Congressional Record, Volume 157 Issue 108 (Tuesday, July 19, 2011)

[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 108 (Tuesday, July 19, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H5184-H5228]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

CUT, CAP, AND BALANCE ACT OF 2011

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution
355, I call up the bill (H.R. 2560) to cut, cap, and balance the
Federal budget, and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 355, the bill
is considered read.
The text of the bill is as follows:

H.R. 2560

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of
2011''.

TITLE I--CUT

SEC. 101. MODIFICATION OF THE CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET ACT.

Title III of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 is
amended by inserting at the end the following:

``SEC. 316. DISCRETIONARY SPENDING LIMITS.

``(a) In General.--It shall not be in order in the House of
Representatives or the Senate to consider any bill, joint
resolution, amendment, or conference report that would cause
the discretionary spending limits as set forth in this
section to be exceeded.
``(b) Limits.--In this section, the term `discretionary
spending limits' means for fiscal year 2012: for the
discretionary category, $1,019,402,000,000 in new budget
authority and $1,224,568,000,000 in outlays.
``(c) Adjustments.--After the reporting of a bill or joint
resolution relating to the global war on terrorism described
in subsection (d), or the offering of an amendment thereto or
the submission of a conference report thereon--
``(1) the chair of the House or Senate Committee on the
Budget may adjust the discretionary spending limits provided
in this section for purposes of congressional enforcement,
the budgetary aggregates in the concurrent resolution on the
budget most recently adopted by the Senate and the House of
Representatives, and allocations pursuant to section 302(a)
of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, by the amount of new
budget authority in that measure for that purpose and the
outlays flowing therefrom; and
``(2) following any adjustment under paragraph (1), the
House or Senate Committee on Appropriations may report
appropriately revised suballocations pursuant to section
302(b) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to carry out
this subsection.
``(d) Global War on Terrorism.--If a bill or joint
resolution is reported making appropriations for fiscal year
2012 that provides funding for the global war on terrorism,
the allowable adjustments provided for in subsection (c) for
fiscal year 2012 shall not exceed $126,544,000,000 in budget
authority and the outlays flowing therefrom.

``SEC. 317. CERTAIN DIRECT SPENDING LIMITS.

``(a) In General.--It shall not be in order in the House of
Representatives or the Senate to consider any bill, joint
resolution, amendment, or conference report that includes any
provision that would cause total direct spending, except as
excluded in subsection (b), to exceed the limits specified in
subsection (c).
``(b) Exempt From Direct Spending Limits.--Direct spending
for the following functions is exempt from the limits
specified in subsection (c):
``(1) Social Security, function 650.
``(2) Medicare, function 570.
``(3) Veterans Benefits and Services, function 700.
``(4) Net Interest, function 900.
``(c) Limits on Other Direct Spending.--The total combined
outlays for all direct spending not exempted in subsection
(b) for fiscal year 2012 shall not exceed
$680,730,000,000.''.

SEC. 102. STATUTORY ENFORCEMENT OF SPENDING CAPS THROUGH
SEQUESTRATION.

Title III of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 is
amended by inserting after section 317 the following new
section:

``SEC. 318. ENFORCEMENT OF DISCRETIONARY AND DIRECT SPENDING
CAPS.

``(a) Implementation.--The sequesters shall be implemented
as follows:
``(1) Discretionary spending implementation.--For the
discretionary limits in section 316 of the Congressional
Budget Act of 1974, pursuant to section 251(a) of the
Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985
with each category sequestered separately.
``(2) Direct spending implementation.--(A) The
sequestration to enforce this section for direct spending
shall be implemented pursuant to section 254 of the Balanced
Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985.
``(B) Section 255 of the Balanced Budget and Control Act of
1985 shall not apply to this section, except that payments
for military personnel accounts (within subfunctional
category 051), TRICARE for Life, Medicare (functional
category 570), military retirement, Social Security
(functional category 650), veterans (functional category
700), net interest (functional category 900), and
discretionary appropriations shall be exempt.
``(b) Modification of Presidential Order.--
``(1) In general.--At any time after the Director of OMB
issues a sequestration report under subsection (a) and
section 319(c) the provisions of section 258A of the Balanced
Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 shall apply
to the consideration in the House of Representatives and the
Senate of a bill or joint resolution to override the order if
the bill or joint resolution, as enacted, would achieve the
same level of reductions in new budget authority and outlays
for the applicable fiscal year as set forth in the order.
``(2) Point of order.--In the House of Representatives or
Senate, it shall not be in order to consider a bill or joint
resolution which waives, modifies, or in any way alters a
sequestration order unless the chair of the House or Senate
Committee on the Budget certifies that the measure achieves
the same levels of reductions in new budget authority and
outlays for the applicable year as set forth in the order.''.

TITLE II--CAP

SEC. 201. LIMIT ON TOTAL SPENDING.

(a) Definitions.--Section 250(c) of the Balanced Budget and
Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 is amended by striking
paragraph (4), redesignating the succeeding paragraphs
accordingly, and adding the following new paragraph:
``(19) The term `GDP', for any fiscal year, means the gross
domestic product during such fiscal year consistent with
Department of Commerce definitions.''.
(b) Caps.--The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 is amended
by inserting after section 318 the following new section:

``SEC. 319. ENFORCING GDP OUTLAY LIMITS.

``(a) Enforcing GDP Outlay Limits.--In this section, the
term `GDP outlay limit' means an amount, as estimated by OMB,
equal to--
``(1) projected GDP for that fiscal year as estimated by
OMB, multiplied by
``(2) 21.7 percent for fiscal year 2013; 20.8 percent for
fiscal year 2014; 20.2 percent for fiscal year 2015; 20.1
percent for fiscal year 2016; 19.9 percent for fiscal year
2017; 19.7 percent for fiscal year 2018; 19.9 percent for
fiscal year 2019; 19.9 percent for fiscal year 2020; and 19.9
percent for fiscal year 2021.
``(b) GDP Outlay Limit and Outlays.--
``(1) Determining the gdp outlay limit.--The Office of
Management and Budget shall establish in the President's
budget the GDP outlay limit for the budget year.
``(2) Total federal outlays.--In this section, total
Federal outlays shall include all on-budget and off-budget
outlays.
``(c) Sequestration.--The sequestration to enforce this
section shall be implemented pursuant to section 254 of the
Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985.
``(d) Exempt Programs.--Section 255 of the Balanced Budget
and Control Act of 1985 shall not apply to this section,
except that payments for military personnel accounts (within
subfunctional category 051), TRICARE for Life, Medicare
(functional category 570), military retirement, Social
Security (functional category 650), veterans (functional
category 700), and net interest (functional category 900)
shall be exempt.''.

SEC. 202. ENFORCEMENT PROCEDURES UNDER THE CONGRESSIONAL
BUDGET ACT OF 1974.

(a) Enforcement.--Title III of the Congressional Budget Act
of 1974 is amended by adding after section 319 the following
new section:

``SEC. 320. ENFORCEMENT PROCEDURES.

``It shall not be in order in the House of Representatives
or the Senate to consider any bill, joint resolution,
amendment, or conference report that would cause the most
recently reported current GDP outlay limits set forth in
section 319 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to be
exceeded.''.
(b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents in section
1(b) of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act
of 1974 is amended by inserting after the item relating to
section 315 the following new items:

``Sec. 316. Discretionary spending limits.
``Sec. 317. Certain direct spending limits.
``Sec. 318. Enforcement of discretionary and direct spending caps.
``Sec. 319. Enforcing GDP outlay limits.
``Sec. 320. Enforcement procedures.''.

[[Page H5185]]

TITLE III--BALANCE

SEC. 301. REQUIREMENT THAT A BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT BE
SUBMITTED TO STATES.

(a) In General.--The Secretary of the Treasury shall not
exercise the additional borrowing authority provided under
subsection (b) until the Archivist of the United States
transmits to the States H.J. Res. 1 in the form reported on
June 23, 2011, S.J. Res. 10 in the form introduced on March
31, 2011, or H.J. Res. 56 in the form introduced on April 7,
2011, a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, or a
similar amendment if it requires that total outlays not
exceed total receipts, that contains a spending limitation as
a percentage of GDP, and requires that tax increases be
approved by a two-thirds vote in both Houses of Congress for
their ratification.
(b) Amendment to Title 31.--Effective on the date the
Archivist of the United States transmits to the States H.J.
Res 1 in the form reported, S.J. Res. 10 in the form
introduced, or H.J. Res. 56 in the form introduced, a
balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, or a similar
amendment if it requires that total outlays not exceed total
receipts, contains a spending limitation as a percentage of
GDP, and requires tax increases be approved by a two-thirds
vote in both Houses of Congress for their ratification,
section 3101(b) of title 31, United States Code, is amended
by striking the dollar limitation contained in such
subsection and inserting $16,700,000,000,000.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Ryan) and
the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) each will control 2 hours.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that
the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Chaffetz), a member of the Budget
Committee, control 30 minutes; the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr.
Garrett), the vice chair of the Budget Committee, control 30 minutes;
and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Jordan) control 30 minutes of debate.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Wisconsin?
There was no objection.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. With respect to the remaining time, I will
reserve the balance of my time and turn it over to the gentleman from
Utah.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Utah.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, today is an historic today. We have an opportunity in
this body to send a strong signal to the country that we're going to
live within our means. At the heart of this discussion is a discussion
about whether or not our country is going to live within its means.
What we ask for at the heart of this proposal is that we balance our
budget. It's something that families do. It's something that businesses
do. A balanced budget amendment is something that 49 States across the
country have.
Unfortunately, in Congresses past, Presidents past, we have not lived
within our means. I have heard the argument that says, Oh, we don't
need a constitutional amendment; we just need to do our job.
Madam Speaker, we find this Nation more than $14 trillion in debt.
We're paying more than $600 million a day in interest on that debt. Now
imagine, imagine the United States of America without that debt. We
don't get anything for that $600 million. But it's an obligation. We
need to live up to those obligations.
What this bill says is very simple:
We're going to cut. We're going to make an immediate cut to some
spending, a paltry $111 billion in the first year. Number two, we're
going to cap as a percentage of our gross domestic product the amount
of money that we're going to spend going forward so that there are
targets in place for future Congresses to consider and weigh and make
the good decisions that need to be made. How are we going to prioritize
things? And, number three, we are going to seek to have a balanced
budget amendment come to the floor of the House, come to the Senate,
and pass both bodies.
If we can make that historic move and pass to the States a balanced
budget amendment, then we will solve the underlying challenge that
faces this country: We are spending too much money. I think everybody
understands that. But the question is: Are we really going to do
something about it?
The question for the President, the question for this body moving
forward, is: Do we have the fortitude to actually put before the States
an amendment? That's all we ask. Can the States have a say in this?
To my Senate colleagues, Madam Speaker, I would encourage them, they
are to represent the States. What are they afraid of if they won't send
a balanced budget amendment forward for their ratification?
We have to change the way we do business in Washington, D.C. America
gets it. America understands it. But this body, in its history, has not
lived up to that call. The future of our Nation depends upon it.
There is going to be all kinds of rhetoric about how we're cutting
Medicare. It's not true. It simply says we're going to have to put
ourselves on a glide path to get some fiscal sanity back here.
Now, there is a timetable that is before us. We're going to run out
of money. We're spending money we don't have. But there is a timetable
before us. And so in just 2 weeks, we're going to come upon this
deadline. This is a real plan that can solve the problem and something
that should be widely embraced on both sides of the aisle.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, this is no time for this body to be playing dangerous
games with the American economy and with American jobs, and yet that's
exactly what's going on on the floor of this House today. Our
Republican colleagues are taking the position that unless and until we
accept their radical budget plan, they will prevent the United States
from paying its bills.
And what does their budget plan do? Yes, it is the same old plan to
end the Medicare guarantee, to slash Medicaid, to cut education while
protecting special interest tax breaks, like subsidies for Big Oil
companies.
And here's what they're saying: Unless we do that, unless we take
that, they're going to prevent the United States from paying its bills.
Remember, these are bills that are coming due on actions that this
Congress has already taken. These are the bills to pay for two wars.
These are bills to pay for the prescription drug plan that was never
paid for. And one of the primary reasons we don't have enough revenue
coming in to pay those bills is because of the tax cuts in 2001 and
2003 that disproportionately benefited the very wealthy.
It's interesting to hear some of our Republican colleagues who have
been here for that entire period of time and voted on all those things
saying that it's a sacrifice for them to accept responsibility and pay
the bills for the things they voted for. Imagine if the American people
took that position.
And what are the consequences of the United States failing to pay its
bills? The same thing that would happen to an American family that
decided not to pay its bills, whether it's its mortgage, its car
payment, whatever it might be. It would undermine the creditworthiness
of that American family.
And taking that action will undermine the creditworthiness of the
United States. That will lead to a rise in interest rates and a sinking
economy. It would hurt every American family. And it would increase--
not decrease--the deficit of the United States. That is the result our
Republican colleagues are threatening in this bill if their demands are
not met.
So let's dig a little deeper into those demands. As I say, what they
want to do is impose the same budget plan that they voted on earlier in
this House and we debated. It does end the Medicare guarantee, it does
slash Medicaid and education, and it does protect corporate tax
loopholes. Only this time it's worse, because they want to take that
budget plan and implant it in the Constitution of the United States.
Now, nobody in this body should be fooled for one moment. This is not
an ordinary balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. We can have
that debate, and there are legitimate arguments. This does something
very different and very sinister. It manipulates the Constitution of
the United States in a way to graft the Republican budget plan into the
Constitution. How does it do it? There are two devices, and the
gentleman knows them well.

{time} 1450

The first is, it says you can cut Medicare, you can cut Social
Security, you can cut education, with a majority vote. But if you want
to cut a subsidy for a Big Oil company for the purposes of reducing the
deficit, if you want to

[[Page H5186]]

cut corporate jet loopholes for the purpose of reducing the deficit,
that's not a majority vote. That's a supermajority, two-thirds vote. So
it biases the Constitution itself in a manner that prefers cuts to
Medicare beneficiaries who have a median income of under $22,000 before
asking the very wealthiest in our country to return to the same tax
rates that were in place during the Clinton administration.
Secondly, it says, we have to pass a constitutional amendment in the
next 2 days that also includes an overall cap on spending. And if you
look at the bill that came out of the Judiciary Committee, what that
would impose is an 18 percent cap. Maybe 18 percent, maybe 19 percent
in the end, we don't know, but you have to have a cap. And the one
that's come out so far has an 18 percent cap.
Now, let's put that number into context. Not since 1966, just after
we enacted Medicare to protect our senior citizens from health crisis,
not since that time has the United States met that level of
expenditures. We've been over that level of expenditures. So by putting
that cap on, combined with the provision to make it easier to cut
Medicare than it is to cut corporate tax subsidies, they are writing
into the Constitution itself this bias. They're stacking the
constitutional deck in favor of engrafting their budget plan into our
founding document.
Now, I heard the gentleman say, and we hear it many times, and I hope
we won't hear it again on this floor today, 49 of the 50 States have
balanced budget amendments. That's true. But they don't have this kind
of balanced budget amendment. They don't have balanced budget
amendments with these pernicious features, with some exceptions.
Fourteen States have a supermajority requirement written into their
constitution. For a good number of those, it's less than two-thirds,
which is what this would require. Sixteen States write into their
Constitution spending caps, and only seven States in the country
combine the two.
So let's not talk about how every State can balance the budget, an
argument which also ignores the reality that the Federal Government is
not just any old State. It is the Federal Government of the United
States of America. It needs to be able to respond to emergencies and
wars and the like.
So let me close with this, Madam Speaker. We do need to, number one,
make sure we pay our bills; and, number two, we need to get our
deficits under control in a way that helps our economy, not hurts it.
And that's why the President of the United States put forward a
proposal that is modeled on the framework that was put forward by the
Simpson-Bowles commission. It doesn't have every detail in it, but it
adopts that framework that says let's cut the deficit by approximately
$4 trillion over the next 10 years. Let's do it in a balanced way. In
fact, it's tilted toward spending cuts--$3 of spending cuts for every
dollar in revenue. He makes it very clear he wants to get the revenue,
closing some of these corporate tax loopholes, asking the top 2 percent
of income earners in the United States to just go back to the rates
they were paying during the Clinton administration, a time we all
remember when the economy was booming and we created 20 million jobs.
So let's take a balanced approach to this. Let's not take the
position that if our demands are not met, if we can not manipulate the
Constitution of the United States to engraft our budget plan into that
founding document, then we're going to let the United States fail to
pay its bills and suffer the terrible economic consequences. It's not
so much Members in this body that will be suffering those; its the
American people. Let's not do that to the American people.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. I would ask the gentleman if he could give us a copy of
that plan right now here during this debate, we would certainly
appreciate it.
The second thing is what we're talking about is a balanced budget.
That's really what we're talking about.
I now yield 1 minute to our leader, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr.
Cantor).
Mr. CANTOR. Madam Speaker, it is time to be honest with the American
people. At a time when our government borrows 40 cents of every dollar
it spends, we have got no choice but to cut spending and begin living
within our means.
Contrary to what the gentleman on the other side of the aisle
continues to say, no one, no one wants to bring default onto our
country. And with millions of Americans out of work, we've got to focus
on getting the economy growing again.
We, as Republicans, as the new majority in this House, as the
gentleman from Maryland knows, have put a plan on the table that
ensures Washington does not continue to spend money it doesn't have.
House Republicans have a plan to cut, cap, and balance our way to
prosperity. This commonsense legislation provides a straightforward
plan to curb our massive debt and to finally begin to limit spending.
The legislation before us would require, one, a balanced budget
component; two, a supermajority requirement to raise taxes on the
American people; and, three, a limit on spending as a percentage of
GDP.
Madam Speaker, today the House has the opportunity to show the people
that sent us here that we are serious about turning the page on the
failed fiscal policies that this town has been about over the last
several decades and begin to get the fiscal house in order.
House Republicans were voted into office to change the culture in
Washington, and we will not support the other side's request or the
President's request to increase the debt limit without meaningful
reforms to the system.
Forty-nine States, including my home State of Virginia, already have
a balanced budget requirement, and it's time that the Federal
Government reflect the same policy to get our fiscal house in order.
Cut, Cap, and Balance makes sure that we begin to treat taxpayer
dollars more responsibly, just like families and businesses do with
their own budgets.
We need to act today. We cannot continue to kick the can down the
road.
Madam Speaker, the President continues to say, as the gentleman on
the other side tries to imply as well, that they want to do big things.
We do as well, as evidenced by our budget that we put on the table. But
we implore the other side to get serious. Let's do big things. Let's
get our fiscal house in order. But let's do so without imposing higher
taxes on the small business people that we so desperately need to start
hiring again.
And the gentleman from Maryland loves to talk about those corporate
loopholes. He loves to talk about corporate jet owners and the kind of
preferences that exist in the Code. The gentleman from Maryland knows
all too well, he and I were in discussions for almost 7 weeks when I
said, again and again, that we would be happy to engage in a discussion
of tax reform to get rid of those loopholes. The gentleman also knows
that those loopholes and the costs associated with those loopholes pale
in comparison to the problem.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. CANTOR. I will not yield.
So I know it makes for good politics to go throw the shiny ball out
there, Madam Speaker, that somehow Republicans are wed to that kind of
policy to sustain these preferences, when all along, in our budget and
in our plan, we have said we are for tax reform. We have said we are
for bringing down rates on everybody.
And that's it, Madam Speaker. Let's get serious and stop playing
politics. It's not about that. There is no disagreement that any of us
want to support those loopholes.
But what's really going on, Madam Speaker, in all of the debt
discussion, in all of the negotiation, is the fact that the minority
and its party and the President continue to insist that we raise taxes
on the small business people that we need so desperately to begin
creating jobs and hiring people again.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Speaker, I wish the gentleman had yielded
because I think it would have become very clear that the Republican
position is they won't close a tax loophole that generates one penny
for deficit reduction, not one penny.

{time} 1500

So you can't close a corporate jet loophole if it's going to deficit
reduction. You can't say to the oil and gas companies we're going to
end your subsidy if it's going to go for deficit reduction. We all know
there are a lot of

[[Page H5187]]

Washington lobbyists that manipulate the Tax Code around here. Getting
a tax break, a taxpayer giveaway to the Tax Code, is just like getting
something through spending, and yet our Republican colleagues refuse to
allow any cut in a loophole to go to deficit reduction, not one penny.
Again, we heard it from the majority leader, we're going to hear it I
guess all day, 49 out of 50 States have balanced budget amendments.
This is not the kind of balanced budget amendment States have. This
writes into the Constitution of the United States again a preference
for cutting Medicare and Social Security--that requires a majority
vote--but in order to close one of those corporate tax loopholes for
the purpose of reducing the deficit you need a two-thirds vote. You're
going to imbed into the Constitution of the United States those policy
preferences. That is exactly what this does.
So let's not hear about the 49 States. They don't all have these
spending caps, and they don't all have that preference protecting
special interest tax breaks from use for deficit reduction.
Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to our distinguished leader of the
Democratic Caucus, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson).
Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Madam Speaker, I rise to associate myself
with the remarks of the distinguished gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van
Hollen).
Let me say that in his opening comments I think he has laid it out
pretty well. Cut, cap and balance--one has to resist on our side the
notion that this is cut, cap, and get rid of Medicare.
The public has had it with this theater of the absurd that's going
on. They want Congress to come together, as our President has
suggested, and do the most important thing that we can--create jobs for
the American people.
At Augie & Ray's in my hometown, people ask me, what's going on?
Seems like a light beer commercial where there is this endless
quibbling back and forth, with people on both sides of the aisle who
care deeply about their country but seem to do little about putting the
Nation back to work.
We face a crisis with a debt ceiling, a debt ceiling that 17 times
under Ronald Reagan was lifted without any bill being held hostage, and
clearly not programs like Medicare and Social Security. This is a time
for us to come together and reason in a rational process. There are no
immediate tax impositions placed by the President--all of you who have
been in negotiations understand and know that. In fact, this Congress,
when we were in the majority, passed the largest tax cut for the middle
class.
I continue to believe that the people in my home town have it right,
that the issue is about jobs. We cannot take this Nation up to the
precipice, up to the cliff again and risk endangerment of default. As
Ronald Reagan said, this would be a catastrophe for this country to
allow this to take place. We need to stay at the table and continue to
negotiate around the idea of jobs, taking a look at those things
strategically that can be cut that create jobs, and those revenues that
can be enhanced to create jobs to put the American people back to work.
That's what the American people want to see, the Congress that can come
together.
I stand by our President and by this great chairman in making sure
that we don't go through this theater of the absurd. You know that this
is not a true balanced budget amendment. You know that in your heart.
You have talented and good people on your side, as do we. Let's be
about putting America back to work and create jobs. Let's not talk
about defaulting on the Nation. We're defaulting on the American
people. Let's talk about putting them back to work. That's what we need
to do in this Nation.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. For 2 years under Barack Obama, the Democrats had the
House and Senate and the Presidency, you didn't do a thing to touch
those so-called ``loopholes.'' To try to feign how exasperated you are
at this point is somewhat disingenuous to somebody who sat here for 2
years with you having the House, the Senate, and the Presidency and
doing nothing about it.
What we're fighting for is more taxpayers, not more taxes. When the
President said he was going to veto this bill, it provided a whole lot
of clarity to a guy like me. Because if we can't find common ground on
balancing the budget--how dare we offer that we want to balance the
budget? That's all we ask for in this country, is put us on a
trajectory to balance the budget.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair will remind Members that all
remarks should be addressed to the Chair.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Georgia (Mr. Price), the chairman of the House Policy Committee.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I'll tell you, my friend talks about the theater of
the absurd. I'll tell you what's absurd: It's saying that they have a
plan when they have no plan at all. That is what's absurd.
That we are here today dealing with this challenge ought not be a
surprise to anybody. Decade after decade, Congress after Congress,
President after President, they have borrowed too much, spent too much,
and taxed too much, which is why our new majority--now just over 6
months in office--has put forward positive, substantive proposals to
change the way that Washington does business. It's exactly what America
is demanding.
Our challenges are huge, but solutions based upon principle is
exactly what is needed, and hence this current bill, with short-term,
midterm and long-term solutions. In the short term, responsible,
appropriate spending reductions. In the midterm, limit and control
Federal spending as a percent of gross domestic product. And in the
long term, stop the madness. Force Washington to do what every single
family in this country does and every single business in this country
does, and that is to balance our budget.
President Obama has issued a veto threat, saying essentially that
balancing the budget is an unrealistic policy goal. This is an
administration that says it wants to do big things. Mr. President, is
getting our debt and deficit under control too much to ask? Is that too
big, Mr. President? What is unrealistic is to assume that we can spend
at the levels that President Obama and congressional Democrats have
done over the past few years, amass trillion-dollar annual deficits,
and still have a vibrant economy. Now that's unrealistic. Putting
America's fiscal house in order is not only realistic and achievable,
it's imperative; it's imperative in order to get our economy moving
again and create jobs.
This bill is a positive solution, a commonsense solution, an honest
solution, and a bold solution. I encourage my colleagues to support
this bill and begin to travel on a path to prosperity.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I just want to make a couple of points in response to statements that
have been raised.
Not only would this write in the Constitution a two-thirds
requirement for getting rid of special interest tax breaks for the
purposes of deficit reduction, it would make it easier to create new
special interest tax loopholes than to eliminate them. If a Washington
lobbyist is pushing for a big special break, you can do that with a
majority vote under this constitutional amendment. But if you want to
eliminate one of those special interest tax loopholes, whoops, you need
a two-thirds vote.
Now let's be very clear on what the President has said. Yes, we want
to close those corporate loopholes. He has also been very clear that
beginning in 2013 we should go back to asking the very top income
earners to pay the same rates they were paying during the Clinton
administration, which, as I said, was a time when the economy was
booming. Now every time we mention that fact we hear our Republican
colleagues talk about small business and how they're going to protect
small business. When you hear that language, you really know that
they're using that as cover to protect some of these big special
interests.

{time} 1510

Why do I say that? We agree that small businesses are the engine of
this economy; but if you look at the Joint Tax Committee report, July
12, nonpartisan, they say that 3 percent of all businesses would even
be impacted--

[[Page H5188]]

only 3 percent. Less than 3 percent of all businesses would be impacted
by the President's proposal, those that file as S corporations. And
then it goes on to provide a warning here, specifically saying beware
because these entities might not be ``small,'' in quotes.
In fact, they say in 2005, over 12,000 S corporations and 6,000
partnerships had receipts of more than $50 million. Among those are KKR
and Pricewaterhouse. Now these are all good businesses, but I would ask
my colleagues whether they are small businesses. And let's not use the
rhetoric of small businesses to protect preferences for the big guys.
We all need to share responsibility for getting this deficit under
control. We need a balanced approach to doing that.
With that, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania
(Ms. Schwartz), my colleague on the Budget Committee.
Ms. SCHWARTZ. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the comments of the ranking
member and this discussion.
Let me be very clear. Let me start by just saying that Republicans
continue to play politics rather than do what is best for this country,
particularly to do what is responsible at a critical time for our
Nation. They are once again holding American families and American
businesses hostage by threatening to allow the United States to default
on our debt, to not meet our responsibilities until their extreme
ideological demands are met.
Their plan is not a balanced approach to what is right for our
country. It ends the Medicare guarantee for our seniors. Let me repeat
that: It ends the Medicare guarantee for our seniors. And it slashes
educational opportunities for the next generation of Americans. It
inhibits our ability to foster an environment for private sector
economic growth by cutting any chance of investment in scientific
research and technology, in roads, bridges and highways, and in access
to higher education, to the very, very kinds of actions we need to take
to establish an atmosphere for private sector growth in this Nation,
whether large or small business.
The Republican plan is disastrous at a very fragile time in our
economic recovery. It will devastate America's future economic
competitiveness. The Republican majority has yet to produce legislation
that puts the American economy back on track and Americans back to
work.
This legislation guarantees that we won't meet our obligations of the
Nation to our seniors or to our children, and it would dramatically
reduce our ability to compete in a global economy. Make no mistake, the
Republican plan is, and always has been, to cut Social Security and
Medicare, to cap economic opportunity, and to balance the budget on the
backs of middle class families.
Cut, Cap, and Balance is bad for American families, bad for American
businesses, and bad for our Nation's economy now and into the future.
We should not let it pass.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. Madam Speaker, the only thing Cut, Cap, and Balance is
bad for is for Members of Congress because we are going to actually
rein in spending. They're actually going to have to live within a
balanced budget.
I would also highlight rule XXI, section 5(b). I have heard a lot of
rhetoric in the news and other places about how there is going to be
such a higher standard. It should be noted that the passage of a tax
rate increase, a bill or joint resolution, amendment, or conference
report carrying a Federal income tax rate increase may not be
considered as passed or agreed to unless so determined by a vote of not
less than three-fifths of the Members voting.
It was that same standard and threshold when Nancy Pelosi was the
Speaker of the House as it is today, so we have had that higher
standard for raising taxes. That is nothing new.
At this time, I would like to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Wisconsin (Mr. Ribble), a freshman Member.
Mr. RIBBLE. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2560, the
Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2011.
To put our Nation back on the path to prosperity, government needs to
truly live within its means, and that means Congress must be required
to pass budgets that spend the same amount of money that comes in.
Just last weekend, S&P announced they were reviewing America's AAA
bond rating. They warned if Congress and the President could not reach
an agreement to structurally reform our spending and debt problems, not
just raising the debt ceiling, our country will face a risk of having
its bond rating downgraded. This will not only result in higher
borrowing rates for individuals and businesses, but also stifle new job
creation and capital investment. We simply cannot allow this to happen.
A few days ago, President Obama said we have to eat our peas. Well, I
couldn't agree more. Our bloated and obese Federal budget needs a
healthy and balanced diet, one that trims the fat of overspending and
grows the muscle of our Nation's economy. And that's exactly what H.R.
2560 does. It provides a balanced approach to our Nation's fiscal
problems, and there is nothing more balanced than a balanced budget.
There is nothing more American than permitting the States and, more
importantly, the American people to have a voice in the direction this
Nation will take. There is nothing more prudent than stepping forward
and leading today so our children and grandchildren will have a better
future tomorrow.
The future of our country is on the line; and if this body wants to
ensure a brighter, more prosperous future for our children and
grandchildren, we must fundamentally change Washington's spending
habits.
It is time to cut up the Federal credit card and stop placing this
government's out-of-control spending habits onto the backs of future
generations. This bill does exactly that. I am proud to support it.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Speaker, the sponsor of the bill mentioned some
House rules. I think he is well aware that you can always waive House
rules by majority vote. Thank goodness you cannot just waive the
Constitution of the United States. Our Founders made it difficult to
get bad ideas into the Constitution. Again, I want to make it clear,
this is not your garden-variety balanced budget amendment. This is
manipulating the Constitution of the United States itself in a way that
makes it easier to cut Medicare, easier to cut Social Security, and
easier to cut education than it is to cut corporate tax loopholes for
the purpose of reducing the deficit.
With that, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms.
McCollum), a member of the Budget Committee.
Ms. McCOLLUM. Madam Speaker, the bill on the floor right now is a
political gimmick. It is a stunt. It is not a serious effort. But this
bill does reflect Republican values. This Republican bill protects the
wealthiest Americans. This Republican bill pummels seniors and the
middle class. And, no surprise, this bill panders, even grovels to the
Tea Party extremists.
This bill will end the Medicare guarantees. This bill will kill jobs.
And, thank goodness, this bill will never pass the United States
Senate. This bill will never become law.
The Republican majority is wasting precious time as the clock ticks
and ticks closer to default and economic disaster. The Republican
majority is choosing to bring America to the brink of default for
reasons that have everything to do with politics and nothing to do with
reasonable governing. The American people reject the Tea Party's
dangerous brand of Armageddon economics. It is time to take
responsibility for paying America's bills and raise the debt ceiling
without Tea Party gimmicks and games.
This Congress needs to take a serious stand and get busy creating
jobs and putting people back to work and getting this economy growing.
Let's end the debate on this radical legislation right now. Let's get
to the real work of cutting deficits, creating jobs, and growing the
economy.

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Flores), a member of the House Budget Committee.
Mr. FLORES. Madam Speaker, on July 15, 2011, just 4 days ago,
President Obama said, ``We don't need a constitutional amendment to do
our jobs.'' But the President clearly does. Let's go through the facts
which the other side has conveniently forgotten.
In the 30 months that he has been President, a short 30 months, he
has

[[Page H5189]]

added almost $4 trillion to our national debt. That is $133 billion a
month, $3.1 million per minute, $51,000 per second.
We have seen the destruction of Medicare through the enactment of
ObamaCare, making Medicare insolvent by more than $60 trillion. You
want to talk about Medicare destruction, you can look right over here
and see Medicare destruction.
We have almost 40 million Americans on food stamps, the most ever. We
have spent $1 trillion on a stimulus plan, but we still have one out of
every six working-age Americans either underemployed or unemployed.

