Further Continuing Appropriations Amendments, 2011
Floor Speech
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Mr. PALLONE. I like the gentleman from Georgia. He's a nice guy. But I have to say that his story about what actually happened here is not exactly accurate.
Mr. Speaker, the fact of the matter is when the Democrats were in charge in the last Congress, we did have an omnibus appropriations bill, but it was the Senate Republicans who refused to provide the votes, because, as you know, you need a supermajority in the Senate.
Then he talked about how he was glad to be home last week. I was glad to be home last week too, and I got a lot of input, but we should have been working here and not moving up so perilously close to these deadlines where the government could actually shut down. My fear is that we're just going to be kicking the can down the road every 2 weeks, every 2 weeks, facing another possible government shutdown. As the gentleman from Colorado said, that creates economic uncertainty and is not good for the economy.
Now, I just wanted to comment on the gentleman from Georgia. I was glad that I finally heard him use the word ``jobs'' and talk about jobs because that's the problem here. This H.R. 1 that he talks about we know is going to destroy jobs--various accounts, 700,000, 800,000 jobs that will be destroyed or will be eliminated, not just because the government isn't paying for the jobs, but because it doesn't invest in the future.
If you listened to what President Obama said in his State of the Union address, he said that the government has a role. The gentleman from Georgia says the government should get out of the way. Well, I don't agree with that. We need to make wise investments in our future, in our education programs--which this cuts--in our research and development for the future, in infrastructure so that we can have roads and highways and mass transit so that commerce can continue and we can grow the economy.
That is what's wrong with H.R. 1 and this larger bill that the Republicans have put forward. And, of course, the Senate can't take up the bill the way it is because they know it will destroy jobs and cripple the economy.
So what I ask of my Republican colleagues is go out there, sit down with the Senate Democrats, sit down with the House Democrats. Don't just say take it or leave this bill that we know has such draconian cuts and doesn't do anything to invest in America's future. We can't continue down this road. We've got to work together.
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