[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 19]
[House]
[Pages 26227-26228]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               LET'S GET SERIOUS ABOUT OUR FISCAL OUTLOOK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, last Tuesday Congressman Jim Cooper and I 
reintroduced the SAFE Commission Act, and I'm hopeful that by joining 
efforts our colleagues in the House and the Senate will embrace this 
bipartisan commission that could put our country on sound financial 
footing.
  U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, the Heritage Foundation, the 
Brookings Institution, the Concord Coalition and the Committee for a 
Responsible Federal Budget all support the Cooper-Wolf SAFE Commission 
Act.
  These groups also have joined on what they call ``The Fiscal Wake-Up 
Tour,'' which has been traveling across America from San Francisco to 
Cincinnati laying out the facts about the future financial condition of 
our country, discussing possible options and preparing the way for 
tough choices that those of us in Congress are going to have to make.
  When you look at this tour, you see groups who usually disagree more 
than they agree on policy issues. That makes it even more extraordinary 
that they all agree that we need to sit down and work together to make 
sure our country doesn't fall into a financial canyon that we can never 
climb out of.
  That's the message that is resonating with folks who hear them: the 
need to come together and work to find bipartisan answers to ensure a 
secure financial future for America.
  What the tour has told us, too, is that we shouldn't underestimate 
the willingness and ability of the American people to hear the truth 
and support the decisions necessary to change our financial course, and 
that's encouraging.
  Many of you may recall the Simon and Garfunkel song, ``The Boxer,'' 
with the refrain, ``Man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the 
rest.'' The Fiscal Wake-Up Tour offers hope that with education 
Americans may be more ready than we think to accept the fact that 
Federal spending cannot continue to balloon without consequences. It is 
time that we tell the American people what they need to hear and not 
just what they want to hear. ``The Boxer'' song, ``Man hears what he 
wants to hear and disregards the rest.''
  Thirty years from now we won't be arguing in Congress over 
discretionary spending anymore because there will be no funding left in 
that category.
  I'm not an expert in economics, but simple math tells us that little 
money will be left to ensure that our highways and bridges are safe, 
that there will be no money for cancer research and to solve the 
riddles of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, that there won't be money to 
care for veterans.
  Resources will be scarce to ensure our schools are the best in the 
world so that our children and grandchildren can get the necessary 
tools, particularly in math and science, to compete in the world 
marketplace.
  We owe it to our young people to start the process today. Reining in 
spending is both an economic and it is a moral issue.
  We cannot continue to avoid our responsibility to future generations 
of Americans by passing on a broken system in the form of unfunded 
Social Security and Medicare obligations and unsustainable spending.
  We cannot continue to borrow and mortgage our future to countries 
like China, which has a terrible human rights record and has plundered 
Tibet, and has Catholic bishops in jail and Protestant pastors in jail 
and others in jail, or the Saudi Arabia that is funding Wahabism around 
the world, that they carry obscene amounts of our debt.
  But I'm going to be candid. Congress, on its own, unfortunately can't 
get it done in this politically charged atmosphere of Washington today. 
The Congress today is dysfunctional. The latest public opinion polls 
perhaps validate my assessment.
  The American people expect us to put our partisan differences aside 
and to work together to get things done. We must move beyond the 
politics and come to grips with the fact that the financial future of 
our country is an American issue. It's not a red issue or blue issue. 
It's a red, white and blue issue. It's an issue that, as Americans, we 
should be working together to deal with.
  Under the SAFE Commission process, Congress is the ultimate 
decisionmaker obviously, but it will be the SAFE Commission, after 
holding hearings across the country, listening to the American people 
and putting everything on the table for discussion, entitlements and 
tax policies, which will send its recommendations to Congress for a 
mandatory up-or-down vote, similar to what we do on the base closing 
commission.
  Congress will be the major part in the SAFE process. It will be at 
the table. We even hold out hope that Congress could find its way and 
act on its own.
  First, at least four of the 14 congressionally appointed commission 
members must be sitting Members of Congress.
  Second, if Congress enacts significant legislation aimed at 
addressing this looming crisis, the SAFE commission would terminate and 
cease to exist.
  We hope this happens, but, quite frankly, I don't think it will. 
Abraham Lincoln once said: ``You cannot escape the responsibility of 
tomorrow by evading it today.''
  I believe there is a moral component to this issue that goes to the 
heart of who we are as Americans. By that I mean have we lost a 
national will to make the tough decisions.
  The SAFE Commission offers us the opportunity to find a way forward 
to protect our future. Is it right for one generation to live very well 
knowing that its debts will be left to be paid for by their children 
and their grandchildren? No, it is not right, but it is immoral.
  I'm challenging our colleagues today to come together--to know that 
while you served in Congress you did everything in your power to 
provide the kind of security and way of life for your children and 
grandchildren that your parents and grandparents worked so hard to 
provide for you.

[[Page 26228]]

  The challenge, too, goes out to the leadership in Congress and the 
Administration to make this a truly bipartisan effort and put the SAFE 
Commission on the fast track to enactment.
  How can we lack leadership on such a fundamental issue?
  Leadership by definition requires taking initiative--to act before 
others, to develop fresh approaches.
  This issue is timely and critical.
  I urge you to review the bipartisan Cooper-Wolf legislation.

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