[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5667]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    CONTROLLING WASHINGTON SPENDING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Indiana (Mr. Bucshon) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BUCSHON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remind the American people 
why we're here. We're here today because of the failure of the 111th 
Congress to pass a budget for the first time in decades. You might 
think that for one party that controlled the White House and both 
Chambers of Congress, this would be a relatively easy thing to do, but 
you have to try. In an effort to protect a few powerful committee 
chairmen and other incumbents in their own party, they made a political 
decision not to pass a budget because it had a $1.5 trillion deficit 
attached to it. You can't run and you can't hide from the American 
people.
  Now, even after the people have spoken in November, they are 
continuing to protect the status quo, protecting out-of-control 
Washington spending, and offering no solutions of their own other than 
raising everyone's taxes and demagoging anyone who puts forward a plan. 
Again, I would like to see their plan.
  I began running to represent Indiana's Eighth Congressional District 
in October of 2009, an endeavor I had never undertaken before. I was a 
practicing physician, cardiothoracic surgeon. I decided to seek public 
office because of our government's inability to control spending. Let's 
remind everyone where the status quo has led us. It has led us to 
historic unemployment and a mounting debt that is mortgaging the future 
of our children and grandchildren.
  But yesterday, our counterparts in the Senate and the White House 
showed different intentions. I can't stand before you today in good 
conscience not advocating for the men and women who have volunteered to 
wear the uniform of our great Nation. A notion that a bill to fund the 
troops for the remainder of the fiscal year is being threatened by a 
veto is preposterous.
  This challenge to fix our government's spending habits is above 
politics and talking points. While I stand here today in the people's 
House, individuals are playing petty politics while we offered a 
solution yesterday that pays our troops and avoids a government 
shutdown.
  We passed H.R. 1 with a modest $61 billion down payment on 
controlling Washington spending, and we have been criticized in the 
face of a $1.5 trillion deficit. I implore the Senate and the White 
House to join with us here in the House and act to significantly reduce 
spending and avoid a government shutdown.
  And I offer one last observation since I am new to Congress, a 
continuing frustration that I am finding here in Washington, D.C., and 
that is I am amazed by the resistance of some in Congress to tackling 
this problem, especially the fact that some continue to find excuses 
why we can't even consolidate programs and downsize government and make 
things more efficient here in Washington, D.C. at the very least. But I 
found this at a committee hearing the other day when the Democrats 
continued to make excuses after a Government Accountability Office 
report showed the excesses that we have here in Washington, D.C.

                              {time}  1040

  This is a serious issue we face together as a Nation. I began this 
conversation when I began running for Congress almost 2 years ago, and 
it's a conversation I continue to have with my constituents. This is an 
adult conversation about facts and our future.
  Until we come to a solution that will put hardworking Americans and 
Hoosiers back to work and our government begins to act in a responsible 
manner when it comes to our Nation's fiscal issues, I will continue to 
have this conversation with my constituents and with the American 
people.

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