[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5672]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   TAKING A BUTTER KNIFE TO SPENDING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Wisconsin (Mr. Ribble) for 3 minutes.
  Mr. RIBBLE. Mr. Speaker, we are now drawing close to a government 
shutdown.
  I have been sitting over here, listening to my colleagues from both 
sides speak this morning. I want everyone to know; I want the American 
people to know, and I want the folks in northeast Wisconsin to know 
that this is not about riders or extreme partisan ideology. It is about 
spending.
  I will tell you that I am surprised at some of the language. A moment 
ago, one of my colleagues said we wanted to take a chain saw to 
spending. A few days ago, the President said we wanted to use an ax to 
cut spending. I will tell you that it's more like a butter knife. We 
spent in March of this year alone $189 billion in deficit. Our CR would 
have cut $8 billion. So instead of $189 billion, we would have spent 
$181 billion in deficit. That is not a chain saw. That is not an ax. 
Some Americans have been calling me from home, saying it's not even 
serious.
  It is time that this Congress takes our fiscal situation seriously 
for the protection of our country, for the protection of our programs, 
for the protection of our seniors. It is time for this Congress to act 
and to act now. Yesterday, we offered up a plan to fund our troops at 
the request of Secretary Gates, and we've been turned down once again.
  I call on my colleagues not to wait another day, another hour, 
another minute. Let's fund this government, and let's move on to the 
big task at hand--the next budget--so that we can do what the last 
Congress failed to do, which is to provide certainty to the American 
people and certainty to job creators so they will know what is coming 
ahead tomorrow.

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