Let's Get Serious About the Debt Crisis

Floor Speech

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Mr. LANDRY. Madam Speaker, let me help this body interpret how the American people see this debt crisis. Now some of you may question how I can, with this accent, provide an interpretation. Well, let me show you.

Americans have a keen understanding of how credit cards work. They know that each card holds a limit on it, and this limit is the borrowing limit on that particular card. And it is a fact that when one reaches the limit on his or her card, that they are unable to borrow more money or charge more at that time.

Now it is not factual to say, however, that when one maxes out his credit card, that he is in default personally, or in layman's terms, that he is bankrupt. No. When one reaches his limit, you simply cannot use the card anymore. If you want to continue to use the card, you need to pay down on the principal amount that is owed.

If and when you reach this unfortunate circumstance, you and your family are required to live within your means. As long as you can continue to pay the interest on the card and the bills that you have accrued, then you are not in jeopardy of defaulting. Of course you can only do this if you're employed and you have income, unlike the approximately 9.2 percent of Americans out there who are looking for us to do everything we can to help create private sector jobs.

So this is where we are. Look, I don't believe if we fail to raise the debt ceiling that we will default. What I do believe is not raising the debt ceiling will finally require Congress to make the tough decisions necessary to restore fiscal sanity to our Federal Government. It will force Congress to understand that at this time we need to live within our means. Why? Because going back to our layman's term, if the Federal Government was a person, that person is not unemployed, they still have a job, unlike the approximately 9.2 percent of Americans I spoke earlier about. So if we still have a job, that means we're still getting a paycheck. That paycheck is currently sufficient to pay our bills.

After 2 years, where the President and previous Congresses spent like they were going out of style, the President is starting to understand that we have spent too much. What he hasn't realized yet--and I hope he does--is that we don't have a revenue problem here; we have a spending problem.

Now, I know that we would like to spend more on things we like. That is human nature. But the reason so many of us are opposed to increasing taxes is that our constituents are opposed to increasing taxes. Make no mistake about it: If the American people believe that an increase in taxes would once and for all eliminate our debt problems here in this country, they would support it.

But, you see, this institution has a credibility problem--in fact, the entire Federal Government has a credibility problem with the American people. The American people do not have confidence in our ability to be prudent with their tax dollars. Do you blame them? When over the course of the last 2 years we have spent over $3 trillion on money, on stimuluses and bailouts, promising that we would increase their opportunity to be more financially secure, and of course that didn't happen. The proof is in the pudding. We spent the money, and guess what? No results.

We have a spending problem. Why? Because so many politicians here who have been here for a long time believe that everything in the budget is a need, not a want. As a parent of a young child, I'm constantly having to explain to him the difference between needs and wants. So the longtime politicians here believe that government is the solution to everything. Well, my friends, believe you me, some of us know it's not, and the vast majority of people know it's not. Trust me. Trust me.

We must get serious. Washington is not an elastic piggybank that is able to continue to fund everyone's wants. Let's get serious. Let's quit spending what we don't have. Let's restore credibility. And we do this by cutting spending through prioritizing. It is that simple. Restore credibility, restore trust. Get down to creating certainty, reducing redtape and creating jobs.

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