the mail, you need to pay it.''
  The gentleman from Wisconsin was correct: the credit card has been 
used. But this legislation doesn't pay the bill. It doesn't even make 
the minimum monthly payment. It simply asks for more credit.
  After going on a $1.4 trillion deficit spending binge and maxing out 
the taxpayers' credit cards, Democrats are now asking to increase the 
credit limit. We should not be asking for more credit. We should be 
developing a plan to control Federal spending so that future 
generations are not trapped under this mountain of debt.
  Until we see a plan to actually address this underlying problem, as 
then-Senator Obama warned we must, I cannot, in good conscience, vote 
for this legislation.
  I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, at this time, I would like 
to yield 4 minutes to my friend, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. 
Tanner) who was my classmate here 21 years ago and is, in my judgment, 
as thoughtful as any Member of this House on the issues of the national 
debt.
  Mr. TANNER. Thank you, Mr. Neal.
  Madam Speaker, what we are seeing today is the culmination of a 
decade-long mismanagement of our Nation's finances. In the year 2000, 
the revenue and expenditure stream coming to Washington were both 
around 19 percent of gross domestic product. In other words, we were 
breaking even. The second worse thing that happened in 2001 after, of 
course, 9/11 happened, in February when the Congressional Budget Office 
said that their forecast would be a $5 trillion surplus over the next 
10 years. People around here became euphoric. We are filthy rich. We 
can cut taxes. We can do everything, and we are going to be fine. In 
fact, the first Bush Secretary of the Treasury came before the Ways and 
Means Committee and said he was concerned that we would pay off the 
national debt so quickly that we would have to pay a premium to get our 
paper back.
  Well, in June of 2001, we embarked on a new economic game plan for 
this country. Two and a half months later, 9/11, every assumption that 
went into the conclusion there would be a $5 trillion surplus over the 
next 10 years was no longer valid. But what did Congress do? Kept right 
on going. By 2003, if you look at the Treasury records, by 2003, income 
coming into Washington was down to 16.3 percent of gross domestic 
product, and expenditures were over 20 percent because we had gone to 
war in Afghanistan and Iraq, among other reasons.
  What did we do? We borrowed the gap. We started borrowing in 2002, -
3,

[[Page H15424]]