{time} 1520

This is what Mr. Obama calls ``winning the future.'' That's what he
threatened in his veto of Cut, Cap, and Balance.
He wants to win the future. Mr. Obama, you're not winning the future.
You're not winning anything. The Obama plan for our country is tax,
spend, and regulate; not winning the future.
More taxes mean fewer jobs. More spending and more debt: fewer jobs
and less economic growth. More regulation: fewer jobs, less economic
growth.
And with the Obama plan, there's more. You get to have gasoline
prices that are double what they were when he was inaugurated. But
there is a real plan to correct this.
Cut, Cap, and Balance takes away the blank check that this Congress
has exercised for decades and that this President clearly seems to
enjoy. It's time we stopped the blank check spending now and take the
necessary steps to force Washington to act responsibly and live within
its means just like my constituents in Texas do already. It's time for
Cut, Cap, and Balance.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their
remarks to the Chair and not to others in the second person.
The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.
Mr. FLORES. When I was sworn in, my constituents gave me a stamp that
said: Non-Sufficient Funds, Denied By Taxpayers. Mr. Obama, your plan
is denied by taxpayers.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Speaker, when we were all sworn in, we were
also sworn to protect the Constitution of the United States, not
manipulate the Constitution of the United States to protect special
interest tax breaks for oil and gas companies or other special
interests by implanting into that document a requirement that two-
thirds of this body and the Senate have to vote to get rid of them for
purposes of deficit reduction.
I also think that while we're all entitled to our own opinions, we're
not entitled to our own facts. If you look at the Medicare trustees'
report, it will indicate that the health care reform bill extended the
life of the trust fund, and we also did it by getting rid of the
overpayments to some of the Medicare Advantage plans that were being
paid at 114 percent of what other plans were being paid for. Taxpayers
were oversubsidizing those plans, as were Medicare recipients.
With that, I yield 3 minutes to a terrific member of the Budget
Committee, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko).
Mr. TONKO. I thank the ranking member of the committee for yielding.
Madam Speaker, there is not a single person in this Chamber who
doesn't want to balance the budget, but the legislation before us today
is not about that. It is about enshrining a particularly radical
interpretation of the Republican agenda into the foundational document,
a precious document, our Constitution, that guides our system of
government.
If successful, it would put in place a cap on Federal spending at 18
percent of GDP, turning back the clock more than half a century to the
glory days of 1966. Though it makes for a great press release, why
didn't anyone else think of this solution? Even President Reagan never
once requested a Federal budget that spent nearly this low.
Well, to begin with, our population is much larger and much older on
average than it was in 1966. Some see that as a problem. Seniors are
expensive, they say. I suppose that's one way of looking at it. And if
all you're worried about is how much Grandma's nursing home care costs,
then this is the bill for you. But since 1966, Grandma is living, on
average, nearly 10 years longer. There is no price you can place on
that, and there is no question that it's because she's getting a
guaranteed level of health care.
This bill, according to their own leaders, enshrines the Republican
plan to end Medicare in the United States Constitution. Right there,
after the freedom of religion, the freedom of thought, the freedom of
assembly, we can have the freedom from health care after age 65.
This is nothing more than a political stunt, a gimmick that would
change the fundamental rules of our democratic system so our Republican
colleagues can make it easier to end Medicare and more difficult to cut
tax giveaways to millionaires, to billionaires and their friends in Big
Oil.
Let's stop this nonsense and get back to work. Let's stop the
nonsense that is playing games with America's working families. They
promote this as a way to fiscal sanity, but, rather, it's a lack of
investment in sanity. It's an assault on our children, our families,
our veterans, our seniors. Let's put America back to work. Let's invest
in those opportunities and reduce the deficit as we move forward.
Enough with the foolish gimmicks.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. I love that: foolish gimmicks, balancing our budget.
I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte).
(Mr. GOODLATTE asked and was given permission to revise and extend
his remarks.)
Mr. GOODLATTE. I rise in strong support of the Cut, Cap, and Balance
legislation. I commend the gentleman from Utah and all the others who
have brought this forward, and here's why, right here:
We had a vote here on the floor of this House a few weeks ago about
the President of the United States' request: just give me a clean debt
limit increase. Every single Republican and nearly a majority of the
Democrats voted to do the opposite, to not give him a debt limit
increase.
This shows us why we are here today with Cut, Cap, and Balance
legislation. This is the track that the Democrats have us on right now.
This is the track we would be on if the President had gotten his wish
for a debt limit increase without any spending cuts, without any caps
on future spending, and without what 80 percent of the American people
want, which is a balanced budget amendment to the United States
Constitution.
This green line is what we're voting on today. This is what the House
budget, already adopted by this institution and that we're operating
under right now with our appropriations bills, this is what would put
us on a target to not only balance the budget but also to pay off the
$14 trillion national debt that we are faced with right now, that our
children and grandchildren are faced with, that the future of our
economy is faced with right now.
This is the choice that we have here today. Take care of the debt
limit. Don't default on our obligations. No one here wants to do that.
But also cut spending, cap spending, and pass a balanced budget
amendment to the United States Constitution.
In 1995, we came within one vote in the United States Senate, after
the House of Representatives cast 300 bipartisan votes for a balanced
budget amendment to the United States Constitution, and now we have the
opportunity to lay the groundwork to do it again, but this time to
succeed; and we have much, much greater reason to do that because of
the fact that we are faced with this mountain of red ink that we can
turn into a bright future for America.
I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, we have been making a point that this is not your
garden variety constitutional amendment. This is--
Mr. GOODLATTE. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I will yield on your time, Mr. Goodlatte, and I'm
happy when you have some time to do that.
In fact, I think you're going to want an opportunity, because the
gentleman from Virginia was asked at the hearing

[[Page H5190]]

on his proposal for a constitutional amendment, which was voted out of
the committee, to identify one budget that would meet the requirements
of their version, this version of the constitutional amendment, and it
was pointed out that even the draconian--
Mr. GOODLATTE. Will the gentleman yield for a question?
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I will not yield on my time.
The gentleman pointed out that not even the Republican budget that
passed the House, that ends the Medicare guarantee and is draconian,
not even that would meet those requirements, that the budget that would
meet those requirements was that passed by the Republican Study Group,
which is like the Republican plan on steroids. In fact, a lot of
Members on the Republican side decided that was way overboard. That
would require slashes in things like Medicare and Social Security even
more than the Republican budget that passed the House.
So that is the one budget that was identified as meeting the
requirements of that constitutional amendment. This is not a simple
constitutional amendment. They know that that's a popular idea.

{time} 1530

So they're dressing up their particular version of it in that
language, talking about 49 out of 50 States have this. Again, two
devices: One, supermajority; a two-thirds vote required to cut
corporate tax loopholes when only a simple majority is required to cut
Medicare and Social Security. We don't think things like that belong in
the Constitution of the United States.
I yield 3 minutes to a distinguished member of the Budget Committee,
the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Bass).
Ms. BASS of California. I would like to thank the ranking member of
the Budget Committee, of which I'm very proud to be a member.
I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 2560. I have to tell you, Madam
Speaker, that to me it feels like Groundhog Day again here in the House
of Representatives. ``Duck, dodge, and dismantle'' is brought to the
floor today for a vote. I have to tell you that I've seen this movie
before. The storyline rewards the ultrawealthy while punishing working
families.
I served as Speaker of the California Assembly while my State
staggered from budget crisis to budget crisis. We cut spending
drastically--from $110 billion to $83 billion. But every year,
California is subject to national ridicule. Why does California have
this problem? Well, Madam Speaker, we have a balanced budget
requirement in California. We require a two-thirds vote to raise
revenue. We can pass tax loopholes and breaks on a simple majority
vote.
So how is that working for us in California? Well, I'd like to invite
my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to come to California.
Every year the State is held hostage. Every year my Republican
colleagues attempt to have a cap that is passed similar to the cap that
is proposed in this legislation. And every year the State reaches the
brink of a shutdown. So why on Earth would we want to import the
disfunction from California to the Nation?
We should be dealing with the debt ceiling free and clear. We should
not force a default in order to bring about legislation that is not
related to the debt ceiling. Our government should not pick winners and
losers, which is exactly what will happen if we don't raise the debt
ceiling--whether veterans should be paid, if IRS refunds can be
honored, if Pell Grants will be available, and if food stamps can be
distributed. And that's exactly what would happen if the debt limit is
not raised.
I urge a ``no'' vote on this bill.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. Madam Speaker, I believe the gentleman said he would
answer a question if we asked it on our time. The question I have for
the gentleman is: Would you support any balanced budget amendment? Is
there any balanced budget amendment that you would support?
I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I would be happy to entertain a debate.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. It's just a ``yes'' or ``no.''
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Here's the question----
Mr. CHAFFETZ. It's a simple ``yes'' or ``no.''
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Let me just say this. I would not want to prevent the
United States from being able to respond in cases of war, in national
emergency.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. Reclaiming my time----
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I'm happy to work with the gentleman on that
enterprise, but that's very different than what you're talking about.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. Reclaiming my time, I will now yield 2 minutes to the
gentlewoman from Tennessee, Diane Black, who is here as a freshman in
the House of Representatives.
Mrs. BLACK. Last week, President Obama got up on his bully pulpit and
he told the House Republicans it was ``time to eat our peas'' as a part
of the debt deal. The President said that to us, yet he has not come
forward with a detailed written plan of his own. All we hear from the
White House is about job-killing tax increases and a mystical dollar
amount of cuts with no actual concrete figures on how to achieve it.
The President has yet to put his plan on the table, even though the
Congress has been asking for a scorable plan from him for months. In
fact, he did not even respond to a request from myself and 76 of our
freshman members who wrote to him and asked him over a month ago to
come to the table and put pen to paper. And yet, even in the absence of
a plan from the White House, the President is now threatening to veto a
cut, cap, and balance before it was even brought to the floor for
debate.
And this isn't the first time that the President has rejected a good
plan put together by the House of Representatives. Not only did the
House provide a plan in the Path to Prosperity, our House Republican
budget, but here we are today, about to vote on Cap, Cut, and Balance,
which represents a solution to the current debt ceiling debate. For
someone who claims he wants to solve this issue, he has rejected every
good proposal that has come his way.
Mr. President, it is time to eat your peas.
I urge my colleagues to vote for Cut, Cap and Balance.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair will once again remind Members,
very gently, to address their remarks to the Chair and not to others in
the second person.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I would just remind my colleagues that the President
has put on the table a balanced approach to reducing the deficit. It
would cut about $4 trillion from the deficit over the next 10 to 12
years. It's a balanced approach, again, based on the overall framework
of the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles Commission. It calls for $3 in
spending cuts for $1 in revenue. It would be raised after 2013 by
closing special interest tax loopholes and asking the folks at the very
top to go back to the same rates that were in place during the Clinton
administration. That's what the President said.
It's hard to have a conversation when the other party to the
negotiations takes the position that they will not allow one cent from
closing a corporate tax loophole to go for the purposes of deficit
reduction. And now we see them trying to enshrine within the
Constitution a limitation on our ability to get rid of those special
interest tax loopholes. They would now require a two-thirds vote. That
is a Washington lobbyist's dream in the Constitution.
I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished ranking member of the Small
Business Committee, the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Velazquez).
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Thank you, Ranking Member, for yielding.
Madam Speaker, as we debate how to avert the default crisis, we
should acknowledge what got us into the current mess. The real reason
that the United States faces this dilemma dates back to a series of
irresponsible tax cuts: $2.5 trillion in tax giveaways that were unpaid
for and went disproportionately to the wealthiest Americans put us on
this sustainable path.
We were told tax cuts would provide an economic boost. So what did we
get for this enormous addition to the deficit? Was our economy
strengthened? Were new jobs created? The answer is a resounding no. In
fact, the median income for working families fell by 2.4 percent during
the first 10 years these

[[Page H5191]]

tax cuts were in place--while food, housing, and other necessities
became more expensive. Job creation plummeted to 33 new jobs a month,
the lowest levels since President Hoover. The record is clear: Giving
tax breaks to the wealthiest without paying for it ballooned our
deficit but didn't create jobs.
Now, the proposal before us will not just continue this misguided
policy of slash and burns, but make it worse. It won't create jobs for
Americans but will slash services working families rely on. Make no
mistake, America: This plan begins the dismantling of Medicare and
Social Security. Meanwhile, subsidies for big oil companies and tax
breaks for billionaires will be locked in. Most of all, at a time when
our economy is struggling, this bill will cost hundreds of thousands of
American jobs. If you like 9 percent unemployment, you will love this
bill.
Vote against this bill. Stop playing pure politics. The American
people deserve nothing less.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. We have 9 percent-plus unemployment, Madam Speaker.
We've been north of that for a long time. And we're now also saddled
with more than $14 trillion in debt.
I would now like to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oklahoma
(Mr. Lankford), who is on the Budget Committee.
Mr. LANKFORD. We have two distinctly different views. And it's not
just Republican or Democrat views. One group sees the impending crisis
as whether we're going to vote to increase the debt ceiling and all the
crisis is based around August 2. The other group sees the crisis as the
debt itself.
How you see the crisis will affect your view of how you choose to
solve it. If the problem is the uncertainty around just this vote, then
we do whatever it takes to get past August 2 and the problem is solved.

{time} 1540

If the problem is the debt, when we raise the ceiling, we will face a
debt approaching $14 trillion with no strategy to pay off that debt.
Our disaster is not averted. It has been accelerated.
As we know, just raising the debt limit does not solve the problem,
as we've done that many times in the past. The economy that we have now
is as a result of the actions that we've taken in the past to
continually raise the debt ceiling over and over again with no plan to
get out of it.
What if we raise the debt ceiling and agree to the President's oral
plan that he has given of $14 trillion, whatever that plan may be?
From the best we understand, Timothy Geithner made the statement in
June that the plan is $2 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years, $1
trillion in tax increases and $1 trillion in interest savings, whatever
that means. If we accomplish that plan and do that and just raise the
debt ceiling, we will then have a debt in 10 years of $24 trillion with
still no plan to pay it off. That does not solve the debt crisis. That
accelerates our debt crisis.
I have heard all day what a disaster it would be to balance our
budget. Only in this room is it a disaster to balance the budget. I
don't think Americans understand what we're talking about. I don't
think they understand how out of touch we have really become that we
would argue about balancing the budget. S&P and Moody's have both
threatened to downgrade our debt, not because we're approaching August
2, but because we have no credible plan to ever pay this off.
Cut, Cap, and Balance gives us a credible framework from which, year
after year, we will work to be able to resolve this debt, pay it down,
and get back to balance.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Speaker, nobody is saying that we shouldn't
balance our budget. We should balance our budget. In fact, the last
time it was in balance was during the Clinton administration when they
took a balanced approach to reducing the deficit, including having in
place sufficient revenues from the folks at the very top to help cover
our bills.
Then what happened in 2001-2003 is that we had back-to-back tax cuts
that disproportionately benefited the very wealthy, which are a
significant contributor to why there is now a mismatch between the
bills we have to pay and the revenue coming in, which is why the
President of the United States has said, Let's reduce the deficit.
Let's do it in a balanced way. Let's do $3 in cuts to $1 in revenue.
I go back to the fact that the Republicans in the House want to
insert in the Constitution of the United States a provision that would
require a two-thirds vote to get rid of a special interest tax loophole
for the purpose of deficit reduction. That kind of makes it difficult
to have a balanced plan.
With that, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr.
Farr).
Mr. FARR. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Last night, I was in a town hall meeting in California, and it was
very clear. It was a bipartisan whole group of people, and what they
told us very truly is, Stop playing games. They know that the United
States Congress, since 1940, has voted over 90 times--90 times--to
raise the debt and never once with a game, never once with
preconditions of, Oh, we've got to do this. We've got to do that.
You guys are ruining this country's fiscal future by lighting a fire
to our fiscal sanity and to our reputation. You want to take down our
Constitution by requiring a two-thirds vote. You should look before you
leap. California did this by initiative in 1990. That State has had a
two-thirds vote locked up. It's impossible to get it out of any fiscal
crisis, and it has dropped from the sixth wealthiest economy in the
world.
Do you want to follow that lead by amending the U.S. Constitution and
locking in all these tax laws? You're just freezing in every single
impropriety that's in the Tax Code.
These people in my town hall meeting said, Stop playing games. They
said it because they don't think you should put conditionality on it.
Vote for a clean debt limit. I did. Not one of you did it. Not one
Republican voted for that. Shame on you. Shame on you for playing fire
with the United States Constitution. Shame on you on the cut, cap, and
ruin of the United States.
Vote ``no.''

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair will, once again, remind the
Members that remarks in debate must be addressed to the Chair and not
to other Members in the second person.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. Madam Speaker, I can hear the chant on the other side
with regard to the some 90 times the debt ceiling has been raised.
That's the problem. I can hear the chant on the other side: One more
time. One more time. One more time.
That's why we're in this mess. It's that Congresses in the past have
not heeded the call. They have not said, ``Enough is enough.'' Now, as
our debt ceiling starts to reach a panic, we're going to get close to
100 percent of our gross domestic product.
Enough is enough.
I would now like to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana
(Mr. Young).
Mr. YOUNG of Indiana. Madam Speaker, I was on record last night,
speaking to the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2011 and as to what the
many merits are of this legislation. I think it is a fine bill, and I
commend its consideration to those on the other side of the aisle; but
I have to say the debate surrounding Cut, Cap, and Balance has a
certain Alice in Wonderland character to it. It made me open up the old
storybook just minutes ago and recall a favorite passage.
I recall Alice asks, ``Would you tell me which way I ought to go from
here?'' to which the Cat responds, ``That depends a good deal on where
you want to get to.''
Alice replies, ``I don't much care where.'' Then of course the Cat
says, ``Then it doesn't matter which way you go.''
I get the sense my good friends on the other side of the aisle don't
really care where we go from here. They certainly don't care enough to
put a specific plan forward themselves.
Unemployment remains at 9.2 percent. Investment in hiring remains
sluggish all around this country, particularly in places like my
southern Indiana district. Uncertainty reigns about future taxes,
future interest rates, future inflation rates all because Washington
continues to spend way too much money, often on things we don't need,
but also on important public programs. We need to figure this out. We
need to figure it out as a country. Our national debt is over $14
trillion. It's

[[Page H5192]]

time we come forward with specific plans. Yet the other side still has
no plan, seemingly no new ideas to offer to this debate, no solutions--
only poll-tested rhetoric.
The American people deserve more than this during this critical time.
Our markets certainly are asking for more than this. Standard & Poor's
on July 14 said, ``We may lower the long-term rating on the U.S. . . .
if we conclude that Congress and the administration have not achieved a
credible solution to the rising U.S. Government debt burden and are not
likely to achieve one in the foreseeable future.''
We need a plan. House Republicans have been putting forward plans. We
put forward a plan already approved to close tax loopholes, something
we've heard a lot about, in order to help create jobs by making the Tax
Code flatter, fairer and simpler.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. I yield the gentleman an additional 15 seconds.
Mr. YOUNG of Indiana. We need a plan from the President. We need more
certainty restored to these markets. Let's reject this Alice in
Wonderland sort of leadership.
Don't bring me problems, I say to my colleagues. Bring me solutions.
One solution is the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act, and I commend it for
your consideration.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Speaker, the one surefire way that we're going
to send interest rates up in this country and add to the cost of living
for every American is if the United States doesn't pay its bills--bills
for obligations that we've already taken on, which is what this is
about. Some people, again, think it's a sacrifice to pay bills for
actions and decisions that they've already supported and voted for. I
would also point out that the Republican budget that passed the House
and that would be put into this bill would require us to raise the debt
ceiling by $8 trillion between now and 2022. So let's not play this
game with respect to paying our Nation's bills.
We have to do two things: We have to pay our Nation's bills--every
family knows they have to pay their bills--and we have to come up with
a deficit reduction plan.
The reality is the President has put a plan on the table. The reality
is our Republican colleagues don't happen to like it because, as I
said, for every $3 in spending cuts, it would ask us to have $1 in
revenue from closing these special interest tax loopholes. Again, they
want to manipulate the Constitution of the United States to protect
those loopholes, to make it hard to get rid of them.
With that, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr.
Andrews).
(Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)

{time} 1550

Mr. ANDREWS. Madam Speaker, the country has a job crisis. We have the
same private sector jobs we did in 2001 and 14 percent more people
looking for work. One of the ways to solve that job crisis, not the
only way, is to try to keep interest rates stable and low so
entrepreneurs can invest.
Today represents a terrible wasted opportunity. On the other side of
this Capitol this very morning, three Democratic Senators and three
Republican Senators came together and said they were ready to embrace a
plan that begins by cutting spending about $3 out of every $4. It cuts
social programs. It would cut defense, get us out of Iraq and
Afghanistan. It would take a serious look at Medicare and Social
Security, which are in many cases contributing to this deficit. And it
would say that those who benefit from ethanol subsidies and oil company
tax breaks, the wealthiest people in this country would have to pay a
little bit more to pay their fair share.
Something like that is what should be on the floor here this
afternoon because it can pass, the President can sign it, and it can
solve the fiscal problems of this country or take a step in the right
direction. But we don't have something like that. Instead, we have a
plan that says the following and puts it in the Constitution:
The guy who runs an ethanol company who gets massive public subsidies
to make profits is completely left alone. He doesn't have to do
anything. But the woman who cleans his office at night is going to have
to pay more to go to college, more for health care for herself, her
children, and her parents, and more for just about anything else she
wants in her life.
There is something wrong with that picture.
Sacrifice that is equitably and broadly shared is needed in this
country, but a blind adherence to a special class of Americans who are
so powerful and so entitled they pay nothing is the wrong way to go.
And the last thing in the world we ought to do is put that error on the
Constitution.
Vote ``no'' on this travesty.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. Madam Speaker, at any time we would love to see the
Democrats' plan.
If you could actually slide it across the table to us, we would
certainly appreciate it.
I would like to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr.
Huelskamp).
(Mr. HUELSKAMP asked and was given permission to revise and extend
his remarks.)
Mr. HUELSKAMP. A day like today does not come often, Madam Speaker.
In only a handful of instances in our Nation's history has our
Constitution been amended. There can not be a better or more urgent
time for this House and the Senate and the United States of America to
pass a constitutional amendment to balance the budget.
In a matter of only 2 years, non-defense discretionary spending has
increased 84 percent and annual deficits have exceeded a trillion
dollars for 3 straight years. And our debt has grown by nearly $4
trillion since President Obama took office.
Let us think about cut, cap, and balance in a larger context. Let's
think about who is really impacted by the out-of-control spending this
legislation seeks to end.
In my home County of Meade County, Kansas, population 4,575, there
was one birth announcement this week. On his birthday, that child
received an IOU for nearly $46,000 to the Federal Government, and
that's before this President adds more to the country's debt burden.
Any request to increase the country's debt must be accompanied by a
clear plan that will reduce the amount of money that a child born in
Meade County, Kansas, owes to the politicians in Washington, D.C.
Let's cut spending now, cap spending in the future, and pass a
balanced budget amendment and make history for all America's children.
It is the right thing to do.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Speaker, as part of the plan the President has
put on the table that would reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over
about 10 to 12 years, he has about a trillion dollars in cuts in
discretionary spending. He does ask the Pentagon, which is the one
agency that has never passed a GAO audit, to help contribute toward
resolving that deficit problem. And he also does it without making deep
cuts in critical investments for our country like education, like
investment in infrastructure.
We're going to see in a couple of weeks a bill that may come out of
the Transportation Committee that dramatically slashes infrastructure
investments at a time when we have 20 percent unemployment in the
construction industry.
So, yes, we have to make these cuts. The President's plan makes the
cuts. But let's not take a hatchet to education investments. Let's not
take a hatchet to investing in critical infrastructure, and let's not
enshrine in the Constitution of the United States a preference for
cutting Medicare and Social Security over cutting special interest tax
loopholes. That's what this provision will do.
With that, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished vice chairman of
the Democratic Caucus, the gentleman from California (Mr. Becerra).
Mr. BECERRA. Once again, the public is way ahead of the politicians.
By nearly three to one, Americans reject this Republican budget scheme.
In fact, nearly 70 percent of Americans disapprove of how Republicans
are handling this deficit and default crisis. Even 51 percent of
Americans who are registered Republicans disapprove of how
congressional Republicans are handling these negotiations.

[[Page H5193]]

And by wide margins, Americans have sent a very clear signal to us in
Congress here: Do not cut Medicare to pay for deficits that were caused
by things like the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy and two unpaid-for wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Today, millions of Americans are living through tight budgets. As
they sit at the kitchen table, they don't have the luxury of walking
away from the tough choices as some in Congress have done. They know
that they must balance today the needs that they have with the
investments of tomorrow. That's why Americans would see straight
through this cut-and-paste budget scheme.
Under this budget scheme, if an American family wanted to buy a
house, guess what? You better have cash to pay for it, because you
cannot borrow if you have to live under this budget scheme. No
mortgages. If you want to send your child to college, you better have
every single cent you need to send your child to college today to pay
for the full cost of that tuition. No student loans because you could
not borrow. So much for the American Dream for the American people.
Two hundred days into this Congress and not one bill yet from this
House is enacted to put Americans back to work. And this proposal would
eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs almost immediately.
How are we going to get past the next 14 days if today, on this
floor, we're debating a bill that we know will not pass in the Senate,
that the President has said that he would veto? And in 14 short days,
it's not an issue of paying our bills. It's a matter of watching the
interest rates on people's mortgages skyrocket. It's a matter of
watching the value of the dollar plummet. And it's a matter of watching
People's retirement accounts or their 401(k) or IRA all of a sudden
drop simply because people here in the House of Representatives decided
to play politics. That's what this is about. And that's why, once
again, the public is way ahead of the politicians.
Let's get to work. Let's stop leaving the negotiating table. Let's
get this done. The President has said he is willing to go with a
balanced approach. This gets us nowhere. We need to go somewhere,
because America still has a long way to travel.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. It's always compelling, Mr. Speaker, when they have to
use a poll to figure out how to do public policymaking. And to suggest
that there would be no more mortgages is just fantasy. It's amazing
what gets made up in this discussion instead of a serious discussion
about balancing our books.
I would now like to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from South
Carolina (Mr. Mulvaney).
Mr. MULVANEY. I can't tell you how much I long for a discussion of
ideas, an honest and open discussion of real ideas in this Chamber as
opposed to talking points. Clearly, we're not going to be getting that
here this evening.
What we've heard so far is this bill is going to dismantle Medicare.
I encourage my colleagues across the aisle to actually read the bill
before they come in and talk about it. And page 4 specifically says we
don't cut Medicare in this bill.
We've heard the President say that Social Security checks might not
go out on August 3. That's just false. The President has every legal
authority and the money available to him to send those checks out. If
he wants to, those checks will go out on August 3.
We've heard the country will default on our debt if we don't raise
the debt ceiling. Not true. The authority is there. The money is there.
We have plenty of money with which to pay the interest on our debt.
There will be no default on our debt.
We heard the President say he's going to cut $4 trillion from
spending. But when pressed on it, he admitted that the spending cuts
this year were actually $2 billion. Let's put that in perspective. Four
trillion is $4,000 billion, and the President admits that only $2
billion of that is this year.

{time} 1600

We've heard today from my colleagues on the other side, Mr. Speaker,
``duck, dodge, and dismantle,'' which I think is somewhat ironic in
that it was The Washington Post who actually accused the President in
those exact same words of ``ducking'' his obligations with his 2012
budget. Talk about ``dodging'' responsibilities, it's now been 811 days
since our colleagues in the Senate, controlled by the Democrats, have
introduced any budget whatsoever. And if we want to talk about
``dismantling,'' we can talk about replacing Medicare as we know it,
which is exactly what has happened. The Medicare, as we have known it
for generations, is gone and has been displaced and dismantled and
replaced with an independent payment advisory board.
Mr. Speaker, I look forward to real debates on real issues. I look
forward to having conversations in this Chamber that are similar to the
conversations that take place at every household, every business, every
county, town, and State in this country about what our priorities are
and how to spend money responsibly. We are not going to have that
conversation in this Chamber until we pass Cut, Cap, and Balance.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I think the American families gathering
around their tables do not have the option of not paying their bills on
obligations they've already incurred. They can't say, Oh, it's okay to
not pay my car payment, but I will pay my mortgage. They don't have
that choice; and, frankly, the United States Government should not be
saying that we're going to make those choices. We should be paying all
our bills. And I would remind my colleagues that the reason we have to
raise the debt ceiling is for obligations that have already been
incurred, votes that have already been taken. For example, two wars, an
unfunded prescription drug bill, and the reality of two tax cuts that
disproportionately benefited the very wealthy.
Now, I would urge my colleagues to read the bill. The section the
gentleman referred to dealt with the sequestration. There's nothing in
the bill that says not to cut Medicare or Social Security as part of
reaching those targets. In fact, they're going to implant in the
Constitution of the United States a spending level that we have not
achieved since just after we passed Medicare.
So what they would do through this is call for deep cuts in Medicare.
The numbers in this particular statutory provision track the budget
that the Republicans passed off this floor. The CBO analyzed that. It
looked at the impact on Medicare beneficiaries, and it's in a letter
dated April 5, 2011, to the chairman of the Budget Committee, pointing
out that under the Republican budget plan, Medicare beneficiaries will
end up paying about 60 percent of the costs compared to 25 to 30
percent under Medicare today.
It's interesting that Members of Congress have written into the
statute provisions that say for Members of Congress, we will have about
72 to 75 percent of our premiums and costs covered when we're saying to
seniors on Medicare, let's put in these spending caps that will require
you to pay a whole lot more.
With that, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan), a
distinguished member of the Budget Committee.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I thank the gentleman.
I would also like to thank our ranking member for carrying the flag
here on our side and combating some of the misinformation that's coming
out from the other side. And I know the other side certainly feels the
same way.
But it's not the President saying all these things are going to
happen if we do not address this issue. It's every economist on the
planet, except for a few that may get paid by somebody who wants them
to come up with another solution or another answer. So to pin this all
on the President, to say that he's somehow hyping this, I think is not
exactly true.
I think what the American people are seeing and what we're seeing now
is that as we come to the end, as we get close to a solution to this
problem, the House Republican Caucus says, Wait, we've got a solution.
Let's change the Constitution. That is not a sincere effort to try to
address this problem. We have had people negotiating this day in and
day out. And to come in within days of us destabilizing the markets and
say, Our solution is to change the Constitution of the United States, I
think is inadequate.

[[Page H5194]]

I have heard several Members get up and talk about this debt in the
last couple of years and everything else, completely ignoring the fact
that our economy collapsed just 2 years ago. Just 2 years ago, the
economy completely collapsed and collapsed, in part, because of the
recklessness and the deregulation of Wall Street, taking the cops off
the beat and letting all of these financial machinations continue to
happen without any regulation at all. So to put up a placard that says,
We need to reduce regulations on Wall Street, is a recipe to implement
the same policies that got us into trouble in the first place.

And, lastly, I would just like to say I know this is called a
balanced budget amendment, but the one thing that is not included is
balance. When you look at the last 30 years, and you look at the
accumulation of wealth that went from the middle class, wages being
stagnant over 30 years, and the fact that in the late seventies, the
top 1 percent of people in the country, the top 1 percent of the
wealthiest, had 9 percent of real income in the late seventies. The top
1 percent now has 25 percent of real income in the country. The average
CEO in the late sixties made $48 for every $1 the worker made. Today
it's $280.
To try to put into the Constitution of the United States an
additional hurdle to try to ask those people who have benefited so
greatly for being born in America and for generating wealth in America
and having a court system and a military and transportation system
available to them to make it harder to ask them to contribute to solve
some of these problems, I think, is a real problem because at the same
time you're making it easier, with your GDP number of 18 percent, to
cut Medicare and to cut those programs that are investments here in the
United States that keep this great system going.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, all we ask for is a balanced budget
amendment. All we ask for is for people to live within their means. If
you listen to the Democrats and what they suggest, just go ahead and
spend more. Go ahead and keep racking it up on the credit card. There
are no consequences. There are consequences.
I now yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Stutzman).
Mr. STUTZMAN. I thank the gentleman from Utah for yielding.
Washington is broke, Mr. Speaker, and the American people know it,
and they know how to get out of the mess that we're in.
I would like to reference back to August of 2009. The President
visited my district in northern Indiana. He was visiting the city of
Elkhart, Indiana. And during that press conference, he unleashed some
very interesting statements. And a brave constituent of mine, Scott
Ferguson, expressed his disappointment with taxes and asked the
President to ``explain how raising the taxes on anyone during a deep
recession is going to help with the economy.'' President Obama
responded, ``Normally you don't raise taxes in a recession, which is
why we haven't and why, instead, cut taxes.'' So I guess what I would
say to Scott is, his economics are right. And, Mr. President, I would
agree with that.
Today we're hearing from the Democrats that we're paying for the Bush
tax cuts. Well, I was elected last November but was here for 2 months
when we voted to extend those Bush tax cuts which now I would refer to
them as the Obama-Bush tax cuts. So I think it's important that we
remember who we should be really pointing the finger at, that we should
be pointing it at Washington. There's plenty of blame to go around.
I believe we are in a situation right now where we have a broken
business. It is time for new leadership to come in and evaluate the
situation. And what Republicans are proposing today is that we're going
to give ourselves some breathing room with a debt ceiling increase. But
more importantly, we are going to show the banker that we are not going
to continue to borrow and spend, but we are going to change our
spending habits and the way that we operate.
If we want to kick the can down the road and say we're not concerned
about changing the way that we've operated, that's what the Democrat
proposal is, just raise the debt ceiling without any reforms to our
current budget process.
So I believe that this new leadership that we are seeing right here
in this House is saying we've got to stop kicking the can down the
road. Reform spending. Reform Washington.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, again, the President has said two
things: Number one, America pays its bills for the obligations that
it's incurred. Number two, he put a plan on the table to reduce the
deficit by $4 trillion; again, $3 in spending cuts for $1 of revenue.
I would point out to the gentleman, the President was very explicit.
He said that the revenue component would begin in January of 2013; and
in the meantime, he's actually proposed extending the payroll tax for
another year during the year 2012 so that consumers would have more
money to generate more demand in the economy, which is very fragile
right now.

{time} 1610

But make no mistake: Our long-term challenge is getting the economy
going again and reducing our deficit, and the economy needs that to
happen, and it should happen in a balanced way.
I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Neal) a
member of the Ways and Means Committee.
Mr. NEAL. I rise in opposition to the ``cut, cap, and balance ruse
act.'' This is an ideologically extreme piece of legislation that will
end Medicare as we know it, and it preserves tax cuts for the
wealthiest Americans.
I guess some of our colleagues on the Republican side, when they're
talking about balancing the budget, they've never heard of America
paying its bills during world wars. We paid our bills through the Civil
War. We paid our bills through the Marshall Plan, when America was
extended as never before.
The American people want a functional government. They want a
responsible path forward, and this is not the path that they're
suggesting.
A balanced budget constitutional amendment would straitjacket the
Federal Government of the United States. I wonder how our Tea Party
friends feel about a Republican Party disturbing the Constitution to
pay for George Bush's tax cuts. And recall the weapons of mass
destruction, 31,000 wounded in Iraq? That bill is due and we need to
pay it. Whether you were for Iraq or against it, they served us
honorably, and that's what this debate is about.
The war in Afghanistan, we have to pay that bill whether we were for
it or against it; $2.3 trillion worth of tax cuts, while simultaneously
invading two countries, a prescription D Medicare benefit that was
never paid for.
Friends everywhere, and I hope every speaker that comes to the
microphone, including the gentleman from Utah, answers the following
question: Was the money borrowed along the way in a series of
supplemental budgets to mask the size of the expenditures they were
requesting?
The people that set the fire are now the ones calling the fire
department. We're in debt because of the positions that they offered
when Bill Clinton left. When Clinton walked out the door there was a
$5.7 trillion surplus, five balanced budgets since World War II, and
Bill Clinton gave us four of them.
We're here today because of the policies they embraced.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Hampshire
(Mr. Guinta).
Mr. GUINTA. Mr. Speaker, I find myself in an unfortunate position
today representing New Hampshire, listening to the conversation and the
debate that we've had here in this House. This is a hallowed Chamber, a
place that I am honored to serve, honored to bring a responsibility to
my constituents from New Hampshire, to, in a dignified way, communicate
those feelings that are reflected by people in New Hampshire. And I
have sat here for the better part of 2 hours, being ridiculed because
my party has the willingness and ability to bring an idea to the floor
of this House.
Now, I don't expect everybody, every Member of this institution, to
agree with the idea, but I would humbly ask that Members of this
institution recognize that there is an idea on the table. The Cut, Cap,
and Balance Act is an act not only that I support, but I cosponsored
because I feel that America is in crisis; that my constituents from New
Hampshire feel New Hampshire

[[Page H5195]]

and America is in crisis because of the spending levels we find
ourselves in. And it wasn't one party or the other. We got here holding
hands over a long period of time.
But now we have a responsibility as Americans, not as members of a
party, but as Americans, to do something about this crisis. I will not
go home and look my children in the eye and say that their father
couldn't work with Members of the other side of the aisle to solve
America's problems.
So today we are here to vote on Cut, Cap, and Balance, a measure that
cuts spending immediately, that caps spending back to the 20 percent
norms and brings a balanced budget amendment approach so the future,
the solvency of this Nation, can be restored.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I agree with much of what the gentleman
said, especially that we need to take responsibility for our own
actions. And that's why nobody should be taking the position that we
won't pay the bills of the United States of America unless we get a
plan that's 100 percent our way.
American families can't say to the mortgage company, you know what? I
don't like the way you're handling this. I'm not going to pay you, or
whatever. And so we need to take that same approach.
Decisions have been made in the past. We're obligated to pay the bill
for those decisions. Let's not try and duck those responsibilities for
our own actions.
I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Levin), the
distinguished ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee.
(Mr. LEVIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. LEVIN. In this bill the Republicans are trying to repeal the
second half of the 20th century. We've spent decades trying to knit a
truly American fabric around a strengthened middle class. It's a fabric
that holds, at its core, retirement security, health care through
Medicare and Medicaid, and educational benefits for all through
programs such as Pell Grants.
For Republicans, the purpose of this measure is to appeal to their
base. But in so doing, they are debasing what we have built over the
last half century. And it could not come at a worse time for this
country. Republicans say they are dedicated to the markets, but they
are essentially now saying, financial markets be damned.
As one analyst put it yesterday, ``The closer we get to this August
deadline, the more anxious investors become.'' One anonymous Republican
told Politico yesterday, and I quote, ``I'm embarrassed to be a
Republican. These guys don't understand capital markets. This isn't
about who wins an election. This is about whether people are going to
be able to finance a home.''
It was 46 years ago this month that President Johnson signed Medicare
into law. Yet, this measure doubles down on the Ryan budget proposal
that, itself, would end Medicare. Retirees would see, at the very
least, a 10 percent cut in their Social Security plans. Nursing home
care, which makes up half of Medicaid expenditures, would be slashed.
And that is not alone. The devastating cuts to endless programs, such
as grants for higher education that have been vital in creating
opportunity and building a strong American middle class.
More than 14 million Americans today remain jobless. But instead of
using their new House majority to pursue a jobs agenda, it has come to
this. Nearly 7 months after they assumed the majority, instead of
promoting growth, encouraging job creation, and reinforcing the
economic recovery, Republicans have been bringing about uncertainty.
We must, indeed, confront the deficit, but not as the Republicans now
propose, tearing apart what has helped create the fabric of the
American middle class.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, the President submitted a budget, a budget
that never balances. In fact, it doubles and triples the debt. It went
to the United States Senate, and 97-0--97-0--not one Democrat voted in
favor of that.
Has the President submitted any sort of adjustment or amendment to
that? No, he has not. The reality is this President has no plan. We
have a plan. We can solve the underlying problem and take care of
paying our bills on August 2.
I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock),
a member of the Budget Committee.

