[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7037]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          HONESTY IN BUDGETING

  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take the time 
of the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey).
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from 
Washington is recognized for 5 minutes.
  There was no objection.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, we heard a lot of talk out here a little 
earlier about honesty in motions on the floor. I want to report that 
there has been some honesty not in the floor but to the press by the 
majority leader. The majority leader has finally run up the white flag. 
The Republicans have capitulated; they have given up. Today's Roll Call 
says, the majority leader says we will be here until Christmas.
  Now, that is from someone who is in charge of the House that has not 
passed the tax reconciliation bill from the last budget that started on 
October 1, 2005. That is 7 months ago. And the Republicans can't run a 
two-car funeral. They can pass the cuts, but they can't deal with the 
tax bill. If you look on the list that they offer for the next session 
next week, possible legislation, the Tax Reconciliation Act.
  Every year starts the same here. January 1, we have until April 15 to 
pass a budget. Then the Budget chairman goes over there, and he did it 
again this year, and they had this big hoo-haw and they have all kinds 
and they flap their arms, but they haven't passed a budget.
  The law says the budget has to be in place by April 15. Well, we are 
about 3 weeks past that now, and if you look in the orders for next 
week, there it is: possible legislation, possible budget resolution.
  This country is running without a budget. The Republicans do not want 
a budget because they don't want people to really know what this is 
costing. Well, what about the hole that they are digging for the 
American people and their children and their grandchildren? In the 6 
years that the Republicans have been in charge of this House, we have 
raised the debt limit $3 trillion.
  These are fiscal conservatives. You know, they are very careful with 
nickels and dimes. They are spending like they had all the money in the 
world and they never had to think about paying their credit card. Well, 
obviously they don't intend to pay with their credit card because they 
can't put the tax reconciliation bill, together which is how you pay 
for the credit card. No, they are going to pass it on to their children 
and their kids.
  Now, if the average citizen in this country had a credit card and 
said, ``You know, I am just going to spend on this credit card and 
spend on it, and I am never going to pay on it. What I am going to do 
is, when I die, I am going to will it to my son or my daughter, or my 
grandchildren,'' we would think they were the most irresponsible human 
beings imaginable. And yet that is what the majority leader is 
admitting for his party by saying we are not going to get done, we are 
going to have to wait until after the election.
  Now, what you don't read between these lines is: If we win the 
election, we will have to come back and do something, because there 
will be a Presidential election coming in 2 years. Or, if we don't win 
the election and the Democrats are in charge, it is their problem.
  The majority leader is admitting on behalf of all his conferees they 
have no plan to run this country in a systematic way.
  The bill that is going to come up possibly next week, the tax 
reconciliation bill from October 1, 2005, has in it major tax breaks. 
Twice this week, once by me and once by Mr. Larson of Connecticut, we 
tried to take back $5 billion of those tax breaks away from the oil 
companies. The Republicans said, oh, no, no, we can't take any money 
away from oil companies. The country will come apart, I guess.
  The profits of oil companies in the last 2 years and certainly in the 
last 6 months have been astronomical. They have really been obscene. 
Gasoline in my district, you can't find it right now for under $3.25, 
and it is easy to find it for $3.40, and yet the people on the other 
side say we have got to keep letting the gasoline companies, big oil, 
make as much money as possible at the expense of the ordinary person. 
The Republicans ought to get out their rubber stamp and do what the 
President wants, because that is the only hope they have got.

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