[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 73 (Wednesday, May 25, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H3415-H3416]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE DEBT CEILING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Washington (Ms. Herrera Beutler) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. Mr. Speaker, decades of a spending party by both 
parties have led to the point where we are today. We're under crushing 
amounts of debt. Now we are borrowing about $58,000 per second--$58,000 
per second.
  As some of my colleagues have shared, I'm going to read this as well. 
It's a quote for those who can't see it:
  ``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. America deserves 
better.'' Senator Barack Obama in 2006.
  Now the President has asked those of us in this Chamber to vote to 
increase the debt limit without any structural spending reforms. Let me 
repeat that. He has now asked us to send a bill to him that has no 
structural spending reforms.
  We are borrowing $58,000 a second. Does that sound like a failure of 
leadership? I think it does. Here is what

[[Page H3416]]

that's like. It's like an irresponsible teenager taking out a credit 
card in your name. They fill it out. The bill will come to you. You get 
that bill and you see that your irresponsible teenager has run up that 
credit card, and now the bill is coming due. You have a couple of 
choices. You could pay that credit card and let it be. That's what the 
President is asking us to do, pay the credit card and then walk away. I 
don't think very many parents would say okay to that. Or you could not 
pay the credit card. That's going to impact your credit. Or you could 
pay that credit card and then cut it up.
  Those are the choices before us.
  I would agree with the 2006 Senator Barack Obama when he said that 
the buck has to stop here. The buck does stop here, which is why House 
Republicans have put forward over $6 trillion worth of spending reform 
ideas. We actually don't need them to enact all $6 trillion of those. 
We could enact $2 trillion of those and avert a debt crisis. But the 
President and some of my friends on the other side of the aisle have 
said, no, no, no, that's irresponsible. Coming back to this quote, I 
would agree with the then-Senator Barack Obama that those bad choices 
are being shifted onto our children and our grandchildren, and the buck 
does have to stop here.
  Since 1964, Congress has voted to raise the debt limit, the debt 
ceiling, 74 times--74 times. I suggest to you that unless we require a 
cut-up of the credit card, unless we require structural spending 
reforms, 20 years from now--if our economy can subsist that long--our 
children are going to be asking why did no one do something about this? 
Because we are under crushing, crushing debt burdens. And it's going to 
impact jobs not just today. We're talking about our future and our 
children's ability to grow, prosper, and thrive. In an America where we 
had those opportunities, they are not going to have those same 
opportunities.
  I refuse to make it easier to allow our debt to get so crushing that 
economic recovery is permanently beyond our reach. It's time for a 
culture change in Washington, DC, and that starts with real spending 
cuts accompanying any debt limit negotiations.

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