{time} 1620

Mr. McCLINTOCK. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, this vote stands as a defining moment in this crisis.
Every rating agency has warned that an increase in the debt limit
without a credible plan to balance the budget will do great damage to
our Nation's credit. And worse, fiscal experts warn that without such a
plan we risk a sovereign debt crisis within the next 2 years.
This measure gives the President everything he has asked for--the
$2.4 trillion debt increase to pay for the bills that he and the
Congress have recklessly racked up. But it also calls for a
constitutionally enforceable workout plan to place our Nation back on
the course to fiscal solvency, the centerpiece of which is a balanced
budget amendment that has been proposed in one form or another since
the birth of our Constitution and that 49 States have adopted.
Now, the gentleman from Maryland reminds us that only a few of those
49 States have both a balanced budget requirement and a two-thirds vote
for tax increases. My home State of California happens to be one of
them. California's deficits, as bad as they are, have been
proportionally roughly half the size of those that the Federal
Government has run up in the same period.
These budget protections work--maybe not perfectly, but they do work.
And I might add that when California also had a real spending limit, as
this measure calls for, California enjoyed an era of balanced budgets,
prudent reserves, no tax increases, and steady economic growth.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaTourette). The time of the gentleman
from Utah has expired.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Vermont (Mr. Welch).
Mr. WELCH. I thank the gentleman from Maryland.
We face two immediate challenges. The first is, will we pay our
bills? That's the whole issue of raising the debt limit. America pays
its bills, it's as simple as that. If we owe veterans who served this
country their benefits, they're going to get paid. If we went to a war
and didn't pay for it and fund it when we went, we have to pay that
bill when it becomes due. That is the question. And by the way,
Republican iconic figure, Ronald Reagan, who was familiar with tax and
budget fights, was the one who said he would never make the debt
ceiling, America's full faith and credit, a hostage to a point of view,
and did the right thing to pay those bills.
The second issue that we face--and I acknowledge my Republican
colleagues for their focus on this--is a long-term fiscal plan. The
bill that we have brought before the floor, a balanced budget
amendment, raises the question: Is it an effective tool, or is the
better approach a balanced approach to revenues and to spending?
The State of Vermont does not have a balanced budget amendment, yet
in Vermont we pay our bills and we balance our budget. We do it, number
one, by working together. And one of the points that the rating
agencies have made is the apprehension here is not so much our ability
to pay our bills, it's our ability to work together. Working together
requires that we have a balance of cuts, look at that budget, where can
we save money? But it also requires that we have a balance of revenues
because part of the goal here--again, of a confident country--is to
grow our economy. That requires investment in infrastructure, in
education, in new industries. And if we are going to be successful,
this cannot be just cuts. It has to be balanced with investments that
will grow this economy, grow jobs, bring that unemployment rate down.
We can do it together.
I see the gentleman from South Carolina included in his approach
cutting the Pentagon. That has to be on the table.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Garrett) for 30 minutes.

[[Page H5196]]

Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Florida (Mr. West).
Mr. WEST. I do need to correct my colleague from Vermont: I'm not
from South Carolina; I'm from Florida, but that's okay. I'm the guy
with hair.
I would like to start off by saying this very simply, I rise in
support of H.R. 2560 because when I look back a few years, 2007 to
2011, $8.67 trillion, $10.4 trillion, and now we're at about $14.5
trillion in debt. From 2009 to 2011, $1.42 trillion, $1.29 trillion,
and an estimated $1.65 trillion in deficits.
The President's budget for fiscal year 2012, 0-97; 800-plus days the
Senate Democrats have not passed a budget; $1 trillion of wasteful
spending of the stimulus. We still have unemployment at 9.2 percent
nationally, 16.2 percent in the black community; and 13 percent of my
brothers and sisters who are coming back from combat zones are
unemployed. Our debt to GDP ratio is about 70 percent. Our government
spending to GDP ratio is 24.4 percent; 47 percent of our debt is owned
by foreign nations, 27 percent with China.
We are going in the wrong direction. I stand in support of H.R. 2560
because this is insanity, and we cannot continue to do the same thing
expecting different results.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I would again remind my colleagues that
the last time we were running a budget surplus was during the years of
the Clinton administration. During that period of time our spending was
at a level that was higher than the limitation in here, and we were
paying our obligations. What this would do would create an anti-
majoritarian, anti-democratic provision in the Constitution that says
you can't balance your budget at 19 percent of GDP, even if that's the
will of the American people, even if it's how we did it back during the
Clinton administration.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman
from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz), a member of the Budget Committee.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to
H.R. 2560, which attempts to manipulate the Constitution in order to
impose a Ryan budget plan on steroids.
This is yet another thinly veiled attempt by our colleagues across
the aisle to end Medicare as we know it while refusing to even consider
ending ill-advised tax breaks for millionaires.
It is crucial that the American people understand that this plan
would require even deeper cuts than under the Ryan Republican plan we
saw in April. This means deeper cuts to investments in education, clean
energy, and increased costs for our seniors.
President Obama has vowed to veto this bill, which ends the Medicare
guarantee. And, incredulously, the gentleman from Florida, who
represents thousands of Medicare beneficiaries, as do I, is supportive
of this plan that would increase costs for Medicare beneficiaries,
unbelievable from a Member from south Florida. It slashes Medicaid and
critical investments essential to winning the future in favor of
protecting tax breaks for Big Oil, millionaires and companies who ship
American jobs overseas.
Achieving a solution to America's fiscal challenges is absolutely an
economic necessity, but the only way to achieve a real solution is
through shared sacrifice. We can't ask our seniors, working Americans,
and students to bear the burden of our deficits when we're asking
nothing of corporations, special interests, and the wealthiest few.
Incredibly, our friends across the aisle won't even put that on the
table.
The nonpartisan CBO, Congressional Budget Office, has said that the
number one policy decision that brought us to the need to prevent the
Nation from defaulting on our debt for the first time in history were
the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 that disproportionately benefited
the wealthiest Americans. Yet here we are again rewarding the most
privileged at the expense of our working families and our seniors, the
bedrock of our society.
Cut, cap, and balance may make for a great sound bite, but it would
have a devastating impact on our economy and American seniors. It is
clearly more like ``duck, dodge, and dismantle.'' For the sake of our
economy, it is essential that we move beyond politics as usual and take
action to reduce our Nation's deficit and get our fiscal house in
order.
On behalf of the 102,000 Medicare beneficiaries in my home district
and on behalf of all middle class Americans, I urge my colleagues to
join me in opposition to this reckless bill and pass a balanced plan
that engages us all in shared sacrifice to solve our Nation's debt
crisis.

Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1\1/2\ minutes.
I rise today in support of a plan, an actual plan, to address our
fiscal crisis, to cut, cap and balance.
Now, Mr. Speaker, with our debt now topping $14 trillion, we have no
other choice but to start sending clear, immediate signals to the
marketplace and the world that we are serious about spending and debt
reform. And to show that we are serious, we need to put skin in the
game in the form of immediate spending cuts today, caps on spending
that occurs tomorrow, and a balanced budget amendment to protect us
from spending too much in the future.
You know, I find it interesting that the proponents of a debt limit
increase without any substantial reforms point to the so-called
financial meltdown-type scenarios of failing to raise the debt limit by
August 2. We hear that interest rates for U.S. Treasuries would
skyrocket, causing the cost of servicing current debt to increase,
which in turn would require more borrowing and disastrous consequences
for the Federal budget and also the global economy.

{time} 1630

But you know what the other side fails to mention in any of these
scenarios is what would happen if we don't get spending under control.
The challenge is clear. What are the solutions, though, to it?
House Republicans today are demonstrating that we are committed to
confronting our country's addiction to spending and debt with bold and
decisive action and with a plan in place. The cut, cap, and balance
plan is not only the right prescription to address our fiscal crisis,
it is the only plan on the table that makes structural changes to right
our fiscal ship. In fact, it is the only plan in place.
Nobody wants to raise the debt ceiling, but if it's going to be
raised, we should use it as an opportunity to finally implement
comprehensive reform measures to ensure that we never find ourselves in
this situation again; because if we do nothing, we put off the tough
decision for another day, the only one to blame is ourselves. This is
our moment. This is our time to act.
I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Rokita).
Mr. ROKITA. Mr. Speaker, it has been very interesting listening to
this debate so far. I want to add a couple of points to it.
First of all, I would note for the record that this government is
spending $7 million a minute. We are borrowing $3 million a minute of
that $7 million. This is money that most Americans will never see in a
lifetime, and we are spending that much in a minute.
Now, as I listened to the debate so far, I couldn't help but wonder,
Mr. Speaker, what is this President, what are the Democrats so very
scared of? Why are they scared of letting a balanced budget amendment
go to the people of this country? Let's be clear, voting for this bill
starts a balanced budget amendment process, not the implementation of
the amendment. So why are they so scared of the people of this country?
Well, if you believe that government, if you believe that elites can
make better decisions for the people of this country than the people
can, if you believe that they should be controlling the people's money,
their property, better than the people can, well, no wonder they are
scared. Because overwhelmingly, the people of this country would say to
us exactly what they say around the kitchen table, and that is we have
to live within our means.
My second point, Mr. Speaker, this is the first time that I can tell
in the history of this Republic that this kind of debt has been racked
up with no intention and no plan to pay it back. This is the first
time. And, quite frankly, I don't know of anything more piggish or un-
American than racking up a bill to be passed on to our best asset, our
future--our kids--just so we can have more on our plate now, just so
that we can have more largess, just so we can

[[Page H5197]]

be more selfish in the here and now and kick that can down the road and
let our kids pay for it.
Since when has that become part of American exceptionalism? Since
when has that attitude become part of this country?
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I know that the gentleman is new to the
body, but there were lots of decisions made over the past years for
which the bills are coming due now. For example, in 2005 when our
Republican colleagues headed up the House, we passed a prescription
drug add-on to Medicare which was not funded, not one penny. It was all
put on the credit card. Two wars were put on the credit card; and
again, tax cuts in 2001, 2003 that disproportionately benefited the
very wealthy that created this gap.
So I agree with the gentleman. It is time, sir, to take
responsibility for our actions. And it is interesting to hear some
folks say that it is a sacrifice for us to have to pay bills for
decisions that were made in the past.
Now, yes, we need to get the deficit under control. And again, the
President of the United States has put on the table a balanced approach
over 10 years, $3 of spending cuts to $1 of revenue. And again, our
Republican colleagues have walked away from the table because they
don't want to raise one penny of revenue from closing corporate tax
loopholes.
Just to be clear, the President's plan would extend middle class tax
cuts beyond 2013. The President's plan would say let's extend the
payroll tax cut for 2012. But he says let's get serious about our
deficit and let's do it in a balanced way with shared responsibility.
With that, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr.
Lewis), a member of the Ways and Means Committee who knows a lot about
the importance of shared responsibility.
Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, the American people are sick and
tired of Washington petty games. People's lives, their homes, their
retirement, their health care are hanging in the balance. The American
people are good, strong, resilient people. They are willing to
sacrifice to get our country back on track. But they will not be played
as fools. Middle class Americans know they are not getting a fair
shake.
This bill protects tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, while the
middle class pay more than their fair share and watch their retirement
savings disappear. The American people know that there is a deliberate,
systematic attempt to destroy Medicare, to damage Medicaid, and
threaten Social Security. This is ducking, dodging, and destroying. If
it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it must be
a duck.
The American people want one thing. They want jobs, good jobs, jobs
that pay the bills, give people back their dignity, and get people back
on track with the American Dream. Our Nation deserves nothing less.
But this bill would destroy those hopes and those dreams. It will
plunge our economy back into a deep recession. It will mean more lost
jobs, more lost homes, and seniors living in poverty without health
care and basic necessities. It will mean children going hungry, and it
will keep smart young people from going off to college.
This bill will sell the very soul of our Nation. We, as Americans,
are better than this. We are more compassionate than this. We know
better.
It is easier to destroy than it is to build. Another generation of
leaders did more with less; they built people up. We cannot turn back.
Vote ``no'' on this bill. Let's go back to the table and work on a
compromise that prevents default, preserves our moral obligation to our
seniors, and puts America back on the road to greatness.
Mr. GARRETT. I yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from Michigan (Mrs.
Miller), who is concerned not only about the soul of the Nation today
but the soul of the Nation for our posterity as well, who is not
willing to duck the hard fiscal issues.
Mrs. MILLER of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, after years, literally years,
of growing government and increasing spending beyond all reason, it is
now long past time to bring fiscal sanity to Washington and to put
America on a path to prosperity.
Mr. Speaker, our national debt has increased. Today it exceeds $14
trillion. Our debt has increased by almost $4 trillion, which is more
than $120 billion a month in new debt just since President Obama has
been in office. That is $120 billion each and every month with this new
President.
Government has grown so large that it now spends nearly 25 percent of
our annual economic output, a level not seen since World War II. That
has crowded out private sector growth and new jobs and opportunities
that Americans need and are demanding.
This plan puts forward real cuts to spending; no smoke, no mirrors.
It enforces discipline with real caps on spending and a balanced budget
amendment. And it gives the President the increase in the debt ceiling
he is seeking if the balanced budget amendment is sent to the States.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this
commonsense reform.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield 1 minute to the
gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Coble).
Mr. COBLE. Mr. Speaker, many Members of recent sessions of Congress
have not been known as practitioners of fiscal discipline.

{time} 1640

Balanced budget amendment philosophy has well served thousands of
governmental entities and hundreds of thousands of households. Now is
the time for the Congress to embrace a balanced budget amendment which
will then set us upon a course where fiscal discipline is not merely an
option but a necessity. Only then, Mr. Speaker, will the Congress
balance its own budget.
I urge support of this worthwhile and commonsense piece of
legislation and would like to see it enacted, although that probably
will not be the conclusion.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GARRETT. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr.
Olson).
Mr. OLSON. I thank my colleague from New Jersey for the time.
Mr. Speaker, there are two reasons why this is the most important
vote of my 2\1/2\ years in Congress: Their names are Kate and Grant
Olson. They are my children. Kate is 14 and Grant is 11. My wife,
Nancy, and I uprooted them from the only home that they knew and moved
back to my home State of Texas to run for Congress because we were
worried that the ever-increasing Federal debt was the greatest threat
to their future.
Today, for the first time in my children's young lives, the House of
Representatives is passing game-changing legislation that puts our
Nation on a path to fiscal sanity and ensures that my Kate, my Grant,
your Kates and your Grants, have better lives than we did.
I urge my colleagues to make a downpayment on the future of America's
youth and vote in support of H.R. 2560.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I would just ask my Republican colleagues to consider
why they want to write a provision in the Constitution of the United
States that would make it harder to shut down a special interest tax
loophole for the purpose of reducing the deficit for our children and
grandchildren.
I now yield 4 minutes to our very distinguished Democratic whip and
my colleague from the State of Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).
Mr. HOYER. I thank my friend, the ranking member of the Budget
Committee, Mr. Van Hollen, for yielding.
The American public are rightfully very distressed with the Congress
of the United States. They're distressed that at a time of great
challenge and great risk, that we fiddle while the debt threatens to
burn us, to place our country in the position of being adjudged
uncreditworthy. That is not worthy of this Congress or any one of us
that serves in this Congress.
We have 14 days, according to the Secretary Treasurer, until such
time as America will be unable to pay its obligations, whether to
foreigners or to people in this country. That is not a situation that
will be looked at positively by the financial sector or by any one of
our constituents whose ability to save, to have a 401(k) that is
stable, to purchase an automobile or a refrigerator or send their kid
to college will be put at risk because of increased interest rates. Not
one of us will be held

[[Page H5198]]

harmless if this Congress fails to do its duty.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have had a number of efforts to get us to
where we needed to be to get back to fiscal responsibility. I'm amused
when I hear our new Members talk about the fiscal irresponsibility,
because I've served here long enough to know that the two Presidents
under whom the debt was raised most were Ronald Reagan, a 186 percent
increase from the $985 billion total debt when Ronald Reagan took
office to over $2.8 trillion, and George Bush II, who increased the
national debt 86 percent. Did he do it alone? Of course not. Did we all
do it, Republicans and Democrats? Yes.
Democrats believe that the debt was raised because we bought things
on the Republican watch that were not paid for. That's indisputable.
You cannot argue that. Those are the facts. The fact is, did we do the
same in the Obama administration? We did. Why? Because we had to
respond to the deepest recession we have seen. We didn't create enough
jobs. In fact, we lost jobs.
So we bring a bill to the floor some weeks ago to address the
creditworthiness of the United States of America, and the chairman of
the Ways and Means Committee said, We offer this bill to fail. Not to
solve the problem. To fail.
Now we bring a bill to the floor of the House of Representatives this
day, 14 days before the debt limit is reached and America might default
for the first time in history. This bill was written sometime late
Friday or perhaps Saturday. How many of you said, Have you read the
bill? How many hours have you taken to consider this bill?
I've read the bill, too, Paul. I guarantee you there is not an
American who's not on the Budget Committee that reads this bill knows
what impact it has, and the chairman of the Budget Committee is shaking
his head and agreeing with me. The fact of the matter is you haven't
had one second of hearing on this, there was no markup on this bill,
and it has significant consequences.
Let me tell you, my friends on the other side of the aisle, I'm one
of those who stands in this well who voted for the balanced budget
amendment in 1995.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I yield the gentleman an additional minute.
Mr. HOYER. I voted because I believed we needed to get to fiscal
responsibility, and in fact we did, and we balanced the budget 4 years
in a row, and George Bush inherited a $5.6 trillion projected surplus.
Not debt. Not deficit. And 22 million jobs having been created before
he took office. Eight years later, we had increased the debt by $5
trillion.
I'm not going to vote for the balanced budget amendment, and I urge
my colleagues to reject this bill, which has no chance of passage, and
we need to stop fiddling. We need to do our work and make sure America
can pay its debts, because if it can't, every one of our constituents
will lose and our country will lose.
Our oath of office was to preserve and protect. Defeat this ill-
advised, ill-timed, unconsidered piece of legislation and let us move
to fiscal responsibility in a way that will bring us all together in a
bipartisan way, as Bowles-Simpson tried to do, as Biden tried to do,
and as, frankly, Mr. Boehner and the President tried to do. Let's get
to that objective. The country deserves it.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their
remarks to the Chair and not to others in the second person.
Mr. GARRETT. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr.
Graves), who recognizes that if the balanced budget amendment was
appropriate back in 1995, with debt now reaching over $14 trillion
today, how much more so is it relevant to pass today.
Mr. GRAVES of Georgia. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Here we are. We are at the moment of choosing, and we just heard from
the former leader of the former majority party that we need to oppose
this.
But to those in the gallery here today, to those watching on camera,
just in a few hours you will get the opportunity to see behind me on
this board every name of every Member of Congress and how they vote.
They will make a choice. They will take their voting card, of which
you've entrusted us with, and they will make a decision: this Nation
should balance its budget or not.
This isn't so much about cut, cap, balance. This is about prosperity
or continued high unemployment. That would be green for prosperity, red
for high unemployment. This is about accountability and constraints,
green, or Washington run wild. Again, that would be the red button and
the status quo.

{time} 1650

This is about sustainability of our future or continued uncertainty
as we've seen thus far. Or, better yet, this is about standing on our
own. The green button, independence of this great Nation. Or, continued
and increasing bondage of foreign nations and our indebtedness. Again,
the red button.
Members of Congress, this is your time of choosing. We've heard so
many names invoked here today. Former Presidents, Members of Congress,
other Congresses. But, guess what? This is your time. This is your
choice. This is your voting card. What will you choose: A prosperous
future for this Nation or continue the status quo?
I urge Members, let's choose a great, prosperous future for this
Nation. America deserves it.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are again reminded to address their
remarks to the Chair. It is inappropriate to address occupants of the
gallery and also to address others in the second person.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. This is a time for choosing. We have to reduce our
deficit. We have to get the budget in the balance. The question is, how
we do this? And we believe that it is a corruption of the Constitution
to write into the Constitution itself a provision that says a majority
vote can cut Medicare and Social Security but you need a two-thirds
undemocratic vote to close a corporate tax loophole for the purpose of
reducing the deficit.
I yield 1 minute to gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee).
Ms. LEE. First, let me thank the gentleman for yielding and for his
outstanding leadership.
I rise in strong opposition to what has been appropriately labeled as
the ``duck, dodge, and dismantle'' budget bill. The Republicans duck
making the hard choices by requiring us to actually amend our
Constitution before we can act to avoid default. The end result:
America fails to pay its bills on time.
The Republicans dodge facing the real challenge by continuing tax
breaks for the super wealthy and Big Oil, funding two wars, and other
Republican interests. And the Republicans want to dismantle our
Nation's economic security for seniors, the disabled, and the poor by
cutting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Making heartless cuts
on the backs of the most vulnerable will not balance the budget. And
it's morally wrong.
Now, with only 14 days left, Republicans are pushing forward
legislation that will guarantee a default and will kill hundreds of
thousands of jobs. This ``duck, dodge, and dismantle'' bill would end
the social safety net, kill jobs, and set our Nation back rather than
move it forward. I urge my colleagues to oppose this job-killing bill
that would end up being written in stone in our Constitution. It turns
the American Dream into a nightmare.
Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, just to remind the other side of the aisle
with regard to the radical plan that we talked about here with regard
to changing or amending the Constitution, it was Thomas Jefferson who
said, in a letter to John Taylor, I wish that it were possible to
obtain just a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing
to depend on that alone, that our government would return to the
genuine principles of the Constitution. And he was speaking, of course,
of what we're doing here today, what Thomas Jefferson wished that we
had done over 200 years ago: a balanced budget amendment.
With that, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Washington (Mrs.
McMorris Rodgers).

[[Page H5199]]

Mrs. McMORRIS RODGERS. I rise in strong support of H.R. 2560 to
address our national debt.
In 2006 then-Senator Barack Obama voted against raising the debt
ceiling. He said at that time that the rising national debt was a
``sign of leadership failure.'' Today, President Barack Obama is asking
Congress to raise the national debt $2.4 trillion, largely to fund many
of the programs that he's had passed in the last couple of years. And
to put that into perspective, that amounts to $20,000 for every
American family. Congress is being asked to add $20,000 in debt burden
to every American family. And we owe it to them before we raise that
debt to make sure we are cutting up the credit cards and that we are
not going to continue to spend beyond our means.
House Republicans are committed to getting our fiscal house in order.
House Republicans are committed to protecting our excellent credit
rating. It is the national debt that threatens our credit rating. The
bill before us today, Cut, Cap, and Balance, is a credible plan to
address this situation. It will cut spending immediately, it will enact
spending caps, and it will require the passage of a balanced budget
amendment. Forty-nine out of 50 States balance their budgets.
The President's spend, borrow, and bail out policies have clearly
failed. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. Let's help
America's economy today and let's keep the American Dream alive for
many years to come.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I would hazard a guess that Thomas Jefferson would
not want to write into the Constitution of the United States anti-
democratic provisions that said you need two-thirds in order to close
special interest tax loopholes for the purpose of deficit reduction or
to say that we're going to decide now, for all time, that we have to
balance our budget at 18 percent of GDP rather than some other number
that may be the will of the American people.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GARRETT. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr.
Kline).
Mr. KLINE. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 2560, the Cut,
Cap, and Balance Act. The severity of our Nation's fiscal crisis cannot
be overstated. More than 14 million Americans are looking for work.
Meanwhile, Federal spending continues at an unprecedented pace, with an
average of $4 billion added to our country's debt every day. We need to
encourage economic growth and investment. Instead, leaders on the other
side of the aisle are pushing more reckless policies, more redtape, and
more taxes to pay for their irresponsible spending spree, leaving job
creators frozen by uncertainty and fear, and risking our future
prosperity.
At a recent roundtable in Minnesota, a small business owner told me,
The government is out of control. It's too big, and I don't like it.
Well, I don't like it either, and it's costing our country jobs. It's
time for Washington to do what's right. We need to make the tough
choices necessary to get our Nation's fiscal house in order. No one
said it would be easy, but it certainly is necessary.
The legislation before us today will end unsustainable spending and
put this Nation back on a fiscally responsible path. I urge my
colleagues to support it.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. GARRETT. Just to the gentleman from the other side of the aisle
who made the point regarding what sort of amendment that Thomas
Jefferson may have been looking for today, whether he actually would be
looking for one, what we call a supermajority, what have you, in point
of fact I believe Jefferson would be going even further than what we
are doing here today and simply say that Congress should not have the
ability to borrow at all. The amendment that we are putting forward
would actually give us greater flexibility with that in time of
emergency, in time of war, and Congress can take it upon themselves to
borrow. Jefferson understood that first and foremost that Congress,
just like the businesses and families at the time, needed to live
within their means. And he saw it as immoral, basically, to take the
responsibilities of this generation and place them on future
generations.
At this time I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr.
Womack).
Mr. WOMACK. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I've had the privilege of serving Arkansas' Third
District now for a little more than 6 months in this Congress. And I
can still hear the voices of those people who sent me here. Their
voices said, Steve, you've got to go to Washington and you've got to
cut spending. You've got to empower the private sector. You've got to
reduce the size of government. You've got to get to Washington and help
put us back to work. Those same conversations at home at the kitchen
table, people discussing their personal budgets, saying to me that, I
have to live within my means, why doesn't Washington?
Mr. Speaker, to each of these comments I say, we have an answer. It's
a trifecta, if you will. It's called Cut, Cap, and Balance.
Mr. Speaker, I realize I've only been here a short time, but I know
full well how Washington works. And I know that this concept is foreign
to the many people who have been here down through the years. But if
you look around and take an objective view, you will know that the only
way to bring legitimate control to the irresponsible fiscal behavior of
Washington, D.C., the only way to restore the integrity of this
Chamber, to restore the confidence in the people we serve, is to make
it constitutional, a balanced budget amendment.

{time} 1700

No gimmicks, Mr. Speaker. No hollow promises. Simple language that
rank-and-file Americans can wrap their heads around: a constitutional
requirement for this country to balance its books.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. GARRETT. I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Georgia
(Mr. Kingston).
Mr. KINGSTON. I thank the gentleman from New Jersey for yielding.
During his 8 years as President, President Bush increased the
national debt $3 trillion. We spent too much money. But not to be
outdone, in a 3-year period of time, President Obama has increased the
national debt $5 trillion--a 56 percent increase. Then he turns around
and lectures middle class American families, struggling families, to
eat their peas. He offers no plan, no answers--nothing but a phoney
budget that even failed in the Democrat-controlled Senate 97-0. Harry
Reid voted against his budget.
The President owns this economy, not Haliburton, not Cheney, not
George Bush. It's the President. He owns the skyrocketing debt. He owns
the 15 million unemployed. He owns the failed stimulus plan. President
Obama owns the extended Bush tax cuts because it was he who extended
them 2 years. Now, in our time of great fiscal crisis, when America
needs leadership, he is absent.
The Republicans in the House are offering a plan, and I understand
the Democrats don't like it. That's good, because sometimes the two
parties have to battle it out, and you get a better product from it,
but you can't do it when the Democrats aren't offering a plan. We will
pass this plan today, and I hope Harry Reid and the Democrats will pass
a plan and that we can get together. I hope the President decides to
offer a plan. Maybe we can look at his, and maybe out of the three
possibilities, we can do what's best for the American people, but we
can't do it unless the President decides to engage and take on the role
of leader.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, once again, the President had a plan to
reduce the deficit by about $4 trillion over 10 years--$3 in cuts, $1
in revenue. Our Republican colleagues walked away from the table
because they didn't want $1 of deficit reduction from closing special
interest tax loopholes.
With that, I yield 3\1/4\ minutes to the distinguished member of the
Judiciary Committee, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler).
Mr. NADLER. Many of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle would
not be

[[Page H5200]]

here today if President Jefferson had not borrowed to finance the
Louisiana Purchase.
Mr. Speaker, this bill promises all the fun of a constitutional
amendment without actually amending the Constitution. It simply says
that the United States should default on our debts and destroy our
economy if we don't amend the Constitution.
If we default on our debts, we will do more damage to our economy
than large deficits, tax increases and draconian cuts combined. Right
now, we enjoy very low interest rates because we are still the most
stable, reliable and wealthy country in the world.
If the markets get the idea that we are too dysfunctional to pay our
debts, even though we are certainly wealthy enough to do so, nothing
else will matter. Interest rates will climb. Homeowners and businesses
will be pushed out of the credit market. The stock market will crash.
Never before in the history of this country has anyone been
irresponsible enough to play chicken with our full faith and credit.
Never.
We know how to balance the budget, because we've done it before. In
the not-too-distant past, we managed, in working with President
Clinton, not only to balance the budget but to run surpluses and begin
paying down the debt. Unfortunately, President Bush and a Republican
Congress managed to turn record surpluses into record deficits in
record time.
Rather than admit to serious Republican economic mismanagement and
finding responsible solutions, we get this dusted-off quack cure from
the past. The so-called balanced budget amendment requires a balanced
budget much sooner than does the Republican budget that the House
recently passed, the one that abolishes Medicare and turns Medicaid
into a block grant.
I asked the sponsor of the balanced budget amendment, the gentleman
from Virginia, how he thought this could be done. He answered that the
Republican Study Committee budget, which is even more radical than the
Ryan budget, would be in balance in just 9 years. That's what we're
really voting for today--an accelerated version of the Republican Study
Committee budget. Anyone voting for this should be prepared to go home
and explain that vote, including Republican members who voted against
their study committee budget.
Economists have long known that, in good times, you should balance
the budget and pay down the debt but that, in times of recession, when
tax revenues plummet and the economy contracts, you have to spend money
on unemployment insurance and on putting people back to work. You must
run a deficit to get the economy going again. The balanced budget
amendment would force us to do the exact opposite and turn every
recession into a depression.
This constitutional amendment does a whole lot more than require a
balanced budget. Many of its provisions simply cement into the
Constitution the policy preferences of the current majority and bind
our children and grandchildren to those preferences.
The two-thirds requirement, for example, to increase revenues would
have the perverse effect of allowing special interest tax loopholes to
be slipped into law with a majority vote, but would require a
supermajority to repeal them. This is not just antithetical to a
balanced budget; it would also cement the most corrupt aspects of our
Tax Code into the Constitution.
The amendment would also require a two-thirds vote for any budget
that exceeds 18 percent of GDP. The CBO tells us: ``Outlays have
averaged close to 21 percent of GDP over the past 40 years.'' Federal
outlays have not dropped below 18 percent since 1966--that is, since
the enactment of Medicare.
Regardless of what other parts of this bill may say, there is no way
to meet these restrictions without destroying Medicare, Medicaid,
Social Security, veterans' programs, and military preparedness. That's
just arithmetic, and no amount of rhetoric will change it.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I yield the gentleman an additional 10 seconds.
Mr. NADLER. The real problem is that tax revenues have declined from
20\1/2\ percent of GDP in 2000 to 14\1/2\ percent of GDP because we no
longer tax the millionaires, the billionaires and the large
corporations the way we used to.
Let's start doing that, and we can have a balanced budget without
phoney constitutional amendments which promise balanced budgets,
without showing how, but that do protect the millionaires from paying
their fair share.
Mr. GARRETT. We are also reminded that Jefferson said in 1816 that he
sincerely believed that the principle of spending money today that we
don't have, to be paid for by posterity, is but swindling future
generations--something this Republican Party does not wish to do.
With that, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Johnson).
Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of
H.R. 2560, the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act.
Last November, the American people sent a clear and resounding
message to cut up the Nation's credit card and to stop spending money
we don't have. Today, we are doing that.
This act makes immediate spending cuts and forces the Federal
Government to do what Americans all over this country are doing: living
within their means. This legislation also begins to cap Federal
Government spending at levels that are historically sustainable to
ensure vibrant economic growth. Finally, this measure forces the
Federal Government to do what to most Americans is simply plain common
sense: to spend only the amount of money that you have.
A balanced budget amendment is long overdue.
Republicans have heard the American people's call to action to reduce
spending, and that is why I strongly support this measure. I urge my
colleagues to vote in favor of the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. GARRETT. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr.
Roe).
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. I rise today in support of the Cut, Cap, and
Balance Act because American families deserve to have a government that
lives within its means, just like they do.
Our national debt has grown in excess of $14 trillion--that's more
than $46,000 for every man, woman and child in this country--and we
continue to borrow, roughly, 40 cents of every dollar we spend. This is
a path to financial ruin that will leave the next generation with a
less prosperous America than the one we inherited.
Now, I find it astonishing on the House floor that balancing our
budget would have a devastating effect on our economy. It's hard to
believe, but it has been said.
The Cut, Cap, and Balance Act keeps the promise we made to the
American people to cut spending while also granting the President's
request for a debt limit increase. By cutting spending $111 billion the
first year alone, by capping future spending and by laying the
groundwork for a balanced budget amendment, this package will save $5.8
trillion over the next 10 years. This bill is nothing more than good
old-fashioned common sense, and I urge my colleagues to support this.

{time} 1710

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from
Virginia (Mr. Moran) will control the time on the minority side.
There was no objection.
Mr. MORAN. I reserve the balance of my time, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. GARRETT. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr.
Scalise).
Mr. SCALISE. I rise in support of Cut, Cap and Balance.
If you look at what American families have been telling us for the
last few years, during these tough economic times what they have been
doing is they have been cutting back. They have been tightening their
belts, and they sit around the kitchen table and figure out how to
balance their budget and live within their means.
Yet today on the other side, all you've seen is a parade of Members
coming and criticizing the concept of a balanced budget, actually
calling it extreme, radical. Imagine that. Only a big-spending
Washington liberal could think it would be radical to require
Washington to start living within its means like families have been
doing for years.

