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




                THE IMPORTANCE OF FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Perriello) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PERRIELLO. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
  I rise today as one of the younger Members of this body to speak out 
about the importance of fiscal responsibility. As one of those young 
enough who will take on much of the burden of the deficits created 
today, I speak out of the urgency of our considering future generations 
in the decades ahead as we look at this. It's certainly true that both 
political parties have much to answer for in terms of the deficits that 
have been run up, but it's also important that we do not embark on 
revisionist history and suggest moral equivalence between the sides.

                              {time}  1100

  We must remember that the last administration walked into a situation 
where they had a $5.6 trillion surplus--a $5.6 trillion surplus--that 
they turned into a $4.5 trillion deficit. That turnaround, you could 
hear future generations crying as that great opportunity to restore 
fiscal sanity was passed up and our national debt was doubled.
  The Clinton administration and this body in the early 1990s took bold 
steps to get us on the path towards fiscal responsibility. We saw the 
same kind of bold leadership from the Democrats in my state, the 
Commonwealth of Virginia, when Mark Warner came in as Governor, 
inheriting a huge deficit, and turning it into a surplus and making 
Virginia the best-managed State in the country. Governor Kaine moved in 
and continued that tradition, even under much more difficult economic 
times, of fiscal responsibility and sanity. So we know that this can be 
done because we have seen Democrats do it at the national level, and we 
have seen Democrats do it at the State level.
  We have taken steps in this body to move in the right direction. I 
think the budget should have gone further which is why I didn't support 
it. But let there be no doubt that we turned this ship around from 
unending deficits to cutting those deficits in more than half in the 
next 5 years. This is the decent thing to do. It is the right thing to 
do.
  But in addition to the budget deficits that were run up in recent 
years, there was also a running up of a jobs deficit. We hear people 
talking now, worried suddenly about the jobs we could lose by getting 
in front of the energy economy. What about the jobs we have already 
lost? My colleague, Mr. Connolly, has already spoken to how many 
millions of jobs have already gone overseas, good paying, advanced 
manufacturing jobs, engineering jobs, that could have been here if this 
body had the courage and the leadership to look forwards and not 
backwards.
  Again, both parties have been part of trade deals that I think have 
been a bad bargain for the American worker. But let us have no doubt 
that there are those in this body now ready to have the courage to be 
ahead of the next big jobs boom and make sure that those next 
generation of jobs will be created here in the United States as we move 
towards a balanced budget, the kind of business climate where people 
want to locate and where we dare the American consumer and American 
business leaders to lead, to innovate, to create, to be at the 
forefront of that new energy economy.
  This jobs deficit that has been created hand in hand with our budget 
deficit is one we can conquer. I believe we have taken great steps 
already in this Congress to put ourselves at the forefront of science, 
of research, of green energy. I come from an area of the country that 
has a great deal of pain right now. We have more than 20 percent 
unemployment in some of the towns in our districts as factories have 
gone overseas.
  As we look at the possibility for alternative energies, energy 
efficiency technology, smart grid technology, advanced battery 
manufacturing, I believe our side has the courage to say America can do 
that better than anybody else. I believe southside Virginia can do that 
better than anyone else. But we will not get it by continuing the moral 
deficit we have had in our politics in recent years that puts the easy 
ahead of what is right. That puts partisan gains of right and left 
ahead of right and wrong.
  The Democrats have a strong track record of fiscal responsibility in 
my State of Virginia and here in this body. We have begun a path that I 
hope we will continue to march down toward fiscal responsibility that 
will generate the jobs and the economic competitiveness that this 
country needs.
  So I rise today hopeful and happy that we are part of that new change 
here to bring back and close in this time, to close the moral deficit, 
close the jobs deficit, and close the budget deficit and restore the 
kind of responsibility that future generations deserve.

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