[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11305]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   IT'S TIME FOR THE PRESIDENT TO ACT

  (Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, right now this United States Congress is 
writing post-dated checks on an overdrawn account. We're on a path to 
fiscal destruction, one that may threaten the very fabric of our 
Republic.
  In many ways, Mr. Speaker, we may be lucky that we have a statutory 
debt limit because it forces both branches of the legislative branch of 
government and the executive branch to sit down and have the hard 
discussions that are necessary at this point in our Nation's history. 
Does anyone really believe we would be here having these discussions if 
we didn't have to?
  There is going to be a bill on the floor this week called Cut, Cap, 
and Balance; and it allows the President his wish for expanding the 
debt limit at the same time it caps spending, cuts current spending, 
and allows for a vote on a balanced budget amendment.
  The President issued a veto threat today, and I think that is 
unfortunate. The President has refused to offer any meaningful plan of 
his own, anything that is scorable. Anything that even has the barest 
of details the President has failed to provide. And, of course, we all 
wonder what's happening over in the other body.
  This country doesn't need more debt; it needs more jobs. But we need 
to quit spending money we don't have and put people back to work. 
Dealing with these important issues is what we need to do, and then let 
Americans do what they do best: create, innovate, and lead.

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