[[Page H5201]]

So, frankly, American families would say it's about time. Welcome to
the party. And, instead, some people think you can just live in this
fantasy land where you can just keep taxing, spending, borrowing money
from China and act like the day of reckoning is never going to come and
kick the can down to our children and our grandchildren and make it
their problem.
Well, it's time to say enough is enough. We're not going to pass this
on to the next generation. We're going to deal with our problems today.
We're going to set priorities today and do the tough things people sent
us to do. And that means cutting, capping, and balancing the Federal
budget.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, again, the choice is not whether we put
in place a plan to reduce the deficit and balance the budget. The issue
is how we do that. That is the difference here.
With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GARRETT. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Gibbs).
Mr. GIBBS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of Cut, Cap,
and Balance. Out-of-control spending by the Federal Government has
driven our country to the brink of financial meltdown.
Our Nation's debt crisis was easily predictable. In recent years,
America has watched as the size of the Federal Government has ballooned
and deficit spending has reached dangerous levels. Yet despite the
warning, Congress stuck with business as usual--more spending, more
regulations, and bigger government. It's time to put an end to business
as usual for the good of the country. Our country needs it, the
American people demand it, and the future of our grandchildren depends
on it.
This legislation puts us on the path of fiscal responsibility, brings
certainty, and restores private sector confidence. The naysayers say we
can't do this. They argue for tax increases on our job creators. This
measure will unleash the private sector and result in more revenues to
ensure strength in Social Security, Medicare, and other needed
programs.
Just raising the debt ceiling without spending cut reforms according
to Moody's and Standards & Poor's will probably lead to a downgrade of
U.S. paper and a downhill spiral, higher interest rates, higher taxes,
and less opportunities. I urge the support of this and to cut spending
now instead of 6 to 10 years from now.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GARRETT. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr.
Stearns), who, while the White House says that leadership is not simply
proposing a bill to vote up or down, recognizes that the White House
has not given us any plan of leadership so far on this issue.
(Mr. STEARNS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. STEARNS. It's been said before that the United States Government
owes close to $14.3 trillion. An estimate by the CBO reveals that by
the year 2021, the government will spend 100 percent of every dollar in
revenue on entitlements. Simply raising the debt limit to $16.3
trillion without comparable spending reduction is irresponsible at best
and catastrophic for our Nation at worse.
Forcing our Nation's spiraling and out-of-control debt onto the backs
of our country's children and grandchildren is irresponsible.
Comparable spending reductions would be in the amount of at least $2
trillion. But as that does not even cover the interest on the debt, a
$4 trillion spending reduction would be appropriate; and that's what we
should be working on.
Today we must ask ourselves, Is this blessed country of ours
disciplined enough to solve the debt problem through austerity and
productivity? I think we can. I believe we can. But only if we break
from the tradition of spending and raising our debt limit. Instead, we
must pass H.R. 2560, the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. GARRETT. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from North Dakota (Mr.
Berg).
Mr. BERG. Mr. Speaker, we've been down this road before. Our country
faces unprecedented debt. The House has worked to cut spending and
reduce the deficit. But the Senate Democrat leadership and the Obama
administration would rather raise taxes and mislead Americans with
scare tactics rather than support these commonsense solutions,
solutions that would help get our country back on track.
We cannot do the same thing over and over again and expect a
different result. Americans have tightened their belts, and they've
made the tough choices. It's time for Washington to do the same.
Our financial situation is a mess. It's going to be a long road to
get our country back on track, but it's clear we can begin right here.
We need to cut the spending, we need to cap the growth in government,
and we need to balance the budget.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I would remind my colleagues that this
provision that they're talking about, the constitutional proposal that
came out of the Judiciary Committee, would prohibit the Congress from
balancing the budget at 13 percent of GDP expenditures. It would say
you cannot make that choice. It would also say you have to reach a two-
thirds hurdle to reduce the special interest tax breaks for the purpose
of deficit reduction.
So we keep hearing about this balanced budget amendment without any
mention from our colleagues that they've inserted these two devices
into the Constitution that would limit our ability to balance the
budget in a balanced way.
With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GARRETT. Would that we had the problem of this Congress over the
last 2 years trying to balance the budget, what with $1 trillion in
additional stimulus spending, $2 trillion in the cost of ObamaCare, $3
trillion overall added to the budget deficit. Would that be the problem
that we'd look to the other side of the aisle to try to live within our
means. Unfortunately, that's not the case. And that's the reason why,
as our Founders understood and as we spoke of Jefferson before, the
need to try to constrain ourselves with cutting spending now, placing
legislative caps offered tomorrow, and then going forward in the future
with a constitutional balanced budget amendment.
With that, I yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from North Carolina
(Mrs. Myrick), who understands the importance of living within our
means.
Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, the possible default of the Federal
Government presents a near-term problem which could have disastrous
effects in the short-term on our economy.
But the bigger problem is long term because Washington has just been
spending too much money for too darn long--borrowing 40 cents just
about of every dollar we spend, most of it from China, and sending the
bills to our kids and our grandkids.
This bill to cut spending, cap and then balance the budget is
something that needs to be done. And we can't keep kicking the can down
the road. You've heard that before, but it's true. The responsibility
is on us to do the right thing for tomorrow for our families and
everybody else.
We balanced the budget almost, some years ago. It's not impossible.
It can be done if we have the courage to do it; 49 out of 50 States do
it.
So we need to remember there's no such thing as government money. It
is the taxpayers' money. It's our job to be responsible stewards of
that. We need to step up and take that responsibility and pass this
bill.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, that's right. A few years ago during the
Clinton administration when they took a balanced approach to deficit
reduction, we did run surpluses.
With that, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from Texas (Ms.
Jackson Lee).
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. I thank the distinguished member of the
Budget Committee as well for the great work that he has been doing.
As I listened to my friends discuss this question of being
responsible, I want to at least announce breaking news that our friends
in the other body have come up with a semi-solution on revenue and on
the question of how we would cut. They are seeking to be responsible;
and today in this body, we are not.

[[Page H5202]]

{time} 1720

I heard a tutorial about the green light and the red light, which, as
a Member, you understand green is ``yes'' and ``no'' comes up red. What
the red will mean is to stop the insanity, to stop the loss of our
moral compass, the responsibility to pay America's bills. What the
green light will mean is that America, in fact, would not be paying the
bills of our families. We wouldn't be paying Social Security; interest
rates would spike; the U.S. dollar would decline; and our credit would
literally go out the door. Being without responsibility is what we are
planning to do. Then we will lose the ability to pay for the Medicare
of American Seniors and would no longer keep America's hospital's open
and doctors paid.
So don't be fooled by the green light tutorial. We, frankly, are
going to lose our way. We'll close hospitals. We won't have the ability
to provide for our seniors, and these are the very persons that my
colleagues over here believe that they are helping. But the main point
that I want to emphasize very quickly is that the Constitution of the
United States already says that the validity of the public debt of the
United States in the 14th Amendment, section 4, shall not be
questioned.
Let me tell you today that a balanced budget amendment will destroy
the United States, and it will not allow us to pay for those in need.
Tap dance, losers' club, bust the benefits. That's what this bill is.
Tap dance, losers club, and bust the benefits. That is what will happen
to all of us. Americans like the friends and families of our military
personnel will suffer.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 2560, the ``Cut, Cap,
and Balance Act of 2011,'' which attempts to resolve our budget ceiling
crisis by authorizing an increase in the debt limit while implementing
spending cuts, caps on future spending, and requiring an amendment to
the Constitution. While I support bipartisan efforts to increase the
debt limit and to resolve our differences over budgetary revenue and
spending issues, I cannot support a bill that unduly constrains the
ability of Congress to deal effectively with America's economic,
fiscal, and job creation troubles.
As I stated earlier this afternoon, This bill should be called the
``Tap Dance, Loser Club, and Bust Bill.'' It tap dances around raising
our debt ceiling and acting in a responsible manner to pay our nation's
debt obligations. Our nation will be joining the losers club by
threatening to eliminate important social programs such as Medicaid,
Medicare, Social Security, and Pell grants. There has been a theme this
Congress of focusing on cutting programs for the most at need and
ignoring the need to focus on Job creation. This bill busts the hopes
and dreams of our children, seniors, and military families. It busts
the hopes to grow our nation in the future. I state again that H.R.
2560 has earned the name the ``Tap Dance, Loser Club, and Bust Bill.''
I will call it the ``Tap Dance, Loser Club, and Bust Bill'' from this
point forward, because that is what it is . . . when something walks
like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck . . . call it a
duck. This bill is wasting a tremendous amount of time when we should
be focused on paying our nation's bills and resolving our differences.
As we continue to discuss the necessity of increasing out debt
ceiling, I have heard the concerns of many of my constituents and the
American people regarding the size of our national debt and the care
with which taxpayer money is spent. I, too, am concerned about these
issues; for to burden future generations of Americans with tremendous
amounts of debt should not be a way to avoid our fiscal
responsibilities to the American people. However, the task of resolving
our debt ceiling crisis must take precedence over other concerns,
including political ideology.
Prior to the existence of the debt ceiling, Congress had to approve
borrowing each time the Federal Government wished to borrow money in
order to carry out its functions. With the onset of World War I, more
flexibility was needed to expand the government's capability to borrow
money expeditiously in order to meet the rapidly changing requirements
of funding a major war in the modern era.
To address this need, the first debt ceiling was established in 1917,
allowing the Federal Government to borrow money to meet its obligations
without prior Congressional approval, so long as in the aggregate, the
amount borrowed did not eclipse a specified limit.
Since the debt limit was first put in place, Congress has increased
it over 100 times; in fact, it was raised 10 times within the past
decade. Congress last came together and raised the debt ceiling in
February 2010. Today, the debt ceiling currently stands at $14.3
trillion dollars. In reality, that limit has already been eclipsed, but
due to accounting procedures by Treasury Secretary Geithner, the debt
limit can be artificially avoided until August 2nd.
Congress must act now in order to avert a crisis. Never in the
history of America has the United States defaulted on its debt
obligations.
We must be clear on what this issue means for our country. United
States Treasury bonds have traditionally been one of the safest
investments another country or investor could make. For foreign nations
and investors, purchasing a U.S. Treasury bond meant that they held
something virtually as safe as cash, backed by the full faith and
credit of the United States Government.

In turn, with the proceeds from the bonds, the Federal Government of
the world's largest economy is able to finance its operations. If the
United States defaults on its debt obligations, the financial crisis
that began in 2008 would pale in comparison, according to economic
experts. The ensuing economic catastrophe would not only place the U.S.
economy in a tailspin, but the world economy as well.
The fact that Congress, a body that typically has its fair share of
political baffles, has never played political chicken when it came to
raising the debt ceiling should give us all pause, and is a testament
to the seriousness with which we must approach this issue. However,
this time around, my Republican colleagues have created an impasse
based upon an ideological commitment to spending cuts. While I
understand and share the concern of my Republican colleagues with
respect to deficit spending, and will continue to work with them in
order to find reductions, now is not the time to put ideology over
pragmatism. The reality is that, on August 3rd, the United States will
begin to default on its debt obligations if the debt ceiling is not
raised.
This detour into a spending debate is as unnecessary as it is
perilous, as increasing the debt ceiling does not obligate the
undertaking of any new spending by the Federal Government. Rather,
raising the debt limit simply allows the government to pay existing
legal obligations promised to debt holders that were already agreed to
by Presidents and Congresses, both past and present.
Moreover, the impending crisis would have already occurred were it
not for the extraordinary measures taken by Treasury Secretary Timothy
Geithner, including the suspension of the investment in securities to
finance the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, as well as
the redemption of a portion of those securities already held by that
fund.
If the United States defaults on its obligations on August 3rd, the
stock market will react violently to the news that for the first time
in history, America is unable to keep its promises to pay. Not once in
American history has the country's full faith and credit been called
into question.
Once America defaults, investors who purchase U.S. bonds and finance
our government will be less likely to lend to America in the future.
Just as a person who defaults on a loan will find it harder to convince
banks to lend them money in the future, a country that defaults on its
debt obligations will find it harder to convince investors to lend
money to a government that did not pay. Showing the world that the
United States does not pay its debts makes the purchasing of that debt
less desirable because it requires the assumption of more risk on the
part of the investors.
Furthermore, any investors that do continue to purchase U.S. Treasury
bonds will demand much higher interest rates in order to cover the
increased risk. Once a default occurs, investors figure that the chance
of the United States defaulting again is much greater, and will require
the government to pay higher rates of interest in order to make the
loan worth the risk for investors to take on.
Imagine the impact on our stock market if we do not pay our debts. As
we have seen throughout the recent financial crisis, a bad stock market
hurts not only big businesses and large investors on Wall Street, but
small businesses and small investors as well. Families with investments
tied to the stock market, such as 401(k)s, pension plans, and savings,
will once again see the value of their investments drop. The American
people are tired of the uncertainty of the value of their retirement
accounts. We must not allow another wild fluctuation to occur due to
default and add to the uncertainty still lingering in the minds of
citizens.
As if another stock market crisis were not enough, the housing market
would take another hit if America defaulted. Higher mortgage rates in a
housing market already weakened by default and foreclosures would cause
a further depression of home values, destroying whatever equity
families might have left in their homes after the housing crisis.
Moreover, the long-term effects would reduce spending and investment in
the housing market.
Increasing the debt ceiling is the responsible thing to do. Congress
has already debated and approved the debt that an increased ceiling
makes room for. However, my Republican

[[Page H5203]]

colleagues have chosen to use this as an opportunity to hold the
American people hostage to their extreme agenda. They know that the
``Tap Dance, Loser Club, and Bust Bill'' is not a realistic proposal.
In fact, part of the bill is another attempt to get the Paul Ryan
budget plan enacted, which caps annual spending as a share of GDP.
Moreover, it limits discretionary spending for the global war on
terror. As a member of the Committee on Homeland Security, I am acutely
aware of the threats our Nation faces from terrorism. By tying the
hands of Congress in the fight against terrorism, this bill puts our
troops and our homeland at risk. The safety of the American people has
no price, and Congress should not be constrained when coming together
to decide what level of funding is most appropriate for the global war
on terror.
If that were not enough, this bill goes beyond simply implementing
budgetary restraints, and contains the absurd requirement that a
Constitutional amendment be passed by both the House and Senate and
submitted to states prior to any increase in the debt ceiling. Leaving
the merits of such a Constitutional amendment aside for a moment, do
the proponents of this bill honestly expect such an amendment to be
submitted to the states by the August 2nd deadline?
Passing an amendment to the Constitution is one of the most serious
processes the United States Congress can undertake, requiring a two
thirds supermajority of support in both the House and Senate and
ratification by three fourths (\3/4\ths) of the States. The Founders
purposely made the amendment process a long and arduous one. Do my
Republican colleagues really expect Congress to capriciously pass an
amendment altering our Nation's founding document on such short notice;
an amendment that will fundamentally change our country without
reasonable time for debate; without the opportunity for a hearing or
questioning of witnesses; without any reports as to what impact it may
have?
By tying the fate of whether the United States pays its debt
obligations to the historically prolonged Constitutional amendment
process, the Republicans who support this bill have demonstrated, at
this critical juncture in American history, that they are profoundly
irresponsible when it comes to the integrity of our economy and utterly
bereft of sensible solutions for fixing it.
Moreover, the Constitutional amendment itself is merely a ploy to
make tax cuts for the wealthy and tax loopholes for big corporations a
permanent fixture of American governance. It would make any revenue-
raising measure unconstitutional unless a two-thirds supermajority
approves it. This is simply unprecedented and unacceptable.
H.J. Res. 1, one of the Constitutional amendment bills acceptable
under this bill, limits annual federal spending to 20 percent of the
prior year's gross domestic product (GDP), a limit even lower than 20
percent of the current year's GDP since GDP typically grows each year.
By contrast, federal spending averaged 22 percent of GDP during Ronald
Reagan's presidency--before the baby boomers had reached retirement
age, swelling the population eligible for Social Security and Medicare,
and when health care costs were much lower. As written this bill would
render Social Security unconstitutional in its current form. Capping
future spending below Reagan-era levels would force devastating cuts to
Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Head Start, child care, Pell
grants, and many other critical programs.

Any cuts made to accommodate a mandated balanced budget would fall
most heavily on domestic discretionary programs; the immediate result
of a balanced budget amendment would be devastating cuts in education,
homeland security, public safety, health care and research,
transportation and other vital services.
As written this bill would cut total funding for non-defense
discretionary programs by approximately 70 percent in 2021, and by more
than $3 trillion over the next ten years. This includes veterans'
medical care, most homeland security activities, border protection, and
the FBI. These cuts will impact funds to protect our Nation's food and
water supply, environmental protections, medical research, education,
and services for disadvantaged or abused children, frail elderly
people, and people with severe disabilities.
H.J. Res 1 proposes to convert Medicare to vouchers and raises its
eligibility from age 65 to 67. It also raises the Social Security
retirement age to 70. It contains cuts to the core programs for the
poorest and most disadvantaged Americans in 2021; Medicaid, the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps),
and Supplemental Security Income would all be cut in half.
This bill will make victims of natural disasters part of the ``Loser
Club.'' As the drought in Texas continues, ranchers are forced to sell
cattle in the largest beef-producing state. The drought has also
induced wildfires. Just last month, a fire that lasted more than a week
burned over 4,200 acres and destroyed between two and three million
dollars in timber. Since November 2010, more than 13,000 fires have
burned over 3.29 million acres of Texas land. Texas Governor Rick Perry
requested that the President declare disaster areas in the State of
Texas in order to make those areas eligible for federal relief funds.
This bill threatens to take away those very funds.
In the State of Missouri, storms, tornadoes, and floods recently
ravaged the lands. A nuclear plant was inches of water away from being
shut down because of rising flood water. Levees failed to block surging
flood waters. The Army Corps of Engineers responded, helping with
hundreds of thousands of sandbags.
This bill threatens to make losers out of the people who suffer from
these natural disasters. The Small Business Administration (SBA) helps
homeowners, renters, businesses of all sizes, and private nonprofit
organizations to fund repair or rebuilding efforts and cover the cost
of replacing lost or personal property destroyed by disasters. The SBA
sets up temporary disaster loan outreach centers where small business
applicants can apply for low interest loans and information and
updates. The SBA lets natural disaster victims submit disaster loan
applications for damage and losses from storms, tornadoes, and
flooding. Instead of submitting applications to the SBA, victims of
natural disasters will be submitting applications to join the ``Loser
Club.''
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) receives applications
for assistance in the form of grants and loans. Private insurance
companies deny many claims. Private insurance may not be enough to
cover the losses. Specialists from the FEMA go on foot and help
families with losses from natural disasters. They offer loans up to
$200,000 to repair or replace real estate; $40k to repair or replace
personal property, at low interest rates. Once funding is stripped from
this disaster loan program, are people going to be happy with the
interest rates that are provided courtesy of their Loser Club
membership?

My home state of Texas ranks 43rd in education, and last (50th) in
the nation in people over 25 who only have a high school education.
This bill will destroy the hopes and dreams of people who are striving
to improve those numbers. With this bill, our children will be given a
``Loser Club'' education and go on to earn ``Losers Club'' degrees.
An alternative plan, put forth by Senate Democratic and Republican
Majority and Minority Leaders Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell,
respectively, deals with the debt ceiling crisis in a way that is less
controversial for Democrats. Although still in the negotiation stages,
the plan has a few emerging ideas and general bipartisan support in the
Senate. However, House Republicans have expressed their dissatisfaction
with the proposal.
Tentatively, the Reid-McConnell debt ceiling proposal would allow the
President to raise the debt ceiling 3 times in the next year in an
amount totaling $2.5 trillion. Furthermore, it permits Congress to vote
on a resolution of disproval of each increase of the debt ceiling,
essentially assigning blame to President Obama for each increase. It
includes a plan to reduce the deficit in the amount of $1.5 trillion
over 10 years through cuts to domestic programs, while avoiding cuts to
entitlement programs or raising new taxes.
Moreover, the Reid-McConnell debt ceiling proposal would create a new
Congressional panel tasked with coming up with, by the end of the year,
a way of reducing the deficit by another $2.5 trillion or more through
cuts in entitlements and other yet-to-be identified steps. The proposed
committee would be comprised of 12 lawmakers who would issue a report
to Congress on how to achieve this. While I am still not convinced that
the cuts for this proposal will not unfairly harm our seniors and other
beneficiaries of domestic programs, I anticipate the product of these
negotiations, as they appear to be far more realistic than the bill
before us today.
I urge my colleagues to consider the constituents in their home
districts who would be hurt by the ``Tap Dance, Loser Club, and Bust
Bill.'' My Republican colleagues who support the passage of this bill
seem more concerned with advancing their own agenda rather than with
resolving a debt ceiling crisis that is placing our economy in great
peril. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned that defaulting
could ``throw the financial system into chaos'', and ``destroy the
trust and confidence that global investors have in Treasury securities
as being the safest liquid assets in the world''. Instead of injecting
ideological spending cuts and bizarre Constitutional amendments, into
the traditionally non-political business of raising the debt ceiling,
we must work quickly to pass a bill that makes good on our debt
obligations and restores confidence in American credit.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are advised to heed the gavel and

[[Page H5204]]

consume only the time yielded them by the managers of the floor.
Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, I would just remind Members of what the
leader on the other side said, wondering whether Members have actually
read the bill. If Members do read the bill, they understand that Cut,
Cap, and Balance, as provided before us, actually does those three
things and allows us to pay the bills at the same time.
With that, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Ross).
Mr. ROSS of Florida. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, for the last 30 years, I have spent my life as a
husband, a small business owner, and a State legislator. And one thing
I have learned from this is that common sense is not so common here in
Washington, D.C. As a husband, I know it would be irresponsible to buy
a shiny new car or a new boat when my family couldn't afford to make
their mortgage payment or their food payment. As a business owner, I
know that when I didn't have enough to meet my expenses, I didn't raise
revenues on my customers. I cut back my expenses. And as a legislator,
I knew that with a balanced budget amendment, we could operate a State
successfully. In the State of Florida, we did that. You do not see
Floridians running down the street hungry and rioting. No, you see
Florida living within its means because of a balanced budget amendment.
Mr. Speaker, those opposed to this plan are frightened. They are
frightened because they know that any cuts agreed to in ``deals''
aren't binding on a future Congress and a balanced budget amendment is.
They know that Cut, Cap, and Balance brings real spending reductions
today and will force government in the future to get an agreement of
the whole family, the supermajority, to go into debt or raise taxes. A
balanced budget amendment is common sense. The American people are
watching, and their patience is wearing thin.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. GARRETT. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr.
Palazzo).
Mr. PALAZZO. Mr. Speaker, with a record debt level of $14.2 trillion,
unemployment at 9.2 percent, and our spending habits out of control,
Americans are searching for answers. They are searching for a plan that
gives them real hope, a lifeline that will pull them out of the water
and onto solid ground. The Cut, Cap, and Balance Act is that lifeline.
It is a simple plan with guaranteed results.
Raising the debt ceiling without serious spending reforms would be
nothing more than a green light for more of President Obama's failed
spending programs, more job-destroying tax hikes, and more crushing
debt. The President's policies have us borrowing 40 cents on every
dollar we spend and will make our children foot the bill. This will
bankrupt America and jeopardize our children's futures.
We must take extraordinary action to solve our debt problems, and I
urge my colleagues to support the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act. By making
immediate cuts and bringing Federal spending in line with historic
averages, we can promote job growth, sustain our Nation's economic
viability, and ensure that the future of America is secure. Mr.
Speaker, Members of Congress, let's throw Americans a lifeline and vote
``yes'' on the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, it does not throw Americans a lifeline
to write into the Constitution of the United States a provision that
creates a preference for cutting Medicare and Social Security over
cutting subsidies for oil companies.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GARRETT. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr.
Barton).
(Mr. BARTON of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and
extend his remarks.)
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I am one of the original sponsors
of the tax limitation/balanced budget amendment under the Contract with
America back in 1995. I have got one of the most conservative voting
records in the House over the last 25 years. Common sense tells you
that our budget problem today is a spending problem. It is not a
revenue problem. And as the first law of ditch-digging says, When you
are digging a hole, in order to fill it, you've got to stop digging it
deeper.
President Obama's budget that he submitted to the Congress earlier
this year does not have a budget deficit of less than $500 billion over
a 10-year period. Cut, Cap, and Balance may have some technical issues
with it, but the basic premise is sound: We need to spend less money
short term, this year; we need to spend less money in the next 5 years;
and we need a constitutional amendment that locks into place that we,
over time, have to balance our budget every year unless there is some
act of war or national emergency going on that takes a two-thirds vote
to override. Vote for this bill later this evening.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from New Jersey has 30 seconds
remaining.
Mr. GARRETT. At this point, I will yield that 30 seconds to the
gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Duncan).
Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, one problem that I see
from my colleagues across the aisle and the President is that many of
them have never signed the front of a paycheck. They have only signed
the back of a paycheck. I was a small-town banker for 8\1/2\ years. I
practice the five Cs of credit: character, capacity, capital,
collateral, and cash flow.
If our country was held to these same standards, President Obama
would never get the loan that he's asking for. I have struggled on this
vote because of the $14 trillion of debt that our Nation faces.
President Obama has yet to come up with a plan that changes our
spending trajectory, but this House has. Cut, Cap, and Balance--it's
not just any plan, but it's revolutionarily reformed the way Congress
spends money.
We aren't $14 trillion in debt because we tax Americans too little.
We're in debt because Congress has spent too much money. We don't have
a revenue problem, folks. We have a spending problem.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman from New Jersey
has expired.
The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Jordan) is recognized for 30 minutes.
Mr. JORDAN. I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from
South Carolina (Mr. Duncan).
Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. I thank the gentleman from Ohio for
that.
Folks, reforms like a balanced budget amendment, coupled with
spending caps and significant spending cuts, are the types of
revolutionary reforms that can prevent our children and grandchildren
from inheriting mountains of debt. Passing off the debt problem to them
may be the easy way. But it is not the American way, and it's
definitely not the Christian way.
As President Reagan said, ``You and I, as individuals, can, by
borrowing, live beyond our means, but only for a limited period of
time. Why, then, should we think that collectively, as a Nation, we're
not bound by that same limitation? We must act today in order to
preserve tomorrow.''
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I would point out that when Ronald
Reagan was President, he raised the debt ceiling 17 times and
specifically wrote to the Congress, saying that failure to pay our
bills would jeopardize the creditworthiness and trustworthiness of the
United States. Let's not make that mistake. President Reagan didn't
want to make that mistake.
I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fattah).

{time} 1730

Mr. FATTAH. Members speak with so much certainty about these things.
It's not what we know that's the problem. It's what we know that just
isn't so.
Now, first and foremost, when we look at the Constitution of the
United States, and we look at article I, when we deal with the
legislature, among other things, the items or powers granted to the
legislature, the first one is to borrow on credit on behalf of the
United States. Now, if the Forefathers had no notion that we would be
borrowing, they would not have granted this as the first enumerated
power to the legislature.
But let's deal with this more commonsensical misinformation that's

[[Page H5205]]

been shared on the floor. They said, well, most families have to
balance their budgets. No, our families have mortgages. They don't wait
till they get homeless to then go the bank to try to get a roof over
their family's head. They borrow so they can have a home.
They don't wait until they need a car; they borrow the money to have
the car.
They said most businesses balance their budget. The manufacturers in
my district don't wait until their machines fall apart to recapitalize
their business. So we need to stop dealing in falsehoods here and know
that our country, the greatest superpower in the world, has to act in
responsible ways.
I encourage a ``no'' vote on this proposal.
Mr. JORDAN. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from the great State of
Louisiana (Mr. Landry).
Mr. LANDRY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in favor of H.R. 2560.
We need to set the record straight. See, the President said we don't
need a constitutional amendment to make government do its job. I don't
see why he cares. He normally ignores the Constitution most of the
time.
He says he will veto this bill if it comes to his desk. Well, he can
go ahead and veto it; but if he does, it is he who is choosing our
seniors over everyone else. It is he who is choosing not to move
America forward.
Let's look at the record. House Republicans reluctantly passed a CR
which was diluted by him and the Senate. We passed a budget, something
the Senate hasn't done in 811 days, and something the last Congress
didn't do in the last year of the last Congress.
I'm sorry if they don't like our plan, but the President hasn't even
put up a plan. He gives us no choice.
So, no, Mr. President, we don't need a balanced budget amendment, but
you do.
Therefore, I urge my colleagues to rise and support Cut, Cap, and
Balance.

Announcement By the Speaker Pro Tempore

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair has a plethora of advisories.
First of all, Members are reminded to address their remarks to the
Chair and not to others in the second person.
Secondly, personally disparaging remarks directed at the President of
the United States are inappropriate.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from
West Virginia (Mrs. Capito).
Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. Speaker, we're broke. Everyone from the small
business owner in West Virginia to Standard and Poor's and Moody's is
looking to Washington to solve this fiscal mess.
We have a responsibility to demonstrate that we can responsibly raise
the debt ceiling by changing the way Washington treats the taxpayers'
dollars. The reason we're in over our heads is not because we're taxed
too little; it's because we spend too much.
The bill before us today, Cut, Cap, and Balance, is a tangible idea
that demonstrates we have to pay our bills while making sure our future
credit card statements are not budget-busting.
If we want to protect our seniors and our grandchildren, encourage
small business, and create jobs and safeguard the American Dream, we
need to get our economy back on track. That starts with living within
our means. It's about time.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. JORDAN. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr.
Hultgren).
Mr. HULTGREN. Mr. Speaker, the American people know that Washington
has a massive spending and debt problem that threatens not only our
Nation's credit rating, but our fiscal future.
As a father of four, I understand the threat our Nation's fiscal
crisis poses to them and to others in their generation. A child born
today inherits more than $45,000 of debt, an astounding and terrifying
statistic.
It's clear that Congress needs to cut spending to ensure that America
remains strong and prosperous for future generations. We must fight
both the threat of downgrade and the threat of default. This
commonsense bill provides a guide to doing just that, without raising
taxes on job creators.
We must force this government to live within its means, preserve our
Nation's sterling credit rating, and fight for a brighter future for
our kids and our grandkids.
I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support the Cut,
Cap, and Balance bill and send it to the Senate with the strongest
possible support.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I still fail to see how it helps our
kids and helps our seniors to write into the Constitution of the United
States a bias in favor of cutting Medicare and cutting Social Security
and cutting education before cutting special interest tax breaks. They
would require only a majority to cut Social Security and Medicare, but
two-thirds to get rid of special interest tax breaks for the purpose of
reducing the deficit. That's why this is a question of priorities and a
question of balance.
How do we reduce the deficit? How do we get it into balance?
I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs.
Maloney).
Mrs. MALONEY. I thank the gentleman for his leadership and for
pointing out the priorities and the focus and the injustice and
unfairness of the Republican proposal.
At a time when Congress should be laser focused on finding new ways
to grow our economy and create American jobs, we find ourselves, once
again, bogged down in producing the Republican version of ``Waiting for
Godot.'' We all know that this bill will never become law, that it is
going nowhere in the Senate.
Their slash-and-burn cuts have not created a single job for
hardworking middle class families. And, in fact, most economists say
that cutting too deeply, too strongly would hinder economic recovery
and could return us to a recession.
For the average American family, the Republican proposal would mean a
cut in their future prospects, a cap on their dreams for tomorrow, and
balancing the budget on the backs of America's seniors, while they
refuse to even look at cutting a special interest tax break or subsidy.
They continue to subsidize companies that send our jobs overseas and
subsidize record-breaking profits that our oil companies have, but
they're subsidizing some of them to the tune of 40 percent.
The Republicans have brought us to the brink of a national default in
an effort to force the American people to accept their ideological
agenda.
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, before yielding to the gentleman from
Indiana, let me just say this: This idea that there's no chance this
will pass the Senate, how do we know? We don't know until we send it
over there. Maybe Harry Reid will have the courage to bring it up on
the floor. We don't know.
You know what? Every Friday night when they get ready to play the
game, there's always one team that's favored, maybe heavily favored.
But they still kick the ball off, they still play the game, and
sometimes the underdog wins.
In fact, anything of real magnitude that's ever happened, the
conventional wisdom was, it can't happen. So how do we know?
I'm sick of this argument it can't happen in the Senate. We don't
know that. If the conventional wisdom always won out, there wouldn't be
a United States of America. This is one of those historic moments. And
to say this thing can't pass the Senate is just plain wrong, just plain
wrong.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. JORDAN. I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Here's the question. As you know, this requires that
we later pass a constitutional amendment. In fact, between now and
August 2 we have to pass a constitutional amendment which, of course,
requires two-thirds in the House. We'll find out by later this evening
whether or not this bill will even get two-thirds in the House.
Mr. JORDAN. I think it's going to get 218, and we'll send it to the
Senate. At some point we may be able to get two-thirds. That's our
whole goal. This bill needs 218.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. The point is, this bill says you can't continue to
pay the bills unless, between now and August 2 or whenever----
Mr. JORDAN. I know what the bill says.

[[Page H5206]]

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. We pass a constitutional amendment with the
provisions that you have in here. And so it will be a test today
whether you can get the two-thirds to change the Constitution in the
ways you're talking about.

{time} 1740

Mr. JORDAN. Reclaiming my time, is the gentleman from Maryland
suggesting that if there are some changes made to the balanced budget
amendment in our legislation that there would be 50 votes in the House
to support it on your side?
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I've already indicated that there is a conversation
to be had with respect to what is a reasonable approach, but that is
absolutely not what we're dealing with in this particular bill as we've
debated.
Mr. JORDAN. That's good to know.
Reclaiming my time, so what you're saying is you guys actually think
the balanced budget amendment is a good idea and something we need.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. We believe, as the President said, the best way for
us to balance the budget is to get together and hammer out a deal
sooner rather than later.
Mr. JORDAN. Oh, that's really worked well over the last 40 years.
I yield 15 seconds to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton).
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, the American people who may be
paying attention to this whole debate may be a little confused; so let
me just sum it up in one sentence: They want to spend more, they want
to tax more, and we don't.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, if what the gentleman is saying is that we think we
should get rid of a lot of the pork barrel spending in the Tax Code,
whether it's oil subsidies or whether it's for corporate jets, yes, we
think we should get rid of some of that stuff for the purpose of
reducing the deficit.
Mr. JORDAN. Will the gentleman yield for a question?
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. We have a lot less time; otherwise, I would.
If the Speaker would tell us how much time is remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Ohio has 23\3/4\ minutes
remaining, and the gentleman from Maryland has 40\1/2\ minutes
remaining. Then the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Ryan) will control 30
minutes.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. JORDAN. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr.
Duffy).
Mr. DUFFY. Mr. Speaker, we've had a great debate here on Cut, Cap,
and Balance. All the points have been made. But as I sit here and
listen to this debate, Mr. Speaker, I can't help but notice the
hypocrisy.
We're dealing with the other side, who is the advocate of three wars.
They have a $1 trillion stimulus bill, a $1 trillion-plus ObamaCare,
and they don't want to come to the table and have a conversation about
how we're going to reduce spending in the U.S. Government. And then we
hear all this conversation about tax loopholes. Well, welcome to the
party.
Mr. Speaker, 2 months ago, we had a bill on the floor where we did
away with all these loopholes and reformed our tax codes and they did
nothing to support that reform, and now they demagogue our plan again.
We hear about sending jobs overseas. Well, jobs are going overseas
because we're taxing our businesses too much. When you tax them too
much, they go other places. And when they go other places--like China,
India, Mexico, and Vietnam--they take our jobs with them.
I've heard a lot about Medicare. The only party in this House who has
cut Medicare is the Democrat Party--$500 billion out of Medicare in an
IPAB bill that is going to ration care for our seniors.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair will again remind Members to heed
the gavel and consume only the time yielded to them.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I would urge my colleagues to look at
the Congressional Budget Office analysis of the impact of the
Republican budget on senior citizens on Medicare. Essentially what they
do is give seniors a raw deal compared to what Members of Congress get
themselves, a raw deal in a big way.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Louisiana, Dr. Fleming.
Mr. FLEMING. Mr. Speaker, but for the President of the United States
who serves today and a Democrat-controlled Congress over the last 2
years, we wouldn't be here today debating this; $3.8 trillion added to
our debt and continuing on that same glidepath.
Mr. Speaker, we're here today because people across America--
businesses, cities, States--all have to balance their budgets. The only
game in this country, the only entity that doesn't have to balance its
budget is the Federal Government, and that's what has ruined our
economy.
So all we're asking for in this bill is simply to immediately cut
$111 million in fiscal 2012; begin capping our spending rates, bringing
it down to what's traditional, 18 percent; and then, finally, passing a
balanced budget amendment that will finally put the restraints on this
body, on the President of the United States, and certainly on the
Senate, finally, so we will begin doing the people's work and allow
this economy to flourish once again.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Florida (Mr. Southerland).
Mr. SOUTHERLAND. Mr. Speaker, every second of every day Washington
adds another $40,000 to our national debt. In fact, by the time I
finish speaking this sentence our national debt will increase another
$360,000--$360,000 in one sentence.
We've reached the edge of a cliff, and it's going to take tough
decisions and responsible leadership to eliminate this massive, massive
debt. That's why today I rise in support of H.R. 2560, the Cut, Cap,
and Balance Act of 2011. I support it because it's right, not because
it's a Republican plan, but because it's a commonsense plan. It's the
American family plan.
Every American family cuts their budget, caps their budget, and
balances their budget with their own finances; so should Washington.
That is not an unfair expectation. To argue against this is to argue
against common sense. This is to say, as bad parents do, ``Do as I say,
not as I do.'' That is bad parenting, and that's also bad legislation.
Unfortunately, over the past 3 months, our efforts to get serious
about this crisis have been met with scare tactics. Enough. Enough of
the political parlor tricks coming out of this city. It is time for us
to do the job that the American people sent us here to do: practice
common, walking-around sense. That's what my grandfather taught me.
That's good at home; that's good in the family; that's good in small
business; and it is good enough for Washington, D.C.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, American families don't have the luxury
of saying if we don't get things 100 percent our way, we won't pay our
family bills.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio
(Mr. Chabot).
Mr. CHABOT. Our national unemployment rate is stuck at over 9
percent. We're currently borrowing 43 cents on every dollar that's
spent around here, and our national debt stands at a staggering $14.5
trillion. The American people are demanding that we in Congress provide
real solutions to these serious problems. The Cut, Cap, and Balance Act
does just that.
The debate today is not whether we should make good on our current
obligations. We're all in agreement that we must pay our bills, but the
spending in Washington is out of control and it has to stop. We have to
cap future spending, and passing a balanced budget amendment is
critical to doing that; because, let's face it, historically Congress
has shown no will or the ability to stop its addiction to spending.
Right now, back in my district in Cincinnati, hardworking Americans
are making tough decisions, tightening their belts, and making
sacrifices to pay their bills. They expect us to do the same.
Now let's do the right thing and pass this critical bill.