-4, -5, a decade-long mismanagement by both parties. And for the people 
who just last week stripped out to pay for and added another $70 
billion on a motion to recommit and to talk about debt and deficits 
now, when they ought to be trying to help us, what we're doing, as 
Allen Boyd said earlier, we're putting the pause button on this.
  We must have statutory PAYGO that was allowed to lapse in 2002 so 
that you didn't have to pay for anything. You could just blithely pass 
tax cuts, increase spending and borrow the difference, because do you 
know something? The people we're borrowing it from aren't here. They 
don't have a vote.
  I remember one time he said, will you vote for a supermajority to 
raise taxes? I said, no. There's plenty of pressure in the system not 
to raise taxes. I will vote not to borrow money because there's nobody 
here protesting what we're doing to the children of this country and 
the children yet to be born here.
  And so, Madam Speaker, it's the responsible thing to do today. But I 
tell you, this is very short term, like 60 days. When we come back, 
we've got to insist on a commission or on a statutory PAYGO, on 
something to break this business-as-usual gridlock that has been going 
on here this entire decade.
  And I defy anybody to argue honestly that it is not a decade-old 
problem. The last time we broke even, basically, was the fiscal year 
2001. And so we have to do this; but when we get back here, when the 
final chapter is written of this book, I hope we have the ability to 
come together, and we need the help, we need the help of the 
Republicans to help us put in statutory PAYGO and the commission, some 
of these things that will do it.
  The problem is not what we're doing. We have a structural deficit. 
Income right now is about 17\1/2\ percent of gross domestic product. 
Expenditures are over 20.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. I yield the gentleman 2 additional 
minutes.
  Mr. TANNER. It's a structural deficit. When one considers that Social 
Security, Medicare, Medicaid, interest on the debt and the national 
defense account for 85 cents out of every dollar, you can't cut enough 
out of the 15 percent to take care of this problem. It's not what we're 
doing. It's not what we're spending. It's what we're not doing, and 
that is we are not addressing the structural deficit.
  And the only way we are going to get at that is through either 
statutory PAYGO or an entitlement commission, and hopefully both. It's 
not what we're doing, it's what we're not doing, and it is a decade-old 
problem that is getting worse every year. And until this Congress can 
come together, Democrats and Republicans, what we have around here is 
too many Republican Americans or too many Democratic Americans instead 
of American Democrats and American Republicans.
  I'm telling you, the time is now for American Democrats and American 
Republicans to get together over the next 60 days and figure out what 
we're going to do, because we are on an unsustainable financial course.
  Mr. HELLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman 
from Texas, a colleague of mine on Ways and Means, Mr. Brady.
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. Madam Speaker, it is interesting to hear our 
Democrat friend's newfound interest in paying for the war. That hasn't 
always been the case. Here is what the current majority leader said on 
this House floor in 2004 when the debt limit was proposed to be raised 
and we were at war. What now-majority leader Mr. Hoyer said: raising 
the debt limit is immoral. Its disastrous consequence has threatened to 
cripple our future prosperity and haunt future generations. He said 
this policy of borrow and spend is not only irresponsible, it is 
immoral, and it must stop. We are literally mortgaging our future.
  These are their words, not ours.
  The truth of the matter is, what we are voting on today is a down 
payment, a two-step, $2 trillion increase in our debt, two-step, $2 
trillion increase in our debt. And what it means for American families 
is that the day Nancy Pelosi took the gavel to become Speaker of this 
