[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 1131]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     TACKLING THE DEFICIT OF TRUST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Quigley) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, this week, the President unveiled his 2011 
budget, along with the promise to cut nonsecurity discretionary 
spending for 3 years. I actively support the President's initiative to 
rein in spending and to tackle our ever-growing deficit. However, the 
President and Congress must go further. In order to understand our next 
steps, we must understand how we got here.
  Eight years of fiscal irresponsibility, a blatant disregard for pay-
as-you-go budgeting, and sky-high tax cuts have left us with a debt 
that is over 50 percent of GDP. To add insult to injury, we work in a 
town that thrives on pet projects and individually directed spending. 
We recklessly spend on defense projects that are intended to keep us 
safe--the government's number one duty--but actually help make us 
vulnerable and that are often untested and ineffective. In a March, 
2009, GAO report assessing selected weapons programs, researchers 
estimate that cost overruns totaled nearly $300 billion. GAO continued 
to recommend that DOD move towards sound, knowledge-based acquisitions.
  The President should continue on this path toward reform spending by 
recommending cutting programs like expensive warships, planes, and 
flawed missile defense systems that don't help in the fight against 
terror. Congress must also reassert its constitutional right to provide 
for the common defense by denying money to produce any weapon before it 
is thoroughly tested. If we are smart with our dollars, we will not 
only be safer but we will be stronger.
  We're fighting two wars while simultaneously attempting to reassert 
our power as a global economic influence. Now is not the time to pick 
and choose where we cut our spending. Now is the time to reinvent, 
streamline, and reform the way we do business in Washington. Now is not 
the time to protect sacred cows. Nothing should be beyond our scrutiny. 
Now is the time to subject tax expenditures to budget discipline. I 
agree with the President that we must extend middle class tax cuts, but 
end the support for those making over $250,000 a year. And we must 
refocus domestic spending so that our number one priority is job 
creation.
  Next month, the Secretary of the Treasury will submit to Congress and 
the President an audited financial report for the U.S. Government. 
Similar to those required of publicly traded companies, this report 
projects our unfunded liabilities, or the present value of future 
expenditures in excess of future revenues. This report helps us 
understand the true expense of promising to pay Social Security, 
Medicare, and Medicaid benefits at some future moment, even if no cash 
is disbursed today.
  The 2008 report projects our unfunded liabilities at $56 trillion. 
Our large and growing deficits continue to increase government debt 
levels as a percentage of GDP to unprecedented and unsustainable 
heights. The most troublesome and crippling outcome of all, however, is 
that in this process of unethical and unabashed spending we have lost 
the public's trust. Without this trust, we simply cannot govern.
  Tackling this deficit of trust must be our first priority. ``Let's 
try common sense,'' the President said. ``Let's invest in our people 
without leaving them a mountain of debt. Let's meet our responsibility 
to the people who sent us here.'' Our responsibility, then, is to take 
the more difficult road--the road that includes reform, the road that 
includes reinventing government, and the road that includes the Members 
of this House leading by example.

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