[[Page H5207]]

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. JORDAN. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr.
Flake).
Mr. FLAKE. Mr. Speaker, this has been a fascinating debate. Members
on both sides of the aisle stand and claim moral superiority when it
comes to the debt that we've accumulated. There is plenty of blame to
go around.
When Republicans had majorities in both the House and the Senate and
when there was a Republican in the White House, we behaved badly, from
No Child Left Behind to prescription drug benefits, bloated farm bills,
swollen highway bills, bridges to nowhere, pork strewn everywhere.
Let's be honest, we were headed toward this fiscal cliff long before
the current President took the wheel.

{time} 1750

So here we are today, Mr. Speaker. It matters little who drove what
shift. What matters is that we, both parties, are teetering on the
fiscal cliff, getting ready to drag the country into the abyss.
Fortunately, the 2006 midterm elections sent many of us on a detour
on the road to Damascus, and we are here today with a cut, cap, and
balance plan that will put us back on sure financial footing. If the
other side of the aisle has a plan that does not entail more of the
same behavior that got us here, we should consider that plan. To date,
we have seen no such plan.
I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this cut,
cap, and balance legislation.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I agree with a lot of what the gentleman
said.
I would say that the President has put a plan on the table to reduce
the deficit by $4 trillion over about 10 years. It does it with $3 in
spending cuts to $1 in revenue. That approach apparently was rejected
by our colleagues.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, you know why it was rejected? Because it is
the same old game. It is exactly the same old game. The cuts come in
the outyears; the tax increases come now. And, oh, here we go again.
And, yes, there are no specifics to it. It is the same old game.
I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Roskam).
Mr. ROSKAM. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I sit back, and as we are watching the debate today, I
have got to take my hat off to the gentleman from Maryland, who I think
has the toughest job in the whole Chamber, Mr. Speaker; and that is, he
is basically, today, the lawyer for the status quo. And that's a tough
job. That's a tough argument to make. No matter how thoughtful the
arguments have been on this side of the aisle that there is an urgency,
no matter how poignant the arguments are that there is an urgency, no
matter how jarring the unemployment figures are at 9.2 percent, no
matter what the rating agencies are saying, the gentleman from Maryland
is basically saying: No, no, no, there's a better plan.
But I would submit that there is no better plan. There is no more
balanced plan than cut, cap, and balance.
Most Americans as they are listening to this debate, they are hearing
Washington, D.C., basically say hold the line. Defend the status quo.
Lash ourselves to the mast and we're going to get around the cape, by
golly, if we only stick on the current course. Well, the current course
is a failure. There's nobody who can defend the status quo with a
straight face.
What happens now is this majority has come up and said: Okay, there
is a pathway forward, and the pathway forward is immediate short term
and long term. And I don't see what the argument is.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. ROSKAM. I am happy to yield to the gentleman from Maryland.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I thank the gentleman.
If what you mean by protecting the status quo is meaning that I am
opposed to actually manipulating the Constitution of the United States
to make it harder to reduce special interest tax breaks, yes, I don't
think we should change the Constitution that way. But if you mean we
should----
Mr. ROSKAM. I will graciously reclaim my time.
Furthermore, they are doing it in an orderly basis; that is, amending
the Constitution forthrightly and directly.
I think, in closing, Mr. Speaker, my hat is off to the gentleman from
Maryland who, no matter what the majority has come up with, always
comes up with some argument that just defies logic. But I think most
Americans, as they are listening to this debate, are saying cut it, cap
it, and balance it. And do it now.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I think what will defy the logic of the
American people is why our Republican colleagues are going to write
into the Constitution of the United States a provision that says a
majority vote is needed to cut Medicare, a majority vote is needed to
cut Social Security, a majority vote is needed to cut education, but
you need two-thirds vote to cut subsidies for Big Oil companies, you
need a two-thirds vote to get rid of subsidies for corporate jets. That
is something that defies logic.
You would also write into the Constitution a provision that says even
if you balanced the budget at 19 percent of GDP or some other level so
that we can meet the needs of Social Security and Medicare, you
wouldn't be able to do that. You would constitutionally prohibit that
kind of balanced budget, one that meets the needs of Social Security
and Medicare beneficiaries. That defies logic.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, what defies logic is a $14 trillion debt and
the Democrats' unwillingness to say let's do what everyone else has to
do. Let's put a balanced budget requirement in the Constitution so that
politicians have to do what they have to do in their homes.
Obviously, the other route didn't work. So what part of $14 trillion
don't you understand? What part of balancing the budget don't you
understand?
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I understand $14 trillion and----
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Ohio controls the time.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair, understanding that there are
passionate arguments on both sides, would ask all Members to observe
the decorum of the House and conduct debate accordingly by speaking one
at a time.
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from
California (Mr. McCarthy), the distinguished majority whip.
Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank my colleague from Ohio for
yielding and for his work on this legislation.
It is interesting to listen to the debate, and that is healthy.
That's why we are on this floor.
``Defying logic,'' an interesting term. Defying logic, when you think
of a debt limit. What is a debt limit, and why are we debating it?
The debt limit, to the American people so you understand, is to pay
for the obligations that this government has already promised.
So let's think about defying logic.
The economy is tough, so I sat in this House and I watched the other
side of the aisle, Mr. Speaker, put together a stimulus bill where I
even watched their own people stand on the floor and say they didn't
know if it would work. At the end of the day, defying logic meant
$278,000 for every job that was created.
Defying logic to the American public is that more people in America
today believe that Elvis Presley is alive than the stimulus created a
job. Defying logic is that we have gone 28 straight months with
unemployment above 8 percent. Defying logic is to continue this
pattern. But today we have a debate. Today we have a choice. Today we
can take a new path.
I understand why so vigorously you fight this; because it would be a
change to America. It would change the direction. And the one thing I
would ask is: When will the assault on the American people stop? That
would be defying the pattern of where we are going to go.
So I want to ask you one thing. We ask in this bill to cut where you
had government spending, just discretionary, gone up 84 percent in the
last 3 years--to small business, that would be quite odd that they
weren't able to

[[Page H5208]]

do that--that we are going to cap it so it can't grow out of control,
and then we're going to ask for a balanced budget that 49 States even
have as a statute.
What I want to say today is a new path. It is not a path to repeating
mistakes; it is a path to a new future. When you think of a balanced
budget and you question whether it will pass, you know, 16 years ago we
came one vote shy in the Senate. It passed this body with fewer people
on this side. That meant people on the other side of the aisle voted
for it. There are some of the people in your leadership who have voted
for it.
Now, I want the American people to think and imagine, imagine had we
gotten that one vote, the debate today would not have taken place. The
debate today would not be about $14 trillion. The debate today wouldn't
be that we had to change the path. The debate today would be about the
future of this country. What do you think we would be debating? What
investments we would make to continue to make this country strong? What
ability we could grow with our businesses, and it wouldn't be about
unemployment.
So I want to harken back to a former President who said we could go
to that shiny city on the hill. My charge is for this body to join us
on that climb because this is the first step. And when we get there, we
will recharge that light so this country burns brighter with freedom
and liberty than it has in times before.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, there are some things that we want to
change, and there are some things we don't want to change. One of the
things we don't want to change capriciously is the Constitution of the
United States of America.
I think many of us think it is a corruption to the Constitution to
write in provisions that say you can only balance the budget the way
the Republicans want to balance the budget; you can only do it by
capping things at 18 percent even if that means deep cuts to Social
Security and deep cuts to Medicare.

{time} 1800

We think it's a corruption of the Constitution to write into the
founding document a provision that says it's easier to cut Medicare and
Social Security than corporate tax breaks. That is in here. We keep
hearing 49 out of 50 States. Forty-nine out of 50 States do not write
those kind of provisions into their State Constitutions--a very few
do--and for good reason: They're bad ideas, they're bad ideas now, and
they will be bad ideas in the future which would constrain a Congress
from balancing the budget in a way that reflects the will of the
American people.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I would just add, 38 of those 50 States
would have to agree to this before the Constitution would be amended.
The gentleman can say, oh, we're going to write this in. The States get
to decide this. That's the other part of this equation.
I would yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr.
Gowdy).
Mr. GOWDY. I want to thank the gentleman from Ohio for yielding and
for his leadership on this and so many other issues.
Mr. Speaker, the President says he wants to do a big deal. He says he
wants to do something transformative. He wants to do something that
will echo in eternity. And he's willing to risk his political career to
get it done.
History tells a very different story. In 2006, Senator Barack Obama
joined 47 Senate Democrats in voting ``no'' on raising the debt
ceiling. This, the first post-partisan President, cast a decidedly
partisan vote in joining every single one of his colleagues in saying
``no'' to raising the debt ceiling. Did calamitous have a different
definition in 2006? Was reneging on your debt somehow more palatable in
2006? Was the apocalypse not blowing in 2006? In 2007 and 2008, when
again this body voted on raising the debt ceiling, the President, who
was a Senator from Illinois, was absent for both votes.
Fast forward to President Obama. He has proposed a budget that raises
this debt by trillions of dollars, with no spending cuts, and then he
famously invites our colleague, Paul Ryan, to the White House to
lecture him on sensitivity and entitlement reform while offering
absolutely no plan whatsoever on his own for entitlement reform. Then
he said he wanted a clean debt ceiling increase, free from the
nuisances of spending cuts, entitlement reform, and personal
responsibility.
How do you go from voting ``no'' on raising the debt ceiling to
saying you want a clean increase in the debt, to now saying you want to
do something transformative that echoes in eternity?
Mr. Speaker, the President says he has a plan. Forgive our
skepticism. I'd like to see the plan. I prefer cut, cap, and balance
over punt, pass, and kick.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair would congratulate both floor
managers as we are at 38\3/4\ minutes on the majority side and 38
minutes on the minority side.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Maryland.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Virginia (Mr.
Moran).
Mr. MORAN. Mr. Chairman, I haven't read Ayn Rand for 45 years, so all
I have as a reference point is what I've observed over the last 20
years in this body.
I remember when we were trying to pull out of the last recession in
1990. George H.W. Bush called the leaders of both political parties
together. They came up with a compromise. They raised revenue, they cut
spending, and they started to pull us out of the recession. The economy
started rebounding.
President Clinton followed suit. In fact, he raised the top tax rates
to 39.6 percent. Now we heard at the time all of the Republican
arguments, that you should only cut spending, you can't raise new
revenue because it's going to cost jobs, and so on. Not one Republican
vote was cast for the tax increase, but what happened? We know what
happened. Twenty million jobs were created. We had surpluses. We had
the strongest economy in modern history. We reduced welfare. We grew
the middle class. Homeownership increased. And we handed over a
surplus, a projected surplus, of $5.6 trillion. In fact, this year we
would have paid off our public debt. And what happened to those who
paid at that highest rate of 39.6 percent? They brought home more
after-tax income than at any prior time in American history. It worked.
And now your party comes in with this attitude we've been hearing
about all day, you want to drastically cut taxes, shrink government,
and ensure a permanent indebtedness. In fact just this spring you voted
for a Republican budget that increased the deficit by $8.8 trillion,
from $14.3 to $23.1 trillion over the next 10 years. But now you don't
want to pay for it.
That's what happened during the last Bush administration. We didn't
pay for anything. We didn't pay for tax cuts. We didn't pay for wars.
We didn't pay for expansion of Medicare. That's why we're in the hole
that we're in.
Alan Greenspan said, ``Restore the Clinton tax rates.'' Every
Republican in 2001 and 2003 voted to let the Bush tax cuts expire in
2011. Do it. Be responsible. Pay off our debts. Let's get back to
policies that work with a government that deserves the trust of its
citizens.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are again reminded to address their
remarks to the Chair and not to others in the second person.
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman
from Wisconsin (Mr. Ryan) control the balance of my time, who will also
take over the final 30 minutes.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from
Wisconsin will now control 38\3/4\ minutes.
There was no objection.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Wisconsin.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, at this time I would like to
yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert).
Mrs. BIGGERT. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this bill. It's no secret that our
Nation's $14.3 trillion debt poses an extraordinary threat to our
financial future, and extraordinary times call for extraordinary
measures. The Cut, Cap, and Balance Act would finally end the fiscal
uncertainty and force the Federal Government to put the interests of
the taxpayers first.

[[Page H5209]]

Our colleagues across the aisle claim that this plan goes too far by
restricting future borrowing, but the reality is that this bill simply
caps spending at the same sustainable rates as past generations, about
20 percent of GDP, a post-World War II average.
For too long, government has spent the taxpayers into a debt they
cannot afford. Cut, Cap, and Balance would show our creditors, our
competitors, and the American people that we are willing to make the
tough choices needed to restore confidence and growth in the United
States.
Mr. Speaker, it's time to cut the spending and give American
businesses the certainty and stability they need to create jobs.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman
from Pennsylvania (Mr. Platts).
Mr. PLATTS. I appreciate the gentleman yielding.
I rise today in support of H.R. 2560. It is important for the
President and Congress to reach a final agreement on the debt ceiling
that helps restore fiscal responsibility in Washington, honors
America's obligations, and puts our Nation back on the path to
prosperity.
It is clear that our economy will continue to struggle until
Washington demonstrates the ability to get our spending and our debt
under control. As the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral
Mike Mullen, has stated, our national debt is the biggest threat to our
national security.
The Cut, Cap, and Balance bill before us addresses our Nation's
spending and debt challenges in a manner that stops delaying hard
decisions. We immediately cut spending by over $100 billion, we cap
spending in future years at less than 20 percent of GDP, and send a
balanced budget amendment to the States for ratification.
At $14 trillion and counting, our national debt currently is quickly
approaching 100 percent of GDP. The Federal Government is borrowing 40
cents of every dollar it spends. America cannot continue on this
unsustainable fiscal path. The full faith and credit of the United
States Government depends on Congress acting.
I urge a ``yes'' vote.

{time} 1810

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr.
Gene Green).
(Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and
extend his remarks.)
Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. I rise in opposition to the drastic cuts to
Social Security, Medicare, and other crucial Federal programs that this
Cut, Cap, and Balance Act would force on the American people. The Cut,
Cap, and Balance Act takes our Nation closer to default by holding the
debt ceiling hostage until Congress passes a constitutional amendment
to limit Federal spending to 18 percent of GDP. The last time Federal
spending was below 18 percent of GDP was 1966. Even under Ronald
Reagan, the Federal spending averaged over 22 percent of GDP. There's
almost no conceivable way to revert spending back to the 1960s levels
without sharp cuts in every program, including Medicare and Social
Security. In order to reduce Federal spending to 18 percent of GDP,
every Federal program, including Social Security and Medicare, would
need to be cut by 25 percent.
Faced with the need to increase the debt ceiling in 1987, President
Reagan called on Congress to raise the ceiling and said failure to do
so would threaten those who rely on Social Security and veterans
benefits, create instability in the financial markets, and cause the
Federal deficit to soar. It's funny, I agree with President Reagan.
Our last balanced budget was in 1999 and 2000, the last years of the
Democratic President Bill Clinton. Since 2001 we had 9/11, federalizing
airport security, war in Iraq, Afghanistan, war on terror, a
prescription drug plan for seniors, and 2001 and 2003 tax cuts--none of
these were paid for--all went to the National debt. We had a balanced
annual budget without cutting Medicare or Social Security in 1999 and
2000. It is time for this chamber to end the political theater, to take
the necessary steps to avoid default, and I urge my colleagues to
oppose this dangerous legislation.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield 1 minute to
the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Hurt).
Mr. HURT. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of H.R. 2560. We are in a
spending-driven debt crisis that continues to stall job creation,
passes a crushing financial burden on to our children, and affecting
all Fifth District Virginians. Since President Obama took office, our
national debt has increased by $3.7 trillion, raising our current total
debt to an unacceptable $14 trillion. Now, after 2\1/2\ years of
reckless spending, the President is asking that we raise the debt
ceiling once again. But we have yet to see any concrete plan from this
administration to help rein in the out-of-control government spending
that has brought us to the brink of a debt crisis.
So the House is once again leading in delivering on the message sent
by the people of Virginia's Fifth District to change the culture in
Washington and end the government spending spree by putting forth a
commonsense proposal that will cut, cap, and balance Federal spending
and force Washington to live within its means. Now is the time to put
in place effective spending reforms to reduce our debt and deficits,
return certainty to the marketplace, and preserve the American Dream
for our children and grandchildren.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I yield 1 minute to the distinguished Democratic
leader, the gentlelady from California (Ms. Pelosi).
Ms. PELOSI. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I commend him for his
tremendous leadership as the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee
and for bringing to that debate and that discussion at the table the
values of the American people and the concerns they have as they sit
around their kitchen table.
They are concerned that this Saturday will mark the 200th day of the
Republicans attaining the majority in the House of Representatives. And
yet today another day goes by when we do not have a jobs bill on the
floor. Indeed, we should have a jobs bill. This isn't a jobs bill. We
should be working together to lower the deficit, to grow the economy,
to create jobs; and we should be doing so in a balanced, bipartisan
way. Instead, we have before us what is called the Republican plan to
cut, cap, and end Medicare.
This legislation is the Republican budget that was voted on earlier
this year all over again. Wildly unpopular among the American people,
the Republican budget, again, ended Medicare, made seniors pay more for
less, while it gave take breaks to Big Oil and corporations sending
jobs overseas. It made kids pay less for their education while it gave
tax breaks to the wealthiest people in our country.
As our Republican colleague, Congressman Jim Jordan, chairman of the
Republican Study Committee, which is the source of this budget, said on
Sunday, this legislation basically mirrors the budget proposal that the
House passed this year. And indeed it does. It is summed up in one
sentence: it ends Medicare, making seniors pay more, while giving take
breaks to Big Oil and corporations sending jobs overseas. Furthermore,
economists believe that the result of this legislation will be the
result of the loss of 700,000 jobs.
This legislation harms middle class families. But don't take my word
for it. Nearly 250 national organizations oppose this legislation,
saying it would almost certainly necessitate massive cuts to vital
programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans benefits,
and lead to even deeper cuts than the House-passed budget.
Mr. Speaker, I heard the previous speaker say we have to think about
future generations as we go forward in this debate. Indeed, I agree.
For that reason, I call young people to my office over and over again,
and most recently, last week, a large group of college students, some
just newly graduated, and I said, Your name is used at the table of the
debt reduction; your name is used at the table that we owe this to
future generations. I'd like to know from you as a member of the next
generation, as a leader of the next generation, what do you think about
what's going on at the debate table, the discussion table in the White
House? What do you think of that? What values do you want me to bring
from your generation to that table?

With great wisdom they talked about the fact that education was
central to their success and to America's competitiveness now and in
the future.

[[Page H5210]]

They talked about jobs. They said, Please don't have the cuts in the
legislation deter job growth and growth of the economy. They said,
Please don't harm Medicare and Medicaid, because that's very important
to our families. In fact, for many of our families, that enables them
to afford our ability to go to college. We just wouldn't make it
without that.
Actually, one other thing they talked about was, We want to share in
reducing the deficit. We believe that everyone has a responsibility to
do so, but we want our voices to be heard. And we're concerned with
voter suppression now around the country and that barriers will be
thrown up that will hurt our participation in the electoral process. So
when I went to the White House, I spoke about that.
But yesterday I met with high school students, well over a hundred
high school students. I asked them the same question. They had similar
answers. They also said, Tell them if they care about the future
generations, they should care about our education, they should care
about the budget deficit, they should care about jobs. They should also
care about the environment, because the condition of the environment is
important to us.
But going back to those college students, that day I went into the
White House and told my colleagues--the President, the Vice President,
and our Democratic and Republican colleagues--what those college
students said about education, for example. And then I listened to the
discussion and I thought, Who is going to tell the children? Who is
going to tell the children that at this table the suggestion is made
that young people should spend $36 billion more for interest on their
student loans so that we can reduce the deficit, but not touch $37
billion--almost the same number--$37 billion in tax subsidies for Big
Oil. Who's going to tell the children that that is what the values are
that are being proposed by the Republicans at that table--$36 billion
more charged to students, $37 billion as a gift to Big Oil. But don't
touch that to reduce the deficit.
It's stunning to me.
So as we use the name of the next generation and what we owe them and
what they expect as they come out of school or what they need in order
to afford school, in some cases that increase in the cost of interest
payments will make it prohibitive--not more expensive--prohibitive for
young people to go to school. One young man in high school said to me
yesterday, I just graduated from high school at the top of my class. I
had great grades and scores and everything, but I can't afford to go to
college. I can only go to the community college in my town because I
can only afford to be close to home and go to a community college. So
please, in whatever it is you do, don't hurt community colleges.

{time} 1820

Community colleges are wonderful, and they do a great job for our
country and the education of our children and the training of our
workers and the rest. I had the privilege of speaking at the graduation
commencement ceremony at San Francisco Community College last month, so
I value what they do; but this young man had no choice because the cost
of other education to him would be prohibitive, and again, because of
the economic situation, he had to stay close to home.
So let's listen to these people whose names we use--the next
generation, the young people. We cannot heap mountains of debt onto
them. Indeed, we shouldn't. Indeed, we didn't. When President Clinton
was President, he took the deficit that he'd inherited on a path of
fiscal soundness. Four of the five of his last budgets were either in
surplus or in balance. You've heard that over and over again. He took a
$5.6 trillion trajectory into surplus, only to be reversed by President
Bush with his tax cuts for the rich, with his giveaways to the
pharmaceutical industry and by not paying for the wars. He took us on a
trajectory of a swing of $11 trillion--the biggest fiscal swing in the
history of our country.
That's the path we're on.
I didn't hear anybody on the Republican side say ``boo, boo'' when
the President was taking us so deeply into debt; and every time, we
stepped up to the plate and lifted the debt ceiling because that was
the right thing to do.
Much has been said, if we don't lift the debt ceiling, as to what
that means to our economy. We hear sounds from the tables in boardrooms
about what it will do to the stock market, the credit markets, what it
will do to the fiscal soundness of our country, our reputation
overseas--and that's very important. Yet it's not only important what
is said around the boardroom table; it's important as to what this
means around the kitchen table for America's working families.
American families could soon see an increase in their cost of
mortgages, car loans, credit cards, and student loans. Social Security
and veterans' checks could be held up. Stock prices, which are
important to our economy, could fall with a direct hit on families'
401(k)s, pensions and savings. It would be a job destroyer, heaping
more economic insecurity on America's families and on the concerns they
have as to the education of their children, the health of their
families and the security of their retirements around that kitchen
table. Rather than making progress on the debt limit to prevent these
widespread consequences for America's middle class, this legislation
takes us backward: throwing up further roadblocks to increasing the
debt limit.
Mr. Speaker, we still have time to come together in a bipartisan and
balanced way for a ``grand bargain'' that would ensure our Nation meets
its obligations while working toward a long-term plan to reduce the
deficit, create jobs, grow the economy, and strengthen the middle
class.
Let us recognize that the best way to reduce the deficit is to get
the American people back to work. Let us do as the President called
upon us to do: to out-build, out-educate, out-innovate the rest of the
world to win the future by creating jobs. Together, we can keep America
number one.
I see my distinguished friend from Indiana is here, and I heard his
one-sentence summation earlier. I won't repeat it, but I'll give you my
one-sentence summation on this:
This legislation ends the Medicare guarantee, making seniors pay at
least $6,000 more while giving tax breaks to Big Oil and corporations
sending jobs overseas.
I hope that some of our Republican colleagues will do what they did
before and vote against this budget plan. A majority of Republicans
voted against this budget plan when it came to the floor the day of the
Ryan budget. I call upon all of us to do the right thing for the next
generation and vote ``no.''
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds only to
say that the only place where our budget mentions oil is when we say we
want to drill for more of it in our country. We don't address the tax
issue. In fact, what we call for is eliminating loopholes to lower tax
rates. We save Medicare, and guarantee the program is there for people
55 and above--more importantly, contrary to the current law, which
takes Medicare away from current seniors as they now know it.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the House Republican
Conference chairman, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling).
Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, this Nation suffers from a surplus of
deficits.
First, our seniors have a health care deficit because, in the last
Congress, Democrats cut Medicare by a half a trillion dollars,
hastening its bankruptcy and then creating a new board, called the
IPAB, in order to ration the access and quality of their health care.
Next, they brought us a jobs deficit. Millions are unemployed and
they remain unemployed--the highest duration of long-term unemployment
since the Great Depression.
Then, Mr. Speaker, we have the financial deficit. After the
President's trillion-dollar stimulus program, which has failed
miserably, after his $1.4 trillion takeover of our health care system,
after an increase of base government--24 percent in 2 years and three
trillion-dollar-plus deficits in a row, we now have a debt crisis. So
the President says, Do you know what? We need a balanced plan. I want
you, Republicans, to raise taxes to pay for my spending.
Mr. President, one of the greatest impediments we have to job
creation today is the threat of taxes to pay for your spending.

[[Page H5211]]

Every day, I hear from small business people in my congressional
district. I heard from Kristine Tanzillo of Canton, Texas: ``Washington
seems to think they can tax its way out of our economic problem, which
is not possible. We are not hiring or planning to grow for the next
several years. We are concerned that our government will raise taxes or
put other burdensome restrictions on us that we will not be
profitable.''
The financial deficit is tied to our jobs deficit. The American
people have a message for their government:
It is time to quit spending money we do not have. It is time to quit
borrowing 42 cents on the dollar, much of it from the Chinese, and then
sending the bill to our children and grandchildren. It is why, today,
House Republicans bring to the floor the Cut, Cap, and Balance program.
Cut. It cuts spending to at least the '08 levels. Who thought that
government was too small before President Barack Obama came into town?
Cap. Since World War II, spending has averaged 20 percent of our
economy. Under this President, it's 25 percent, growing to 40. Let's
keep it at 20 percent.
Balance. Every family in America has to balance their budgets around
the kitchen table. Every small business has to balance their budgets as
do 49 of the 50 States. But no. Our Democrat colleagues said it is
radical. It is radical to balance the budget.
What I say is, if we want jobs, hope and opportunity, we must cut,
cap, and balance.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I would again remind my colleagues that the last time
the Federal Government budget was in surplus was during the Clinton
administration, at a time when they took a balanced approach to deficit
reduction--unfortunately, one that has been rejected by our colleagues
in the communications and conversations with the President of the
United States, who has put forward a proposal for $3 in spending cuts,
for $1 in revenue, again, generated by closing special interest
loopholes and by returning to the rates that were in place for the very
top income earners, rates that were in place during the Clinton
administration, which was the last time we were in surplus.
With that, I yield 3 minutes to a member of the Judiciary Committee,
the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott), who has been a real leader on
this debate.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I oppose this legislation, and I
would like to focus my comments on the balanced budget amendment
because the dirty little secret about the balanced budget amendment is
that it does not require a balanced budget.

{time} 1830

It will actually make it more difficult for future Congresses to
balance the budget, so the title is just misleading.
Let's go through some of the provisions.
The first provision of the balanced budget amendment requires a
budget not in balance to require a three-fifths vote in the House and
the Senate. The fact is every budget that we considered this year--in
fact, most of the budgets, virtually every budget in the last 10
years--was not balanced in the first year. So all of those budgets,
including the Republican Ryan plan, even the Republican Study Committee
plan, would have required a three-fifths vote to pass in both the House
and the Senate.
Now, the deficit reduction requires tough votes, often career-ending
votes. The 1993 Clinton budget that was on the way to paying off the
national debt, if we hadn't changed it after 2001, we would have paid
off the entire debt held by the public. By now, we would owe nothing to
China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia. But that didn't get three-fifths of the
vote, and 50 Democrats lost their seats as a result of that plan.
Likewise, this year's Republican Ryan plan, which repeals Medicare as
we know it, is a good deficit reduction plan. Didn't get anywhere close
to three-fifths, and Democrats have already picked up one seat in the
special election because the Republican candidate supported the
Republican Ryan plan.
So deficit reduction requires tough votes, and increasing the votes
needed to pass it will not help pass a deficit reduction plan.
Now, while it's harder to pass a deficit reduction plan because of
the three-fifth's requirement, increasing the deficit can still occur.
Last December, we passed $800 billion in additional deficits by
extending the tax cuts. Those still could have been passed under this
legislation because you only need a simple majority to cut taxes. And a
budget which even proposes additional tax cuts and even higher deficits
would require the same three-fifths vote as the tough deficit reduction
would require.
Tax cuts can pass by a simple majority, but tax increases will
require a two-thirds vote. Common sense will tell you that that will
make it harder to balance the budget.
The two-thirds provision to spend more than 18 percent of GDP will
obviously put pressure on Medicare and Medicaid, since we haven't been
to 18 percent of GDP since Medicare was enacted. You can cut the
benefits with a simple majority, but to save the programs with
additional taxes will require a two-thirds vote.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, we know that we should not be distracted by
misleading titles. We should notice that the legislation will make it
harder to actually balance the budget because it increases the number
of Members who might have to cast career-ending votes, makes it
virtually impossible to raise revenues or close loopholes. It will
compel deep cuts in Social Security and Medicare, and you can't cure
that with a simple nice little title.
I urge my colleagues to oppose this legislation.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentlewoman from Wyoming (Mrs. Lummis).
Mrs. LUMMIS. We don't have to pass this bill to read this bill. We
know what's in it. It's been online for 72 hours. The American people
can go read it.
But in case you haven't read it, let me tell you what it does. It
caps spending. It caps spending consistent with the discretionary
spending cuts that we passed in the budget earlier this year. And it
cuts some mandatory spending in 2012, setting us on the path that
Moody's and S&P say they need to ensure investors that they can have
confidence in U.S. treasuries.
It will create the glide path that Ben Bernanke has told us over and
over that we need to bring spending under 20 percent of GDP. And it
will pass a balanced budget amendment, like the vast majority of States
have. This is the way to implement what we need to raise our debt
ceiling.
We know that we cannot default on our debt, so we will raise our debt
ceiling in a way that Standard & Poor's and Moody's have said they need
to see in order to assure our borrowers that our currency is valuable,
that our obligations will be met, and that we are going to get our
spending under control.
As the chairman of the House Budget Committee said a few minutes ago,
when we passed his budget, we passed a plan that would broaden the base
of taxes and lower the rate, that would not cut Medicare for seniors,
for people over 55 years of age who aren't yet on Medicare, did not
touch Social Security, and yet would preserve for the American people
the decisions that this country was founded on.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I just remind my colleagues that only
seven States placed both the supermajority requirements and the caps
that this would place in the Constitution of the United States.
With that, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms.
Schakowsky), who has been a leader and fighter in this debate.
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. This Republican bill cuts, caps, and balances all
right--cuts Medicare, caps Medicaid, balances the budget on the backs
of seniors. And Republicans like to say that the public supports a
balanced budget amendment. But when you ask them if they support
balancing the budget by making cuts to Medicare and Social Security, by
a 2-1 margin, the American people say ``no.'' And what liberal media
outlet conducted that poll? Fox News.
There is something very, very wrong and un-American with the
Republican proposal that makes it far easier to cut Medicare than to
cut subsidies for oil and gas companies, easier to cut Social

[[Page H5212]]

Security than ask for one penny more from millionaires and
billionaires.
Of course we need to address our economic challenges, but not by
holding our country hostage and threatening to not pay our bills with
catastrophic consequences that will hurt every American in order to
push an extreme agenda that cuts Social Security, Medicare, and
Medicaid.
We have a jobs crisis. We have a disappearing middle class crisis.
And this illogical bill, which has no chance of becoming law, will make
things much worse.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. At this time I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Alabama, the chairman of the Financial Services
Committee, Mr. Bachus.
Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, we just heard that we were cutting Medicare;
but, in fact, it was the minority party that cut $500 billion out of
Medicare last year to pass ObamaCare. How quickly we forget.
Mr. Speaker, at one time, people stored cash under their mattress for
safekeeping. Now people all over the world put that same money in
treasury bills. That benefits every American in countless ways. Let's
not lose that advantage.
The imminent threat to the safe haven of treasury bonds and our
national security is default and downgrade. However, by far, the
overriding danger is too much government spending. The Federal
Government must do what every family in America is called on to do at
times when things are tight. That's cut spending and live within their
means.
As long as we ignore our spending problem, the economy will weaken,
confidence will not be restored, jobs will not be created. We, and more
profoundly, our children and grandchildren, will bear the costs.
Earlier, the minority leader said: What will the students say? What
will the children say?
Let me say this. When we say to them your money's all gone, we spent
it, we lacked the courage to address the problems, we didn't confront
the problems, what will our children say to us? What will our
grandchildren say?
The heritage of America has never been ``can't do''; it's always been
``can do.'' We can do it. We can rise to the challenge. We can answer
our children and our grandchildren in future years and say we did the
right thing for you. We did the right thing for our country. We
confronted the problems.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, what the Democratic leader asked was how
could we tell the children that we chose to reduce the deficit by
cutting their ability to afford college rather than cutting subsidies
for the oil and gas industry? Those are the kind of choices we're
making. This is not a question about whether to reduce the deficit.
This is a question about how we do it and what priorities we have. And
we think it's absolutely the wrong priority to put in the Constitution
of the United States a preference to cutting education, to cutting
Medicare as compared to cutting subsidies for special interest
corporations, special interest tax breaks for the purposes of reducing
the deficit.
With that, I yield 1\1/4\ minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr.
Engel).

