[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 108 (Tuesday, July 19, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H5162-H5163]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           CUT, CAP, AND BALANCE ACT IS A PLAN THAT CAN WORK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, today the House is going to debate a bill that 
holds the potential to move us away from a debt crisis and toward 
prosperity. I want to associate myself with the comments that were made 
by our colleague the gentlelady from Missouri (Mrs. Hartzler) a couple 
of speakers ago when she talked about how our colleagues on the other 
side of the aisle say that it is irresponsible to amend the 
Constitution in order to require the Congress to balance the budget.
  Yesterday in the Rules Committee, we heard from the gentleman from 
Maryland who talked about how we're twisting the Constitution to put in 
a limit on how we could cut taxes, raise taxes, into the Constitution, 
that how, by putting a two-thirds vote and restrictions into the 
Constitution, we're damaging the Constitution.
  Mr. Speaker, nothing could be further from the truth. Congresses in 
the past have proven that they don't have the restraint that's 
necessary to keep our spending under control. We need a constitutional 
amendment in order to do that.
  They did admit yesterday that we are paying the credit card from the 
past, and I want to point out that under President Obama, the average 
annual deficits that were in existence under President Bush became 
monthly deficits under President Obama. Since 2\1/2\ years ago, the 
national debt has increased by $3.7 trillion.

[[Page H5163]]

  That's why we need to cut spending, Mr. Speaker. We need to cut our 
spending. We need to cap our spending at no more than 20 percent of the 
GDP. That's what it was traditionally. It has now eased up to 23 
percent. We have to take it back down.
  Mr. Speaker, I also want to point out, as my colleague from Missouri 
said, that when President Obama was Senator Obama, he spoke on the 
Senate floor and voted against raising the debt limit, saying that it 
was a failure of leadership. He doesn't admit that now, that it's a 
failure of leadership. He doesn't even admit that he's part of the 
problem. And part of the problem is that he has no plan. When we asked 
yesterday in Rules, ``Where's the President's plan?'' we were told it 
was in his speech at George Washington University. Well, even his own 
staff people, even his own appointees, say they can't score a speech.
  Republicans have a plan, and our plan is to cut, cap, and balance. We 
need a constitutional amendment, Mr. Speaker, in order to force the 
Congress to do its job. Past Congresses, as it has been shown, couldn't 
do it. We're willing to do that. There is no leadership on the part of 
the Democrats. The budget that the President presented in February was 
voted down, 97-0, in the Senate. Even his own party will not support 
him.
  And what about all these corporate loopholes that the President and 
our colleagues keep talking about? The President talks about these 
corporate jets, but he doesn't admit the fact that the loopholes he's 
talking about, which he calls subsidies, that loophole was in the 
stimulus that he forced through this Congress, that no Republican voted 
for. So the corporate loophole for the jets is one the President put 
into place, and now he's condemning it.
  Mr. Speaker, we need our President and our colleagues on the other 
side of the aisle to fess up to the fact that they've created this 
problem, they have no plan to solve it, and all they want to do is 
throw barbs at the Republicans who are showing the courage to do 
something about this serious debt crisis that we face in this country.

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