[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 15619]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            A DRACONIAN CUT

  (Mr. ROE of Tennessee asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, yesterday on the House floor, I 
offered an amendment to fully fund President Obama's budget request for 
the Federal prison system, and it was called a ``draconian cut.'' I'm 
sure President Obama would be surprised to learn his recommended level 
would be greeted by such hostility by his own party, considering he 
proposed spending $384 million more in fiscal year 2009, an increase of 
6.8 percent.
  Only in Washington, DC, is a 6.8 percent increase called a 
``draconian cut.''
  Back in Johnson City, where I was mayor, we had a very simple 
philosophy. We spent less than we took in.
  When I arrived in Washington, DC, I learned the President's 
philosophy was to borrow more than you take in and then spend all of 
that. Apparently, congressional Democratic philosophy is borrow even 
more than the President and then spend that.
  I hope it's apparent that we are addicted to spending. I hope we 
adopt my amendment today and send a message, a small message, that this 
Congress is not entirely tone deaf to the fact that we have record 
deficits and runaway spending.

                          ____________________