[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 6 (Wednesday, January 18, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H37]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           FISCAL DISCIPLINE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Lance) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LANCE. Mr. Speaker, last week, President Obama asked Congress for 
$1.2 trillion in additional borrowing authority, and today Congress has 
the opportunity to respond to the President's request. Since the 
President took office, the national debt has increased $4.6 trillion. 
The current Federal debt now exceeds the U.S. gross domestic product, 
and our Federal Government is borrowing more than 30 cents of every 
dollar it spends. In recent years, that has been as high as 40 cents of 
every dollar it spends.
  The President's most recent request for a $1.2 trillion increase will 
bring the debt limit to $16.394 trillion. Yet despite this fiscal 
outlook, Admiral Mullen, the recently retired Chairman of the Joint 
Chiefs of Staff, has rightly called the national debt ``the single-
biggest threat to our national security.'' President Obama and some in 
Congress still refuse to make the difficult, long-term spending choices 
necessary to begin restoring fiscal discipline to the Federal budget.
  The President publicly opposed a balanced budget amendment, an idea 
about which Thomas Jefferson said, ``I would be willing to depend on 
that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government.''
  The House of Representatives, in a majority fashion, passed a 
balanced budget amendment late last year. Unfortunately, it did not 
receive a two-thirds vote here, as the Constitution requires; and I 
hope we can revisit that issue.
  President Obama has failed to put forth a credible budget plan that 
reins in runaway Federal entitlement spending. It is the single-biggest 
contributor toward our long-term fiscal problems.
  When the President releases his budget proposal for fiscal year 2013 
in a few weeks, he has another opportunity to propose real spending 
caps and entitlement program reforms. I hope he will seize the 
opportunity to do so.
  I commend to the President's attention and to the administration's 
attention, for example, Chairman Ryan's budget proposals, and we would 
like to work in good faith with the administration and with the 
President to make sure that we move forward in a fiscally responsible 
way.
  But today's debate, Mr. Speaker, is about leadership and making tough 
choices. The Governor of the State of New Jersey, my friend Chris 
Christie, said last year, ``Leadership, today in America, has to be 
about doing the big things.'' When given the opportunity to lead on 
issues concerning levels of spending, debt, and deficits, I urge 
President Obama to join with us in doing the big things to make sure 
that we can get our fiscal house in order, a glide path back toward 
fiscal responsibility for balancing our budget over time.
  We need to restore that fiscal discipline in Washington instead of 
choosing the fiscally perilous path of more spending, larger annual 
deficits, and mounting debt. The next generation will have to pay back 
this debt. It is a tremendous burden on young people, and it will sap 
our strength in the continuing competition of the United States with 
the nations around the world, including, for example, China and India.
  Mr. Speaker, I will oppose the President's request for an additional 
$1.2 trillion in spending. I hope that we can work together with the 
administration on this fundamental issue, the issue that confronts the 
Nation's fiscal responsibility. And may the United States be restored 
to fiscal responsibility so that future generations might succeed, as 
generations have succeeded generation in and generation out, the great 
promise of the American Nation.

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