Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2013

Floor Speech

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Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 2 minutes. I thank Mr. Cooper for his courtesy and his partnership.

I want to begin by saying something nice about Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan has got one of the toughest jobs in the country. It's like herding cats to get new guys, old guys, and everybody else to put together the budget that he has for the last 2 years.

However, as Mr. Cooper indicated, his budget is a Republican budget. Mr. Van Hollen's budget is a Democratic budget.

There's an organization called PolitiFact which sort of checks out what public figures say about certain things. This particular chart, Pants on Fire, was awarded for the biggest lie of 2011, and that was those who claimed that Mr. Ryan's last budget ended Medicare as we know it. It got the distinction of being Pants on Fire for all of 2011.

As Mr. Cooper indicated, we have been viciously attacked from the left and the right; and when you know you have a good deal is when the left and the right are pounding the snot out of you. That's what's happening here today.

So I want to give some Pants on Fire to some of the claims that are being made.

The claim that this creates a path for Medicare premium support, if you're making that argument, your pants are on fire.

This slashes benefits for Social Security recipients. False. Your pants are on fire.

This is a $2 trillion tax hike. False. Your pants are on fire.

Repealing the sequester means $1 trillion in increased spending. False. Your pants are on fire.

This would decimate the defense budget. False. Your pants are on fire.

This encourages tax avoidance by corporations and will ship jobs overseas. Your pants are on fire.

The recession would worsen under Simpson-Bowles. Your pants are on fire.

GDP+1 requires deep cuts in health care, including Medicare. Your pants are on fire.

The Simpson-Bowles budget would decimate domestic programs and force massive cuts. Your pants are on fire.

Anybody that wants to read about it, come see Mr. Cooper or me and we will put your pants out.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. LaTOURETTE. At this time, it is my pleasure to yield 1 minute to a new Member of the House from the State of Illinois, who has cosponsored this substitute at great political peril, quite frankly; and he deserves to be rewarded by the citizens of Illinois and not punished by the special interest groups of the right or left, BOB DOLD.

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Mr. LaTOURETTE. Again, I want to thank my partner, Mr. Cooper. I also want to thank all the brave Republicans and Democrats who are going to vote for this, all the brave Republicans and Democrats who cosponsored it, because this is not an easy vote.

Mr. Chairman, the last three elections have been the wildest elections I have seen in my political life. It has swung between party and party and party, and 2012 is going to be the same thing. But I'll tell you what's different. It's not the Democrats are going to take over or the Republicans are going to take over. The mood in the country is: Throw the bums out. Throw them all out and replace them with new people. Americans are screaming for us to take off our red jerseys on this side, to take off the blue jerseys on that side, and put on the red, white, and blue jerseys of the United States of America.

Our proposal, inspired by the Simpson-Bowles fiscal commission, authorized by the President of the United States, has been viciously attacked from the left and the right. And so I think, COOPER, we're on to something.

I want to make an observation, from a pretty famous American, made just a month ago in the Rose Garden down at the White House. The quote is:

This may be an election year, but the American people have no patience for gridlock and just a reflexive partisanship, and just paying attention to poll numbers and the next election instead of the next generation and what we can do to strengthen opportunity for all Americans. Americans don't have the luxury to put off tough decisions, and neither should we.

President Barack Obama, February 21, 2012.

I have heard a lot of people say that this is hard work, that not now. Well, if not now, when? And if not this, what? Ever?

Mr. Chairman, we're asking that Members tonight stand up, that they stand up to the bloodsuckers in this town that take $5, $10, $15, $25 from our constituents to pretend to defend causes on their behalf. We're asking people to stand up to pledges they had made 20 years ago when we didn't have a $15 trillion deficit owed to China. We're asking people to stand up to honor their pledge that they made on the opening day of the 112th Congress to defend the United States of America from all enemies foreign and domestic. We ask that our colleagues stand up to America's biggest domestic threat and enemy, the $15 trillion--soon to be $22 trillion--that's staring us in the face.

The time is now. We've got to get it done. This is the only bipartisan approach. And this is the only thing that has the chance to be adopted by both parties and the President of the United States, who authorized Simpson-Bowles.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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