Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. MOORE of Kansas. I thank Mr. Spratt.

When I came to Congress in January 1999, our national debt stood at $5.6 trillion. Our country faced a very different fiscal situation than the one we have today. At that time fiscal restraint and the use of budget enforcement tools had helped turn around a dire financial situation and produce budget surpluses during the last 2 years of the Clinton administration.

Unfortunately, the PAYGO requirements that had been so effective in bringing about responsible budgeting through the 1990s were allowed to expire in 2002 by the previous majority, and the results speak for themselves. Our national debt increased and almost doubled in the past 8 years. The $5.6 trillion debt we had when I first came to office in 1999 now stands at $11.4 trillion.

Today, with H.R. 2920 we have a chance to help restore fiscal discipline in Washington and put our country back on a sustainable fiscal path. Our country should live as do most American families, within a budget. I have nine grandchildren; and it's absolutely wrong, it's immoral to mortgage their future and the future of other children and grandchildren in our country.

We should vote and pass H.R. 2920 for future generations in our country.

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