Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. SOUTHERLAND. I thank the gentlewoman from Tennessee for yielding time.

I rise in support of the Jordan amendment. You know, many people here have taken notice that many of us are freshmen. Well, I am a freshman, and I am proud to be a freshman. I tell you this, one thing I am not a freshman at, I am not a freshman at trying to perpetuate my family's 55-year-old business that's struggling under the taxation and the regulation of this Federal Government. I am not a freshman when it comes to that.

I am an expert, because that's what my dad did and that's what my granddad did. And God willing, if this body practices courage and does what is right, my children and my grandchildren down the line will be able to continue and perpetuate that line of tradition.

You know, I hear the words meat axe and draconian. What's draconian and meat axe is leaving every American in this country with $43,000 of national debt, $14 trillion of debt, which puts us at a very weak standing among the world, which owns now 50 percent of our debt. That is a security issue.

People stand here and they talk about security. Nothing is greater to our security than making sure that we own our debt rather than those countries around the world who mean us harm.

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