House, every man, woman and child in America owed $29,000 in debt. 
Today, as a result of this vote and next year's debt limit, every 
person in America will owe $45,000 in public debt.

                              {time}  1445

  Three years, we've increased to $45,000 in public debt. It is 
responsible to pay our bills; it's irresponsible to keep going into 
debt and asking for more credit while we do it. It's time to stop 
spending.
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to my 
friend, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews).
  (Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. ANDREWS. I thank my friend for yielding.
  A tired old tradition is being carried out on the House floor today. 
When it comes time to extend the national debt ceiling, the Members in 
the minority get up and express outrage, and enough Members in the 
majority get up and show responsibility and vote to do what needs to be 
done to pay the Nation's bills.
  Madam Speaker, I know a lot of people watching this are scratching 
their heads and saying, how did we get to such a terrible predicament? 
Whose fault is it? And I think they're tired of hearing whose fault it 
is because, frankly, when the other side is in the majority, we say 
it's their fault; when they're in the minority, they say it's our 
fault.
  I think a history lesson is in order. In 2001, as Mr. Tanner said, we 
were looking at a projected $5 trillion surplus over the decade that 
we're now closing out. We're going to take in $5 trillion more than we 
spent. There were three things that happened in that decade that 
injured that prospect. The first was horrific, unavoidable, and the 
fault of no one in this room; it was the terrorist attack on the 
country on September 11, 2001, which had and still has negative 
economic consequences as well as security consequences for the country.
  The second thing that happened, in my view, is that two disastrous 
choices were made. The first was to launch two wars by borrowing the 
money to pay for those wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan. We certainly 
can disagree--and we have around here a lot--as to whether or not those 
wars were or were not in the national interest, but I think we should 
have understood that it was absolutely not in the national interest to 
defy historic tradition and finance those wars by borrowing money, 
unlike more responsible predecessors of ours had done in other times.
  The second disastrous decision was a tax cut, a huge majority of 
which benefited the wealthiest 5 or 10 percent of people in this 
country. That created a mountain of debt that shifted us from a 
projected $5 trillion surplus to a projected deficit instead.
  Then followed the financial meltdown of the fall of 2008. The 
Treasury Secretary told us in no uncertain terms that he felt that we 
were perhaps a few days away from the collapse of the global economy. 
So to this floor came a $700 billion bailout bill for the banking 
industry, and a lot of Members on both sides voted for it. I think it 
was the right vote because I do think it staved off that calamity from 
happening, and that added to the national debt. And yes, there were 
decisions made since the new administration came in to do the stimulus 
bill in a way that was not paid for.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, I yield the gentleman from 
New Jersey 1 additional minute.
  Mr. ANDREWS. And I know there is disagreement over whether that was 
the right thing to do. I think it was absolutely the right thing to do 
because it stimulated between 600,000 and 1.6 million jobs thus far 
being saved or created.
  Let me say this to you: irrespective of how you recount the history 
as to how we got here, here we are. And to deal with this problem it 
seems to me there are three inescapable things we have to do. The first 
is to get entitlement spending under control. Frankly, our side 
believes the health care reform bill does exactly that, and the 
Congressional Budget Office would concur--nearly $500 billion in 
entitlement

