Providing for Consideration of H.R. 1255, Government Shutdown Prevention Act of 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCOTTER. I rise in support of the rule that I think for two reasons that are very important. The first is so that we can continue to discuss what happens when you bury prosperity beneath Big Government. But second is because we also need to be reminded that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

It seems to me that when you have an impasse on the budget, it is borne of the difference very fundamentally that one side wants less spending and one side would like more spending, and there are a bunch of Members who wind up in the middle.

Now, I think we can all concede, whatever our positions, that reducing Federal spending is hard. Certainly past precedent proves that. Past precedent also proves something else: that, historically, the way you break a log jam in Congress is to logroll. That is the process whereby Members who have differences split that difference and spend more money to make each other happy and to serve their constituents as they think best.

What we have done in this bill is to incentivize spending, because I want you to think of the situation we are in. You are now telling a politician that you will get no money in your pocket until you spend money from someone else's pocket. You are telling them that the fastest way to end an impasse is to settle. And you are making it harder for those who would seek more spending reductions to stand their ground and fight for it.

So that is why I support the rule and why I oppose the underlying bill, because I will not pave the fiscal road to hell with good intentions or your money.

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