[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 10, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H654-H655]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
             DEBT CEILING BILL IS FINANCIALLY IRRESPONSIBLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Alabama (Mr. Brooks) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROOKS of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, America entrusted Republicans 
with the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014.
  Democrats lost Congress because their financially irresponsible 
conduct and trillion-dollar deficits threaten America with a 
debilitating insolvency and bankruptcy.
  House Republicans inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit in 2011. They cut 
it to $1.1 trillion in 2012, cut it to $680 billion in 2013, cut it to 
$485 billion in 2014, and cut it to $439 billion in 2015.
  House Republicans did what the American people elected them to do. In 
each election thereafter, we were entrusted with 2 more years of a 
House Republican majority.

[[Page H655]]

  Unfortunately, newly released data from the nonpartisan Congressional 
Budget Office reveals America's financial condition has taken a sharp 
turn for the worse.
  According to the CBO, the first quarter fiscal year 2016 deficit 
deteriorated by $36 billion compared to 2015's first quarter deficit. 
If extrapolated to a full year, America's FY 2016 deficit would be $583 
billion. That is $144 billion worse than in fiscal year 2015.
  Out-of-control spending was the problem, not taxes. During the first 
quarter, tax revenues were up 4 percent, but spending was up even more, 
at 7 percent.
  Now, for the first time since I have been in Congress, Republican 
compromises and surrenders to Obama and Democrats have made America's 
deficits worse, not better.
  This Congress broke open our kids' piggy banks, stole money we cannot 
pay back, and used it to pay for a trillion-dollar omnibus spending 
bill that adds tens of billions of dollars to 2016's deficit. I am 
proud I voted against the financially irresponsible omnibus.
  Mr. Speaker, America's Comptroller General and the CBO repeatedly 
warn that America's financial path is ``unsustainable,'' meaning 
America faces a debilitating insolvency and bankruptcy unless we get 
our financial house in order.
  Further, the CBO warns that, absent correction, America's debt 
service costs will increase by $600 billion per year within a decade, 
roughly what America spends on national defense, which begs the 
question: Where will the money come from for an additional annual $600 
billion debt service payment?
  America's total debt approached $14 trillion when I was elected to 
Congress in 2010. We have blown through the $19 trillion mark. Now the 
CBO projects America will blow through the $29 trillion debt mark in a 
decade.
  For emphasis, Washington is engaged in the worst generational theft 
in American history. Washington steals from our children and 
grandchildren with a callous devil-may-care attitude so that we can 
today live high on the hog, even though it forces our children into 
hardship and poverty.
  Economic principles don't care if you are a family, a business, or a 
country. If you borrow more money than you can pay back, you go 
bankrupt. Time is running out. Washington must balance the budget 
before America's debt burden spirals out of control, before it is too 
late to prevent the debilitating insolvency and bankruptcy that awaits 
us.
  Mr. Speaker, Americans are rightfully angry at Washington elected 
officials who care more about special interest campaign contributions 
than American voters or America's future.
  Will the American people channel their anger in the 2016 elections 
and elect Washington officials who both understand the threat posed by 
deficits and debt and have the backbone to fix it? The answer to that 
question determines whether America continues as a great nation and 
world power or declines into the dustbin of history.
  Mr. Speaker, I can't speak for anyone else, but as for me, Mo Brooks 
from Alabama's Fifth Congressional District, I fight for financial 
responsibility and prosperity and against an American bankruptcy and 
economic depression.

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