[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16180]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            FEDERAL DEFICIT

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Treasury Department 
confirmed what we already knew: we have cut the Federal deficit to the 
lowest level since this President took office. At $439 billion, the 
deficit is about 10 percent lower than in 2014 and is less than one 
third of what it was in 2009.
  Yet, earlier this week, the administration was quick to boast about 
announcing the deficit being down that low when we asked in the past, 
``What is the plan, Mr. President, for balancing the budget ever?'' Not 
telling me how to do it, but when. We haven't gotten any answer.
  This has been the result of discipline started by House Republicans 
with the Budget Control Act and other measures to keep spending in line 
so that we will have a chance some day to have a truly balanced budget.
  If we had the economy responding and things to help spur the economy, 
we could reach that goal even faster, perhaps even by 2019. With the 
right discipline, we could balance the budget. Then no longer will we 
have to have a debate about whether we should be extending the debt 
limit, which I think is appalling for all of us here, especially for 
the next generation who are going to have to pay the price on that.
  So this is indeed good news. We want to get that budget deficit 
number to zero as soon as we can and maintain the business of this 
country.

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