[[Page H15425]]

reductions over a 10-year period. Second, you have to get revenue back 
on track. Our budget calls for a repeal of the tax reductions for those 
that are in the top 5 percent or so of the country. I think that is the 
responsible thing to do. No one on the other side voted for that. And 
finally, we have to stop spending $300 or $400 billion a year to buy 
oil from other parts of the world. We had legislation here that would 
put us on that path and build American jobs. Almost no one--single 
digits--on the other side voted for that.
  So this is the day when the minority expresses outrage. There ought 
to be some other days when the minority expresses some ideas, some 
plans on how to fix the problem.
  Vote ``yes.''
  Mr. HELLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Bartlett).
  (Mr. BARTLETT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. BARTLETT. Madam Speaker, during the Clinton administration, 
Washington was telling America that we had a budget surplus and we were 
paying down the debt. Now, while we were telling America that, we had 
the embarrassing necessity of raising the debt limit ceiling. Why would 
you have to raise the debt limit ceiling if you're paying down the 
debt? Surprise, surprise; Washington was not being truthful.
  What we were doing was taking money from lockboxes, surplus trust 
fund moneys, Social Security and Medicare, and paying down the public 
debt--one more dollar of debt in the trust funds, one less dollar of 
debt in the public debt. That did nothing to reduce the national debt. 
And we had other trust fund surpluses for which there was no lockbox. 
We happily took and spent that money. If we kept our books on the 
accrual method, there never was a moment in time when we, in fact, 
reduced the national debt.
  Now, talking about accounting methods, our government keeps Enron 
kind of books. If we kept our books the way we force all but the 
smallest businesses to keep their books, using the accrual method, we 
would be showing about $60 trillion in debt. That's $200,000 in debt 
for every man, woman, and child. Clearly, clearly unmanageable.
  We should be ashamed that we're here today talking about raising the 
debt limit ceiling once again. We should be here debating how we're 
going to balance the budget and then pay down the debt, because I have 
10 kids, 17 grandkids, and two great-grandkids, and we have already 
mortgaged their future. We don't need to do anymore.
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the 
distinguished chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, the gentleman 
from New York (Mr. Rangel).
  (Mr. RANGEL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. RANGEL. Let me first thank Chairman Neal for the great job that 
he has done over the years in terms of presenting legislation that is 
so sorely needed in this House. And let me speculate in terms of how 
far is it going to go that we are going to have this partisanship in 
the House of Representatives.
  You know, we have a saying that once we're overseas, we leave the 
Democratic label and the Republican label behind us. But believe me, 
the flag and the credibility of the United States' credit is on the 
line. And whether it's the Chinese, the Japanese, or the European 
Union, it seems to me that the pride that we once had in terms of being 
the leader of the world, not only in fiscal policy, but in foreign 
policy, is on the line.
  No one out there in our communities is going to look at this as a 
Republican issue or a Democratic issue. They're going to look at it as 
an American issue. And they're going to look at the Congress. Why? 
Because we have the full faith and credit of the United States of 
America in our hand. People have political problems with raising the 
debt limit, but our country has fiscal problems. And Treasury has 
assured us, as he has the minority, that they don't have these fiscal 
gimmicks in order to play around with it.
  I know a lot of people know it's going to pass, and so, therefore, 
they're not going to vote for it. But somebody--maybe our kids and 
