Congressional Record—House H5767
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July 29, 2011 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H5767 Smith (TX) Tonko West that accountability, we need to do anced budget amendment—what Amer- Smith (WA) Towns Westmoreland what 49 States in America do, and icans are calling for: permanent ac- Southerland Tsongas Whitfield Stark Turner Wilson (FL) that’s pass a balanced budget amend- countability from Washington. No Stearns Upton Wilson (SC) ment. The first of that series of steps more spending tricks, no more budget Stivers Van Hollen Wittman was accomplished tonight. Now it’s the gimmicks. Just do what every Amer- Stutzman Vela´ zquez Wolf Senate’s turn to pass that balanced ican family and business has to do. Sullivan Visclosky Womack Sutton Walberg budget amendment provision, have Woodall Just balance our budget. Terry Walden Woolsey both Chambers pass it, and have a ma- Thompson (CA) Walsh (IL) f Wu jority of the States ratify it. This is Thompson (MS) Walz (MN) b 1850 Thompson (PA) Wasserman Yarmuth what the American public wants. They Thornberry Schultz Yoder want us to balance our checkbook, just ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER Tiberi Watt Young (AK) as they do theirs. Tierney Webster Young (FL) PRO TEMPORE Tipton Welch Young (IN) f The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. NOT VOTING—12 EVERYONE SHOULD SACRIFICE CRAWFORD). The Chair would remind Baca Grijalva Paul FOR OUR COUNTRY all persons in the gallery that they are Gallegly Hinchey Speier (Mr. RYAN of Ohio asked and was here as guests of the House and that Giffords Lofgren, Zoe Waters any manifestation of approval or dis- Gohmert Maloney Waxman given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend approval of proceedings is in violation b 1839 his remarks.) of the rules of the House. So (two-thirds being in the affirma- Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, f tive) the rules were suspended and the there’s something missing in this en- AMERICAN ECONOMY IS NOT SAFE bill was passed. tire debate. Over the course of the last The result of the vote was announced 30 years, in the 1970s, if you would have (Mr. MCDERMOTT asked and was as above recorded. seen the real income for the top 1 per- given permission to address the House A motion to reconsider was laid on cent, it accounted for about 9 percent for 1 minute and to revise and extend the table. of real income. Today the top 1 percent his remarks.) accounts for 25 percent of real income. Mr. MCDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, the f The top 400 wealthiest people in the House has acted. No time for celebra- SERGEANT MATTHEW J. FENTON United States of America pay a tax tion—it’s not over yet. Until it passes POST OFFICE rate of 17 percent, while the fellow in both houses, the American economy is The SPEAKER pro tempore. The un- Youngstown, Ohio, is paying a much not safe. finished business is the question on higher tax rate. Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s an- suspending the rules and passing the The sky is falling, and the Repub- nounced to the University of Wash- bill (H.R. 789) to designate the facility lican Party wants to make all these ington and to Seattle and to King of the United States Postal Service lo- huge decisions about how we need to County that if there is a default on cated at 20 Main Street in Little Ferry, fix our country. We need the wealthiest Tuesday, these institutions in my New Jersey, as the ‘‘Sergeant Matthew in our country to become patriots and State go on the credit watch list for J. Fenton Post Office.’’ step up to bat and help us solve this downgrade because they received The Clerk read the title of the bill. problem. Everyone here is being asked money from the United States Govern- The SPEAKER pro tempore. The to sacrifice. The military, the middle ment, and there is no certainty that question is on the motion offered by class, the parents trying to send their the United States Government is going the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. kids to college with Pell Grants, the to pay its debts. This is a question schools that get title I, all are being LANKFORD) that the House suspend the about whether the United States is asked to sacrifice but for the top 1 per- rules and pass the bill. going to be viewed in the world as cent of the wealthiest people in this The question was taken; and (two- being responsible and paying their country. It is absent from this debate. thirds being in the affirmative) the debts. It is irresponsible for us to continue It’s not about the future; it’s about rules were suspended and the bill was this process without asking the what we have already contracted, and passed. wealthiest in the United States of this House, led by the Republicans, has A motion to reconsider was laid on America, who have been blessed to live put every State, every county, every the table. in this country, to help us solve this city, every university that writes f problem. bonds for their financing at risk. BALANCE THE BUDGET f It’s going to cause people to pay (Mrs. SCHMIDT asked and was given PERMANENT ACCOUNTABILITY more in the State of Washington and in permission to address the House for 1 FROM WASHINGTON every other State because of this fool- minute and to revise and extend her re- (Mr. HARRIS asked and was given ishness. We need a clean lifting of the marks.) permission to address the House for 1 debt limit. Mrs. SCHMIDT. Mr. Speaker, just to- minute and to revise and extend his re- f night we passed the debt ceiling vote, marks.) DEBT LIMIT and it had a very critical feature, a fea- Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Speaker, this ture that requires accountability in evening is a moment in history. Very The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under our House—a balanced budget amend- few times does this House vote to ad- the Speaker’s announced policy of Jan- ment. vance an amendment to the United uary 5, 2011, the gentleman from Cali- Every day, millions of Americans sit States Constitution, but we did it fornia (Mr. GARAMENDI) is recognized at their kitchen tables, trying to figure today. And the gentlelady from Ohio, for 60 minutes as the designee of the out how they pay their bills. But before she just talked about what Americans minority leader. they write that check and determine talk about at home. It’s about bal- Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you very how much they’re going to have to ancing your checkbook. It’s about not much. This evening I am going to be spend out of that checking account, spending more than you take in. We joined by several of my colleagues. And they first balance that checking ac- don’t have a problem with too few as they come to the microphone, let me count to know how much money is in taxes here in Washington. We have a just lay down some of the facts. it. But we, in the United States Con- problem with too much spending. Mr. Not more than an hour ago this gress, don’t do that. We don’t balance Speaker, we still borrow 41 cents out of Chamber voted on Speaker BOEHNER’s our account. We don’t know how much every $1, and we’re borrowing a lot of proposal to deal with the debt limit. money’s in there. We just spend money. that money from the Chinese. Very interesting comments that he The American public expects ac- What this bill we passed tonight will made prior to the speech—and while I countability from us. In order to have do is put us on a track to pass a bal- can’t quote them precisely—he did say VerDate Mar 15 2010 03:45 Jul 30, 2011 Jkt 099060 PO 00000 Frm 00031 Fmt 7634 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A29JY7.033 H29JYPT1 jbell on DSKDVH8Z91PROD with HOUSE H5768 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE July 29, 2011 that his whole strategy started way tionally to, say, 4.5 or 5 percent, that have cost us jobs. They are costing us back in January when he told the would solve a quarter, a quarter of this jobs at an ever accelerating rate, and President that he was going to use the deficit and debt crisis. That would be now they want to cut one other, just debt limit as a way of getting his way. $2.5 trillion over 10 years. one other point. They want to cut all Well, we saw what his way is, and Now, the Republicans here have pro- investment in transportation by 35 per- that’s what was voted on today with- posed $2.7 trillion of cuts over 10 years. cent. That’s an immediate loss of out any support at all from the Demo- So if we could put people back to work, 600,000 private-sector jobs. crats and a lot of Republicans saying we would have about the same savings. It means we won’t deal with the that it was not the right way to go. Then, you know, if we got people 150,000 bridges of the national highway So what did he propose? We have two back to work and healed the economy system that need rebuilding. We won’t very, very basic paths that are facing a bit, all we have to do, and I talked deal with the half of the payment on the American public today.