Providing for Consideration of H. RES. 515, Addressing a Motion to Proceed Under Section 3101A of Title 31, United States Code

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCOTT of South Carolina. The Budget Control Act of 2011, which was enacted into law on August 2, 2011, authorized increases in the administration's borrowing authority subject to a joint resolution of disapproval. The law provides for consideration of a joint resolution of disapproval with 2 hours of debate. Amendments to the joint resolution are not permitted under the law. H. Res. 515 allows the House to consider the resolution of disapproval in the House today, rather than tomorrow, as currently contemplated in the law. Simply put, we are moving up its consideration by 1 day to better accommodate the House floor schedule.

I rise today in support of this rule and the underlying resolution. Mr. Speaker, I stand before you posing two very, very important questions. The first is an issue of scale.

Where I come from in North Charleston, South Carolina, we have a little trouble digesting exactly what $1.2 trillion really means. To help get my own head around the number $1.2 trillion, I did a little factfinding. A last-minute flight from Charleston, South Carolina, to Washington, D.C., is about $1,100. You could fly back and forth every single day for the next 3 million years in order to spend $1.2 trillion. I'm not sure about anyone else in the Chamber, but there aren't too many things I'm planning to do for the next 3 million years.

Now that we have a little perspective on what $1.2 trillion really means, the second question is a simple one: Why is it so hard to say we can't afford it? It's a simple question. Why is it so hard to say that we can't afford another $1.2 trillion of debt?

I asked the same question on my Facebook. Here are two responses to the question:

What's not to understand? Just cut the darned budget just like the rest of us have to do.

We the people, on an individual level, have got to demand less government. It's called courage, the courage to just say ``no.''

So, Mr. Speaker, it's bad enough that through the national health care bill, the Democrats raised taxes on the middle class by $500 billion and then they raised another half a trillion dollars for Medicare, but now they want to borrow $1.2 trillion. From whom--it's a good question--from whom? Unborn Americans, unborn Americans and foreign nations in order to continue borrowing 42 cents on every dollar to spend in 2012.

It's just not right, Mr. Speaker. The American people will not stand for the blank check culture of the past and I, for one, stand with the American people.

Once again, Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this rule and the underlying legislation. I encourage my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this rule and ``yes'' on the underlying bill.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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