[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 16, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H942]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               WE ALL NEED TO GET INTO THE BOAT TOGETHER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Dreier) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning to congratulate 
President Obama for what I believe were the most important words that 
came from his press conference that he delivered yesterday when he said 
we all need to get into the boat together. Now, he was referring, of 
course, to the challenge of entitlement spending.
  I listened to my California colleague talk about her priorities when 
it comes to dealing with budget issues. We are in the midst of a debate 
right now that will take place later today, and obviously it went into 
early this morning, on the continuing resolution and the challenges we 
face there. We are looking at making cuts that are important and need 
to take place. But, Mr. Speaker, they pale in comparison to the 
challenge that we face of dealing with entitlement spending.
  When the President said we all need to get into that boat together, 
what he meant was, it was very clear, we need to work together in a 
bipartisan way. And there are all kinds of challenges that have been 
put before us and horror stories as it relates to entitlement spending. 
And there is a tendency on both sides of the aisle, when it comes to 
dealing with the issue of entitlement spending, to point the finger of 
blame at the other party. That's why I was particularly pleased that 
just recently the former chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, our 
colleague Pete Domenici, along with the former Director of the 
Congressional Budget Office, Alice Rivlin, have been meeting with 
leaders of both political parties, talking about the imperative of 
dealing with the issue of entitlement reform.
  As we look at the debate that's taking place right now, Mr. Speaker, 
on the discretionary spending that is before us and juxtapose that to 
the massive, massive spending as we look as far as the eye can see when 
it comes to Social Security, Medicare, and other entitlement spending, 
I believe that if we can deal with entitlement spending, we will be 
able to have resources to address priorities that I know my California 
colleague and other colleagues on both sides of the aisle share. So 
that's why I think that it's important for both the left and the right 
to come together and recognize that the problems that exist with 
entitlement spending need to be addressed in a bipartisan way. They can 
be addressed in a bipartisan way. And in so doing, we will be ensuring 
that future generations are not going to face this tremendous debt 
burden.
  We'll be addressing the issue that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs 
of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, has said is our number one national 
security threat, and that is the looming national debt. I believe that 
we will be able to let the American people know that we do have, as a 
priority, a desire to work together to resolve the very important 
problems that lie ahead.

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