[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 76 (Tuesday, May 31, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H3801-H3803]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         AMERICA'S DEBT CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Duffy). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 5, 2011, the gentlewoman from Alabama (Mrs. Roby) is 
recognized for 23 minutes.


                             General Leave

  Mrs. ROBY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and 
include extraneous material on the topic of my Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Alabama?
  There was no objection.
  Mrs. ROBY. We face a budget crisis in this country. America is broke. 
Without bold action, our budget situation will get worse, not better. 
We also face a severe economic recession. The current national 
unemployment rate is 9.0 percent, and it has been as high as 10.1 
percent back in April of 2009.
  With so many Americans out of work, the Federal Government should be 
doing everything in its power to encourage economic growth--not 
discourage it.
  Cutting spending is critical to creating a pro-growth environment. 
Cutting spending is essential to free market job creation. House 
Republicans are the only group in Washington showing leadership on this 
issue. We have voted repeatedly to cut spending in the short term, and 
we have passed a budget that would reduce spending by $6.2 trillion 
over 10 years.
  By contrast, it has been more than 750 days since Senate Democrats 
have even passed a budget. Recently, Senator Reid said: ``There's no 
need to have a Democratic budget, in my opinion. It would be foolish 
for us to do a budget at this stage.''
  That is a breathtaking statement for two important reasons: First, 
the Senate is required by law under the Congressional Budget Act to 
pass a budget. Second, working families all across America live within 
their means every single day by following a family budget. It's simple. 
They don't spend what they don't have. So I ask: Why shouldn't 
Democrats in the Senate live by the same rule?
  Now the White House is asking us to raise the debt limit and 
Secretary Geithner wrote, ``Never in our history has Congress failed to 
increase the debt limit when necessary.'' The White House wants a clean 
increase in the debt limit. That means they want Congress to approve 
more debt without cutting back on any spending. That is a failed 
policy.
  The vote we took tonight is a clear indicator that House Republicans 
reject that approach. Our message is clear. We will not vote to raise 
the debt limit without significant reforms to change the culture of 
spending in Washington. If the White House wants us to consider raising 
the debt limit, they should be at the table proposing significant 
reforms that yield trillions, not billions, in savings to the American 
people. So far, that has not happened.

                              {time}  2140

  Tomorrow, the President has invited House Republicans to the White 
House to discuss the debt ceiling. His request for a clean increase in 
the debt limit was rejected tonight. I hope that tomorrow the President 
will offer serious proposals to cure Washington's addiction to 
spending. No lip service. No gimmicks. No smoke and mirrors. The 
American people don't want more political posturing. Real spending 
cuts. A true commitment to that is what will spur job creation and get 
our economy back on track.
  I now yield to the gentleman from Colorado for as much time as he may 
consume.
  Mr. GARDNER. I thank the gentlelady from Alabama for her leadership 
on this issue, and the time tonight to be able to talk about an issue 
that's very important to my constituents in Colorado, the Fourth 
Congressional District, and around this country. There hasn't been a 
town meeting gone by where somebody hasn't stood up and said, 
``Congressman Gardner, what do you think about the debt ceiling? What's 
going to happen to this country? What happens if we continue to spend 
the kind of money that this Congress, this Nation has seen over the 
past decade?''
  As we turn our focus and continue to focus on jobs and growing our 
economy, the only way that this Nation is going to be able to create 
long-term jobs and job growth is if we do everything we can to make 
sure we are cutting spending and reducing the size of government.
  In 2006, President Obama talked about a failure of leadership, a 
failure of leadership to increase the debt ceiling, and that he would 
vote against it. He did vote against it because he believed to continue 
to kick the can down the road, to continue to spend money without a 
plan to reduce our debt, address the deficit, he believed was failure 
of leadership.
  Tomorrow we have an opportunity to visit the President at the White 
House. And I hope we hear from him why he believed that in 2006 an $8.4 
trillion debt was too much, why it was a failure of leadership to go 
beyond $8.4 trillion in debt. Because the President is now asking us to 
go beyond $14 trillion in debt, to pass a debt ceiling that would allow 
Congress to spend even trillions more than the $14 trillion debt that 
we have today. The people in my district are concerned that there is no 
stop sign in place for the fiscal recklessness that this Nation has 
seen. The failure of leadership continues from one Congress to another 
without a plan in place.
  I have had the opportunities over the past several years to attend 
high school financial literacy classes, where

