We Need a Budget

Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, over the past weekend, President Obama sent a letter to Congress. He said we need to spend $50 billion ``as quickly as possible'' in order to ``jump-start private sector job creation.''

I'm not sure if the President has read the unemployment reports lately, but 16 months since his trillion dollar stimulus bill became law, the private sector is still struggling under the tax and regulatory burden of an ever expanding Federal Government. Unemployment is at 9.7 percent, and frankly, the last thing the private sector needs is the fear of higher taxes to pay for more wasteful government spending.

What this country needs as ``quickly as possible'' is for House Democrats to put forth an annual budget and for Congress and the President to have the courage to make real spending cuts. We can't keep spending billions of dollars and calling it ``emergency'' spending so that it doesn't have to be paid for, because eventually it will have to be paid for, and the American taxpayers know that day of reckoning is coming.

It is time for Democrats in this Chamber to stop talking about fiscal discipline and actually do something about it. As your majority whip said over the weekend, this economy is your baby. So take responsibility, put a budget on the table, and let's debate it and give the American people a chance to hear which party is listening to them.

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