[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 23 (Wednesday, February 13, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H459]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE DEBT CEILING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Quigley) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, last month we passed a bill that suspends 
the debt ceiling until May. I voted for that bill because I didn't want 
to plunge the credit rating of this country or have the economy plunge 
into another recession. But that vote was just a short-term fix in what 
has been a series of short-term fixes. And short-term fixes no longer 
cut it when it comes to running the world's biggest economy.
  Instead of thoughtful, long-term planning, we have contented 
ourselves with political sideshows. We've budgeted with continuing 
resolutions and held endless partisan committee hearings aimed at 
dismantling so-called job-killing legislation like the Clean Air Act. 
We voted 33 times to repeal all or part of the President's health care 
plan, and we attempted to balance the Federal Government's budget by 
zeroing out Planned Parenthood. That's not careful planning. That's 
tired political dogma.

                              {time}  1020

  In a famous speech about the Vietnam war, Dr. Martin Luther King, 
Jr., said, ``We are confronted by the fierce urgency of now.''
  We again find ourselves in a conflict that threatens the political 
fabric of our Nation, the integrity of our institutions. We face a 
mountain of debt. We lack a comprehensive approach to climate change, 
energy, transportation, Medicare, Social Security, defense spending, 
immigration reform, gun violence, and even our postal system.
  We need to find that urgency to get started on creating a sensible 
energy policy that confronts climate change and reduces our reliance on 
foreign oil.
  We need that urgency to formulate a transportation plan so that 
States can address their crumbling infrastructure and local businesses 
can get back to work.
  We need that urgency of now to reconfigure our security policy, 
making sensible cuts and fashioning a force that prepares us for 
conflicts of the future and not the past.
  We need the urgency of now to make sensible changes to Social 
Security and Medicare to ensure the vitality of these programs for 
generations to come.
  That urgency of now will reward us with more than a sensible energy 
policy, good roads, a smarter defense department, and sustainable 
social welfare system. We will be rewarded with a stable economy and 
reduced market volatility.
  We cannot wait to act. We are borrowing 42 cents for every dollar we 
spend. We have to take sensible steps to begin reducing our debt 
without stepping on a fragile economic recovery. We have to take steps 
that are big, bold, and bipartisan. That's why I signed onto the 
Cooper-LaTourette bipartisan budget agreement that would have saved $4 
trillion over 10 years, and that's why my office authored a 
comprehensive plan to reinvent government and save taxpayers $2 
trillion over the next 10 years.
  No, government is not perfect. But I believe we need to reinvent 
government, not eliminate it. Or, as Grover Norquist says, make ``it 
small enough to drown in the bathtub.''
  Government is important. The heroes of 9/11 were government workers. 
Government teaches our kids; it protects us, keeps us safe, helps keep 
our air clean, and protects the less fortunate.
  The Tea Party has this wrong. The objective should not be to destroy 
government through reactive draconian cuts; rather, we should 
collectively rethink and renew this institution that touches all of our 
lives.
  I recognize that not everyone I serve with would agree on how to cut 
defense and adjust social programs to make them sustainable over time. 
That's the whole point. You have to compromise. Sadly, that's not in 
vogue these days. My colleague from Chicago, Congressman Bobby Rush, 
said it best when he observed, ``In Congress, the view of compromise is 
that the other guy gives in.''
  It simply can't be that way. Until we end the bickering, political 
preening, and brinksmanship, the deadlock that has paralyzed our 
political process will continue.
  As Lincoln said, ``It is not can any of us imagine better, but can we 
do better?''
  And those words are true today. We have to abandon the dogmas of 
yesterday to fulfill the promise of tomorrow.
  ``We cannot escape history,'' he said. ``We of this Congress and this 
administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves.''
  Despite this immense challenge that confronts us, I believe we will 
prevail. If we can summon that urgency of now, if we can end the bitter 
partisanship and poor planning; we can solve our Nation's problems and 
make a brighter day for ourselves and generations to come.

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