[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 16077]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      THE COST OF SENATE INACTION

  (Mr. HULTGREN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. HULTGREN. Mr. Speaker, yesterday we learned that by the end of 
this year another ratings agency may downgrade our Nation's sovereign 
debt. Why? Because they don't believe there's a plan to return our 
Nation to fiscal health. Well, they're not entirely right. In July, we 
passed the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act. It was a commonsense solution 
that would have maintained our Nation's strong credit rating. The bill 
went to the cul-de-sac called the Senate where, as so many things have, 
it died. Maybe that's not surprising.
  Cut, Cap, and Balance would not only have cut spending, it would have 
changed the way Washington works. It would have made structural change.
  For a do-nothing Senate that has not bothered to pass a budget in 
over 900 days, the idea of spending cuts and fiscal accountability must 
be utterly foreign. Once again, we see the high cost of their inaction.

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