[[Page H3802]]

we're teaching our 8th-, 9th-, 10th-, 11th-, 12th-graders what it means 
to balance a checkbook, what it means to make sure that they are 
keeping their records straight. Unfortunately, this Congress has failed 
to learn those same lessons that our high school students are being 
taught in Colorado, what it means to be able to say ``no'' to spending, 
what it means to be able to say ``no'' to spending money that we don't 
have.
  Mr. Speaker, I can't think of anything more pressing facing this 
country at the moment than to make sure we send a strong message to the 
rest of this country that we have learned a lesson, that we will create 
jobs in this Nation, and we will do it because we said enough is enough 
when it comes to reckless spending. That we have put in place policies 
that will make sure we stop the runaway debt and deficit.
  The House took a stand today. We drew a line in the sand with a vote 
97-318 that this House rejected the President's request to increase the 
debt ceiling.
  I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Illinois.
  Mr. DOLD. I appreciate that. I appreciate the gentleman yielding. It 
is indeed an honor to be down on the floor with you talking about 
something that is certainly near and dear to my heart, and that's jobs. 
That's going to be reining in the out of control debt that we've got 
going on in our country today. The thing that I think is important that 
my colleague pointed out, and something that I want to make sure we 
emphasize is this is a Washington problem.
  Mr. Speaker, this has been going on on both sides of the aisle for a 
long time. Republicans had deficit spending. The Democrats' answer was 
to spend more. It's about time that we stand up and say, ``Enough is 
enough.'' Back in 2006, the President actually said, ``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 and a failure of leadership. America and 
Americans deserve better.''
  Well, I couldn't agree more. We cannot continue to shift this burden 
onto our children and grandchildren. A $14 trillion debt. I went down, 
actually, today and saw the debt auction. In just a matter of minutes, 
we saw them in essence auction off another $50 billion of U.S. 
Treasuries. Most of that was auctioned off in under 2 minutes. We 
cannot continue to spend the amount of money that we are spending and 
still expect that we are going to provide the American dream for our 
children and grandchildren.
  To me, I think that's the American compact that those I think on both 
sides of the aisle can agree upon; that we here in the Congress have to 
step up and provide leadership so that our children and grandchildren 
will have opportunities greater than the ones that you and I know 
today. Unfortunately, I fear that if we continue down the path that we 
go down, that we are heading down right now, we may be the first 
generation of Americans that leave our country actually worse.
  We are looking for leadership. I am here on the floor reaching out 
and telling the President that we want to see a plan. Not that we want 
to reject a plan; we want to see a plan. Tell us why we need to raise 
the debt ceiling. Tell us what spending constraints are going to be put 
in place in Washington.
  Both sides of the aisle need to just basically change the way that 
we're doing things so that we can provide some fiscal discipline for 
future generations. When I look at it, and I know we have got some 
other small business men that are up here with me today, I look at it 
like we've just purchased a small business. Well, actually it's a big 
business in the United States of America. It's also the greatest 
business on the face of the Earth. It has some debt. We know we are 
obligated to pay that debt. But we also know that we have to 
restructure how the company, in essence the United States of America, 
is taking on that debt. And until we are prepared to do that, we can't 
expect that we're just going to continue to run the organization, the 
company, the United States of America, the same way it's been run.

