[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5668]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         IT'S TIME TO STOP THE SPENDING INSANITY IN WASHINGTON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
South Carolina (Mr. Duncan) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, every evening across this 
great land, after homework is finished and the supper dishes are 
cleared and the children are put to bed, Mom and Dad sit down at the 
kitchen table, they sharpen their pencils, and they take out a pad of 
paper, and they struggle to make ends meet.
  Whether their budgeting technique is different than the house next 
door, they know, without a doubt, that they cannot have their monthly 
bills exceed their monthly take-home pay. If the bills are higher than 
the monthly pay, they have to make changes.
  So bill by bill they discuss what they have to pay. They discuss 
things like the power bill and the rent and the mortgage, the car loan, 
the credit card payments. Mom and Dad cut out the things that they can 
do without. Maybe it's the golf membership for Dad. Maybe it's the 
weekly pedicure for Mom. Whatever it is, they know they have to make 
tough and real decisions.
  It's time to stop the spending insanity here in Washington, D.C.
  America, your Nation is broke. We cannot continue to borrow 42 cents 
of every dollar we spend. We cannot continue to spend a trillion 
dollars more each year than we're bringing in; and we definitely cannot 
do that year after year, raking up over $14 trillion in debt that our 
children must one day pay.
  And your Congress is struggling with cutting a paltry $61 billion 
from a $3.8 trillion spending plan. It's like we're arguing over what 
station the radio is on while the car is going off the cliff.
  In the American kitchen, Dad looks at Mom at this point, and he says, 
Honey, something's got to change.
  Your House of Representatives, folks, they've passed a spending plan. 
The Senate has failed to act. They haven't even come across with even 
their best-case-scenario spending plan. Even if it's the status quo of 
spending a trillion and a half dollars more than we are bringing in 
this year, they haven't brought anything across the aisle. So how do 
you negotiate if one body has brought their best plan and the other 
body hasn't done anything?
  Yesterday, I was proud to vote to provide military pay for the guys 
and gals across this great land that are standing on the wall defending 
the liberties that we have. They deserve to be paid. They don't deserve 
to stand on that wall and wonder if back home Mom is wondering if the 
power is going to stay on, if she's going to be able to pay the rent, 
or if she's going to be able to put food on the table for her children. 
That's the American way, to take care of the military.
  I was no prouder than to stand on the steps of the United States 
Senate yesterday and implore, encourage, ask, beg the majority leader 
in the Senate to get to work, to come to the table with a real 
solution, because I don't want to be with my colleagues many years from 
now dying in our beds waiting for one chance, hoping for one chance, to 
trade every day from this day to that for another chance to come back 
here and do what we should do as Americans, and that's fund our 
government, get our spending under control, and protect the future for 
our children.

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