[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10873]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       DEBT CEILING NEGOTIATIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Indiana (Mr. Rokita) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROKITA. Madam Speaker, I rise today to address the ongoing debt 
ceiling negotiations, or so they're called. The debt crisis currently 
facing our country is a grave one. Make no mistake, the Chairman of the 
Joint Chiefs of Staff has called the debt the greatest threat to our 
national security. Not Iraq, not Afghanistan, not al Qaeda, but our 
debt.
  Since January 2009, $3.7 trillion has been added to the national 
debt. Currently, our debt stands at $14.3 trillion, and I'm told if you 
add in the cost, the present day cost of all of the promises that 
irresponsible people who have stood here before me have made to the 
American people, that the cost would be over $70 trillion.

                              {time}  1120

  Many Americans, including this one, can't even conceptualize that, 
can't count that high. And that's not their fault; that's this body's 
fault. There is a lot of fearmongering going on by people who want us 
to spend more. They have seen these tactics work in the past--bank 
bailouts, massive spending bills.
  Even if the calamity forecast were to come to pass, it doesn't change 
the fact that the debt crisis we face is our fiscal sin. Our generation 
and generations before ours are responsible for it; not my kids, not 
your kids, and not our grandchildren. If addressing it hurts in the 
short term, then I say so be it.
  I reject the idea that we would pass this mess on to our kids for 
some short-term economic or political gain. That is one of the most 
piggish ideas I've ever heard, and it runs counter to the spirit that 
helped make this Nation great, an exceptional Nation. We own this mess. 
If we have to suffer a little bit in the short term to right our fiscal 
house in the long term, that's our duty, and it's our duty to fix it. 
It is debt that is hurting the economy and, don't forget, the 
misguided, big-government economic ideas that have been implemented 
over the last 2\1/2\ years.
  These debt ceiling negotiations are a great opportunity to enact 
monumental reform within the Federal Government, making the future 
brighter for all Americans, so the next 2 weeks, my colleagues, are 
critical. We can do it, if we want to, in a bipartisan fashion. We must 
seize the opportunity. It is more important that we craft a deal that 
gets it right for the sake of our children and grandchildren than we 
implement a false fix driven by short-term thinking. Getting it right 
means enacting permanent and structural reforms to the way Washington 
spends. Raising taxes is not necessary and would only hurt the economy. 
Our government doesn't tax too little. Our government spends too much.
  By ``permanent and structural,'' I mean a balanced budget amendment. 
A balanced budget amendment would be hard for a future Congress or a 
future President to change, and it would force the necessary things 
that cause us to live within our means again. In order to raise the 
debt ceiling, the price for that concession must be the passage of 
permanent and structural reforms like the balanced budget amendment--
period. There is no additional negotiation. There is no additional 
request. The request is to raise the debt ceiling $2 trillion. Okay. 
Let's do it, but if we do it, let's make sure it never has to be done 
again. The only way to do that is through permanent and structural 
reforms like a balanced budget amendment. If the consequences of not 
raising the debt ceiling are as severe as some suggest, surely we can 
find the common ground necessary for a deal that forces our government 
to balance its budget like American families do every month.
  I'm excited. Rarely does a legislative body have a chance to do 
something so monumental and so monumentally great. This would be among 
the most significant reforms in our Nation's history. I don't know that 
an opportunity to enact a balanced budget amendment will be within our 
reach again for a very long time.
  I do know I've only been around for 6 months on this floor, and no 
matter how long I or others stay, I think we will look back on the next 
3 weeks as one of the best opportunities we will have ever had for 
making things better for our future, for our posterity. That ultimately 
is how we should look at every vote we take on this floor, not how it 
will benefit us in the here and now, but how it will benefit our 
children's chances to inherit what we did--the greatest, most 
exceptional Nation the world has ever known. I didn't come here to vote 
for us in the here and now. I came here to vote for our future.
  Now is the time for bold, decisive action. Now is the time for a 
balanced budget amendment. Nothing short of the future of our children 
and grandchildren is at stake.

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