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Waiving Requirement of Clause 6(a) of Rule XIII with Respect to Consideration of Certain Resolutions

Floor Speech

Date: July 29, 2011
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Senior Citizens Business and Consumers Constitution Entitlements and the Safety Net Health Insurance Higher Education Government Budget and Spending

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Ms. DeLAURO. We are now 4 days away from an historic, unprecedented, and needless default that could grind this economy to a halt. And yet, even as they show their disarray to the entire world, this House Republican majority is continuing to hold our Nation hostage to press their radical agenda. Worse, there's only 4 days to go. They're moving in the wrong direction.

The Speaker should have taken yesterday's rebuke by his own party as a clear indication that he needs to go back to the drawing board and pass a debt ceiling increase that both parties can sign on to.

Instead, he and the Republican majority have doubled down on ideology and dangerous brinksmanship requiring that a balanced budget constitutional amendment--a total nonstarter--that would threaten Medicare and Social Security be sent to the States before a second debt ceiling increase is approved. This ensures another Republican-created crisis in only a few short months.

This bill slashes $917 billion from critical public investments: education, infrastructure, research, law enforcement, food safety. And even though the
spending on these programs is less than what it was under the Reagan and the first Bush administration, in fact members of the majority even balked at $17 billion in Pell Grant funding in the bill because to some of them helping Americans go to college is "the welfare of the 21st century.''

We know the deficits have grown because revenues are lower than they've been in the last 60 years thanks to the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and the two wars that have been put on the Nation's credit card.

With 14 million unemployed, we should be focused on creating jobs, putting Americans back to work. It's time for the majority to quit playing political games, start acting responsibly with the stewardship of our economy.

I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill. Start to work on what the American people need most right now--that's jobs.

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