[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8437]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1220
                       BLAME EVERYTHING FOR DEBT

  (Mr. PERLMUTTER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, listening to some of the Republicans 
that were speaking here earlier today, they want to blame Medicare, 
early childhood education, grants to firefighters for the debt that we 
have when everybody knows that at the end of the Clinton 
administration, this country was running a surplus.
  Then we had Bush tax cuts; that's about a trillion dollars. Then we 
have a couple wars; that's a trillion dollars. Then there is a collapse 
on Wall Street under the Bush administration. That's $2 trillion. That 
will turn anybody's budget upside down.
  But the Republicans want to take it out of Medicare. They want to 
dismantle Medicare. They have never liked Medicare to begin with 
because it really works for middle America, for our seniors. We can't 
let that happen. We cannot allow them to dismantle Medicare just 
because of these other things. They want to protect millionaires, 
billionaires and oil companies. We are not going to let them do that.

                          ____________________