{time} 1840

Mr. ENGEL. I thank the gentleman.
I've listened to this debate for a while now. The American people
want us to compromise. The American people are in the middle. That's
where most of the American people are. And they don't want extremes
from either side.
So what would we do logically to find a solution in the middle to
close our budget deficit? We would, first of all, cut spending.
Secondly, we would close tax loopholes to big corporations. And,
thirdly, we would let those who can afford to pay more, pay more.
The President has proposed something like this, a $4 trillion
reduction in the deficit, and the Republicans have refused to do it.
They refuse to even plug loopholes from Big Oil and Gas.
So this is where we are now. It takes two to tango. If they're going
to vote ``no'' on anything that closes tax loopholes, then we have to
just raise the debt ceiling.
Now, we voted seven times under President Bush to have a clean debt
ceiling raised, 28 times under President Reagan to have a clean debt
ceiling raised, and yet the Republicans won't do it and they bring us
to the brink of disaster.
The truth of the matter is we don't need extremes. And, as was
pointed out here before, this will end Medicare and Medicaid and Social
Security as we know it because it will make it easier to cut those
programs than it is to cut subsidies to Big Oil. That is shameful, and
this should be rejected.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield myself 30 seconds to simply say, I
think the gentleman threw Social Security in there for good measure in
the budget. That is assumed. Underneath these caps, it doesn't address
Social Security. It probably should.
But, more to the point, Mr. Speaker, guess what ends Medicare as we
know it? The current law, the President's health care law. It raids
$500 billion out of Medicare to spend on another program, and then puts
a board of 15 unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats in charge of price
controlling and, therefore, rationing Medicare for current seniors.
Medicaid's going bankrupt. If you want these programs to succeed, you
have to reform these programs.
Leaders see the problem and fix the problem. That's what we propose
to do.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Mississippi (Mr. Nunnelee).
Mr. NUNNELEE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for
yielding.
Today the majority of Americans don't believe that successive
generations will enjoy the quality of life that they've enjoyed, and a
lot of that fear is driven by unrestrained Federal Government,
unrestrained spending, because the majority of Americans understand the
proverb: The borrower is the slave to the lender.
Just a few hours ago, Harper Grace Nunnelee entered the world. And
today, in her honor, her grandfather will cast a vote to secure the
blessings of liberty for Harper Grace and for her brother, Thomas, and
for their successive generations yet unborn. And I hope that a majority
of my colleagues will join me as we vote to cut, to cap, and to
balance.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I think we would all agree if we saw a
wasteful spending program, we should cut it for the purpose of reducing
the deficit. And the question is: If there is a wasteful or unnecessary
special interest tax loophole, why shouldn't we cut it for the purpose
of reducing the deficit? Why should we write into the Constitution of
the United States a provision that says you need two-thirds to cut a
wasteful tax loophole rather than say let's cut it to reduce the
deficit for the benefit of our children?
I would also observe, Mr. Speaker, that the Republican plan, with
respect to Medicare, would force seniors out of the current Medicare
system into the private insurance market where the private insurance
industry would ration their care. They would get a lot less support
from the Medicare program and yet face much higher costs.
That is a deal that Members of Congress don't give to themselves, and
I don't think we should ask seniors to take a deal that Members of
Congress themselves do not take.
With that, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr.
Garamendi).
(Mr. GARAMENDI asked and was given permission to revise and extend
his remarks.)
Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, Americans want jobs. After 200 days of
Republican power in this House, not one jobs bill. This cut, slash, and
burn legislation will not work.
We need an invest, grow, and build strategy. That's what Americans
want from Congress. They want us to invest in education, invest in
research, and invest in innovation so that America can remain a leader
in the global economy. They want us to invest in infrastructure, build
bridges, highways, clean energy and cut our dependence on foreign oil,
because when we make it in America, that's when America will make it.
Americans can make it.
Cut, yes. What we ought to cut are the Republican giveaways to the
Big Oil companies, to the Wall Street barons, to the hedge fund
managers who enjoy massive tax breaks. That's where the cuts ought to
be. They ought to be cut out.
And what of this legislation that's before us? We ought to vote
``no.''

[[Page H5213]]

Cut what doesn't create jobs for middle class families, like
Republican giveaways to big oil companies. And save what actually
works, like innovation to jumpstart new industries and education to
help middle class people get good jobs.
I therefore rise in strong opposition to H.R. 2560, the Cut, Cap, and
Balance Act. This bill is an extreme version of the Republican budget
plan that would make permanent the dangerous budgetary and
constitutional measures that would destroy Medicare and Medicaid, and
reduce Social Security benefits for those who need them the most. The
bill would also handicap the government's ability to respond to
economic downturns and create jobs, and it fails to address some of the
real drivers our debt--tax breaks for corporations and the rich and
runaway Pentagon spending, including our misadventures in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
This legislation is an affront to the very principles of this nation.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy in his inaugural address said, ``If
a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the
few who are rich.'' Unfortunately, it seems that my colleagues on the
other side of the aisle have no regard for this fundamental American
value, as the bill they have brought to the floor today attempts to
balance the budget on the backs of those with less for the benefit of
those with more. It attempts to balance the budget on the backs of
seniors, by taking away their Medicare benefits. It attempts to balance
the budget on the backs of the disabled, by taking away their Social
Security benefits. It attempts to balance the budget on the backs of
low-income Americans, by taking away their Medicaid. And who stands to
gain from taking away Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits?
Special interests and the rich.
In addition to taking away Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security
benefits, H.R. 2560 would also subvert the federal government's ability
to respond to downturns in the economy or special needs including a
possible national security crisis. During inevitable cyclical
downturns, it will be necessary to raise the debt limit to stimulate
growth by cutting taxes and providing unemployment benefits to help
people get back on their feet if they're laid off, among several proven
effective measures. Furthermore, in the event of a security threat, we
have an obligation to act. This bill, including the proposed balanced
budget constitutional amendment would make it nearly impossible to
respond to any economic or security crisis.
At the root of all of this is a system of misguided priorities. My
Republican colleagues have determined that in order to balance the
budget, we should prioritize cutting Medicare, Medicaid and Social
Security benefits, instead of addressing what got us into this current
deficit--a porous, lopsided tax code designed to make the rich richer,
and two unnecessary wars, one of which we continue to wage. This bill
does nothing to end the tax breaks we currently provide for
millionaires and billionaires, hedge fund managers and oil companies.
Nor does it address runaway Pentagon spending. Based on CBO's most
conservative estimates, the DOD alone is projected to spend nearly $300
billion on the Afghan and Iraqi wars from 2012 through 2015, and
estimates by Harvard researchers which take into account long-term
costs like caring for our veterans put the total cost of these wars in
the trillions. Rather than ending tax breaks for corporations and
millionaires and billionaires and bringing our troops home from
Afghanistan, my friends on the other side of aisle want to cut
Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security benefits for those Americans
who need them.
I urge my colleagues to see this charade for what it is--an attempt
to balance the budget on the backs of those with less for the benefit
of those with more--and vote ``no'' on H.R. 2560.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds to say,
I hope the gentleman joins us in supporting our plan, then, because our
plan says let's get rid of all those tax loopholes. Let's make the tax
code flatter and fairer. Let's get tax rates down for all Americans and
for businesses so we can grow our economy.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I will not.
Here is the deal, Mr. Speaker. When we tax our businesses at higher
rates than our foreign competitors tax theirs, they win; we lose. Some
companies utilize loopholes and pay no taxes. Others pay the second-
highest tax rate in the industrialized world.
Yielding myself 15 more seconds, I would simply say, Mr. Speaker,
that the goal here is to get rid of all these loopholes so whoever you
are, no matter what you make, you pay the same amount of tax rates.
We need to reform this Tax Code so we create jobs. If we simply raise
taxes, raise spending, borrow more money, we lose jobs. This debt is a
threat to our current economy, and the Tax Code is a current threat to
our economy.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from New
York (Ms. Buerkle).
Ms. BUERKLE. I thank the gentleman from Wisconsin for yielding me
this time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2560, the Cut, Cap, and
Balance Act. This legislation is strong medicine, Mr. Speaker, but it
is what will cure what ails the American economy.
For far too long, Washington has overspent, borrowed, and heaped debt
upon our children and our future children. If we don't make a change
with cut, cap, and balance now, the American Dream will go away; and
our children and our grandchildren won't have the opportunities that
this country has always offered.
It's time for the Federal Government to get our spending under
control; and this legislation, Mr. Speaker, is a good first step. It's
a reasonable plan, far more than we've seen from the Senate or from the
President. It is the only plan that will cut, cap, and balance, and do
what we need to do for this economy.
Mr. Speaker, Washington has a spending problem. It does not have a
taxing problem.
I would just remind the Speaker, in December, a Democratic-controlled
House, a Democratic-controlled Senate, and a Democratic President
passed a bill to extend the current tax rates because they knew what
would happen if we raised taxes in an economy as sluggish and as poor
as this one is right now. Raising taxes is the wrong thing to do for
this economy and for this country.
Mr. Speaker, most States have balanced budget amendments. It's time
for the Federal Government to do the same. This massive spending-
induced debt is crushing the American Dream. We must stand up for the
American Dream and do what's right for America.
I urge my colleagues to pass H.R. 2560, Cut, Cap, and Balance.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, this certainly is the only plan on the
table that would insert a provision into the Constitution of the United
States that makes it easier to cut Medicare and easier to cut Social
Security than it is to cut subsidies to oil and gas companies or other
special interests for the purpose of reducing the deficit. We think
that's a bad idea. That's why it's not part of the President's balanced
plan to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over 10 to 12 years.

{time} 1850

With that, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr.
Holt).
Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, this bill has a slogan for a title and
unrealistic nonsense inside. Under this, millions of students would not
get Pell Grants, and education and related programs would be cut by
about 25 percent.
And further, for the third time, yes, the third time, the majority is
voting today to end Medicare and double health care costs for seniors.
We shouldn't be surprised that the majority is squeezing out Medicare.
They never liked it in the first place.
We shouldn't be surprised that they are reducing education grants.
They promised they would.
We shouldn't be surprised that they want to preserve subsidies and
giveaways to Big Oil and other fat cats because that's been their
raison d'etre for a century.
We should be surprised, or at least disappointed, that they want to
sacrifice America's credit rating and good name. We should be
disappointed too that they won't allow Congress to get on with the
work, the hard work, the important work of actually making jobs.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Utah
(Mr. Bishop).
Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, as previous speakers have said, we
do not have a revenue problem, and we don't have just a spending
problem. We have a doing problem.
The Federal Government for several decades has expanded beyond our
core constitutional responsibilities and, in so doing, we have created
the financial crisis in which we find ourselves today. A balanced
budget amendment would

[[Page H5214]]

be a great addition to the Constitution, in conjunction with and for
the 10th amendment.
For, indeed, what we refer to as federalism is a solution to our
problems and the salvation to this country. And this bill before us
today is an excellent first step on our way to that ultimate salvation.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California
(Mrs. Davis).
Mrs. DAVIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I want to bring the debate
back to real people, to seniors who've been contacting my office
sharing their fears, their concerns over inaction in this Congress over
the debt crisis.
A widow from San Diego called to ask if she'd get her social security
check after August 2, the payment she earned working hard for years and
years. She doesn't know how she's going to pay her Medicare premiums,
her mortgage, her grocery bills or her prescriptions.
Our constituents do expect us to work together to solve serious
problems. Yet we seem to be stringing the American public along here,
playing games with their futures.
This legislation was put together in the dark of night and brought
straight to the House floor. My colleagues didn't hear from one witness
on its consequences, didn't hold one hearing, and completely bypassed
the regular legislative process.
Instead of wasting valuable time on legislation that won't move
beyond this Chamber, we should focus on forging a bipartisan solution
to the debt crisis. Let's agree on meaningful and rational solutions
for the long term before the debt crisis becomes worse.
We can do one with job creation that won't slash health research,
innovation, Medicare, Medicaid or education.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Michigan (Mr. Walberg).
Mr. WALBERG. Mr. Speaker, we're broke, and that's really not the
legacy that I want to leave Micah and Claire, my grandkids.
More unrestrained spending and tax increases will only slow our
economy and make our fiscal problems worse. Raising the debt ceiling
without significant reform is not a solution. It's a gimmick. We have
to get our spending under control; and Cut, Cap and Balance is a path
to fiscal responsibility.
Mr. Speaker, this year alone the Federal Government will spend twice
what it spent just 10 years ago, and more than 40 percent of it is
borrowed money. We will have accumulated more debt in the past 2\1/2\
years than we did during the Presidencies of Washington through George
H.W. Bush. That's right. It took 41 Presidencies to spend what we have
spent since 2009.
We've got to stop spending money we don't have. It's causing the
private sector to sit on the sidelines, take fewer risks, and create
fewer jobs. And that's what it's all about, isn't it, growing the
economy, creating jobs?
The Cut, Cap, and Balance Act automatically saves $111 billion in
2012 and around $5.8 trillion over the next 10 years. It includes
enforceable caps on spending that will bring the size of government
back to below 20 percent of GDP. And the legislation cuts up the
government's credit cards by passing a balanced budget amendment.
Cut, Cap, and Balance will create a future of better opportunities
for our children, Micah and Claire, my grandkids. Washington will
finally have to do what every American family and every business does
every day, balance the budget.
This Saturday, I enjoyed an afternoon of kicking the walnut down the
street with Claire and Micah, 4\1/2\ and 3 years old, but I don't want
to kick the can down the road for them.
I didn't have the guts to tell them that we've already taken their
tax dollars from them before they're even at the point of going to
school and ultimately going to work.
We need to stop our spending now. Cut, cap and balance.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Oregon (Mr. DeFazio).
Mr. DeFAZIO. I supported an honest, bipartisan balanced budget
amendment in 1995. There is no balanced budget amendment in this
legislation. There is a big dollop of legislative legerdemain and
blackmail. It simply says that the Republicans will drive the country
to default unless Congress later passes their right-wing version of a
balanced budget amendment that requires an impossible two-thirds vote
to close the most egregious tax loophole, the same loopholes that the
gentleman from Wisconsin purports to want to close.
With apologies to Lewis Carroll, ``There's no use trying,'' said
Alice. ``One can't believe imaginary things.''
``I dare say you haven't had much practice,'' said the Queen. ``When
I was your age I did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I
believed as many as six imaginary things before breakfast,'' or in this
case, before dinner and cocktails at the Republican Club.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. May I inquire as to the division of time
between the two.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Yoder). The gentleman from Wisconsin has
20\1/4\ minutes, and the gentleman from Maryland has 21\3/4\ minutes.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Arizona (Mr. Schweikert).
Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Speaker, my reason for coming to the floor today
is, look, there's already been some wonderful arguments, hopefully on
our side, talking about cut, cap and balance being a realistic path to
get there. But I'm here because the political rhetoric seems to lack
basis in math. So let's have a little fun here.
How many times today have we already heard the comments about those
corporate jets? We need to get rid of that depreciation.
Okay. Time for a little bit of mathematical reality. We borrow $4.7
billion every year. If we were to eliminate that incentive for those
corporate jet purchases, fine. But it takes care of 15 seconds of
borrowing a day. How can 15 seconds of borrowing a day be an honest
discussion?
So let's go on to the next one. How many times today have we already
heard about evil fossil fuels, those subsidies to Big Oil?
Well, let's do this. If we were to wipe out the subsidies to all
fossil fuels, it would take care of 2.2 minutes of borrowing a day.
How's that an honest debate? So we're living in that fantasy world.
So let's actually go on to one of the other ones, the Bush-Obama tax
extensions. You know, because how many times do we hear around here,
oh, it's those millionaires and billionaires. Well, let's do this. What
would the math be if you got rid of those tax extensions for all
Americans? It would buy you 28 minutes of borrowing a day, and that's
assuming you don't slow down the economy, you don't raise unemployment.
Actually, we use the President's numbers and pretend you get every
dollar in, 28 minutes a day.
So think about that. The rhetoric you've heard here for hours
wouldn't even buy, or would actually only buy one-half an hour of
borrowing a day.
So I turn to my brothers and sisters on the left and say, what would
you like to do with the other 23\1/2\ hours of borrowing every single
day?

{time} 1900

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Again, I would remind my colleagues to do the basic
math. Go back to the last time the budget of the United States was in
surplus; it was during the Clinton administration. It followed on some
very difficult decisions in the early 1990s. And what it included, as
part of a balanced approach, was asking the folks at the very top to
pay a little higher rate than they are today. And what the President
has proposed is to ask those Americans, as part of a shared
responsibility, to go back to paying those rates.
And what our colleagues would plant in the Constitution of the United
States is a supermajority requirement, two-thirds vote, to go back to
the same tax rates that were in place during the Clinton
administration, but a majority vote if you want to reduce the deficit
by cutting benefits for Medicare beneficiaries--whose average income,
by the way, median income is under $22,000 a year.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr.
Langevin).
(Mr. LANGEVIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. LANGEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the Cut,
Cap and Balance Act, which is nothing

[[Page H5215]]

more than a politically motivated distraction from the ongoing budget
negotiations necessary to avoid a catastrophic default on our Nation's
financial obligations. What we need at this challenging time is shared
sacrifice.
The Democrats have called for significant cuts, closing tax
loopholes, and requiring people in the highest income brackets to pay
their fair share while Republicans continue to push an unrealistic plan
that relies exclusively on draconian cuts--on the backs of our seniors,
on the backs of working families.
One thing is clear: if we don't reach common ground now, America will
default on its debt, and that cannot happen. The most dangerous
provision of this bill is the Republican version of the so-called
``balanced budget amendment.'' While a balanced budget amendment done
the right way is worthy of consideration, it must, at a minimum, be
crafted responsibly and provide flexibility in times of war, recession,
or national emergency. This bill does not do that.
We all agree that the budget should be balanced; it needs to be. And
Congress already has the necessary legislative tools to change its
fiscal policies, as we witnessed during the era of surpluses under the
Clinton administration. The challenge lies in our collective abilities
and individuals' intentions to work together toward a compromise that
prioritizes programs most beneficial to our economy, cuts trillions in
spending, and increases revenues from those who can afford it.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute, if we're
going into recalling history, just to simply say that the ``corporate
tax loophole'' is a provision that was in the President's stimulus bill
drafted by Democrats, passed by Democrats, not supported by
Republicans. The ``oil tax subsidies'' were the result of a bipartisan
legislation responding to a WTO suit which said that all American
producers, manufacturers, domestic producers get lower tax rates if
they produce something in America.
What the other side is simply saying is, no, let's just raise that
tax on just oil and gas, not on any other manufacturer, and that is a
subsidy for oil and gas.
Mr. Speaker, these provisions are so infinitesimally small, they're
just fundamentally un-serious. They're just an attempt to score
political points to try and dodge coming up with solutions to solve the
problem. We have a debt problem we have to deal with; we have a deficit
problem we have to deal with. If we don't deal with it, we're going to
lose more jobs.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Minnesota (Mr. Paulsen).
Mr. PAULSEN. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, it is true that we could, as some of my colleagues on
the other side of the aisle suggest, continue to practice business as
usual with no plan to control spending. But what will that lead to?
Higher taxes, more spending, more debt, and fewer jobs. And with our
country right now at a financial crossroads and unemployment at 9.2
percent, this is simply a future that we cannot afford. By cutting
spending now, by capping growth of government, and by requiring a
balanced budget, we can finally get our fiscal house in order and get
people back to work.
American families have tightened their belts in these tough economic
times; Washington should do exactly the same thing. We need to pass the
Cut, Cap, and Balance Act so that we can address our spending-driven
debt crisis, start paying down the national debt, and get our economy
back on track. This is about protecting the future of our children and
our grandchildren.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I find it very curious that on the one
hand our Republican colleagues are saying that the revenues that the
President has requested as part of a balanced plan are peanuts, that
they're irrelevant, and on the other hand arguing that somehow if you
raise those revenues it's going to crush the economy. They're trying to
have it both ways. The fact of the matter is they are a balanced part
of an overall approach that talks about reducing our deficit in a
balanced way. And I go back to the fact that the last time we had that
balanced approach was the last time that we had Federal budget
surpluses.
With that, I yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from New York (Ms.
Clarke).
Ms. CLARKE of New York. I thank my colleague for the time.
Mr. Speaker, the Republican majority has spent over 6 months of the
American people's time making it abundantly clear what their priorities
are not. The Republican majority does not have time to address jobs. As
I stated, we are here over 6 months into the 112th Congress, and we
have yet to take one vote on a single comprehensive jobs bill.
The Republican majority does not have time to address the economic
realities facing millions of homeowners still facing foreclosure. In
fact, we have voted on Republican bills that further undercut those who
have lost their homes.
The Republican majority does not have time to work with the President
and congressional Democrats to deal with our national debt. They would
rather protect tax cuts for multi-millionaires and billionaires and tax
loopholes for corporate interests.
What the Republican majority does have time for is playing games,
spending 4 hours debating a bill that, thank God, is dead on arrival in
the Senate.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston).
Mr. KINGSTON. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
After a 3-year spending spree in which the President drove up the
national debt 56 percent, he has the nerve to tell the American people
to eat their peas. After he has been on this supersize-me diet, he
turns around and tells struggling middle class families how to behave.
One must ask, where has the President been? He owns this economy. He
has been in office nearly 3 years; it is his. It's his policies that
have left 15 million Americans out of work; it's his policies that have
stifled growth and business investment; it's his policies that have
created and are continuing these so-called ``tax breaks'' for Big Oil.
It's his very signature that has extended the Bush tax cuts.
It's his policies that have given us the highest deficit spending in
the history of the United States of America. He owns this, not
President Bush, not Vice President Cheney, not the Republican Party,
not Halliburton, not all the other straw men that the President likes
to set up to distract the American people. It was President Obama who
cut Medicare $562 billion. It was President Obama who set up IPAB,
which is a health care rationing system which our moms and dads and
grandparents will have to be suffering under. It was this President who
took unemployment from 7 percent up to nearly 10 percent.
And now we're having the debate of the decade, and where is the
President? We get from him, not a plan, but speeches, finger-pointing,
rhetoric, vague promises, but no plan. If there is a plan, could you
lay it on the table? And I'll ask my Democrat friends, do you have a
plan? We keep hearing the President has a plan. Could you put it on the
table? I might want to vote for it. I might be interested in reading
the bill. If there is a plan, could you please put it on the table?
Just as I thought, there is no plan.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield the gentleman an extra 15 seconds.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. The gentleman asked a question. Will the gentleman
yield?
Mr. KINGSTON. This is the plan: cut, cap, and balance. And this is
the President's plan: speeches. That's all we're getting, no
legislation whatsoever.
I'll be glad to yield to my friend from Maryland.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Well-timed.

{time} 1910

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, as the gentleman well knows, the
President has put on the table a balanced approach, $4 trillion in 10
to 12 years, $3 in spending cuts to $1 in revenue. In fact, the Speaker
of the House and the President of the United States, as my colleagues
well know, were talking about a number of components of that plan. What
was very clear is our colleagues didn't want to touch it because

[[Page H5216]]

of this principle they have that not $1 from closing a tax loophole or
revenue can go for the purpose of reducing the deficit.
We heard a little rewrite of history. Let's just remember that when
the President of the United States was sworn in, he immediately faced a
record $1.3 trillion deficit. The guy took office, and it was $1.3
trillion that he inherited. And 700,000 jobs were going down the tubes
every month. It took a little while to turn things around, and things
are still very, very fragile.
What would be a huge mistake is to go back to the same trickle-down
on steroids policy that got us into this mess to begin with, because we
know how the movie ended at the end of the Bush administration. They
left this administration with a pile of debt, an economy that was
falling through the floor. We need to work together to fix this
problem. But taking the position that you're going to prevent the
United States from paying its bills unless you implant in the
Constitution a provision that says it is easier to cut Social Security
and Medicare than cut corporate tax loopholes to reduce the deficit is
not going to fly with the American people.
With that, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr.
Markey), the ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee.
Mr. MARKEY. I thank the gentleman. A poll completed by Gallup just 3
days ago basically showed what Democrats have been saying all along--
Americans want their Congress to come together to tackle our debt level
with a responsible program of spending cuts and new revenues.
Here is what the poll said: 80 percent of all voters want the
Democrats and Republicans to come together on spending cuts and tax
increases; 77 percent of Independents, even 74 percent of Republicans
agree. CBS has a very similar poll.
But what the Republicans are saying is we're not going to pay
attention. The Republicans are suffering from deficit attention
disorder. They've spent their time in power paying attention to
everything but the deficit. They have deficit attention disorder. They
extended massive Bush tax cuts for the rich. They voted to support
billions in subsidies to the most profitable oil companies. They ran up
trillions in debt to finance two wars; allowed Wall Street to run wild
with deregulation and smash our economy onto the rocks, but they only
want to focus on the deficit when it means ending Medicare, when it
means shrinking Social Security. They only want to focus on the deficit
when they can still protect billionaires and protect big business, Big
Oil.
The Republicans have political amnesia. They controlled the Congress
for 12 years. President Bush controlled the Presidency for 8 years.
They are the ones that ran up this huge deficit on their watch. And now
what are they saying? They're saying pass a constitutional amendment
before we win the Presidency again so we stop us from killing the
economy again. Pass a constitutional amendment that doesn't let us do
it again with a Republican President, with 12 years of controlling the
House and the Senate.
They want to leave America on the brink of becoming a deadbeat debtor
to the world because they are irresponsible, ignoring what the American
people are screaming at them: work together as parties; have deficit
reductions and revenue increases and tax increases on billionaires. But
the Republicans refuse to come together. They refuse to ensure that not
just grandma having a shrinking of her Medicare benefit, kids losing
their Pell Grants, but also billionaires are at the table if this is
such an Armageddon level of financial crisis facing our country.
But they are tied. They are tied back to the Tea Party. They are tied
back to those who have tethered them to a policy that does not allow
them to escape their deficit attention disorder.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Dold).
Mr. DOLD. I thank the gentleman from Wisconsin for yielding.
We did hear some rhetoric on the other side that basically said we do
have a plan, that the President has laid out a plan; it's clear. Well,
frankly, the CBO--the Congressional Budget Office--has taken a look at
that to say we can't score speeches. This is a very serious time. We do
need to talk about a big, bold plan to put ourselves and our country
back on the right course.
We just heard some rhetoric talking about how this was the deficit
that the Republicans had run up. Let me tell you, yes, the Republicans
have had some deficit spending. This is a bipartisan issue. Washington
has a spending problem. We are spending $1.6 trillion this year of
money we don't have; 42 cents of every single dollar that we are
spending is borrowed.
Mr. Speaker, I'm a small business owner. I employ just under 100
people. For me, that's 100 families. These are families that are living
paycheck to paycheck. If I ran my business like the Federal Government
is run today, I would be out of business inside the month. It is
frankly irresponsible the way that this country is being run right now.
We have to talk about tightening our belt. We cannot continue to spend
the way that we have been spending and expect that we're going to get
jobs. This is about jobs and the economy. We have to make sure that
we're providing more certainty because I can tell you I have received
phone calls from constituents and from business owners back in my
district. There are 650 manufacturers in the 10th District of Illinois.
They do need to have some certainty before they are going to invest
back in their business and create additional jobs.
We cannot be looking at trillions of dollars in deficit spending and
expect that this is going to be a jobs plan. We have to tighten our
belt. The American public has tightened their belt. American families
are living under a balanced budget in their own right. American
businesses are doing the same. They should expect that their Federal
Government should also live within their means.
There is no question that this is a very serious time. We are not
going to become a deadbeat debtor. The way I tell my constituents back
home, it is like purchasing a business. We think we have the best
business in the world in the United States of America. And yes, it has
got some debt, which we are obligated to pay. But we have to
restructure how that business is taking on that debt if we are serious
about wanting to reform it for next generations.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, it does not encourage certainty or
confidence in the markets or anywhere else for one party to say that if
they don't get the budget their way, they're going to prevent the
United States from paying its bills. That sends a terrible message.
American families don't have the luxury of saying that they're not
going to pay their bills.
With that, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr.
Clarke).
Mr. CLARKE of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I ask this Congress to cut and
cap the true debt that is crushing Americans right now, robbing them of
any financial security and killing off jobs. I'm asking this Congress
to take certain mortgage loans, cut those mortgage principals and cap
them to current home value. Let's do that. That will help people who
are underwater right now on their mortgages.
Let's cut, cap, and forgive certain student loans so Americans won't
have to spend a lifetime repaying back on their education. You see,
when you give Americans more money by eliminating their personal debt,
they'll be able to save more and invest more and responsibly spend
more. That's how you create jobs, the most powerful way. To get this
economy engaged again is to help Americans become free of personal
debt.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman
from South Carolina (Mr. Mulvaney), a member of the Budget Committee.
Mr. MULVANEY. ``The fact that we are here today to debate raising
America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. Leadership means
that the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of
bad choices today on to the backs of our children and grandchildren.
American has a debt problem and a failure of leadership, and Americans
deserve better.''
I wish I could take credit for that one, Mr. Speaker, but I can't
because that was President Obama in 2006.
I also wish I could take credit for: ``I'm willing to take down
domestic

[[Page H5217]]

spending to the lowest percentage of our overall economy since Dwight
Eisenhower.''
I wish I could take credit for that. That was the President last
week.
Finally, I wish I could take credit for the claim that the President
is offering a comprehensive program to force us to live within our
means. This is supposedly a $4 trillion reduction in spending, four
thousand billion dollars that in all actuality only cuts spending $2
billion next year. Talk is cheap in this town, Mr. Speaker; it is time
to match actions and words. It is time to act on the spending
difficulty that we have and to pass Cut, Cap, and Balance tonight.

{time} 1920

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Let me just quote from a letter:
``Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would
have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and on the
value of the dollar in exchange markets. The Nation can ill-afford to
allow such a result. The risks, the costs, the disruptions, and the
incalculable damage lead me to but one conclusion, that we must pass
legislation to raise the debt ceiling.''
President Ronald Reagan.
Now, there's legislation floating around here that creates this
delusion, into thinking that somehow we can get to that date and it's
all made up, that Secretary Geithner cooked the books, and there's
legislation that says, you know what, let's pay the Government of China
and other creditors before we pay our troops, before we pay our Social
Security beneficiaries.
What Moody's, what Standard & Poor's, what the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce and others are telling us is, you can't decide to pay your
mortgage but not your car payment. If the United States is not
fulfilling its obligations to pay for what it has already bought, as
Ronald Reagan said, that would have catastrophic consequences.
That is why it's so dangerous to take the position that somehow
unless in the next couple of weeks we pass a constitutional amendment
that would make it easier to cut Medicare and Social Security than cut
subsidies for the purpose of reducing the deficit, if we don't do that,
we're not going to allow the United States to pay its bills, and the
economy, as President Reagan said, would go straight downhill.
With that, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr.
Connolly).
Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia. Who are you kidding?
Cut, slash, and burn. You bypassed your own rules to bring it to the
floor. You say it protects Medicare. It destroys Medicare. You say
you're protecting jobs. You'll cost hundreds of thousands of jobs if
this ever saw the light of day in law.
It disinvests in education, R&D, and infrastructure in this country.
That equals unilateral disarmament when it comes to global competition
and innovation, and we might as well hand it over to our competition in
Brazil, China, and India.
Shame on you. I urge the defeat of this phony bill.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their
remarks to the Chair and not to others in the second person.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, at this time I would like to
yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California, the chairman of the
Government Reform Committee, Mr. Issa.
(Mr. ISSA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, for more than an hour, I've listened to floor
debate, and it seems like one side wants to say that we have to cut and
the other side says that any cut we do is wrong. One side says we have
to do tax increases. The other side says no.
What the American people need to hear, Mr. Speaker, is we now spend
almost a quarter of every dollar produced in our economy, and as my now
deceased father-in-law would have said, Taxes are rocks in your
knapsack. The American people cannot afford to have more and more
weight on the economy.
This is not an argument about how much we spend. This is an argument
about what the American people can afford in overhead that ultimately
hurts our competitiveness in jobs big and small, foreign and domestic.
So I will be voting for this and every other initiative that can
possibly give the American people a fighting chance to compete for
good-paying jobs here and in competition with the rest of the world.
I urge the support of the bill.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, again, the President's proposal, which
mirrors the framework of the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles Commission, says
we'll do $3 in cuts with $1 in revenue. It's shared responsibility to
reducing our deficit so that our economy in the future can grow. Let's
make sure that we don't do anything now that will hurt the fragile
economy.
I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Peters).
Mr. PETERS. I rise today in opposition to H.R. 2560.
Since taking office, I have fought for greater fiscal responsibility
in Washington. I have voted against hundreds of billions of dollars in
new spending. And today there is a new bipartisan consensus that a
comprehensive deficit reduction plan is a national priority.
Unfortunately, Republicans are squandering this opportunity. Rather
than a balanced approach, they are pursuing a radical agenda that will
force our Nation's seniors and middle class to sacrifice while letting
millionaires and special interests keep their tax breaks and loopholes.
Let us be clear: A vote for this bill is a vote for drastic cuts to
Medicare and for putting teachers, firefighters, and police all over
our country out of work. Republicans need to stop playing games with
our economy and start working for what the American people want:
comprehensive deficit reduction that shares the burden, strengthens
Medicare and Social Security, ends tax giveaways for the well-
connected, and puts our country on a path to financial security. This
bill fails to address these needs and should be defeated.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds to
simply say, if we're talking balance, let's remember the fact that a
big tax increase is already coming in current law.
Let's remind ourselves of the fact that in 2013, you have $800
billion in taxes with the health care law. The President is promising
another $700 billion in tax increases. We've got a $1.5 trillion tax
increase coming, hitting small businesses square in the bottom line.
It's putting a chilling effect on jobs, and in the interest of balance,
they want to put more tax increases on top of that.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas
(Mr. Canseco).
Mr. CANSECO. Once again, in the debate over our Nation's fiscal
future, the House of Representatives is leading. I commend my
colleagues for bringing forward a solution to cut, cap, and balance the
Federal budget. Together, these will help ensure that it is the Federal
budget that will be restrained and not the family budget.
Regrettably, I cannot vote for this bill. I do so not because I have
any issue with cut, cap, and balance. I strongly support that part of
the bill. What I cannot support is that this bill fulfills President
Obama's request to raise the amount of debt that will be borne by
American taxpayers by over $2 trillion. Every American household's
share of our national debt is already at $120,000, and President Obama
has asked this House to add an additional $20,000 per household to that
burden.
It is regrettable that President Obama has asked Congress to raise
the Nation's debt ceiling and allow more debt to be thrust upon
American taxpayers in order to pay for the spending binge he embarked
upon over the past 2 years.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Wisconsin has 8\1/2\
minutes, and the gentleman from Maryland has 8\1/4\ minutes.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
New York (Mr. Israel).
Mr. ISRAEL. I thank my friend from Maryland.
Well, they're right about something. This is cut, cap, and balance.
Except that it cuts at the middle class, it caps Medicare, and it
balances budgets on the backs of seniors. That is the fundamental
difference between them and us, Mr. Speaker.

[[Page H5218]]

Look. We agree that our debt is unsustainable, and that we've got to
tighten our belts. We've got to reduce spending. We believe that we
need to balance our budget through a balanced combination of spending
cuts and revenue increases, and we've got to grow our economy.
But here's what this budget says. It says to a constituent of mine
living in Deer Park, New York, that if you're a middle class family and
you want to send your child to college, to Suffolk Community College,
you pay more for your Pell Grant. You pay more for tuition. If you are
a worker in Huntington who just lost a job because the corporation that
you are working for outsourced your job to China, you watch your
unemployment insurance be capped or cut. But if you're a millionaire
making over $1 million a year, you get a $100,000 tax cut. That's not
cut, cap, and balance. It is an assault on the middle class, and it is
an assault on fairness.
Mr. Speaker, the middle class has always been the backbone of our
economy, and this legislation is a kick in the stomach to the middle
class. They tell us that they want to cut spending. They will not cut
spending when it comes to tax loopholes. They will increase it. They
will not cut spending when it comes to those $4 billion in oil company
subsidies. They will increase it. They will not cut spending when it
comes to special interest tax preferences. They will increase it. But
when it comes to the middle class, they want them to pay more.
Mr. Speaker, the real cut, cap, and balance should be this: We ought
to cut those tax loopholes, we ought to cap those tax subsidies, and we
ought to balance this budget through the right and smart kinds of
spending reductions and revenue increases that are fair.
I thank the gentleman for his time.

