[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11154]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            THE DEBT CEILING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Woodall) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, I came to the House floor today to talk 
about the big deal. Every time I open up a newspaper, Mr. Speaker, this 
week it's been talking about the big deal, the big deal that's going on 
at the White House.
  I want to set the record straight here today. The big deal happened 
right here on the floor of this House, when the only budget that's 
passed in all of Washington, D.C., all year long, cutting $6 trillion 
in spending, was passed by this body, Mr. Speaker. That's the big 
deal--$6 trillion agreed upon by this United States House of 
Representatives. Now, I know down at the White House they are talking 
about the big deal is 3 trillion in spending cuts, 6 trillion, Mr. 
Speaker. The big deal started right here now.
  You know, Mr. Speaker, I am a big fan of the open process that we 
have had in this House where every single Member of the United States 
House of Representatives come here and have their voices heard, offer 
their ideas, offer their opinions, and that happened in our voting 
process, Mr. Speaker.
  I have a vote tally here from that week of voting on the budget. The 
Congressional Black Caucus budget came to the floor of this House, was 
debated, considered. It received 103 affirmative votes, 103. The 
Republican Study Committee budget came, debated in this House, 119 
affirmative budgets. The Progressive Caucus budget came, 77 affirmative 
votes. Congressman Van Hollen brought a Democratic alternative, 166 
affirmative votes.
  The only budget to get 218 votes, Mr. Speaker, was the House Budget 
Committee budget with 235 ``yes'' votes, 235. Now, that's a budget that 
was laid out line item by line item by line item, so absolutely 
everyone in America could see what it was that we were doing to achieve 
these savings to change the direction of our borrowing and our 
spending.
  Now, no one even introduced the President's budget in this body, Mr. 
Speaker. No one offered it. Now the Senate brought the President's 
budget to a vote, and it was defeated 0-97. The United States Senate, 
Mr. Speaker, defeated the President's budget 0-97.
  Now, they brought the House-passed budget up over there. They 
couldn't pass that either. It received 40 affirmative votes, but they 
still couldn't pass the budget. As my colleague said earlier, it's been 
over 800 days since the Senate has passed a budget.
  Now, I know the President has come back out and he has talked about 
some alternatives, some things he would do differently from the budget 
that he offered in February, differently from that budget that got zero 
votes in the Senate. And in a Budget Committee hearing the other day, 
we asked the Congressional Budget Office Director what's the score on 
the President's new plan. And the office told us, Mr. Speaker, that 
they can't score a speech. I think that's true.
  There is a lot of talk in this town, but there is a not a lot of line 
item by line item by line item putting your name, your money, and your 
vote by where your priorities are. But this House did it, Mr. Speaker. 
We are the only body in town to do it. It's the only budget in town to 
pass and it's the big deal, $6 trillion over 10 years to help try to 
get this country back on track.
  I want to say, Mr. Speaker, it did it by not cutting one penny from 
the benefits that seniors are receiving today, not one, so that 
seniors, even those over 55, Mr. Speaker, would continue to receive the 
same Medicare program that seniors are receiving today; so those over 
55 would receive the same Social Security benefits as those folks who 
are receiving those benefits today. I cannot believe, when I open up 
the front page of the newspaper, I hear folks talking about Social 
Security benefits might not go out the door, veterans benefits might 
not go out the door.
  Mr. Speaker, we have a plan that this body passed that gets those 
checks out the door. It is responsible in that it cut $6 trillion in 
spending. It is responsible in that it bends the budget curve going 
forward over the next 10 years and it gets those checks out the door.
  Mr. Speaker, I don't know what's going to happen over the next 3 
weeks. I don't know where this town is going to go. This town is a 
tough town to predict. But I know that this House has put its mark in 
the sand. This House has brought every single Budget Committee 
alternative that was offered to this floor. We voted on each and every 
one, and the only one to pass this House was the big deal, $6 trillion, 
and it gets our seniors and our troops paid on August 3.
  Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to rally around that and let's 
give the American people what they deserve, and that's some certainty 
in the budget process.

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