[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11237]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      RESPONSIBILITY FOR A BUDGET

  (Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, Majority Leader Hoyer 
says, ``It isn't possible to debate and pass a realistic, long-term 
budget until we've considered the bipartisan commission's deficit-
reduction plan, which is expected in December.''
  Well, that means the Democrats do not plan to have a budget for this 
cycle. Is it any wonder the White House budget director, Peter Orszag, 
plans to resign next month? If the hard work of budgeting can be 
ignored by the majority in Congress when we're facing trillions of 
dollars in debt, then why worry about a budget at all? I guess there's 
no reason to propose a White House budget either. So Mr. Orszag must 
not feel needed at the moment.
  It has always been clear to me that the power of the purse resided in 
Congress, not in a deficit-reduction commission. We all look forward to 
the ideas that may come from the commission. They may be inspired and 
the answer to our prayers, but the commission is not a reason for 
abdicating our current responsibility to the people of this Nation to 
start work now when reducing our debt.

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