[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 149]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             REGULAR ORDER

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I come here to the floor today to speak 
on behalf of the regular order. I hope that this Congress can be one in 
which it's not First World War trench warfare, where we retreat into 
our bunkers and lob grenades at each other, but where we can come 
together and deal with the problems that face this Nation.
  The first opportunity will be raising the debt limit. The President 
doesn't create the debt limit; we do. We authorize the President to 
spend that money. We put him out there and say, Spend it; and we must 
give him the ability to pay the bills that we have incurred by our 
actions. So it shouldn't be a trench warfare issue.
  There are some bigger issues, those issues of the debt and how we 
deal with the major crises before us in health care costs. Those issues 
can be debated in the regular order. Committees can come up with bills 
about how we should reduce the costs, whether it be in defense or it be 
in health care. But that should be developed and worked out in a 
regular order in the House. That's my sincere hope for this Congress.

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