Issues Facing America
Floor Speech
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Mrs. NOEM. Thank you, and I thank the gen tle lady for yielding to me today. I certainly appreciate it.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today not only as a proud Republican woman as well, as my good colleague from Kansas said, but also as a wife and as a mother and as an American concerned about Washington, D.C.'s spending habits.
We not only need a solution to dig ourselves out of the situation that we are in, but we need to make sure that we don't find ourselves back in the same place. We need to make sure that we are putting us on a new fiscal path that certainly addresses the problems that we have in front of us. The frustrating thing about that entire process is that this President has been on the sidelines. Certainly we all know the Biblical phrase that "without a vision the people perish,'' and that is truly what is happening to America today--that we don't have a leader who has been willing to step forward and give us a plan to tell us what he truly thinks are the options that are available to us. Instead, that has been left to others to lead, and he has been more than willing to stand on the sidelines and to criticize every single one of those options that have been brought forward. In fact, his original budget, which was proposed in February of this year, failed to even address our most difficult problems.
The Democrat-led Senate voted down his budget unanimously. No one jumped onboard because they recognized that, under his plan, that we doubled our debt in 5 years and tripled it in 10. It certainly wasn't going to be the answer to what we needed to prevent this most predictable financial crisis that we find ourselves in.
Since then, the executive branch has failed to provide the American people with a solid plan to move forward. During a House Budget Committee hearing the CBO director, Douglas Elmendorf, referenced President Obama's revised budget speech by saying this: "We don't estimate speeches. We need much more specificity than was provided in that speech for us to do our analysis.'' And essentially what he was saying was, we can't score a speech, we don't know what a speech means. Anybody can give a really great speech; what we need is leadership. We need someone to step up to the table and tell us what we need to do to address our problems so that we can put it into action.
House Republicans have taken this lead in the looming budget crisis. We have shown time and time again that we are serious about cutting our spending, we're serious about balancing our budget. In January, we passed H.R. 1, which continued funding through 2011, only to have it stalled by the Senate, which in effect essentially delayed any action until it got down to the brink of a government shutdown. In March, we passed our budget plan for fiscal year 2012. We are still waiting--more than 800 days--for the Senate to pass anything that resembles a budget. We are doing our work here in the House, but we can't do it alone; we need a willing partner in the President, and we need a willing partner in the Senate.
Last night, the House again passed yet another plan to get our fiscal house in order. We voted overwhelmingly to support Cut, Cap, and Balance. I supported this plan because my constituents have been calling for weeks telling me to support serious change, serious spending cuts, and a balanced budget amendment. They realize they can't spend more money than what they have in their households; they want their government to have some common sense.
South Dakota families and businesses understand the need to balance a checkbook. Our country, just like our families, can't continue to spend more than it makes. Even my 9-year-old son realizes that. Recently, he had the chance to come out with me to Washington, D.C., and he wanted to spend some time at the Spy Museum, he had been talking about it for months. So he did a lot of chores around the ranch to earn some money, but when he got there and he got to walking through the gift shop, he realized he didn't have enough money to buy everything that he wanted. He saw a lot of things he wanted to take home with him, but he didn't have the money, so he had to prioritize. He had to pick and choose and leave some things there because he simply couldn't afford that. Was he disappointed? Absolutely. He was heartbroken. But I tell you what: That taught him a life lesson that he will only learn from people that have common sense, that understand you cannot spend money that you do not have and you have to prioritize and make choices.
America is out of money. We know this, and President Obama knows this. And yes, we do need fundamental tax reform; yes, we need to identify our priorities; and yes, we absolutely have to stop spending money we don't have. Strong leadership, action, courage, along with responsible solutions, are needed from all of us if we want to preserve the American dream for our kids and our grandkids.
As a wife, mother, and a Republican woman, I support a balanced budget amendment, smaller government so my kids can grow up with the liberties and freedoms and so that they don't have to worry about paying the bills that we are continuing to rack up in this country. It is time to change our ways.
I certainly thank the gentlewoman for yielding to me.
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