[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3068-3069]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1220
                           OUR NATIONAL DEBT

  (Mr. COSTA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, our national debt, as we all know, is 
approaching $14 trillion, with a capital ``T.'' It's clear that we can 
no longer afford to continue the partisan bickering and short-term 
thinking that too

[[Page 3069]]

long has consumed our Nation's capital. While kicking this can down the 
road may have been in vogue at one time, it can no longer be afforded 
by our Nation.
  The staggering debt was not created in a day, and we can't dig 
ourselves out of this hole overnight, but we must stop digging. In 
order to tackle our debt, we must cut spending, agree to a stable 
source of revenue, and hold these commitments over the long term on a 
bipartisan basis. Partisan rhetoric will not get the job done. The 
Congress now has to deal with the reality of this budget mess.
  The longer-term continuing resolution the House passed 2 weeks ago, 
though, won't grow our economy and it won't create jobs in the San 
Joaquin Valley. And, in fact, two reports by respected economists have 
indicated that it will provide careless cuts and mean hundreds of 
thousands of jobs lost throughout the Nation.
  We can cut spending and we can grow our economy, but it will require 
shared sacrifice across the Nation by Democrats and Republicans coming 
together. Our Nation's fiscal health depends on it.

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