Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011

Floor Speech

Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my concern regarding the partisan direction our budget debate has taken this week. Although there is near unanimous agreement that we must reduce our deficit, there has been no productive discussion in this chamber as to how we can work together to accomplish that goal. We all have our own ideas about our nation's fiscal priorities, but what is missing in today's discussion is a bipartisan, centrist approach to addressing our nation's fiscal health, such as the recommendations in the report by the Simpson-Bowles National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

It is unfortunate that the House will not consider the Cooper amendment, mirroring the Simpson-Bowles suggestions, as an alternative to the extreme partisan proposals that have been put forth. Responsibly reducing our nation's deficit will require shared sacrifice and bipartisan consensus, and will not be accomplished if the two parties are unable to work together.

In March, I joined with my colleagues in the Blue Dog Coalition to offer a comprehensive and aggressive set of benchmarks for fiscal reform that include the largest deficit cuts in history by 2014, entitlement and tax reform, and a reduction in the overall size of government. This proposal put everything on the table, cutting the deficit by $4 trillion dollars over the next 10 years, returning to 2008 spending levels by 2013, and addressing entitlement programs.

No one party has all the answers, and no one party can do this alone. It's time to put our economy back on the path to fiscal sustainability, and this House should consider the Simpson-Bowles recommendations that aim to accomplish that goal.

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