[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 187 (Thursday, November 21, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H9155-H9156]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                OUR FEDERAL FISCAL HOUSE IS OUT OF ORDER

  (Mr. CASE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1

[[Page H9156]]

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CASE. Madam Speaker, can anyone seriously dispute that our 
Federal fiscal house is seriously out of order?
  Our national debt stands at $23 trillion, doubling in just the last 
decade alone. No end is in sight, as we just registered $1 trillion 
annual deficit in the last fiscal year, and this fiscal year looks the 
same or worse. Interest payments alone will exceed defense spending by 
2025.
  We need look no further than into the mirror for the root cause. It 
is our collective inability to face the music of fiscal responsibility 
and sustainability. We clearly need help.
  H.R. 5211, the Sustainable Budget Act, cointroduced today with my 
colleague from Arkansas, the ranking member of the Budget Committee, 
Mr. Womack, would follow the models of Simpson-Bowles and other such 
independent commissions charged with focusing on our debt and 
recommending a sustainable path forward for an up-or-down vote by 
Congress.
  In that, our bill is similar to other measures I have also 
cointroduced: H.R. 4907, the TRUST Act, with Representatives Gallagher 
and McAdams; and H.R. 5178, the RAFT Act, with Representative Burchett. 
Together, they offer a far better way forward to tackling our debt 
crisis, and I urge their prompt consideration and passage.

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