  There is plenty of blame to go around. The time for leadership is 
now. And I welcome the opportunity to sit down with those colleagues on 
the other side of the aisle to come up with a solution so we can all 
march forward together and solve the big problems of our time.
  With that, I will yield at least temporarily to my friend from New 
York.
  Mr. REED. I appreciate the gentleman yielding, but I believe the 
gentlelady from Alabama controls the time.
  Mrs. ROBY. Thank you.
  I yield to the gentleman from New York as much time as he would like 
to consume, but we do have to be done in about 10 minutes.
  Mr. REED. I appreciate that. I appreciate the gentlelady yielding. 
And I appreciate joining my colleagues, fellow freshman members of the 
Republican class who have come here to Washington, D.C., with the same 
philosophy that I believe I bring to the table. And that is exactly the 
point that we have been articulating here tonight. We need to get our 
fiscal house in order.
  So many people ask me why is that so critical to our future? And when 
I go to my town hall meetings, and I go and talk to my constituents 
back in New York, I tell them there are two reasons. One, we all know 
that if you run a business at the debt levels that we run this 
government at, it will go bankrupt. And we are talking about the 
bankruptcy of America. That is not acceptable to me. It's not 
acceptable to my colleagues here tonight. And we're going to work day 
in and day out to prevent that.
  But second, and more in the short term, we need to get our fiscal 
house in order so that we send a message to all of the world markets 
that the American market is alive and well. And you can invest your 
capital, you can invest your millions of dollars back here in America 
and put people back to work. It's not about creating jobs that are 
government jobs. It's about creating wealth. It is about creating a 
private sector that is strong, that is putting people to work day in 
and day out, putting food on their tables, feeding their families, 
providing for their education, and giving that way of life that we here 
have enjoyed to their children, to our grandchildren, and to 
generations that have not even seen the face of the Earth.
  So for those two reasons, it is time that we honor Senator Barack 
Obama's quote that we need to stop shifting the burden of bad choices 
today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a 
debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I 
call on the President to put forth a plan to deal with this problem 
once and for all.

                              {time}  2150

  Mrs. ROBY. I thank the gentleman.
  I yield to the gentleman from Illinois for such time as he may 
consume.
  Mr. SCHILLING. I would like to thank the gentlelady from Alabama for 
giving me the opportunity to speak here tonight.
  As a small businessman and a new Member of Congress, I believe that 
the people did not send us here to raise the debt limit without a clear 
path to fix this huge mess that we have. It's an honor to represent the 
people of the 17th District in Illinois. It's with great honor, of 
course, that even greater expectations come.
  Future generations are depending upon us to get it right. You know, 
they didn't send us here to bury our heads in the sand and continue 
this path that we have been going on.
  As one of the new 87 freshmen who was sent here to deliver a message 
from America that enough is enough, when it comes to the failed 
policies of the past, I will continue to persuade my colleagues that we 
must get this under control. We reached the statutory debt limit on May 
16 of 2011. Secretary Geithner has said we have enough borrowing to get 
us through August 2 of 2011. After that, if the debt ceiling is not 
raised, then America will default on its obligations.
  Secretary Geithner has said that it would be insane not to raise the 
debt limit. I believe the definition of insanity is doing the same 
thing over and over again and expecting different results. The debt 
limit has been raised 51 times since 1978. Today we are facing a 
crushing debt of more than $14 trillion. The insanity must stop here.
  Mrs. ROBY. I thank the gentleman.
  I now yield to the gentleman from Arkansas as much time as he may 
consume.

[[Page H3803]]

  Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. Thank you very much. I am glad to be able to 
join you here on the floor tonight to ultimately talk about jobs. I 
have heard some folks mention debt and some other issues, but it all 
relates to jobs.
  I hear folks from the other side of the aisle say, when are you going 
to have a jobs bill? And what I try to convey to my constituents and to 
my colleagues here is that when we are talking about the debt and 
getting our spending under control, we are talking about jobs.
  This country has not seen job loss like we will see if we have a debt 
crisis. And if we want to be the country like many of us grew up in, a 
country that is innovative and leads the world in technology and 
advancement, then we have to deal with our crushing debt.
  What has been striking on the issue of the debt here tonight is I 
have been listening to colleagues from the other side of the aisle and 
I have heard about all these plans. I have heard about plans to pay 
down the debt, plans to deal with the deficit. I have heard about their 
Medicare plan.
  The bottom line is, they don't have a plan. This President, in the 
Senate controlled by Senator Reid, they don't have a plan. They don't 
have a plan for Medicare, they don't have a plan in the form of a 
budget, they don't have a plan to get the debt under control, they 
don't have a plan. Their only plan is to let the House lead.
  They will let us be bold while they are politically timid. They have 
no plan. It would be easy to have a debate between our plan and their 
plan, but they don't have a plan.
  So we are left with a situation, for example, on Medicare, something 
that we want to preserve, something that is a big driver of our debt. 
On the issue of Medicare, the other side of the aisle likes to compare 
our plan, which reforms and saves Medicare, they like to compare our 
plan to the current plan.
  Well, that's fiscal fantasy, folks. Why? Because the current plan 
goes away. The status quo goes bankrupt. So the idea that they can 
adopt the current plan status quo as their plan is nonsense; it's 
nonsense. We see it with Medicare; we see it with the debt.
  I, like my colleagues here, simply call on the Democrats and the 
President to propose something, something that we can discuss, 
something that addresses our problems. I can tell you, I can only speak 
for me and my constituents, but unless we see some serious structural 
changes to the spending, the out-of-control spending in this town, the 
``no'' that I voted on raising the debt limit tonight will be the same 
``no'' over and over again until this President and the Senate get 
their act together and give us a real plan.
  Mrs. ROBY. I thank the gentleman.
  I yield to the gentleman from Illinois.
  Mr. DOLD. I appreciate the gentlelady for yielding.
  I was just struck by something that the gentleman from Arkansas said. 
It is about jobs and that I think is something that we focused on here 
this evening, but there are 29 million small businesses in our Nation. 
And the thing that I hear from small businesses and businesses all 
around my district is the uncertainty. Uncertainty out there is 
causing, in essence, paralyzing businesses and preventing them from 
moving forward. If we can create an environment here in Washington that 
allows half of those companies to create a single job, think about the 
job growth we will have then.
  I am just wondering if the gentlemen from Arkansas or from Colorado 
or the gentlelady from Alabama has heard some of the same things back 
in their districts about uncertainty.
  Mrs. ROBY. Absolutely. You know, everywhere we go we hear about this 
job-killing legislation that is keeping small business owners, even 
those that have the ability to create jobs, fearful to do so because 
they don't know which regulation they are going to be hit from next, 
what legislation we are going to pass to find out what's in it is 
coming their way. So I hear it all the time. It is stifling to our 
economy.
  We need to create, we need to make sure that we are creating an 
environment so that the private sector can create the jobs and not rely 
on the government.
  I yield to the gentleman from Arkansas.
  Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. You make a good point. I tell you, the stark 
contrast between what we are talking about here and from what I hear on 
the other side of the aisle is this: our colleagues, our Democrat 
colleagues talk about the government creating jobs. They say we need to 
create jobs.

  I understand, and I think we understand that the private sector 
creates jobs. Small businesses create jobs. Individuals create jobs. 
People pursuing their dreams and exercising economic freedom, that's 
who creates jobs.
  It's our job to help create an environment where individuals and 
businesses can flourish and continue to lead the world. It is not the 
government's job to create jobs. We are here to create an environment 
for businesses and individuals and small businesses so they can 
flourish.
  Mrs. ROBY. I will now yield to the gentleman from New York, and then 
we're going to wrap this up.
  Mr. REED. I thank the gentlelady from Alabama.
  I was struck by something my colleague from Arkansas said about a 
plan. Let's be clear about the proposed plans that have been allegedly 
floated by our President up to this date and what we voted on today.
  You know, we get knocked a lot for not engaging in a bipartisan 
practice, but let's be clear what the record showed and in this Chamber 
today and in the Senate last week. President Obama put forth and 
requested a clean debt ceiling, an unconditional debt ceiling, just 
raise it $2 trillion.
  Bipartisan support tonight rejected that proposal. That's the status 
quo proposal that we can no longer afford. Last week, President Obama's 
budget, 97-0 in the Senate, was soundly rejected. I believe President 
Obama's quote from 2006 is completely accurate. His words predicted 
exactly where he is at. America has a failure of leadership. Americans 
deserve better.
  Mrs. ROBY. Thank you so much to all of my colleagues.
  Mr. Speaker, I just want to say that allowing the Federal Government 
to take on more debt without cutting up our credit cards is 
irresponsible.
  I am Margaret and George's mom, and I know you represent families 
here tonight. We all have a responsibility, to my children, to your 
children, to future generations of this country to leave this country 
better off than the way we found it. It all starts with cutting 
spending and getting our economy back on track.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________