[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 18479-18480]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               GOVERNMENT MUST RUN USING PAYGO PRINCIPLES

  (Mr. MINNICK asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. MINNICK. Mr. Speaker, today Congress will consider a law 
requiring us to do what every other American taxpayer must do with its 
family finances, something very simple and very basic, pay for what we 
spend.
  Ten years ago, thinking somehow it didn't need outside fiscal 
discipline, Congress abandoned this commonsense approach, wasted our 
budget surpluses, and went on a spending frenzy, doubling our national 
debt. Now we face

[[Page 18480]]

the largest budget deficit in our Nation's history.
  Our government cannot continue to borrow and spend, create ever-
higher levels of debt, and pass along the costs of paying for it to our 
children and grandchildren. We are now relying on trillions of dollars 
of money borrowed from China and Middle Eastern oil states to pay our 
bills. This can't continue.
  It's time we grow up, act like responsible adults and return to 
fiscal sanity. With this measure, any new spending we pass must be 
deficit-neutral. This is the long overdue essential first step towards 
a return to fiscal responsibility that will assure our creditors and 
demonstrate to the American public that we deserve to govern.
  I salute my Blue Dog colleagues for their persistence on bringing 
this critical issue to a vote. I urge my colleagues to support this 
simple, commonsense bill.

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