Making Statutory Paygo A Reality

Floor Speech

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Mr. MELANCON. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

If we do not begin paying our bills today, we will continue to short-change future generations who face higher taxes and cuts to Federal investments in priorities such as education, health care and national security. In order to ensure our long-term fiscal sustainability, we must all work together and return to the proven, effective pay-as-you-go rules that brought our Federal budget to balance in the 1990s.

We now have a President who is committed to changing the fiscal course of this country. Together, we are committed to putting an end to the reckless fiscal policies and out-of-control spending of the past that has given us the record deficits we see today. To that end, the President has charged Congress with passing statutory PAYGO, and we have an obligation to see that this critical piece of legislation reaches his desk for signing.

Our Federal Government simply cannot continue to live beyond its means, mortgaging our future on the backs of our children and our grandchildren. Reinstituting statutory PAYGO will send a message to the American people that their government is serious about putting the country back on stable economic footing. The time to act is now. The President has put his words into action and I look forward to working with the Blue Dogs and my colleagues in the House and the Senate to make statutory PAYGO a reality again in this country.

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