[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 16 (Wednesday, February 3, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H476]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            STATUTORY PAYGO

  (Mr. SCHRADER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. SCHRADER. I rise today to urge the House to once again pass 
statutory pay-as-you-go legislation. I remind my colleagues of the 
history of PAYGO. Less than 20 years ago, PAYGO was used by a 
Republican Congress and a Democratic President to bring balance to the 
budget and begin paying down the debt from what were then record 
deficits. Unfortunately, during the Bush administration, PAYGO and 
other fiscally responsible policies were abandoned for tax cuts and 
expensive drug programs we didn't pay for. This week, we have the 
opportunity to once again vote for a return to fiscally responsible 
policies. We already voted for this on July 22, when we passed the 
Statutory Pay-As-You-Go-Act of 2009, with a bipartisan majority.
  Although this bill isn't perfect, it's very practical. It worked in 
the 1990s. It moved us from a record deficit to record surpluses. It 
will work now. The fiscal and economic mismanagement that this Congress 
and the President inherited in January, 2009, must be addressed. 
Instituting statutory PAYGO is a concrete start to the fiscal reform 
American families struggling to balance their own budgets expect us to 
meet.

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