[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 67 (Thursday, May 6, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H3249-H3250]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                A NEW INTERNATIONAL FISCAL CONSERVATISM

  (Mr. KIRK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KIRK. Madam Speaker, today's volatility in the stock market 
teaches us two lessons: first, the United States, our Treasury 
Secretary, and our President must advance a new International Economic 
Stabilization plan based on tremendous cuts in European government 
spending. Over 60 percent of Greece's GDP is in the public sector. With 
debts rising to 100 percent of national income, their ability to repay

[[Page H3250]]

their debts was inevitably going to collapse.
  Spain, Portugal, and Italy may be next. Their debts total trillions, 
not hundreds of millions. Our U.S. financial system and our stock 
market depends on what I would call a new international fiscal 
conservatism that cuts government spending and deficit financing.
  Today also teaches us another lesson. The very debts that crippled 
Europe and shook our stock market are coming to America, fueled by the 
irresponsible spending of this Congress. We need to cut Federal 
spending now to reassure markets and assure that America's children 
will never have to ask this question: ``Who will bail out America?''

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