[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17318]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION

  (Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia. Madam Speaker, failure is not an option. 
Let none of us forget that we work for the American people, and they 
expect us to do our job. World markets are watching, balance is 
demanded; $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction is the minimal target we 
must meet.
  Current Federal spending is 25 percent of the GDP. It's too high. But 
revenue is only 14 to 15 percent of the GDP. It's too low. It is the 
height of irresponsibility to ignore either one of those two data 
points.
  It might be easy, but it's not rocket science. It requires both 
parties to do what a clear majority of Americans want us to do: break 
out of our respective straitjacket orthodoxies.
  I was proud to join a hundred bipartisan Members of this body urging 
the supercommittee to go big--find $4 trillion in deficit reduction. 
Such efforts would reduce the debt to a more manageable percentage of 
GDP, reassure markets, preserve our Nation's triple A bond rating and 
provide the stability to get America's economy growing again.
  I urge my colleagues on the supercommittee to join us and go big for 
America.

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