{time} 1930

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield 1 minute to
the gentleman from Utah, a member of the Budget Committee, Mr.
Chaffetz.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. Routinely, the other side of the aisle, Mr. Speaker,
has made the allegation that the President has offered a balanced plan.
I would argue that he has offered neither. The President has never
introduced a balanced plan. He's never had anything that's in balance.
In fact, the budget that he submitted never balances. In fact, it
doubles and then triples the debt. It went before the United States
Senate, and 97-0 that budget was rejected, rejected by the United
States Senate. So to suggest that he's offered something in balance is
not true.
The second part of this, he has not introduced a plan to deal with
this crisis that we're in. There is no piece of paper. There's lots of
speeches. There are lots of things like going out and doing press
conferences. But we need a solution.
What cut, cap, and balance does is it not only solves the short-term
problem--it starts to put us in the right pathway--but it actually
sends it to the States. And, ladies and gentlemen, what should we be
afraid of? All we're asking to do is put forward a balanced budget
amendment and send it to the State with a very high threshold, where
three out of four States would have to ratify it in order for it to
become an amendment to the Constitution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield the gentleman an additional 30
seconds.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. We keep spending money that we don't have. Every time
we look at a decision, we have to understand we're asking to pull money
out of somebody's pocket and give it to somebody else. Those days are
gone.
I came to Washington, D.C., to change the way we do business. Cut,
cap, and balance will do that. We need a balanced budget amendment. The
choice is clear: Are you in favor of a balanced budget or not? That's
what's before us today, and that's the direction this country needs to
go to get its fiscal house in order.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I have no further requests for time, and I
reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
New Jersey (Mr. Andrews).
(Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. ANDREWS. I'd like to take time out for just a minute and go back
to the question I'm hearing most people in America ask about, which is
jobs. And one of the things we keep hearing from the other side is that
asking ethanol producers to give up their subsidy or asking
corporations to give up their special loopholes is a job-destroying
idea.
Please, before you cast this vote, all Members look at these facts.
In 2001, and again in 2002, we did what the majority says endlessly
they want to do--cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans. The economy
produced zero net private sector jobs between 2001 and 2008.
In 1993, President Clinton did the opposite of what the majority says
it wants to do. He made a modest increase in the tax rate of the
wealthiest Americans. The economy produced 23 million new private
sector jobs.
The House deserves the facts in going forward in this debate, and the
American people deserve a real jobs plan from this House.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I'll end where we started today, which is to say that
our Republican colleagues are playing a very dangerous game with the
economy and with jobs. What this legislation before us says is that
unless we graft onto the Constitution a preference for their way of
addressing the budget deficit, unless we do that, they will prevent the
United States from paying its bills, with all the terrible economic
consequences for American families.
So let's see what it is that they're demanding in exchange for
letting the economy go. It's the same old plan that we saw in the House
before. It does end the Medicare guarantee, it slashes Medicaid, it
cuts education, and it protects special interest tax loopholes. But
what makes this particularly egregious, what should, I think, upset
every American, is they're trying to engineer those changes through the
Constitution.
We keep hearing this is just a plain old balanced budget amendment;
49 out of 50 States have it. Not true. This would put into the
Constitution of the United States, embed in our Constitution, a
provision that makes it easier to cut Medicare or Social Security or
education, a 50 percent vote; but if you want to cut a special interest
tax loophole--I don't care whether it's oil and gas subsidies,
corporate jet, you name it--that a lot of Washington lobbyists work
overtime to get inserted into our Tax Code and which amounts to
spending through the Tax Code, if you want to do that, you need a two-
thirds vote.
They put another mechanism into the Constitution. They would make it
unconstitutional to balance the budget if we're having expenditures at
the rate of 19 or 20 percent of GDP, according to the provision that
came out of their amendment. In other words, the American people cannot
choose a level of expenditures that would allow us to meet our
obligations under Medicare and Social Security. Since 1966, our Federal
expenditures have been above 18 percent of GDP; in other words, since
we enacted Medicare. So they want to prevent us by constitutional fiat
from balancing the budget at a higher level of expenditures.
Let me make one last point on Medicare, because we've heard about the
Democrats cut $500 billion. What we did was we eliminated the 114
percent subsidy that was going to Medicare Advantage plans. We did do
that. And, you know what? Republicans say, What a terrible thing. But
if you look at their budget, they assume that change. They keep that
change. What they don't do is what we did, which was to use the savings
to close the prescription drug doughnut hole. The Republican budget
would immediately reopen that doughnut hole. So they took the savings
that they're complaining about, but they didn't use any of it to close
the doughnut hole.
Again, the fundamental question is this. We all understand that we've
got to reduce the deficit. We've got to bring the budget into balance.
The question is how we choose to do that. And why would we implant into
the Constitution a mechanism that stacks the deck in favor of choosing
to cut Medicare and Social Security and education over choosing to cut
corporate tax loopholes or asking the folks at the very top to pay
more? But they would do that to our Constitution.
The Founders made it difficult to change the Constitution for good
reason. This, I believe, is a corruption of

[[Page H5219]]

the constitutional process, because it would place these mechanisms
into our founding document that essentially graft the Republican budget
plan into that document. And that's what this vote is all about.
And what they're saying is that unless two-thirds of the House and
two-thirds of the Senate adopt that kind of constitutional amendment,
we're not going to pay our bills, bills which the Speaker of the House
and the majority leader and people on both sides of the aisle should
pay because they are the consequence of decisions that were made by
this body. And right or wrong, when you bring up a bill, you can't say
you're not paying for it. And if we take the position that we're not
going to pay for it, the economy will suffer, interest rates will go
up. That will hurt every American family, and it will make it harder
for us to reduce the deficit.
So let's come together around a balanced plan. The President's put a
proposal on the table: $4 trillion over 10 to 12 years, patterned after
the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission; $3 in cuts, $1 in revenue.
Let's take a balanced approach. That's the way we did it the last time
our budget was in surplus.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my
time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has 7 minutes remaining.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, here's our problem. We have a
crushing burden of debt that is coming to hit our economy. This is what
it all comes down to. We are driving our country and our economy off of
a cliff. The reason is because we are spending so much more money than
we have.

{time} 1940

We can't keep spending money we don't have. Forty-two cents out of
every dollar coming out of Washington--it's borrowed money. Let's take
a look at where it's coming from. We're borrowing it, 47 percent of it,
from other countries--China number one. Mr. Speaker, you can't have
sovereignty, self-determination as a country, if we are relying on
other governments to cash-flow half of our deficit.
This is where we are.
Here is the problem we have right now, Mr. Speaker. We have a
leadership deficit. I keep hearing about the President has got a plan;
the President is offering balance. The President hasn't offered a thing
yet--nothing on paper, nothing in public. Leaning on reporters at press
conferences is not leadership. Giving speeches, according to the CBO,
is not budgeting.
The President did inherit a tough problem--no two ways about it. What
did he do with this problem? He drove us deeper into debt: $1 trillion
of borrowed money for stimulus that was promised to keep unemployment
below 8 percent, that went up to 10, and now it's at 9.2; a stalled
economy; a budget the President gave us that doubles the debt in 5
years and triples it in 10 years.
That's not leadership.
What has the other body done in the Senate, our partners on the other
side of the aisle? Mr. Speaker, it has been 811 days since they
bothered trying to pass a budget. Congress has gone for 2 years without
a budget.
What did we do when we assumed the majority? We passed a budget. We
wrote a budget. We did it in daylight, not in the backroom. We drafted
it. We brought it through the committee. We had amendments. We brought
it to the floor. We debated it and we passed it.
That is what we've done.
When you take a look at our problem, Mr. Speaker, you have to address
what is driving our debt. Here are just the cold, hard facts: 10,000
people are retiring every day. The baby boomers are here, and we're not
ready for them. Far fewer people are following them into the workforce.
Health care costs are going up four times the rate of inflation. The
Congressional Budget Office is telling us Medicare goes bankrupt in 9
years. Medicaid is already bankrupting our States. These are the
drivers of our debt. By the year 2025, three programs--Social Security,
Medicaid, Medicare--plus our interest, consume 100 percent of all
Federal revenues. By the end of this decade, 20 percent of our revenues
goes to just paying interest.
This is unsustainable.
So what does our budget do? What does the document that we passed
that shows leadership on this issue do?
It saves these programs.
For Medicare, we say you're already retired if you're retired. If
you're about to retire, we don't want to pull the rug out from under
you. You organized your life around these programs, so let's keep it as
is; but in order to cash-flow that commitment, in order to make good on
that promissory note, you have to reform it for the next generation.
Let's do it in a way that looks like the commission that President
Clinton offered, a system that resembles the one we have as Members of
Congress: where we get to choose the plans that meet our needs, where
we don't subsidize wealthy people as much, and where we subsidize low-
income and sick people a whole lot more. That's what a ``safety net''
is.
We fix it and we save Medicare.
What does the law do that the President does? It raids a half a
trillion dollars from Medicare. It puts a new board in charge of price
controlling and rationing care to current seniors, and it does nothing
to save it from bankruptcy.
These are the issues that have got to be dealt with.
Mr. Speaker, we keep hearing about balance. We keep hearing about the
need to raise taxes as we cut spending $3 for $1 or something to that
effect. The red line shows Congressional Budget Office projections on
spending. The green lines are taxes. Basically, what this says is there
is no way you can tax your way out of this problem. We asked the
Congressional Budget Office. If we tried to do that--have balance,
raise taxes--the tax rates on the next generation would be this:
The lowest income tax bracket that lower income people pay, which is
10 percent now, goes to 25 percent. Middle-income taxpayers would pay a
66 percent rate. The top tax rate, which is what all those successful
small businesses that create most of our jobs pay, would go to 88
percent. That's according to the Congressional Budget Office. That's
the path we're on right now.
This is unsustainable.
What is needed is leadership, and the reason we're talking about this
debt limit increase is that we've seen none--none from the President,
none from the other body. So, if we're not going to have a budget
process, how on Earth are we going to get spending under control so we
can solve this problem?
Our budget, this cap and this cut, gets the debt paid off. It puts us
on a path to prosperity. It closes loopholes to lower tax rates to grow
jobs. It says that the genius of America is the individual, is the
business, not our government. It maintains the American legacy of
leaving the next generation better off, and we know, without a shadow
of a doubt, we are leaving the next generation worse off. In the good
old days of 2007, we used to say that this debt was a threat to our
children and our grandchildren.
Not so anymore.
It is a threat to our economy today.
Pass Cut, Cap, and Balance. Save this country. Grow the economy. Save
the Nation for our children and our grandchildren.
Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, today I will cast my vote in support of H.R.
2560, the Cut, Cap and Balance Act of 2011, despite having concerns
about it. With the August 2 deadline for reaching a solution on our
debt crisis fast approaching, I believe this measure is necessary in
order to move the process forward.
However, I remain opposed to key provisions in H.R. 2560 and will
continue to work vigorously for better solutions. My primary concern
with this legislation is the requirement for a balanced budget
amendment to the constitution. In 1995, I voted in favor of a balanced
budget amendment. That effort ultimately failed in the Senate by a
single vote. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see that that was
the right outcome. Just two short years later, we proved that we could
balance the budget without altering our most inspired founding
document.
What's more, the State of California has proved the futility of
balanced budget amendments for years. Despite a constitutional mandate
for balanced budgets, California persistently fails to live within its
means and spend the taxpayers' money prudently and effectively.
Exercising our Article 1, Section 7 power of the purse with
responsibility and discipline doesn't take a constitutional amendment.
It simply takes the will to do the right thing.
We have already accomplished something that seemed impossible just a
few months

[[Page H5220]]

ago: we have fundamentally altered the conversation here in Washington.
While the last two Congresses presided over an 82% increase in non-
defense discretionary spending, we have already halted and reversed the
growth in spending.
Now we are on the brink of enacting trillions--that's trillions with
a ``T''--in spending cuts. While a final deal remains elusive, we have
forged consensus on the central, fundamental point that no rise in the
debt ceiling can be enacted without trillions in spending cuts. That is
a tremendous achievement that seemed barely conceivable a short time
ago. It is a testament to what can be achieved when we have the will
and resolve to confront the great challenges we face.
We must now put that will and resolve toward a final deal that will
not only make trillions in spending cuts, but also enact meaningful
reforms that put us on the path to eliminating the deficit, paying down
our debt and fostering growth and opportunity. These solutions are
within reach. They are closer than they've been in years. The only
question is whether we have the will to achieve them. I urge my
colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats, to come together. To rise
to the enormous challenges we confront and forge a deal that not only
restores the vitality and solvency of our economy for ourselves, but
for generations to come.
Mrs. BACHMANN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion before
us. While I embrace the principles of cut, cap and balance, the motion
does not go far enough in fundamentally restructuring the way
Washington spends taxpayer dollars. The principles found in this bill
are a step in the right direction toward the fundamental restructuring
we need in the way Washington spends taxpayer dollars.
Along with cutting spending, putting in place enforceable spending
caps that put us on a path to balance and passing a balanced budget
amendment, we must also repeal and defund Obamacare.
We must remember that Obamacare is the largest spending and
entitlement program in our nation's history. That means, at a time when
we can least afford it, President Obama added to our spending problem
by the trillions. Without its repeal, we cannot have real economic
reform.
At a time of trillion-and-a-half-dollar deficits and 9.2 percent
unemployment--it was jaw-dropping to hear the President say this past
Friday that we need only ``modest adjustments'' to fix our economy, and
to suggest that 80% of the American people want a balanced approach,
meaning tax increases, to solve our debt problems.
President Obama also said ``we don't need a constitutional amendment
to do our jobs.'' But we have the problems we do because Washington
hasn't been doing its job. And a Balanced Budget Amendment would have
kept President Obama from adding more than 4 trillion to our national
debt.
The current negotiations over the debt ceiling illustrate exactly
what is wrong with Washington.
We should not continue to spend and borrow trillions that we don't
have just because that's always the way politicians have done things in
the past. Those days are over.
The American people have had enough.
The President needs to stop scaring our military and stop threatening
default. Last Wednesday, I co-authored a bill that would remove default
as an option and guarantee that our military was paid first. We can
meet our obligations, keep our bond rating and keep our promises, but
we have to make the tough choices now to turn our economy around and
put Americans back to work.
Mr. SENSENBRENNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of
H.R. 2560, the Cut, Cap and Balance Act, which is common-sense
legislation that will bring our fiscal house back in order, and will
finally get our government off its spending binge.
We can no longer operate on a business as usual mentality, and the
time to rein in our deficit spending is now. Families sit down and make
budgets--then they spend within their means. It is imperative, now more
than ever, that Congress abide by those same principles. Instead of
applying for new credit cards, we need to cut up the ones we already
have. I have long argued that our spending practices in Washington are
unsustainable, and have routinely voted against spending measures in
Democratic and Republican-led Congresses that have contributed to the
crisis we face today.
Since Republicans retook control of the House in January, we have
changed the discussion in Washington from how much more are we going to
spend, to how much are we going to cut. There are some who feel that
our problem is not our spending; rather, it is we are not bringing in
enough revenue. I find this thought process misguided. It is not viable
to increase taxes drastically enough to bridge the $1.58 trillion gap
between our spending and revenues, without destroying jobs and damaging
our already struggling economy.
The Cut, Cap and Balance Act is a plan to bring long-term change to
the Washington spending machine. First, this legislation would cut
spending by $111 billion in fiscal year 2012, reducing non-defense
discretionary spending below 2008 levels, which was called for in the
House-passed budget plan. Second, this legislation would place a cap on
total spending as a share of GDP. Without caps on spending, future
Congresses will ultimately resort back to the spending practices that
have led to the situation we are currently facing. Third, this
legislation will only provide for an increase in the debt limit if
Congress sends a Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment to the states
for ratification. A Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution would
legally force our government to live within its means. It's interesting
to see that while many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle,
including our President, have argued that a constitutional amendment is
not necessary, 49 states currently abide by some form of a balanced
budget requirement.
We cannot pass the financial burdens of our country on to our
children and grandchildren. It is important to note, that while I am
not proud of the spending habits of Republicans when we were in charge,
the unprecedented spending increase since 2009 when President Obama
took office needs to be noted. Under his leadership, our national debt
has increased by $3.7 trillion. Once again, that is $3.7 trillion in
only two and a half years. It took the U.S. from 1776 until 1992 to
accumulate the same amount of debt that President Obama accumulated in
two and a half years.
Given our fiscal challenges that lay ahead, the time to act is now.
The Cut, Cap, and Balance Act is an important step to bring fiscal
sanity back to Washington. We can no longer continue to kick the can
down the road hoping that someone else will make the tough choices. I
strongly support passage of this important legislation, and urge my
colleagues to support the bill.
Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, America is in crisis mode today. We are up
against a deadline to increase our nation's $14.3 trillion debt limit
to meet its financial obligations.
There was initial hope some weeks ago that with the president finally
leading the talks with Republican and Democratic leaders in the House
and Senate, we would see a plan to reverse the spending spiral. But
we've been waiting and waiting and watching and watching for that puff
of white smoke to come over the White House to signal to the American
people that their government leaders have come together and agreed on a
plan and disaster has been averted. Regrettably, we still wait as the
debt clock ticks toward the nation's default.
What has been so frustrating to me to watch over the past months is
that everyone knows that our country is awash in red ink, everyone
knows that our country is spending and borrowing too much, everyone
knows that entitlement spending is unsustainable, everyone knows that
job creation is stagnant with unemployment today hovering around 9
percent. I've been sounding this alarm for five years.
Everyone knows all this and yet here we are today without the
president, who has been leading the debt negotiations, putting pen to
paper on a plan for all to see. But the House today is saying to the
American people that we can't continue to sit around and wait as our
debt grows and the risk of national decline and a downgrading of our
nation's credit rating become visible over the horizon.
The House today has a plan before it. The majority Republicans are
offering the Cut, Cap and Balance plan. It reduces spending now, caps
future spending and says we must balance our budget. Is it a perfect
plan? No. I don't agree with all the numbers and the priorities. There
are changes I would make and different policies I would include.
But we are at the point today that we cannot allow the perfect to
become the enemy of the good. We have to lay down a marker, move the
process forward and continue to work for a balanced plan to put America
on a path to financial responsibility.
As we listen to some call for a plan that includes more ``revenue,''
I want to be clear that I don't support raising taxes on American
families. I believe any responsible plan must take a look at reforming
and simplifying the tax code to allow hard-working Americans to keep
more of their own money and to spur individual savings and small
business job creation.
A balanced plan also must look at the reasons that have allowed the
ethanol industry to become one of the most subsidized industries in the
United States and other businesses to flourish because of direct
spending through earmarks in the tax code. We must also look at certain
tax earmarks and expenditures on the books which allow entities, such
as General Electric, to not only owe no federal taxes, but to also
claim a multimillion dollar tax benefit.
I also believe a balanced plan must include a mechanism to force
Congress and the president to live within our nation's means. That's

[[Page H5221]]

why I have long supported a balanced budget amendment to the
Constitution.
As I mentioned earlier, I have been trying to get the attention of
Congress and past and present administrations on the debt crisis facing
our country. My message has been simple: If America continues on its
debt and deficit track, we edge closer and closer to the financial
cliff and cede our standing as the world's leading nation.
I have called for a bipartisan solution that puts all options on the
table and fully addresses ways to reverse our current deficit spending
track and also our nation's unfunded obligations, which are the real
drivers of our debt. This includes all entitlements--Social Security,
Medicare, and Medicaid--and other mandatory spending, defense spending,
discretionary spending, and tax policy, namely the closing of tax
loopholes and tax earmarks.
The Bowles-Simpson commission offered a plan with everything on the
table, and I was anxious to have the chance to vote on it, but the
president, as did the Congress, walked away from the report last
December of the very group he created. I was pleased to see the ``Gang
of Six'' senators pick up the broad outlines of Bowles-Simpson and
continue to work together this year on a comprehensive deficit
reduction plan. The news earlier today that the Gang of Six has offered
a path forward and that a large group of senators from both sides of
the aisle is reacting positively to the plan is very encouraging.
I do not want the United States to default from a failure to raise
the debt limit. The full faith and credit of the United States is on
the line. Without an agreement, the cost to every American to borrow
will rise, from home loans to car loans to student loans; the checks
the Treasury writes will pick winners and losers.
It is precisely because the stakes are so high that I vote today for
H.R. 2560 with the fervent hope that it will force the president and
the House and Senate to come together and embrace a realistic and
balanced deficit and debt reduction plan like the one recommended by
Bowles-Simpson and the Gang of Six that puts our nation on sound
financial footing for not only today, but for our children and
grandchildren's generations.
Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this ridiculous
legislation quickly cobbled together by House Republicans to appease
their Tea Party fringe. The so-called ``Cut, Cap and Balance'' Act
(H.R. 2560) is a dangerous political stunt that pushes our Nation right
up to the edge of default.
With this bill--better called the Slash, Burn and Pander Act--House
Republicans are taking our country to the brink of insolvency and
financial devastation to make absolutely sure that rich people in
America keep their tax breaks, that big oil and gas companies continue
to receive their corporate welfare, and that the pharmaceutical
industry be spared from contributing to our economic recovery.
The first title of the bill would immediately slash federal spending
at such massive levels as to endanger our government's ability to
perform basic functions. If enacted, it would likely prevent the
government from sending out Social Security checks to seniors, from
providing unemployment insurance benefits during our ongoing economic
crisis, from conducting NIH research to find cures for deadly diseases,
and from ensuring our food is safe to eat.
The second title would enforce arbitrary and extreme annual federal
government spending limits. The bill pays lip service to protecting
Medicare and Social Security in the near term--because even right-
wingers understand the importance of these programs to the American
people. However, there is no mathematical way that the federal
government could meet these draconian limits without putting Medicare
and Social Security on the chopping block.
The third title would prohibit the debt ceiling from being raised
until Congress sends a Balanced Budget Amendment to the States for
ratification--all before the August 2nd deadline when we begin to
default. This Amendment to the Constitution would require even more
restrictive spending limits over time. Importantly, it would also
mandate a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate--a nearly
impossible hurdle--to ever close corporate tax loopholes or enact tax
increases.
With their Slash, Burn and Pander Act, House Republicans are saying
to the American public that the federal government will no longer
provide the services and programs they value. At the same time,
Republicans would make special interest tax breaks permanent by
requiring a super-majority to change existing law.
What's most stunning about this debate is that everyone knows this
bill has no chance of becoming law. In just two weeks, the United
States will start defaulting on its obligations. The House's actions
today waste precious time and take us further away from a solution.
President Obama already put a deficit deal on the table that goes
beyond what many Democrats and I are comfortable with. House
Republicans rejected him out-of-hand and, instead, have offered the
radical legislation before us today.
The fact that this inane piece of legislation is on the floor
highlights the difference between governing and campaigning--and makes
clear that many on the Republican side of the aisle remain unable to
make that distinction.
I urge my colleagues to join my in voting ``no'' on the Slash, Burn
and Pander Act.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I don't think that there is a Member here who
doesn't believe that America is in poor fiscal health. But the question
facing us is this: do we value fiscal responsibility enough to make
hard choices, give up some of what we want, and come to the compromise
that our form of government demands? Or do we see the possibility of a
fiscal crisis as nothing more than a chance to advance our ideological
ends? What matters more to us--restoring America's health, or
gratifying our party's ideology? We cannot have both.
It's clear that the first, responsible approach is typified by
President Obama, who has offered a compromise plan to reduce our long-
term deficit by $4 trillion, even as it gives up spending that
Democrats value highly. It's also clear that the reckless, ideological
approach is typified by the Republicans who have thus far rejected that
compromise because it does not conform to 100 percent of their demands.
It's also typified by this radical plan to cut, cap, and end
Medicare. This bill, under the guise of responding to a fiscal
emergency that they themselves helped create, would write Republicans'
most extreme and unpopular priorities into law. It would impose cuts
even more extreme than those in this spring's Republican budget, which
would have ended Medicare. A vote for this bill would not only be
another vote to end Medicare--it would be a vote to dramatically slash
programs for the most vulnerable Americans, programs like Medicaid and
Social Security. Republicans would break the Medicare guarantee--but
they are adamantly opposed to asking the best-off among us to
contribute their fair share. Nor would they ask for cuts in defense
spending.
In fact, this bill would actually make a job-destroying default on
our debt more likely. In order to pay our bills, Republicans would
require us to pass a Constitutional amendment that would permanently
enshrine their partisan budget priorities in law and make it virtually
impossible to raise revenue. It is nothing more than a ransom demand--
and the beneficiaries of than ransom demand are the most privileged
Americans, who are asked to sacrifice nothing even as ordinary
Americans are asked to sacrifice their futures, their security, and
their health.
When even three-quarters of Republicans said in a poll last week that
they want a balanced deficit solution, it is clear that this bill is
targeted at the extreme fringe in American politics, a small minority
of the far right. I urge my colleagues to affirm that this House
represents all Americans--and to vote down this bill.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I submit the following exchange
of letters:

House of Representatives,

Committee on the Budget,

Washington, DC, July 19, 2011.
Hon. Dave Camp,
Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means, Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Camp: Thank you for your letter regarding
H.R. 2560, the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2011, which is
expected to be considered on the floor this week. The
Committee on Ways and Means makes a valid point that certain
provisions in this legislation are in your Committee's
jurisdiction. I appreciate your decision to facilitate prompt
consideration of the bill by the full House. I understand
that by foregoing a sequential referral, the Committee on
Ways and Means is not waiving its jurisdiction.
Per your request, I will include a copy of our exchange of
letters with respect to H.R. 2560 in the Congressional Record
during House consideration of this bill. We appreciate your
cooperation and look forward to working with you as this bill
moves through the Congress.
Sincerely,
Paul Ryan,
Chairman.
____

House of Representatives,

Committee on Ways and Means,

Washington, DC, July 18, 2011.
Hon. Paul Ryan,
Chairman, Committee on the Budget,
Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Ryan: I am writing concerning H.R. 2560, the
``Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2011'' which is expected to be
scheduled for floor consideration this week.
As you know, the Committee on Ways and Means has
jurisdiction over the bonded debt of the United States. Title
III of this bill amends Title 31 of the United States Code by
changing the amount of debt subject to the statutory limit.
In order to expedite H.R. 2560 for Floor consideration, the
Committee will forgo action on the bill. This is being done
with the understanding that it does not in any way prejudice
the Committee with respect to the appointment of conferees or
its

[[Page H5222]]

jurisdictional prerogatives on this or similar legislation.
I would appreciate your response to this letter, confirming
this understanding with respect to H.R. 2560, and would ask
that a copy of our exchange of letters on this matter be
included in the Congressional Record during Floor
consideration.
Sincerely,
Dave Camp,
Chairman.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2560, ``The
Cut, Cap and Balance Act'' of 2011.
This legislation would cut total spending by $111 billion in FY 2012
and would institute hard spending caps over the next ten years. The
bill would provide for the president's request for a debt ceiling
increase if and only if a Balanced Budget Amendment passes Congress and
is sent to the states for ratification.
Today, we find ourselves on the precipice of a national economic
calamity.
I am NOT speaking about the current debate over the debt ceiling,
which is indeed very serious.
America pays its bills and default would be irresponsible!
But rather, I am referring to an unsustainable national debt--fueled
by out-of-control spending and its damaging partner, rising taxes--that
threatens to overwhelm our entire economy. We are truly on the verge of
becoming ``Athens on the Potomac.''
Even if we were not facing a debt ceiling question, I would urge that
we enact steep and immediate federal spending cuts, as the Committee on
Appropriations is doing.
These reductions must be implemented now because the `promise' of
cuts five or eight or 10 years from now means very little without a way
to enforce them.
The only way to truly guarantee spending cuts from future Presidents
and future members of Congress is to make sure that the Constitution
requires it.
We've tried lower spending targets before.
We've attempted to use deficit reduction goals.
We've enacted ``across-the-board'' spending cuts.
We've impounded federal dollars.
We've even sequestered funding to force deficit reduction.
The fact of the matter is that none of them worked.
A $14.3 trillion national debate stands as an appalling monument to
Washington's extravagance.
Congress and the President always find another waiver, another
loophole, another procedural escape clause to get around what common-
sense tells us has to be done: we must be made to live within our
means.
Because we cannot continue to spend money we do not have, we are here
today to cut spending immediately, set enforceable future caps on
spending and send to the states for ratification a balanced budget
amendment to our Constitution.
My Colleagues, the preamble to that Constitution states that we are
to ``promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty
to ourselves and our posterity . . .''
As I said earlier, we stand at a financial precipice. Our current
federal fiscal policies are unsustainable for us and for our
posterity--our children and their children.
The legislation before us would return us to the spirit and the
letter of the Constitution's Preamble.
In closing Mr. Chairman, we find ourselves in a debt crisis not
because the debt ceiling is too low, but because federal government
spending is too high!
H.R. 2560, the Cut, Cap and Balance Act is a Constitutional,
permanent solution which will put an end to the spending-driven debt
spiral and rescue our children and grandchildren from a future of
bankruptcy and limited opportunity.
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong
opposition to H.R. 2560, the Republican ``Cut, Cap, and Balance Act,''
which is before us today. I am sorry that the House of Representatives
has to spend any time on this deeply flawed piece of legislation
instead of dealing with the host of serious issues facing our Nation.
I have limited time, so I am not going to try today to cover all of
the significant problems inherent in H.R. 2560; I know that there are
other Members who plan to address many of the issues I care about, such
as the central truth that this bill would end the Medicare guarantee.
That in itself is reason enough to oppose H.R. 2560, but I also want to
highlight the devastating impact this bill would have on our Nation's
competitiveness, our ability to innovate, and our ability to create the
jobs of the future.
As written, the legislation before us today would cut non-security
discretionary spending for FY 2012 by $76 billion. That translates into
a 25 percent cut in budget authority next year with similar draconian
cuts in the years that follow. What will be the impact of cuts of that
magnitude? They will be profound and will inflict long-term damage to
our Nation's well-being. Let me give just a few examples.
First, let's consider the impact of such a cut on the programs that
help to predict severe weather, something that has been a particular
concern in many parts of the Nation this year. With these cuts, Mr.
Speaker, we would essentially be guaranteeing a diminished national
capability for weather forecast and prediction, especially of severe
weather events. Why? Because a 25 percent cut to our polar and
geostationary weather satellite programs will delay NOAA's ability to
procure follow-on weather satellites that provide the weather data
needed 7 days a week, 24 hours a day to make accurate long-term weather
forecasts.
What will happen? Well, for one thing, we won't get 10-day weather
forecasts; the best we'll get with good accuracy are 48-hour weather
predictions. Farmers, emergency management officials, military
planners, fisherman, coastal residents and marine transportation
capabilities, the tourism industry, and all Americans and other
American businesses will be operating with weather predictions that are
severely diminished in accuracy. When it comes to extreme weather
events such as those that we've been experiencing across the Nation,
diminished weather forecasting directly increases the risk of loss of
lives and property, not to mention the widespread economic losses that
come from our inability to prepare for such extreme events.
Mr. Speaker, why would Congress want to ``go blind'' to severe
weather and put our people and our economic infrastructure at risk,
especially when our economic recovery is so fragile and Americans are
struggling daily to make ends meet?
Turning now to NSF, while it's difficult to quantify the devastating
impacts of a 25 percent cut to the NSF budget, we can roughly estimate
that such a cut would lead to the reduction of over 17,000 research
grants: about 16,500 funded by the various Research Directorates, and
750 funded by the Education and Human Resources Directorate.
We cannot predict where the next scientific breakthroughs will come
from, or which research grant will lead to the next Google or GPS. So
not only will these budget cuts affect over 200,000 people supported by
NSF, including graduate students, undergraduates, K-12 teachers, and K-
12 students, but these cuts will most certainly significantly harm our
nation's ability to innovate, create jobs, and compete in the global
economy.
With these kinds of budget cuts, we will be supporting less cutting-
edge research and building fewer critically important scientific
research user facilities, but perhaps the biggest problem is the loss
of human capital. China and Europe are increasing funding for research
and building world class research facilities while we are heading in
the opposite direction. Those countries are successfully recruiting our
best and brightest as we successfully recruited theirs for many
decades.
Such steep cuts to the National Science Foundation will cause vital
investments in sustainability, leading edge technology, and STEM
education to be greatly delayed, reduced, or altogether cancelled.
These investments include support for: NSF-wide emphasis on Science,
Engineering, and Education for Sustainability, including vital
investments in clean energy research; major investments critical to job
creation and competitiveness, such as advanced manufacturing and the
National Robotics Initiative; pathbreaking efforts to improve pre-
college and undergraduate education, including the Teacher Learning for
the Future program and new investments to transform undergraduate
science courses.
A budget cut of even 5 percent to NSF's Major Research Equipment and
Facilities and Construction account would result in the termination of
approximately $100 million in contracts to industry for work in
progress on major facilities for environmental and oceanographic
research. This would directly lead to layoffs of roughly 100 direct
scientific and technical staff, with larger impacts at supplier
companies. In addition, costs over the life of these projects would
increase by over $100 million because of delays in the construction
schedule. Again, this is the potential scenario with a 5 percent cut--
not the 25 percent cut to discretionary authorizations included in the
bill before us today.
The National Science Foundation is the premier STEM education
research organization in the country. For decades, NSF has been a
leader in improving our collective understanding of how students learn,
and how we can develop the most effective and inspiring curriculum and
train the most effective and inspiring teachers. The education research
being funded at NSF is critical to helping us to better understand what
works and what doesn't, so that we can invest in programs that will
really make a difference in our schools. Cuts to STEM education at NSF
not only will directly impact many students and teachers across the
country, but it will greatly limit our ability to improve the state of
education in this country for every student and every teacher.

