Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2009

STATUTORY PAY-AS-YOU-GO ACT OF 2009 -- (House of Representatives - July 22, 2009)

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Mr. HIMES. Mr. Speaker, as I listened to this debate, two words echo in my mind, and those words are ``history'' and ``chutzpah.'' Let's talk history for a moment in this historic Chamber. As I listened to the minority talk about cutting spending and it being a novel idea, darn right it's a novel idea--because they've never done it. In the last 10 years when they controlled the White House and they controlled this Chamber, they did three big things. They put in place one of the largest entitlement programs ever with the pharmaceutical benefit in Medicare, they fought two wars at the cost of hundreds of billions of dollars, and they cut taxes on the very wealthiest people in this country.

Two massive increases in spending and a severe reduction in revenue. Guess what? Structural deficits. Facts are stubborn things. The fact is the minority took a $5.6 trillion surplus, and while they controlled this Chamber, they turned it into a $1.3 trillion deficit. And now they have the chutzpah to look to this side of the room and to criticize our efforts to bring that under control.

The PAYGO legislation we're talking about today is a restoration. It is a restoration of the discipline that prevailed when Bill Clinton was in the White House, and we had real statutory PAYGO and we created those surpluses. And we're trying again. Is it perfect? No, it's not perfect. Does it have some exceptions I would rather not see as exceptions? Yes, it does. But it is a very, very constructive step in the right direction. And it will take us back to where we were in the 1990s when we actually got the budget deficit under control. It's a step in the right direction.

The amendment that they are proposing that we support is not a serious effort. It would impact severely our armed services and many of the people who rely on this government for their education, for their housing and for all the things that, as a decent society, we feel the obligation to provide. I'm proud to be one of the cosponsors of this bill and to say it is imperative that we pass this legislation today.

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