Additional Continuing Appropriations Amendments, 2011: House of Representatives
Floor Speech
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Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
I am not sure whether I rise for or against this, very frankly, because I think this process is not the process that we ought to be pursuing. I think in that context I speak for the chairman and for the ranking member and for most Members in this body.
I was going to wait a while, but then I heard Mr. Dent of Pennsylvania speak and I want to reiterate this point that he made, because I made it last week in my colloquy with the majority leader.
I made the point that we are about to make the largest single reduction in discretionary spending that we have made, the gentleman said in history; I was more modest and said in the 30 years that I have been here. But in any event, this is not an insubstantial cut.
The problem those of us have on this side of the aisle is it is not enough for a large number of your folks, and they have said so, and the Heritage Foundation has said so, and the Family Research Council has said so, and some of your Members have said so.
Now, the fact of the matter is this is a lousy way to run a railroad. We are trying to run the largest enterprise in the world in 2-week segments. It is costly to the private sector, it is extraordinarily inefficient for the public sector, and it is demoralizing for the private sector who deals with the government and for the public employees we have asked to perform the services that we have set forth as policy. And so I say at this juncture, this ought to be the last of this type. We need to reach agreement.
Now I say to my friend from Pennsylvania, because it is the largest cut, we think we've come a long way. You said you wanted to cut $100 billion. Now, you're not cutting the $41 billion that we cut. You were using the 2011 baseline. That's how you got your $100 billion. $41 billion, we have all agreed, is gone. We're going to freeze at 2010 and go below that. So we have come $41 billion away, and we agree on that.
Now, you used the 2011. That wasn't our figure first. You used it September; we used it in December. So my view is we have agreed on $41 billion. You don't say that. You say we're between zero and 60. I understand your rationale. But it's your figure, it's your baseline that you used in September in your Pledge to America.
If we have gone 41 and we are now going to go another 10 or 15, what I ask of you is, in light of the fact, as the gentleman from Pennsylvania points out, we've already done the deepest cut under Republicans, under Democrats, under any of us, it is time to hear from you, what is your alternative to make a deal?
Now, ``compromise'' is a prettier word, but we need to come to agreement. If we're going to serve our country, and those who serve our country, then we need to come to agreement, because they elected all of us. None of us has any greater superiority. We're all the same. And we need to come to agreement.
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Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, 435 of us have tried to talk to the people in the other body. But I will tell you, under the Constitution of the United States, we have the responsibility of initiating bills. Read the Constitution.
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Mr. HOYER. I will say to you, we can wring our hands and say that the Senate's not doing its job. We're not in the Senate. We're here. Let us come to agreement. And we know the agreement is going to be someplace in between where you are and where we are. We know that. But what we don't know is what you can pass. What you don't know is what you can pass. You don't know what your caucus will do. I understand that. You are deeply divided, in my opinion, and we need to know, because it is not just us here that are adversely affected.
Let us come to agreement. Let us stop this process of funding government in very short cycles. It is not good for our country, it is not good for the people who work for our country, and it is not good for the people who are doing work around the world.
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