[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7868]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              CUT SPENDING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Alabama (Mrs. Roby) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. ROBY. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
  And I quote, ``Leadership means that the buck stops here. Instead, 
Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs 
of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a 
failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.'' Senator Barack 
Obama, March 16, 2006.
  Mr. Speaker, cutting spending is critical to creating jobs. Without 
bold action, our budget situation will get worse, not better. House 
Republicans are the only group in Washington showing leadership on this 
issue. We have voted repeatedly to cut spending. And we have passed a 
budget that would reduce spending by $6.2 trillion over 10 years. By 
contrast, it's been more than 750 days since Senate Democrats passed a 
budget.
  Last week, Senator Reid said, ``There's no need to have a Democratic 
budget in my opinion. It would be foolish for us to do a budget at this 
stage.'' By law, the Senate is required under the Congressional Budget 
Act to pass a budget.
  Now the White House is asking us to raise the debt limit. Secretary 
Geithner wrote, ``Never in our history has Congress failed to raise the 
debt limit when necessary.'' But what good is a debt limit that is 
always increased? The truth is that Democrats spent this money. They 
made this mess. And now they should help us clean it up. If the White 
House wants us to consider raising the debt limit, they should be at 
the table proposing significant reforms that yield trillions, not 
billions, in savings to the American people. So far, that has not 
happened.

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