[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 17 (Thursday, February 4, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H595]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        LIVING WITHIN OUR MEANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kagen) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KAGEN. Madam Speaker, everywhere I go in Wisconsin, people are 
saying the same thing: Government must live within its means. I agree. 
After all, being fiscally responsible is the Wisconsin way.
  People all across northeast Wisconsin pay their bills on time, and 
they're tired of seeing their money wasted on bailouts for Wall Street 
speculators. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is rightfully angry, and so 
am I. We simply don't believe in rewarding failure in Wisconsin, and 
that is why I voted against every single bailout that came along.
  And never forget, never forget how we fell into this mess.
  When I was elected in 2006, the people in power in Washington, D.C., 
were pursuing borrow-and-spend policies, policies that drove our 
economy into the ditch without paying a single dime for them. Without 
paying for a single dime, the previous administration spent money we 
did not have on two wars--two wars at the same time--two tax cuts for 
the rich, gigantic handouts to big drug companies on Wall Street, and a 
trillion-dollar bailout for their friends on Wall Street in the big 
banks, and asking, asking our children and grandchildren to pay for it 
all.
  Well, enough is enough. We must live within our means. Our government 
must invest in our own people right here at home, not on Wall Street 
and not overseas. We must rebuild our own economy and grow the jobs. We 
need to work our way back into prosperity.
  When voting for any legislation, I only have the best interests of my 
constituents in Wisconsin in mind. The pay-as-you-go rules which were 
enacted today will be successful, as they were in the 1990s, and this 
is exactly the medicine we need today to begin to turn today's enormous 
debts into future surpluses. That is why I strongly support the passage 
of pay-as-you-go rules, just as I have seven times previously during my 
public service.
  It's really a simple, responsible thing to do. Washington must live 
within its means and pay its bills on time, just as we do around our 
own kitchen tables every month across Wisconsin.
  Mandatory pay-as-you-go rules are critical to reducing our national 
debt. Over time, these responsible spending rules will contain Federal 
expenditures and balance our budgets, for when government attempts to 
spend money on one program, it must either raise revenues or cut 
spending on another program. It's just that simple. Live within our 
means.

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