[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 1030-1031]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  PRESIDENT OBAMA'S VISION FOR AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Conaway) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CONAWAY. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to continue the theme that my 
colleague just had, and that is the President's vision for these United 
States over the next 10 years. That vision is exemplified in his budget 
that he brought to Congress yesterday, which, for fiscal year 2011, 
which doesn't start until October of this coming fall, which spent $3.8 
trillion, a record, it would generate another deficit of $1.3 trillion 
in 2011; it would have some $2 trillion in tax increases over the 10 
years; and it would accumulate $8.5 trillion in cumulative deficits 
during that 10 years. It would double the national debt.
  Mr. Speaker, I would argue that that's not much of a vision for 
America that my grandkids really want to look at and want to see.
  To put that in context, if you look at the cumulative deficits during 
the 8 years of the previous administration, they total $2 trillion.

                              {time}  1945

  To put that in context, if you look at the cumulative deficits during 
the 8 years of the previous administration, they totaled $2 trillion, a 
number that we ought to be embarrassed about. But if you look at the 
deficit in the first 15 months of the current administration, it is 
$1.8 trillion, and we will surpass the $2 trillion number some time 
during this second quarter. If you look at just the first quarter 
deficit under this administration in 2010, in 15 months, it is larger 
than all but two annual deficits in our Nation's history. Again, Mr. 
Speaker, that is not a vision for America that my grandchildren would 
embrace, nor is it one that we ought to embrace on behalf of our 
grandchildren.
  My appeal tonight is to the Budget Committee. The Budget Committee

[[Page 1031]]

now takes up the President's budget, and I would appeal to my former 
colleagues on the Budget Committee to simply ignore this flawed vision 
for America. It is unsustainable, and it is not one that is worthy of 
us to even consider in the least.
  What I would ask the Budget Committee to do instead is to bring forth 
a budget that truly addresses what I believe is the single greatest 
threat to our way of life that we face these days, and that is the 
growth of this government as represented by spending growth, 29 percent 
growth in spending since 2008. And again, that is unsustainable. Our 
budget colleagues on the Budget Committee, Mr. Speaker, have the 
ability to do that. They have the ability to say let's put out a budget 
that truly does address this threat, this grave threat to our Nation's 
prosperity.
  There are a couple of suggestions I would make. Let's roll back 
spending to fiscal 2008 levels and start the spending freeze there. 
Let's put a hiring freeze on today for all Federal Government agencies 
except perhaps DOD, Homeland Security, and maybe intel communities. 
That is a true action that every business and every family around this 
country knows exactly what it means and exactly why we have to do that.
  I'm reminded of the folks, and you see them all the time, who are 
constantly searching for a way to lose weight. They are always looking 
for that new diet plan, and they are always willing to start, however 
draconian the plan might be, ``tomorrow.''
  Well, Mr. Speaker, any of us can start a diet tomorrow, but we need a 
spending diet that starts today. And I ask that our Budget Committee 
brethren start that process. We need a spending diet that starts today, 
not 20 months from today when the President's statement of a freeze 
would actually start. His freeze won't start until October 1, 2011, and 
then it's a bit of a fig leaf at that.
  Mr. Speaker, these are tough times. These are hard times. This isn't 
about being Republicans. This isn't about being Democrats. This is 
about a vision that we all ought to have for this country. That vision 
ought to include ways of fixing today's problems, however difficult 
those might be, with today's money. We have taken the process of using 
future generations' money to fix today's problem as far as it will go, 
and we simply cannot continue to do that.
  Mr. Speaker, I would also ask that my colleagues consider a balanced 
budget amendment. If you were to ask me what is the most important 
constitutional amendment that we ought to be considering among that 
broad array of important constitutional amendments, it would be a 
balanced budget amendment that would force Congress to make those tough 
decisions; not a commission out there that could be some sort of a 
facade to try to get it done, but a true balanced budget amendment that 
every State government except one has to operate under.
  Municipalities, counties, families, and businesses have to operate 
under the exact same discipline. We ought to be doing the same thing. 
Mr. Speaker, I would call for both of those things tonight.

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