Budget Control Act of 2011
Floor Speech
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Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. At this time, I yield 2 minutes to a member of the Budget Committee, the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole).
Mr. COLE. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Every now and then, Mr. Speaker, you need to just step back and look at the record and put the rhetoric aside.
When this majority showed up in January of this last year, we found a situation where our friends on the other side had failed to write a budget for this year, had failed to pass any appropriations bills and had just sort of gone home.
We had a President who had appointed a debt reduction commission but yet failed to embrace any of their actions at all--not one. Then we heard the President come and address us in this Chamber in a state of the Union message, but for 35 minutes, he didn't bother to mention the looming debt crisis--35 minutes.
The first serious proposal we got from that President, our President, was for a $400 billion reduction over 10 years that was so laughable that, when it was brought up in the United States Senate, which is controlled by his party, it failed 97-0.
Then the President wanted to have a free vote on raising the debt ceiling. Let's just raise it. Go ahead and see what happens. We obviously don't support that as we think there ought to be some spending reductions, but we said, sure, you've got the vote. Fewer than 100 of my friends on the other side supported their own President when he asked for that vote. They clearly weren't sufficiently motivated to do that.
Now we've reached a point where, last week, we actually did raise the debt ceiling by $2.7 trillion. We did institute cuts that, frankly, are going to happen anyway--they coincide with my friend Mr. Ryan's budget--and we put caps on long-term spending. We said just give the American people a chance--just a chance--to vote on a balanced budget amendment. We're not asking that it pass, but don't you think they ought to have the right through their State legislatures to make that decision? We were denied that.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield the gentleman 1 additional minute.
Mr. COLE. Now we're at a point where we are about to, once again, raise the debt ceiling and to do it in a responsible way, in a way that I predict, frankly, will probably become the pattern in the future. This body should never raise the debt ceiling again automatically. We've certainly done it on our side, and our friends on the other side have done it. We should always couple it with spending restraint and reform, and that's exactly what we're doing in this measure.
This majority has enacted a budget. My friend has taken a lot of arrows for that budget, but I'm proud to be associated with him. This majority will have twice raised the debt ceiling and coupled it with historic spending cuts.
As for the President's plan that we hear about, I'd just like to see it, just once. I haven't seen anything or heard anything like this since Richard Nixon had a secret plan to end the war. The President must have a secret plan, because it's not on paper; it has not been scored, and it has not been publicly presented to anybody.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has again expired.
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield the gentleman 1 additional minute.
Mr. COLE. If the majority leader's plan scores at $2.2 trillion--and I take my friend's word on that--I guess we really have a $4 trillion deficit, because we have $3 trillion, and we don't even count the extra $1 trillion, which is automatic because the wars are ending. So I think we ought to up ours. We have a $4 trillion plan. We ought to give the majority leader the credit for finding that additional $1 trillion.
If you'll just vote for this, you'll have your magic $4 trillion plan done--our 3, Senator Reid's 1. That adds up to what the President wanted. So let's pass this, give the Senate an opportunity to pass it, and give the President of the United States an opportunity to sign it.
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