[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16825]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           ATTACK THE DEFICIT

  (Ms. BERKLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. BERKLEY. Mr. Speaker, Republican leadership still does not grasp 
the importance of reducing our Nation's deficits. Instead, they 
continue to focus on misplaced priorities.
  Our Nation faces record deficits, and we ought to tackle the real 
problems that deficits pose. Deficits put a strain on the economy. They 
threaten Social Security and force families to bear the burden of our 
Nation's debt.
  Over the next 6 years, Nevada families will pay on average more than 
$20,000 out of their own pockets to help cover the cost of the national 
debt. Instead of dealing with this, the Republican leaders have chosen 
this week to focus on legislation that would erode the separation of 
powers by removing Federal court jurisdictions to review challenges to 
the Defense of Marriage Act.
  It is incomprehensible to me that Republican leaders have deemed this 
the pressing issue when millions of Americans have no health insurance, 
we still have not passed a transportation bill, and our deficits are 
skyrocketing out of control.
  Let us focus on what is really important to American families, attack 
rising deficits with sensible approaches and let us let all of this 
extraneous nonsense go by the wayside where it belongs.

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