grandkids--is going to ask, Did the United States of America ever 
forfeit and didn't pay its debts? And some historian teacher will say, 
yes, they did. And they will want to know what Congress did it, and who 
did it; they're not going to ask whether you're a Democrat or 
Republican.
  So we've got plenty of time to fight--we have at least a year. But, 
please, when the credibility of the United States of America is on the 
line, don't ask which side you're on; be with your country.
  Mr. HELLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite).
  Ms. GINNY BROWN-WAITE of Florida. I thank the gentleman.
  Madam Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 4314, which, 
according to the majority, ``permits continued funding for government 
operations.'' That sure sounds a lot better than H.R. 4314, a bill to 
borrow another $300 billion from China. Or we could also entitle it, 
H.R. 4314, a license to keep spending like a teenager with a credit 
card.
  Madam Speaker, the United States is already paying $250 billion per 
year in interest payments alone on the debt. We are paying more for 
that interest by borrowing more. That just doesn't make sense.
  The argument that we have already spent the money, and when the bill 
comes in the mail we have to pay it, is misleading. Every American with 
a maxed out credit card would love to be able to pay his bills by 
simply raising his limit. That is what we're doing here today, ladies 
and gentlemen. That includes the 15 million unemployed Americans who 
are still wondering when the so-called stimulus is going to create or 
save their jobs.
  I urge my colleagues to vote against more borrowing and to certainly 
vote against this bill. America does not want more debt.
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, might I inquire as to how 
much time remains on both sides?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Massachusetts controls 9 
minutes; the gentleman from Nevada controls 16 minutes.
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HELLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Hensarling).
  Mr. HENSARLING. Madam Speaker, never in history have so few acted so 
fast to indebt so many. Since the Democrats have taken control of 
Congress, this is the fifth time that they have come here to raise the 
debt ceiling--today, $290 billion more.
  Under their watch, the national debt has increased $3.4 trillion, or 
almost $30,000 for every household in America. Under their fiscal 
policies, we now have a $1.4 trillion deficit, our Nation's first. They 
passed a budget that will triple the national debt in just 10 years, 
and they are causing us to borrow 40 cents on the dollar from the 
Chinese and send the bill to our children and grandchildren.
  Now, when Republicans controlled this body and the deficit was $300 
billion and falling, the now-majority leader said, ``That's fiscal 
child abuse,'' and the now-Speaker called it ``immoral.'' And now under 
their watch it's five times greater, and all we hear is a chorus of 
``que sera, sera.''
  It's Christmastime, and the Democrats give us $290 billion more of 
debt. Merry Christmas.
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to my 
friend, the gentleman from New York, a voice of good sense on the 
issues of debt, Mr. Crowley.
  Mr. CROWLEY. I thank my good friend from Massachusetts for yielding 
me the time.
  The Republicans keep claiming that Federal spending and deficits are 
growing under the Democrats, but let's look at the facts.
  Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence said just a few minutes ago 
that they, the Republicans, doubled the national debt in 8 years to 
almost $12 trillion. And you know what? Mike is right. About an hour or 
so ago Republican Jeff Flake said spending was out of control when 
Republicans were in charge of Congress and the White House. And you 
know what? He was right as well. And the funny thing, when President 
George Bush was voted into office he inherited a multi-trillion dollar 
surplus of funds from President

[[Page H15426]]

