Additional Continuing Appropriations Amendments, 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, there are a couple of things that are really not debatable. I think the American people understand, and I think everybody understands, that we are on an unsustainable path. We're on an unsustainable path as far as unemployment. The unemployment numbers are still frighteningly high. We are on an unsustainable path as far as borrowing and as far as spending.

So, frankly, we have a couple of options here. We can continue that unsustainable path, which is borrowing more and spending more, or we could change the way we're doing and try to get our fiscal act and our fiscal house in order.

I commend the chairman, Chairman Rogers, for bringing forward a CR, an extension, that does just that, that brings some sanity to this process, that reduces the size, the scope, and the amount of spending, that does so responsibly after reviewing programs and reviewing funding and reviewing what the Federal Government is doing. And that's exactly what we have in front of us today.

Yes, we wish that we could have not just an extension but that we could go through the entire year. The reason, by the way, that we are even talking about this right now is because the Democrats failed to pass it. So now we are forced to do so. We already passed a CR for the remaining part of the year; but, unfortunately, the Senate has not been able or has not been willing to do their part. So we are forced, once again, to do an extension. This is a real extension that reduces cost, that reduces expenses, that does so responsibly, and takes us off this unsustainable path. This does so by borrowing less, by spending less. And, yes, it will have the effect, Mr. Speaker, of getting our fiscal house in order and once again allowing this country to start creating jobs in a real way, not just in a piecemeal way.

So I urge our colleagues to support this responsible CR.

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