[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 12741-12742]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               CROSSROADS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kentucky (Mr. Yarmuth) for 2 minutes.
  Mr. YARMUTH. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. Speaker, this Congress is being called on to make some very 
critical decisions. We are at a crossroads in this country and in the 
world.
  You know, we are trying to make bold moves. President Obama has 
proposed a very bold agenda in the area of health care reform, energy 
and education, and we have taken up that cause in this Congress, and we 
are moving very decisively to make significant changes in this country.
  From the other side, we hear reasonable questions: How much is this 
going to cost? What about the deficits we will be incurring? What about 
fiscal responsibility? Well, you know, there are two aspects to fiscal 
responsibility. One is living within your means. There's no question 
about that. We need to be able to do that. The other question is: How 
do you prepare for the future? If we are living within our means and 
are not willing to make the investments that we need to make, then the 
future is going to be very bleak, indeed.
  You heard just a few minutes ago my colleague from California, Mr. 
Costa, talking about the need to promote infrastructure, to invest in 
infrastructure and in the water supply in California. Well, this is 
just one microcosm of the challenge we will face across the country 
with bridges, roads, airports, air traffic controls, water systems,

[[Page 12742]]

sewers. We need to make significant investments in all of those areas 
in order to provide the foundation, the infrastructure, for future 
growth, and we're going to have to borrow money to do that. Similarly, 
if we don't make the changes in our health care system and in our 
energy system and in our education, we will not have the human 
infrastructure that we need to move into the future.
  You know, I've heard the minority leader on the other side say: How 
much is it going to cost to do health care reform? Well, I'm not sure, 
but we know how much it's going to cost not to do health care reform. 
We've seen the projections. Tens of trillions of dollars over the next 
70 years in additional deficit are forecasted for Medicare. That's if 
we don't act. So we know what the cost of not acting is. It is time to 
act. It is the fiscally responsible thing to do to adopt the agenda of 
the Obama administration, and I look forward to being a part of that 
historic effort.

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