[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 1168]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   LET'S RECTIFY THE FISCAL SITUATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Ross) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address that issue which will 
have a significant fiscal impact on the economic well-being of this 
country in just 16 days. That is the issue of sequestration.
  I have to agree with the minority whip from Maryland, who earlier 
spoke today that it's time to stop the blame game. There is no need to 
blame any more about this terrible fiscal policy which we are about to 
sustain.
  You see, across-the-board cuts that the looming sequester will 
implement in a couple of weeks are bad policy and a result of bad 
politics. I believe that we must cut spending, and I rise here in 
support of careful, targeted cuts.
  It is a shame that 850 jobs will be lost in Florida schools while we 
build a $750,000 soccer field in Guantanamo Bay for terrorists. It's a 
shame that more than 26,000 special education students will see cuts to 
their education in Florida while government agencies are spending 
hundreds of thousands of dollars on conferences in Las Vegas, Nevada. 
And it is a shame that more than 35,000 health care workers in Florida 
are projected to lose their jobs while more than $115 billion was lost 
in improper payments from this government in just one year.
  We must ask ourselves, for every $1 that we are going to spend, is it 
worth mortgaging and borrowing our children's and our grandchildren's 
future for 41 cents for every one of those dollars. I submit to you 
that it is not.
  Let's rectify this situation. I urge the Senate to take up the House-
passed legislation, which would make targeted cuts to eliminate waste, 
fraud, and abuse so that important essential government programs will 
not lose their funding.
  The American people not only demand and deserve transparency in their 
appropriation process, but they also demand and deserve that we be 
prudent and fiscally responsible in making sure we operate and 
appropriate within our means.

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