[[Page H5223]]

We cannot afford to make cuts to STEM education at a time when other
countries are consistently outperforming us on international tests. For
example, in the 2009 PISA, American schoolchildren ranked 17th out of
34 OECD countries in science. Shanghai-China, Finland, Hong Kong-China,
and Singapore were the highest performers in the science assessment.
Furthermore, American schoolchildren ranked 25th out of 34 OECD
countries for math. Shanghai-China, Singapore, and Hong Kong-China
ranked first, second and third in math, respectively. This is simply
not the time for us to be cutting funding for critical STEM education
programs at the NSF.
Mr. Speaker, the bad news in this bill does not end there. The impact
on NASA is equally grim. For example, a 25 percent reduction to NASA's
Space Operations account is over $1 billion. This cut could cause NASA
to reduce the number of cargo and crew transportation flights to the
International Space Station, thereby jeopardizing its agreement with
ISS partners to have 6 crew members operate the $100 billion research
facility. Delaying contracted for cargo and crew flights from
commercial partners and Russia may have financial repercussions. It
could render NASA unable to fulfill its agreed-to pension liability
payments to shuttle workers and it could jeopardize our ability to
receive data from on-going deep space missions by not having the money
needed to replace critical components in its unreliable and outdated
communications network.
A 25 percent reduction to NASA's Exploration account would cut almost
a billion dollars, further delaying the development of the Space Launch
System and Multipurpose Crew Vehicle--NASA's follow-on human space
transportation and exploration vehicles--causing an even greater gap in
the ability of a U.S. government-operated human transportation system
to access space whenever needed, as well as causing disruption to on-
going contracts, possibly requiring extensive layoffs and financial
compensation due to terminated contracts and further destabilizing the
aerospace industrial base.
A 25 percent reduction to NASA's Aeronautics Research account is over
$142 million. This will force cuts to NASA's critically important
research in aviation safety and airspace systems and delay work needed
by the FAA to increase the capacity and efficiency of the nation's air
transportation system through NextGen modernization. In addition, it
will prevent NASA from conducting unique research required to develop
environmentally responsible aircraft.
NASA's science programs would also suffer deep cuts, an outcome that
will be doing long-term damage to an area in which the United States
has maintained unquestioned leadership. It is doing the challenging R&D
projects that keep our companies and workforce at the top of their
game--whether it's landing spacecraft on Mars, acquiring data to
understand the complex behavior of our own planet, or carrying out the
analysis of data collected from space. Cutting NASA's science programs
by 25 percent will severely harm our ability to carry out pathbreaking
research, such as investigating dark energy, which may lead to
revolutionary breakthroughs in our understanding of our Universe. It
will also draw the best and brightest who seek inspirational and
challenging projects.
A cut of this magnitude would not only preclude new projects, such as
those recommended in National Academies decadal surveys, but could even
jeopardize missions being readied for launch in FY 2012, such as the
Mars Science Laboratory, the NPP weather satellite, and the Radiation
Belt Storm Probe, a mission that will help us understand the impact of
the radiation belt environment on spacecraft, something with important
practical significance.
Mr. Speaker, I don't want to sit on the sidelines while other nations
are the first to announce major scientific discoveries, draw the
world's top science and engineering talent into their fold, and begin
to assume leadership in areas where the U.S. has always been on the
cutting-edge.
NASA's education programs would also suffer if this bill ever becomes
law. Mr. Speaker, we tell the youth of this nation to reach for the
stars, and NASA is truly one of the agencies that inspire our next
generation to dream big and pursue the disciplines that we know are
needed to keep our nation strong--science and engineering. However,
under this bill, a 25 percent cut to NASA's education programs would
cripple initiatives such as the Space Grant and EPSCoR (Experimental
Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) programs, minority education
projects such as the Minority Undergraduate Research and Education
Project (MUREP), and K-12 teacher training and student opportunities
that are so critical to building and stimulating our future
capabilities.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, a 25 percent reduction to NASA's Cross Agency
Support account would have serious implications for NASA's safety and
mission success, NASA's information technology activities, and our
ability to operate NASA Centers across the U.S. I'd hate to think what
a cut to NASA's safety and mission success activities would mean for
ensuring the safety of our nation's astronauts launched into space and
the success of the critical functions they and our robotic spacecraft
perform. At a time when cybersecurity is being discussed as a key issue
across federal agencies, this cut would reduce NASA's critical
information technology functions, including information security. It is
highly likely that a cut to the agency operations budgets included in
this account could require NASA to shut down NASA Centers, lay off
additional contractors, and take actions that would have negative
repercussions throughout communities and regions at a time when local
economies are already stressed and jobs are hard to come by.
Mr. Speaker, I hope that my remarks give Members and the American
public some idea of the harm that enactment of this short-sighted piece
of legislation would do, not only to the agencies listed, but also to
other important R&D initiatives at the Department of Energy, the
National Institutes of Standards and Technology, and NOAA, to name but
a few of the affected agencies.
At the end of the day, Mr. Speaker, this bill is not going to become
law. It is simply a diversion from the serious business on which this
body should be focusing its attention. However, it is not a harmless
diversion. The extreme and ill-considered cuts that would flow from its
enactment send a terrible message to our citizens about this House's
priorities. When your car is low on gas, you don't siphon more out of
the tank, yet that is what this bill would do to the nation's R&D and
innovation capabilities. I want the record to be clear that I do not
support the cuts in this bill, nor do I support the process under which
this bill has come to the House floor. We can--and should--do better.
This bill is short-sighted; its negative impacts would cost more in the
long-term than any immediate budget reductions would save in the short-
term. I urge my colleagues in Congress to vote NO on this bill.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the Republican
plan to end Medicare and the health care safety net.
Republicans are playing a dangerous game of chicken. They are
threatening to hold the global economy hostage unless President Obama
and the Senate agree to their demands to slash Medicare and Medicaid.
We must reject this assault on seniors, the disabled, and children.
Previous amendments to the Constitution have ended slavery and
guaranteed the rights of citizens of all races to equal treatment under
the law. They have guaranteed the freedoms of speech and religion, and
for protection from unwarranted government intrusions on personal
rights.
What great principle do Republicans seek to enshrine into the
Constitution today?
The principle that the rich should never pay more taxes;
That Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are too expensive for
our Nation to afford;
And the U.S. Congress should be stripped of its ability to increase
spending to protect our economy from recession.
Republicans say that they are protecting Medicare for the future--
don't buy it. That's what they told us about their budget plan. It
wasn't true then, and it isn't true now.
Republicans tried to end Medicare as we know it in the budget they
passed in April. Public outrage stalled their plans. So today they have
a new approach: Pass a constitutional amendment that that would make it
impossible for Congress to continue to fund Medicare, Medicaid, and
Social Security.
Their objective is to end Medicare as we know it, repealing its
guarantees of coverage for hospital care, chemotherapy, doctor's
visits, and prescription drugs. In its place they would create a
voucher system--and yes, it is a voucher. Seniors would be forced into
the private market to buy health insurance with only limited financial
support from the government.
This plan will increase premiums and cost sharing by $6,000 per
person. And they want to write it into the Constitution!
And they want to destroy Medicaid too. Republicans would cut Medicaid
in half by 2022, leaving tens of millions of people without access to
care. People in nursing homes would be cut off. They would also slash
support for the Children's Health Insurance Program, jeopardizing
access to care for 8 million kids.
Medicaid is the primary payer for long-term care and the home and
community-based services that help people stay out of nursing homes.
Who will now bear the $72,000 per year cost of a nursing home for an
85-year old grandmother who collects $10,000 a year in Social Security
benefits? Her children will try, but only the rich will be able to
afford the costs in today's economy.
This is a complete abdication of our commitment to providing care
with dignity for our seniors.

[[Page H5224]]

The Republican proposal has other deplorable consequences. It would
make it impossible to invest in biomedical research to find tomorrow's
cures and technologies for cancer, Alzheimer's, and heart disease. It
would effectively foreclose the possibility that Congress could address
climate change by putting a price on carbon emissions. It would cripple
the FDA, threatening the safety of our pharmaceuticals and our food.
This is an extreme and dangerous proposal. Instead of holding our
seniors hostage, we need to work together to pass a realistic
compromise that will ensure we honor our debt while lowering our
deficit.
I urge a no vote on this legislation.
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, the nation's financial future should be
serious business. Unfortunately, House Republicans are not treating it
that way. It's bad enough that too many of them are willing to court
financial disaster by hijacking the process of raising the debt
ceiling. Today's vote is perhaps the clearest illustration of their
cavalier approach.
The vote on the so-called Cut, Cap, and Balance bill comes without
legislative work in any substantive committee. As a member of both the
Budget and Ways and Means Committees, I would have welcomed hearings
and work sessions which would have shown this bill to be a travesty.
Not a single president in 50 years proposed any budget that would have
met their requirements that spending be limited to 18 percent of GDP.
Ronald Reagan never proposed a budget under 21 percent.
House Republicans would mandate a balanced budget every year, whether
we were at war or dealing with the fallout of a tragic natural disaster
or an economic meltdown. Cuts to Medicare, the social safety net and
student loans would still be possible with a single majority vote, and
yet eliminating tax breaks for the favored and the wealthiest
individuals or corporations would require a two-thirds supermajority.
Since House Republicans want to continue to protect some areas of
spending and give more tax breaks to people who don't need them, this
means even more draconian cuts to the programs that people depend on
the most.
The House Republican approach is not about controlling the national
debt. The Republican budget still increases the debt ceiling almost $9
trillion. Yet their proposal would require three-fifths supermajority
to raise the debt ceiling in the future. This bizarre legislation would
freeze into Federal law and the Constitution the same dysfunctional
mechanics which made the State of California the fiscal basket case
that it is today.
Fortunately, this wacky and irresponsible measure will not be enacted
by this Congress; even if Congress were to pass it, the President would
veto it. The legislation does put the spotlight on the risks to the
country's financial future if voters reward this behavior. The only
good that may come of the charade is that it might provide cover for a
deal averting the damage from the debt ceiling gamesmanship.
Everyone knows we must honor our debts. Perhaps this foolishness will
permit Republican leadership to walk themselves and their members off
the ledge and not punish American families. I strongly oppose this
cynical, ill-advised proposal.
Mr. REYES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to strongly oppose the
Republican's ``Cut, Cap, and Balance Act.'' The only thing balanced
about this bill is that it has the word balance in the title. The
actual title should be ``Cut, Default, and End Medicare Act'' since it
would have a devastating effect on all American families and
businesses. This legislation makes significant cuts to social programs,
and caps spending at unprecedented levels.
Quite simply, this is the worst piece of legislation I have seen
while serving in Congress. This legislation seals tax breaks for
richest Americans, while gutting Medicare for seniors and other
critical programs for students, such as Pell Grants. In order to
eliminate tax breaks for the richest two percent of Americans, a
supermajority of Congress would be required for approval. This bill
will adversely impact the Hispanic community and will substantially
weaken the American economy.
The Republican plan is not the balanced approach Americans favor:
spending cuts and revenue increases, but instead the Tea Party plan
will lock in cuts over the next 10 years as severe as those in the Ryan
budget plan that they passed in April. In fact, according to a CBS News
Poll released Monday, 66 percent of Americans say an agreement to raise
the amount of money the nation can borrow should include both spending
cuts and tax increases. This bill would exacerbate the debt crisis by
making it more difficult for the U.S. to pay its bills by August 2nd
and force the passage of a constitutional amendment that would require
a two-thirds approval to raise any revenue in the future.
This bill would require slashing $111 billion immediately from
critical programs, in FY2012, without regard to the 9.2 percent
unemployment rate. These cuts would cause the loss of roughly 700,000
jobs in the current weak economy. In fact, the Republicans' slash and
burn politics have not created a single job for hardworking middle
class families in over the 200 days they have controlled the House.
Instead of rebuilding our economic infrastructure by investing in
roads, ports, bridges, and education and job training programs to help
middle class Americans, they push a radical and dangerous ideological
agenda.
H.R. 2560 also continues the Republicans assault on our nation's
seniors. Their plan will inevitably result in the end of the Medicare
guarantee, shifting thousands of dollars of health costs onto seniors,
shredding the social safety net and our promise to protect our most
vulnerable. Social Security would also be affected, even though Social
Security doesn't add 1 penny to the deficit.
Rather than focusing on innovation, infrastructure, education, and
jobs, Republicans want to manipulate the Constitution to make it easier
to cut Medicare and Social Security than to close special interest tax
loopholes.
The bill destroys Social Security and Medicare as we know them. These
programs are extremely important to seniors, especially to those in my
district. H.R. 2560 is nothing more than an ideological piece of
legislation to pursue a radical policy agenda of attacking the
livelihood of our seniors, while protecting tax breaks for special
interests and the wealthiest Americans. For these reasons, I strongly
urge my colleagues to oppose this legislation and stand firm in support
of our seniors, children, and most vulnerable.
Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, ``The Cut, Cap, and Balance Act'' shows
yet again how out of step the Majority is with the needs and concerns
of ordinary Americans. With over 9 percent unemployment, Congress
should focus on growing the economy, lowering unemployment and reducing
our deficit.
We can achieve this economic growth through a fiscal policy that
invests in our future, creates broad based economic growth and shares
the burden of debt reduction. Instead, we are debating an ideologically
extreme policy that makes the Majority's budget's treatment of seniors,
the middle class and our children look balanced.
This bill caps spending at 18 percent of Gross Domestic Product
(GDP), a level not seen since 1966, when seniors made up 9 percent of
the population, not the 13 percent they make up today. In 1966, the
average cost of medical care was $1,500 a year, not the $8,200 that it
is today, and almost no Americans were enrolled in Medicare, whereas
over 46 million seniors are enrolled today.
Even more disturbing, the bill holds an increase in the debt ceiling
hostage to the passage of a so-called ``Balanced Budget Amendment.''
This Balanced Budget Amendment is more radical than those that have
been considered by Congress in the past. Unbelievably, it would require
a supermajority in both houses of Congress to raise revenues.
However, you would only need a simple majority to cut taxes on the
wealthy and multi-national corporations and slash government programs
that our most vulnerable citizens rely on. What type of priorities do
we have when we change the Constitution to make it easier to cut
Medicare and Social Security, and nearly impossible to end the tax
breaks for special interests groups like the oil industry?
We are at a place in our history where the concentration of wealth at
the very top has only been matched at the time immediately prior to the
Great Depression. This bill will not only continue this trend, but it
will act as a catalyst where the people who already have so much, will
be given so much more.
And if one thinks that the Balanced Budget Amendment is sound fiscal
policy, they would be sorely mistaken. One only has to look at many of
the states who have Balanced Budget Amendments on the books to see what
happens when you amend your Constitution to promote ideology and
politics over common sense fiscal solutions.
The budget priorities enshrined in this legislation have been soundly
rejected by the American people, who have also made it clear that they
want Congress to come together and solve our fiscal problems and to
stop political posturing. We need to be serious in our attempts to
right our fiscal ship, but this Majority is asking our seniors, our
children and our middle class workers to take on all the sacrifice
while asking nothing of the wealthiest amongst us. I therefore urge my
colleagues to reject this legislation.
Ms. HIRONO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 2560,
which should be called the Cut, Cap, and Default Act. This is not a
serious attempt to deal with our debt or the looming threat that the
United States could default on its obligations. If the concern of the
supporters of this legislation was truly our national debt, they would
not be working to pass a bill that would virtually guarantee default on
our debt. This may provide some political cover for certain members,
but it is not a serious response to the problems of our economy.
To raise the debt limit, this legislation requires two-thirds of both
chambers of Congress to pass a balanced budget amendment

[[Page H5225]]

that games the system by making it far easier to slash federal programs
like Medicare (with a simple majority vote) than to raise taxes on the
wealthy or eliminate special interest loopholes (a higher than
majority, two-thirds of members must agree). Unneeded tax breaks for
oil companies or loopholes that benefit hedge fund managers would be
protected, but Medicare, Social Security, unemployment insurance, and
other programs that matter to the middle class and the most vulnerable
members of our community would be on the chopping block. In addition to
our social safety net programs, this bill would force cuts in programs
ensuring public safety, investing in education and infrastructure, and
protecting our environment.
Under this bill, multimillionaires could rest easy that they wouldn't
lose the generous tax cuts they received under President George W.
Bush. But poor seniors who need Medicaid to be able to get nursing home
care would be out of luck. Pell Grants that enable middle and low
income students to go to college would have to be cut. Nutrition
programs for children and the elderly would be curtailed. Government
efforts to protect clean air and water and to protect the wildlife,
especially endangered species, would suffer.
It has long been the goal of some to ``starve the beast,'' that is,
to cut taxes to the level that government services they feel are
unnecessary are eliminated. These ``services'' include Medicare,
Medicaid, Social Security, environmental regulation, and the U.S.
Department of Education to name a few well-known targets.
I recognize the need to get our debt under control. But we are in the
process of recovering from a devastating recession brought on by the
policies of the very people calling for cuts in spending today. We have
to raise the debt ceiling because we have less revenue due to the Bush
tax cuts, billions spent on two wars, and critically needed efforts to
pull our economy out of the nose dive it was in at the end of the Bush
administration. Holding the full faith and credit of the United States
hostage is not the answer to our problems. We need to come together and
take the responsible action of raising the debt limit and then move on
to addressing the most serious crises facing our nation: stimulating
job growth and getting our economy moving again.
Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, only in Washington can someone
charge $14.3 trillion in debt, ask for a higher credit limit, and not
propose a single solution about how to control their seemingly
unrestrained spending. That is just what the current Administration has
asked Congress to do and it is something which I joined 317 of my
colleagues, Republican and Democrat, in saying ``no!''
As every Alaskan family knows, there is no magic wand that will just
waive debt away. Rather, debt must be managed, luxuries must be given
up, and budgets must be made and adhered to. H.R. 2560, the Cut, Cap
and Balance Act of 2011 employs what should be a common-sense approach
to controlling and paying down our bloated debt. By cutting today's
spending and capping and indexing tomorrow's spending to our growth, we
can begin to pay down the $46,000 that each and every American owes.
To ensure that future generations do not make the same spending
mistakes, H.R. 2560 will also encourage Congress to propose a Balanced
Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. With this amendment we can
begin to restrain growth of Washington bureaucrats whose sole job is to
prevent resource development and make everyone's life more complicated
and more difficult. By forcing future Congress to spend only what they
take in revenue, we can finally create a government which lives within
its means.
In the 112th Congress, I am a proud and original cosponsor of a
balanced budget amendment and in previous Congresses I have voted for a
balanced budget amendment five separate times. Since my first vote in
favor of a Balanced Budget Amendment in 1982, I have supported the idea
that Congress, like every American family, must make and stick to a
budget. Alaskan families seem to understand this concept, it is time
that Washington learned from their example.
Mrs. CAPPS. Mr. Speaker, I rise is strong opposition to H.R. 2560.
This misguided legislation is a ridiculous gimmick that has been
dismissed as such by budget and economic experts on both sides of the
aisle.
It does nothing to pay our bills. It does nothing to create jobs and
grow our economy. And it does nothing to address the rapidly
approaching default crisis.
So what would it actually do?
It would destroy jobs and cause economic catastrophe. It protects
tax breaks and loopholes for Big Oil and Wall Street by cutting the
critical safety net programs seniors, children and American families
depend on. And, it would double down on the draconian Ryan Budget,
ending Medicare and more than doubling health care costs for seniors.
Rather than wasting yet more time debating a bill that won't pass
the Senate and would be vetoed by the President, we should be doing the
one thing guaranteed to reduce our deficit immediately--create jobs.
Yes, we must make tough choices to reduce spending and balance our
budget. But these cuts must not endanger our economic future. We still
need to invest in innovation, infrastructure and education to create
the jobs today and in the future and to ensure a well-trained workforce
to do those jobs.
Putting people to work and helping businesses grow increases revenue
streams and decreases budget deficits. This is the most effective way
to reduce the deficit and pay our bills while still protecting our
economic future.
This bill, however, would do the opposite by balancing the budget on
the backs of seniors, the middle income families and the most
vulnerable among us.
Our deficit is a serious problem that requires serious solutions.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2560 is not a serious solution, and I urge my
colleagues to oppose it.
Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, This ``Cut, Cap and Gut''
proposal isn't just a retread of the policies our colleagues voted for
in their extreme budget resolution that would end Medicare as we know
it; it's worse. This bill holds an increase in the debt limit hostage
to passage of a radical GOP Constitutional Amendment that would require
even deeper cuts after ending Medicare as we know it.
It arbitrarily caps federal spending at 18 percent of GDP. To say
this is unwise is an understatement. The last time federal spending was
18 percent or less of GDP was 1966. The problems of 2011 don't call for
a rigid ideology 45 years behind the curve. Why would we tie Congress'
hands in the event of future economic challenges? In economic downturns
Congress should be able to cut taxes or increase investments to
stimulate growth. This is basic economic policy.
This proposal turns a blind eye not just to basic economics, but to
the two pressing and related challenges facing our country: growing the
economy and charting a course back to fiscal balance. It would
necessitate across the board cuts in the domestic programs--education,
research, infrastructure and Medicare--that make us strong and ensure
our economic success. We know that the best cure for a budget deficit
is a growing economy, but this bill requires deep spending cuts
starting in October that could stall the recovery and put more
Americans out of work.
The budget surpluses we achieved during the 1990s were the result of
a concerted effort to balance the budget through a comprehensive
approach. Revenues, entitlements, military and domestic spending--all
were on the table. We balanced the budget four years in a row. We paid
off more than $400 billion of the national debt. Yet those surpluses
were squandered during the George W. Bush administration through
trillions in tax cuts and two wars and a privatized prescription drug
plan--none of it paid for. Then, when the recession hit in 2008, we
were already deep in a fiscal hole and our ability to take effective
countermeasures was dangerously compromised. We must never let that
happen again.
The bill before us is the opposite of a balanced, comprehensive
approach. This bill makes it easier for future Congresses to cut
Medicare than to close tax loopholes for oil companies or millionaires,
because it requires a 2/3 vote for any measure that raises revenue. The
Ronald Reagan-Tip O'Neal agreement to save Social Security in 1983
would not have passed this hurdle. George H. W. Bush's bipartisan 1990
deficit reduction plan would not have passed this hurdle, nor would the
Democratic deficit reduction plan of 1993. So this bill willfully cuts
off Congress' access to the tools that have produced meaningful deficit
reduction and boosted economic growth, at a time when our economy is
fragile and millions of Americans are out of work.

Perhaps this is just positioning by the House majority, but there is
no need for this brinksmanship. We should not be making these decisions
under duress, but that is exactly where the Republican no-compromise
majority has left us. They ask us to alter the fundamental relationship
between our people and government--undermining Medicare, education,
infrastructure and research funding--by voting on a bill that has never
seen a committee vote and was only completed last Friday.
This legislation is not worthy of Congress' approval, and it deserves
rejection from those on both sides of the aisle who understand that it
is a dangerous diversion from the pressing tasks of job creation and
sound fiscal policy.
Mr. COSTELLO. Mr. Speaker, in 1995, I was one of only 72 Democrats to
vote for the balanced budget amendment, BBA, considered by the House,
and I would vote for a straightforward BBA today. However, the bill
before us, H.R. 2560, the Cut, Cap and Balance Act, does not meet this
standard.
H.R. 2560 would ensure massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare and
Medicaid by

[[Page H5226]]

holding government spending to 18 percent of Gross Domestic Product--
which has not happened since 1966. In addition, the defense budget is
exempted from any cuts under this plan. The only way to achieve a
balanced budget would be to dismantle programs that help seniors and
the disabled, while tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and
corporations that ship jobs overseas are preserved. It is simply
unacceptable to make seniors and the disabled bear such a large share
of this burden, and this is why AARP and many other groups oppose H.R.
2560.
Mr. Speaker, this bill is a Republican gimmick, not a serious attempt
to find common ground and a reasonable approach to getting our deficit
and debt under control, and I will oppose it.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 355, the previous question is ordered on
the bill.
The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the bill.
The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, and was
read the third time.

Motion to Recommit

Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at
the desk.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is the gentleman opposed to the bill?
Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. I am in its current form.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion to
recommit.
The Clerk read as follows:

Mr. Bishop of Georgia moves that the bill be recommited to
the Committee on Rules with instructions to report the
following amendment back to the House forthwith:
At the end of section 301, add the following new
subsection:
(c) Protecting Our Veterans.--It shall not be in order in
the House of Representatives or the Senate to consider any
balanced budget amendment to the Constitution that could
result in a reduction in veterans benefits.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman is
recognized for 5 minutes in support of his motion.
Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, there are many
times when we come to this floor and engage in heated debate, and we
have heard some heated debate today. This so-called Cut, Cap, and
Balance bill does just that.
It cuts and it caps programs that will work for everyone and put
America ahead of our competitors. It cuts and caps our ability to jump-
start new industries in our country, like clean energy. It cuts and
caps our ability to rebuild our economic infrastructure, like roads and
bridges and ports, and to put people to work. It cuts and caps
education and job training opportunities to help middle class people
get and keep good jobs.
Yes, it cuts and it caps, but it balances the cuts and the caps by
protecting tax breaks for the wealthiest folks in our country by
providing subsidies for corporations that take jobs overseas, away from
American workers, and by cutting Medicare and Social Security benefits
for our Nation's seniors--balancing it on the backs of them.
I have some problems with this bill, Mr. Speaker, but I am a realist,
and I realize, reluctantly, that it might just pass. So, regardless of
how we may feel about the underlying legislation, this motion to
recommit is something upon which we ought to all be able to agree. It
simply says that it shall not be in order in the House of
Representatives or the Senate to consider any balanced budget amendment
to the Constitution that could result in a reduction in veterans'
benefits.

{time} 1950

Mr. Speaker, we have already seen what a shortfall in veterans
funding can do. I remember the problems with veterans care. I remember
the $1 billion shortfall a few years ago when the Department of
Veterans Affairs had to raid its operations and maintenance account to
help pay for veterans basic medical care.
Even now, veterans have to wait years to have their claims
adjudicated because they're just are not enough adjudicators. They have
to wait too long to get doctors to get their treatment. Mr. Speaker,
with more of our servicemembers returning home every day, more vets are
returning home who have no opportunity or a limited opportunity for job
training, returning home with PTSD, or returning home now having to
face the possibility of limited educational benefits because of this
bill and its progeny.
Mr. Speaker, now is not the time to endanger benefits to our Nation's
veterans.
When veterans come home without limbs because they have defended our
freedoms, we should not put in place Cut, Cap, and Balance legislation
on their backs, the backs that are strained and damaged by the injuries
they sustained fighting for this country. We should not stand idly by
and watch this Congress endanger the welfare of our Nation's heroes.
Today's Nation's military remains deployed overseas as it has during
the last 9 years. The funding requirements we face in meeting the needs
have significantly increased as we continue to meet and address the
longstanding issues from past and current wars. And we cannot watch the
requirements for these fighting men and women who come home continue to
die.
These needs last long after the last American combatants depart Iraq
and Afghanistan. This motion to recommit would simply protect our
veterans from any potential unintended consequence resulting from this
ill-conceived bill, the so-called Cut, Cap, and Balance Act.
The needs of America's veterans, past and future, should be one of
our highest priorities. And this motion will ensure that our veterans
are taken care of and they receive the benefits they have earned.
Let's be clear. The passage of this motion to recommit will not
prevent the passage of the underlying bill. If the amendment is
adopted, it will be incorporated into the bill and the bill will be
immediately voted upon.
So though we may disagree on the bill, today we have the opportunity
with this motion to recommit and my amendment to speak with one voice
in support of our veterans.
It is up to all of us. I urge you to vote ``yes'' on this motion to
recommit. But let's make sure that if this bill passes, the Cut, Cap
and Balance and any balanced budget will not result in a reduction of
veterans benefits. Vote ``yes'' on the motion to recommit and protect
our Nation's veterans.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I rise in opposition to the motion.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I have fantastic news. All of the
gentleman from Georgia's concerns have already been addressed in this
legislation.
Let me simply refer you to section 317 where it says: ``Exempt from
direct spending limits, section (b)(3), veterans benefits and services,
which is all of function 700.'' Let me refer you to section 318 that
shows when it comes to sequester, which is basically an enforcement
mechanism on spending caps, exemption, veterans benefits. Veterans
benefits are explicitly preserved in this legislation just as they are
with the budget that we had passed that this cap and cut conformed to.
So make no mistake, Mr. Speaker, there are no cuts to veterans in
here, because we agree the men and women out there fighting on the
front lines for our freedom have been given promises to benefits like
health care and others, and those promises all are to be kept.
That is why we've already taken care of the gentleman's concerns so
the recommit is unnecessary because we preserve the benefits
explicitly.
I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the previous question is
ordered on the motion to recommit.
There was no objection.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to recommit.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the noes appeared to have it.
Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and
nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 and clause 9 of rule
XX, this 15-minute vote on the motion to recommit will be followed by
5-minute votes on the passage of the bill, if ordered; and approval of
the Journal.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 188,
nays 236, not voting 8, as follows:

[[Page H5227]]

[Roll No. 605]

YEAS--188

Ackerman
Altmire
Andrews
Baca
Baldwin
Barrow
Bass (CA)
Becerra
Berkley
Berman
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Boren
Boswell
Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Brown (FL)
Butterfield
Capps
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carney
Carson (IN)
Chandler
Chu
Cicilline
Clarke (MI)
Clarke (NY)
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Connolly (VA)
Conyers
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Critz
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
DeFazio
DeGette
DeLauro
Deutch
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Donnelly (IN)
Doyle
Edwards
Engel
Eshoo
Farr
Fattah
Filner
Frank (MA)
Fudge
Garamendi
Gonzalez
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hahn
Hanabusa
Hastings (FL)
Heinrich
Higgins
Himes
Hinojosa
Hirono
Hochul
Holden
Holt
Honda
Hoyer
Inslee
Israel
Jackson (IL)
Jackson Lee (TX)
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Jones
Kaptur
Keating
Kildee
Kind
Kissell
Kucinich
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee (CA)
Levin
Lewis (GA)
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Lujan
Lynch
Maloney
Markey
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (NY)
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McIntyre
McNerney
Meeks
Michaud
Miller (NC)
Miller, George
Moore
Moran
Murphy (CT)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Olver
Owens
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor (AZ)
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Peters
Peterson
Pingree (ME)
Polis
Price (NC)
Quigley
Rahall
Rangel
Reyes
Richardson
Richmond
Ross (AR)
Rothman (NJ)
Roybal-Allard
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schrader
Schwartz
Scott (VA)
Scott, David
Serrano
Sewell
Sherman
Shuler
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (WA)
Speier
Stark
Sutton
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Tonko
Towns
Tsongas
Van Hollen
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walz (MN)
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watt
Waxman
Welch
Wilson (FL)
Woolsey
Wu
Yarmuth

NAYS--236

Adams
Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Amash
Austria
Bachmann
Bachus
Barletta
Bartlett
Barton (TX)
Bass (NH)
Benishek
Berg
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Bonner
Bono Mack
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Brooks
Broun (GA)
Buchanan
Bucshon
Buerkle
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Calvert
Camp
Campbell
Canseco
Cantor
Capito
Carter
Cassidy
Chabot
Chaffetz
Coble
Coffman (CO)
Cole
Conaway
Cravaack
Crawford
Crenshaw
Culberson
Davis (KY)
Denham
Dent
DesJarlais
Diaz-Balart
Dold
Dreier
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Ellmers
Emerson
Farenthold
Fincher
Fitzpatrick
Flake
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Gardner
Garrett
Gerlach
Gibbs
Gibson
Gingrey (GA)
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gosar
Gowdy
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (MO)
Griffin (AR)
Griffith (VA)
Grimm
Guinta
Guthrie
Hall
Hanna
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Hastings (WA)
Hayworth
Heck
Hensarling
Herger
Herrera Beutler
Huelskamp
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurt
Issa
Jenkins
Johnson (IL)
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, Sam
Jordan
Kelly
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kinzinger (IL)
Kline
Labrador
Lamborn
Lance
Landry
Lankford
Latham
LaTourette
Latta
Lewis (CA)
LoBiondo
Long
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lummis
Lungren, Daniel E.
Mack
Manzullo
Marchant
Marino
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul
McClintock
McCotter
McHenry
McKeon
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
Meehan
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary
Mulvaney
Murphy (PA)
Myrick
Neugebauer
Noem
Nugent
Nunes
Nunnelee
Olson
Palazzo
Paul
Paulsen
Pearce
Pence
Petri
Pitts
Platts
Poe (TX)
Pompeo
Posey
Price (GA)
Quayle
Reed
Rehberg
Reichert
Renacci
Ribble
Rigell
Rivera
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross (FL)
Royce
Runyan
Ryan (WI)
Scalise
Schilling
Schmidt
Schock
Schweikert
Scott (SC)
Scott, Austin
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shimkus
Simpson
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Southerland
Stearns
Stivers
Stutzman
Sullivan
Terry
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tipton
Turner
Upton
Walberg
Walden
Walsh (IL)
Webster
West
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Wolf
Womack
Woodall
Yoder
Young (FL)
Young (IN)

NOT VOTING--8

Blumenauer
Capuano
Castor (FL)
Ellison
Giffords
Hinchey
Shuster
Young (AK)

{time} 2017

Messrs. OLSON and GINGREY of Georgia changed their vote from ``yea''
to ``nay.''
Mr. KEATING, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY and Messrs. THOMPSON of California and
GEORGE MILLER of California changed their vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the motion to recommit was rejected.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the passage of the bill.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.

Recorded Vote

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.
A recorded vote was ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. This will be a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 234,
noes 190, not voting 8, as follows:

[Roll No. 606]

AYES--234

Adams
Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Amash
Austria
Bachus
Barletta
Bartlett
Barton (TX)
Bass (NH)
Benishek
Berg
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Bonner
Bono Mack
Boren
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Brooks
Buchanan
Bucshon
Buerkle
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Calvert
Camp
Campbell
Cantor
Capito
Carter
Cassidy
Chabot
Chaffetz
Coble
Coffman (CO)
Cole
Conaway
Cooper
Cravaack
Crawford
Crenshaw
Culberson
Davis (KY)
Denham
Dent
Diaz-Balart
Dold
Dreier
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Ellmers
Emerson
Farenthold
Fincher
Fitzpatrick
Flake
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Gardner
Garrett
Gerlach
Gibbs
Gibson
Gingrey (GA)
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gosar
Gowdy
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (MO)
Griffin (AR)
Grimm
Guinta
Guthrie
Hall
Hanna
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Hastings (WA)
Hayworth
Heck
Hensarling
Herger
Herrera Beutler
Huelskamp
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurt
Issa
Jenkins
Johnson (IL)
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, Sam
Jordan
Kelly
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kinzinger (IL)
Kline
Labrador
Lamborn
Lance
Landry
Lankford
Latham
LaTourette
Latta
Lewis (CA)
LoBiondo
Long
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lummis
Lungren, Daniel E.
Manzullo
Marchant
Marino
Matheson
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul
McClintock
McCotter
McHenry
McIntyre
McKeon
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
Meehan
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary
Mulvaney
Murphy (PA)
Myrick
Neugebauer
Noem
Nugent
Nunes
Nunnelee
Olson
Palazzo
Paulsen
Pearce
Pence
Petri
Pitts
Platts
Poe (TX)
Pompeo
Posey
Price (GA)
Quayle
Reed
Rehberg
Reichert
Renacci
Ribble
Rigell
Rivera
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rokita
Rooney
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross (FL)
Royce
Runyan
Ryan (WI)
Scalise
Schilling
Schmidt
Schock
Schweikert
Scott (SC)
Scott, Austin
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shimkus
Shuler
Shuster
Simpson
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Southerland
Stearns
Stivers
Stutzman
Sullivan
Terry
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tipton
Turner
Upton
Walberg
Walden
Walsh (IL)
Webster
West
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Wolf
Womack
Woodall
Yoder
Young (FL)
Young (IN)

NOES--190

Ackerman
Altmire
Andrews
Baca
Bachmann
Baldwin
Barrow
Bass (CA)
Becerra
Berkley
Berman
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Boswell
Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Broun (GA)
Brown (FL)
Butterfield
Canseco
Capps
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carney
Carson (IN)
Chandler
Chu
Cicilline
Clarke (MI)
Clarke (NY)
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Connolly (VA)
Conyers
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Critz
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
DeFazio
DeGette
DeLauro
DesJarlais
Deutch
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Donnelly (IN)
Doyle
Edwards
Eshoo
Farr
Fattah
Filner
Frank (MA)
Fudge
Garamendi
Gonzalez
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Griffith (VA)
Grijalva
Gutierrez

[[Page H5228]]

Hahn
Hanabusa
Hastings (FL)
Heinrich
Higgins
Himes
Hinojosa
Hirono
Hochul
Holden
Holt
Honda
Hoyer
Inslee
Israel
Jackson (IL)
Jackson Lee (TX)
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Jones
Kaptur
Keating
Kildee
Kind
Kissell
Kucinich
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee (CA)
Levin
Lewis (GA)
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Lujan
Lynch
Mack
Maloney
Markey
Matsui
McCarthy (NY)
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McNerney
Meeks
Michaud
Miller (NC)
Miller, George
Moore
Moran
Murphy (CT)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Olver
Owens
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor (AZ)
Paul
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Peters
Peterson
Pingree (ME)
Polis
Price (NC)
Quigley
Rahall
Rangel
Reyes
Richardson
Richmond
Rohrabacher
Ross (AR)
Rothman (NJ)
Roybal-Allard
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schrader
Schwartz
Scott (VA)
Scott, David
Serrano
Sewell
Sherman
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (WA)
Speier
Stark
Sutton
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Tonko
Towns
Tsongas
Van Hollen
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walz (MN)
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watt
Waxman
Welch
Wilson (FL)
Woolsey
Wu
Yarmuth

NOT VOTING--8

Blumenauer
Capuano
Castor (FL)
Ellison
Engel
Giffords
Hinchey
Young (AK)

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

The SPEAKER pro tempore (during the vote). There are 2 minutes
remaining in this vote.

{time} 2023

So the bill was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Stated against:
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 606 I in advertently missed
the vote. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.''

____________________