Clinton and the Democrats. So the party who borrowed and spent and 
squandered surpluses is now standing in the way of moving forward in 
the right path.
  The very Republicans who refused to run the country like our 
constituents have to run their households--buying only what they can 
afford--are opposed to legislation that will ensure all new spending 
and tax cuts are paid for. This would prevent us from adding to the 
deficit, yet Republicans are opposed, arguing they should be allowed to 
tax and borrow from the Chinese at will, but only for their priorities.
  So the hangover from President Bush and Republican control of 
Congress still lingers. It was Republicans who pushed a $700 billion 
bailout package for the banks, a package that Democrats and President 
Obama are demanding be paid back--and with interest--from those very 
same banks. Then we had tax cuts for the wealthiest in America, with no 
assistance to the middle class, and then a refusal to fund the wars in 
Afghanistan and Iraq. Democrats are correcting these disastrous 
decisions by our Republican colleagues.
  The only thing more galling than the inaccuracy and denial of the 
Republicans of their own records and votes is their hypocrisy on this 
issue of their own out-of-control spending and legacy of deficits.

                              {time}  1500

  Mr. HELLER. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. 
Scalise).
  Mr. SCALISE. I want to thank the gentleman from Nevada for yielding.
  Madam Speaker, this is my congressional voting card. Unfortunately, 
some of the liberals running this Congress think that this is a credit 
card that has an unlimited balance. Today, they stand before us, trying 
to add another $290 billion of limit onto their credit cards because 
they have maxed out the previous at $12 trillion. The American people 
are saying enough is enough. They want us to cap the debt, and we need 
to.
  We filed legislation that has over 70 cosponsors that would do just 
that--that would cap the debt and say now let's start paying it down. 
The first rule of hole says, when you find yourself in a hole, the 
first thing you do is stop digging. The American people are saying stop 
the massive spending. Stop adding to our debt. Stop throwing more and 
more spending and debt onto the backs of our children and our 
grandchildren. Let's rein in fiscal irresponsibility.
  That's why we are opposing this legislation. We proposed responsible 
alternatives like the CAP the DEBT Act. Of course, they don't want to 
bring it up because all they want to do is walk around here, thinking 
that they're Santa Claus at Christmastime, borrowing more money and 
spending more money that we don't have.
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, I will remind the gentleman 
it wasn't a liberal sitting in the White House who decided to invade 
Iraq for which the costs have now come due.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HELLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to a friend of mine, a 
colleague on the Ways and Means Committee, the gentleman from Illinois 
(Mr. Roskam).
  Mr. ROSKAM. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Madam Speaker, it is the holiday season, and the majority is saying, 
Cheers.
  Here we are, and it's really been an unbelievable party, hasn't it? I 
mean here we are, and you have all of these folks who have come 
together, doubling the national debt, as was described, over a 5-year 
period. The majority will now triple the national debt, and it is as if 
all they can do is keep serving. No discipline. Hey, cheers. Here you 
go. Enjoy. Well, here is what happens at the end of that binge. Here is 
what happens at the end of that kegger:
  Ultimately, the old man drives up into the driveway and looks around, 
and the party is going to be over. Who is going to be there to clean it 
up? Our children and our grandchildren, Madam Speaker. They are the 
ones who will be there, taking care of this mess over a long period of 
time.
  So we ought not be continuing serving a government that has been 
overserved time and time and time again. Instead, what we ought to do 
is avoid the generational theft, do what is right by our children and 
grandchildren and not increase this debt.
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. I yield myself 1 minute.
  Madam Speaker, this is not a cheery time for the American people. 
This is a very difficult time. A reminder: The legislation in front of 
us now is to pay for the war in Iraq, to pay for the war in 
Afghanistan, to pay for our veterans' hospitals, and to pay for next 
month's Social Security recipients to receive their checks on time.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HELLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman 
from Texas (Mr. Gohmert).
  Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, we were asked: How can we vote to have 
troops go to Iraq and not be willing to pay for them?
  Well, the problem is we keep having things added to the bills that 
will pay for these things. We keep adding things like Gitmo language, 
like we're going to move the people from Gitmo and spend tens or 
hundreds of millions of dollars unnecessarily just to make some 
political point.
  We hear people across the aisle say, Gee. You know, we can't afford 
to lose respect around the world if we forfeit on the debt. Don't 
forfeit on the debt. You don't gain respect when you keep calling the 
credit card company and saying, I know I'm not making any payments, but 
if you'll just keep increasing my debt limit, I know you'll have more 
respect for me. No, that's not how it works.
  We are told across the aisle we have no solutions. Go look at the 
bills that are waiting to come to the floor. I've got a zero baseline 
budget that doesn't allow the automatic increases. That would make a 
huge contribution, and we could bring down the debt. Yet there are no 
indications, nothing to indicate that the spending is going to be 
controlled. It is outrageous what we are doing to future generations. 
Any parent who would go in and tell the bank, Keep loaning to me, and I 
promise my kids will repay it, would be considered an unfit parent.
  Yes, the people in America were promised change. What they have 
gotten is exponentially more spending than Republicans had done before. 
It's time for a change. Stop spending. Vote this down.
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. I yield myself 30 seconds.
  Madam Speaker, the war in Iraq is going to cost more than $1 
trillion. The VA hospital commitment that we are going to make for the 
next 30 years to our well-deserving veterans is going to cost an 
additional $1 trillion. That is the issue that is before us this 
afternoon.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HELLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from 
Indiana (Mr. Burton).
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Madam Speaker, I was just thinking about the people back home who may 
be watching this. They hear the Democrats blaming the Republicans for 
all of these things that are costing so much money, and that's the 
reason we have to raise the national debt. You know, I looked at a $1.4 
trillion deficit last year, and we're already ahead of that this year. 
We are not in charge. You folks are.
  The health care bill that you're trying to ram through is going to 
cost $1 trillion to $3 trillion, and the stimulus bill is going to cost 
over $1 trillion when you add interest.
  The bottom line is we have got to stop spending. We are spending too 
much money. Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, the American 
people back home are saying, Get your house in order. Quit spending so 
much money. Live within your means like we have to.
  We have 10 percent unemployment right now, and the people back home 
don't want us wasting money that will end up resulting in our having to 
raise taxes, which we don't want to do and which I won't vote for, and 
end up resulting in inflation, which is going to be hung on our kids in 
the future. So we have to quit spending instead of just raising the 
debt.
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my 
time.

