[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 16496-16497]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            BUDGET CONFEREES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, budget conferees are now meeting--or will be 
meeting shortly--to negotiate a budget for the remainder of this fiscal 
year, and they have a real opportunity to look beyond that mission and 
to lay the groundwork for a long-term solution to our deficits that is 
balanced and restores certainty to our economy.
  What we do not need are more gimmicks and partisan games like we will 
have today, frankly. We are going to have a vote on the resolution 
which is disapproving of the raising of the debt limit. Everybody knows 
that is not a real vote, and almost everybody on this floor knows that, 
if we pursued that policy, it would be damaging to America, to the 
military, as was just brought up, and to our Nation. Every Republican 
leader has said that not increasing the debt limit is an alternative 
that ought to be pursued. Yet, we have this vote. That resolution has 
already been rejected by the Senate, and it stands no chance of 
surviving a Presidential veto. It is, frankly, simply political cover 
and a waste of our time.
  The keys to any budget solution, Mr. Speaker, must be compromise and 
a seriousness of purpose. Americans want to see that seriousness, and 
they want to see much, much, much less of the political gamesmanship, 
some of which we will practice today, unfortunately.
  Republicans and Democrats, I believe, in looking beyond a small fix 
and toward negotiating a long-term solution, will find that we actually 
agree on many things. We agree that gradual reforms are better than 
sudden ones. We agree that sequestration is not a sensible approach to 
achieving deficit savings.
  Let me say as an aside: no matter how many times it is said on this 
floor that the sequester is President Obama's policy, it will not make 
it fact. It is dead, flat wrong.
  The sequester is incorporated in the Republican budget that was 
passed in this House just some months ago. No Democrat voted for that 
budget, because they believed the sequester--as the previous speaker 
said, but he voted for the budget which implemented the sequester--is 
harming our national security and harming our domestic security and 
harming our economy and harming the growth of jobs.
  In fact, sequestration--which I point out to people starts with 
``s,'' which

[[Page 16497]]

stands for ``stupid''--is a terrible approach that was never meant to 
come into practice. Many of us all agree that, in replacing the 
sequester, we will need to find savings through revenue policies and 
reforms to mandatory spending that could pay dividends for the budget 
and the economy in the future.
  The key to compromise, of course, is balance. Every American 
understands that. Every husband, every wife, every parent understands 
that compromise is essential within a family, within a business, within 
a community, and, yes, within a country. The key to compromise is 
balance, which is what both the Domenici-Rivlin and Bowles-Simpson 
bipartisan commissions embraced as a framework for agreement.
  A balanced compromise is critical because Democrats and Republicans 
are going to have to work together to pass any agreement through both 
Chambers and have it signed into law. Democrats are ready to make the 
tough decisions necessary to set our fiscal house in order, but we have 
made it clear that we will not allow the most vulnerable Americans to 
carry the burden of deficit reduction, and it is not necessary that 
they do so.
  Our goal remains a balanced approach to deficit reduction and an 
agreement that restores certainty to our economy. My Republican 
colleagues and friends said much about restoring certainty, 
particularly in the 2010 election. Unfortunately, for our economy, for 
our businesses, for our people, we have done anything but restore 
certainty. In fact, we have governed by crisis--30 days, 90 days, 180 
days, a year. Arbitrary deadlines were put in place, which brought the 
country to the brink of default and to the brink of closing down 
government. In fact, of course, just recently, we did, in fact, shut 
down the government.
  Now, my Republican colleagues say we wanted that to happen on our 
side of the aisle. Ironically, 198 Democrats voted to open the 
government. That is to say, every Democrat who was voting on this floor 
voted to open government. Of my colleagues who say they didn't want to 
shut down government, 144 of them voted to keep the government shut 
down, Mr. Speaker, and 87 of them voted to open up the government.
  So the American public is not fooled as to who wanted to shut down 
government, but it was a bad policy, and it led to uncertainty in our 
economy. Reaching an agreement only for this fiscal year, in addition, 
will mean more left to do, more of sequester left to replace, and more 
confidence to instill.
  I hope the conferees will take a broader view and will send us a 
budget worthy of this Nation, worthy of the Nation it will serve--one 
that reflects our priorities to grow our economy, creates jobs, gives 
opportunity to our people, ensures that our national security is 
protected and that our Nation's long-term competitiveness is enhanced.
  Mr. Speaker, that is what we ought to do. That is what the American 
people expect us to do. That is what the American people hope we will 
do. Let's warrant the faith and confidence of the American people by 
keeping faith with them and with our country.

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