[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11676]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              COMPROMISING AMERICA FOR THE SAKE OF A DEAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Louisiana (Mr. Landry) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LANDRY. Mr. Speaker, when I ran for this office, I didn't run to 
get a job. I ran to create jobs.
  I know that there is a new poll out there, supposedly, that tells us 
that a vast majority of Independents wants us to compromise for a deal; 
but the question which all of the Members of this House should poll 
their constituents and the American people on is whether or not they 
want this Congress to compromise their country for a deal.
  Do we compromise our country for the sake of simply getting a deal?
  I also ran to uphold the Constitution. I supported Cut, Cap, and 
Balance. It is the compromise that I came here to make. I compromised 
in agreeing to raise the debt ceiling if we get real cuts, if we cap 
our spending and if we do what a vast majority of the States in this 
country do--and that is to have a balanced budget amendment.
  What is so wrong with this balanced budget amendment? It's hard for 
me to understand, Mr. Speaker.
  Then along comes the Gang of Six. Let's see what the Gang of Six has.
  Part one is that they cut $500 billion in gimmicks compared to our 
real cuts. How do they cut $500 billion? Part of it is by changing the 
CPI formula and indexing for Social Security. Only in this city does 
the law of mathematics not work. You see, when I was in the second 
grade, I was taught that 2 + 2 is 4 and that 2 2 is 4. That hasn't 
changed. It's still that today. But in this town, when you get inside 
this Beltway, mathematics is different. You can get a different outcome 
based upon a different formula.
  Then the second part is they used the reconciliation process in order 
to control our spending. Let's see. The last time we used the 
reconciliation process, we got ObamaCare. That's how they passed 
ObamaCare. Mr. Speaker, they used the reconciliation process to pass 
ObamaCare; and I have a feeling that what we're going to get out of 
this Gang of Six is a bill that they're going to ask us to vote for 
before we know what's in it.

                              {time}  1120

  Thirdly, if through this reconciliation process they come out with 
the cuts that are necessary to bring them within the amount that they 
allocate that we need to cut and save, then if that reconciliation 
process produces a supermajority in the Senate, only after they produce 
a supermajority of votes in the Senate will they move to shoring up our 
Social Security system.
  What they should be doing is working on getting a supermajority so we 
can pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. What is so 
wrong with giving the American people the opportunity to speak, to say, 
Congress, you have been out of control. You need to balance your books 
like all of the American families in this country do.
  In closing, I want to warn our Members in this Chamber that the Gang 
of Six proposal cedes the power of the House to the Senate. Now, I came 
here to uphold that Constitution. The power of the purse, article I, 
section 7, clause 1, gives the power of the purse to this House. 
Regardless of whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, you should 
care about that. Those committees in the Senate should not be dealing 
with our tax laws or they should only deal with them after we have had 
a chance to send it to them.
  This is what the American people demand. They demand that our 
Constitution work. And for it to work, revenue and spending starts here 
in the House. Let's not cede the power of the House over to the Senate.

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