[[Page H15427]]

  Mr. HELLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Stearns).
  (Mr. STEARNS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. STEARNS. Madam Speaker, let me say to my colleague from 
Massachusetts that he and I came in together. Back in 1988, we were 
both elected, and he and I served in the same class together. As I 
recollect, he was mayor of Springfield.
  You balanced your budget as mayor. You had to balance your budget. 
Now, we've been up here trying to balance the budget, you and I, for 
almost 21 years. It has not been successful. I supported a balanced 
budget--both a constitutional amendment as well as a legislative 
balanced budget. I don't believe you or your colleagues did. I say this 
because, frankly, we have been talking about deficit as long as you and 
I have been in Congress. We can blame Republicans. We can blame 
Democrats, but let's just look at the record for a second.
  When you and I came in under Bush I, do you remember those deficits? 
They talked about $250 billion, and we just lamented about it and 
lamented about it, and we complained about it. Well, you know, that's 
what happened. It has exploded. So now we're looking at deficits that 
are a lot larger, as my colleague mentioned, $1.4 trillion.
  When you look at Bush II, George W. Bush, he had deficits of $600 
billion. I remember the folks on that side were complaining about how 
terrible that was at $600 billion.
  Well, the problem is now we're talking almost two, three times that 
amount of money. Actually, when you go back and look at when Ronald 
Reagan was President, critics called great criticism to him. They said 
the deficit was out of control in this country. The deficits were about 
$250 billion. So the point I am trying to make is that the deficit 
under Republican Presidents and even under Republican control of the 
House and the Senate and the White House was small, very small, to what 
we have today.
  You can say that there is good reason for this vote today because you 
support our troops and our wars, and you also support veterans. I think 
that's true. Yet there has been no effort by your side to hold the 
appropriations bill.
  I have been on the House floor, and I say to my colleague, your 
appropriations bills are 13 percent larger than last year's. Almost 
every one of them was 13, 18--One was almost 20 percent. How in the 
world can you justify appropriations bills that are so large?
  So in the end, Democrats are not trying to reduce costs nor balance 
the budget. In fact, they are recklessly encouraging more government 
spending. That is why they need to increase the debt ceiling.
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Mr. Stearns is, indeed, my friend, and we 
are classmates.
  Madam Speaker, he conveniently left out those 4 years when Bill 
Clinton left a balanced budget to America, when the deficits were 
eliminated and when the debt was coming down. That's the key 
consideration here as we begin this debate. Indeed, this is about 
paying for our veterans' hospitals, paying for the war in Iraq, paying 
for the war in Afghanistan, and making sure that those Social Security 
checks get out on January 1.
  Mr. HELLER. Madam Speaker, may I inquire as to the time remaining on 
both sides?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Nevada controls 8\1/2\ 
minutes, and the gentleman from Massachusetts controls 5\3/4\ minutes.
  Mr. HELLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the Republican policy 
Chair, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. McCotter).
  Mr. McCOTTER. I thank the gentleman.
  Madam Speaker, a quick point that was raised by our esteemed 
colleague from Massachusetts about how President Clinton left 4 years 
of balanced budgets: It was with the assistance of a Republican 
majority in the Congress, which is an exceptional precedent, you'll 
remember, as we head to the polls in 2010.
  As we address this issue of raising the debt ceiling, let us be 
charitable in this, the giving season. Let us recall that, as the 
Democratic Party's argument today is ``the same but more,'' let us look 
at what they have tried to give the American people over the course of 
the past year for stocking stuffers.
  First, Americans got higher unemployment, higher spending, higher 
deficits, and higher taxes.
  Secondly, senior citizens got a $500 billion cut in Medicare. 
Terrorists got new rights, new trials, and new cells on American soil, 
and Federal Government bureaucrats got raises.
  I think that we should question our priorities and the direction in 
which we are taking ourselves before we decide to spend more money on 
this. It strikes me that it is very justifiable for the American people 
to watch this debate, to watch the debt ceiling be raised, and to come 
to the distinct conclusion that the Democratic majority in Congress has 
proven itself too costly and too crazy too quickly.
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. HELLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from 
Utah (Mr. Chaffetz).
  Mr. CHAFFETZ. I thank the gentleman.
  Madam Speaker, I am a freshman in this body. I didn't help create 
this mess, but I am here to help clean it up. The fact of the matter is 
we have to spend less than we are spending now. We have to be 
responsible stewards of the American people's money.
  We are $12 trillion in debt. Remember, if you spend $1 million a day 
every day, it would take you nearly 3,000 years just to get to $1 
trillion, and we are $12 trillion in debt. When is this body going to 
say no?
  This body is not making difficult decisions. I am sorry, but the 
Democrats in control have refused to find a solution to things that 
don't cost literally hundreds of billions of dollars every time we turn 
around. We can't be all things to all people. We have to learn to say 
``no.'' At what point will there actually be a cap? At what point will 
there actually be a ceiling? We see no hope on the horizon for that.
  We have got to be responsible stewards of the American people's 
money. We cannot be all things to all people. We are spending nearly 
$600 million a day just in interest on our debt.


                             General Leave

  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent 
that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and 
extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 4314.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Massachusetts?
  There was no objection.

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