Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011
Floor Speech
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Mr. JORDAN. I thank the gentlelady for yielding.
Madam Chair, let me start by thanking the Appropriations Committee. I do appreciate the work they have done. Look, this is unprecedented. Appropriators cutting tens of billions of dollars, getting to the $100 billion that is so important and what we told the voters we were going to do. I appreciate that.
But I am still struck with this fact: One thing that the American people understand is that spending is out of control. There is no way around it. And several speakers have went through and listed this program that would be impacted, this agency that would be impacted. Look, I understand that. It's not pleasant to reduce spending. I get that. But I always bring it back to what the typical family has to do.
Think about the family out there who is making $50,000 a year and spending $85,000. There are some good things that that other $35,000 is being spent on, probably some very good things. Maybe they are going out to dinner or they have an entertainment night, and they are doing good things, healthy things for their family. But the point is that they are spending more than they are taking in, and they have to cut back, even if some of those things are positive things.
And the Federal Government is even worse because we are taking in $50,000 and spending $85,000 year after year after year, and the President's budget highlights that. We run trillion-dollar deficits for the next decade. We pile up more debt on top of the $14 trillion. This amendment builds on a good bill and simply says, Let's get to a full $100 billion in savings outside of national defense and non-security savings. We think that's a good first step towards putting this country on a path that is actually sustainable, as the gentleman from Arizona pointed out, towards at least reducing our deficit by one-fifteenth. Imagine that, just one-fifteenth. This is what the American people sent us here to do. This is what the American people elected 87 freshmen Republicans to do, just this very thing, to reduce spending.
I just want to finish with this, because sometimes the people of this country say it a lot better than the politicians. In my time in public life, I have never seen the American people more receptive to the things that have to be done to fix this country. They get it. The central question is, Will the political class demonstrate the same commitment, the same courage that the American people have demonstrated over the last year? Let me read you this, and this just came to our office 2 days ago.
``Dear Representative Jordan, my research center receives the majority of its funding from Federal Department of Education sources. If those funds are cut, we stand to lose our programs and, as a result, maybe our livelihoods. However, my greater concern is with the future of this Nation. Federal spending, if not dramatically cut, will inevitably lead to this Nation's ruin and will destroy all opportunities for our children. We must bring sanity back to the management of our Nation's fiscal resources. Jim, our forefathers pledged their lives, their fortune, and their sacred honor to create an exceptional Nation where our rights are endowed by our Creator. If I have to sacrifice my livelihood to maintain this great experiment called America, it's the very least I can do in service to this country. Please stand firm in your fight for fiscal responsibility to preserve this great Nation.''
Colleagues, that's the standard of the American people. That's the commitment we have to meet. That's what this debate is all about. If we don't do this, the future for our kids and our grandkids is diminished. This is about making sure America remains the greatest country in history.
I urge a ``yes'' vote on the amendment.
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