[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10578]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1220
                    EVERYTHING MUST BE ON THE TABLE

  (Mr. WELCH asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WELCH. Mr. Speaker, Congress has a responsibility to level with 
the American people. We face a looming decision about extending the 
debt limit, not because we want to but because we have to reaffirm the 
obligation we have to pay our bills. The majority of us on the 
Democratic side voted to do that. That was not to incur new spending or 
new obligations; it was to meet obligations already incurred: $2.3 
trillion for the Bush tax cuts; an Iraq war, $1 trillion on the credit 
card; Afghanistan on the credit card. If we're going to level with the 
American people, we have to acknowledge that we have to pay for things, 
whatever their intentions. The time is long overdue for us to 
accomplish this.
  If we're going to be successful on the two things we must do--pay our 
bills, maintain our full faith and credit, and have a long-term fiscal 
plan--then everything must be on the table, and that has to include 
taxes as well as spending, and it must include the Pentagon.
  Mr. Speaker, this is not an ideological battle to win. It's a 
practical problem to be solved.

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