Providing for Consideration of S. 2986, Increasing the Public Debt Limit

Floor Speech

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Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, last night I had the opportunity to testify before the Committee on Rules on behalf of my Blue Dog colleague, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm), who had proposed an amendment to reintroduce PAYGO into the rule. That proposed amendment would have reestablished one of the most basic, most responsible, and most successful principles of budget enforcement, the PAYGO rule.

I am sad to stand on this floor today and say that this amendment was stopped. It was stopped by the majority on that Committee on Rules from being able to be part of this final resolve to this issue today.

PAYGO was a provision in the original Budget Enforcement Act which this House allowed to expire in 2002. Prior to that time, not only were we forced to operate within the caps imposed on our discretionary spending; we had to offset all legislation that had the effect of increasing spending or reducing revenue. Put plainly, we had to pay for our bills as we passed our bills.

Since the expiration of the Budget Enforcement Act provisions, PAYGO included, this Congress has not been operating with anywhere near the same level of fiscal responsibility.

Deficits are growing. They are growing in size, they are growing as a percentage of our gross domestic product and, most important, they are growing unchecked because we have allowed provisions such as PAYGO to expire.

The Stenholm proposed amendment would have returned us to the rules by which Congress operated during the 1990s, bipartisan rules. This is not a partisan concept. In its original form in 1990, PAYGO was part of a bipartisan budget agreement between the first President Bush and a Democratic Congress. In 1993, it was extended with a Democratic President and Congress, and again in 1997 it was extended with a Democratic President and a Republican Congress. One hundred ninety-three Republicans voted for PAYGO when it was last extended. One hundred twenty-one of them are still serving in this House today.

Mr. Speaker, the Federal budget should emphasize fiscal responsibility, saving the money necessary to keep both Social Security and Medicare solvent, and paying down the national debt, not increasing it.

I do not like voting to increase the debt ceiling any more than anybody else in this body, but I am not opposed to it if it is accompanied by a plan that would put us back on solid fiscal ground. A good way to start is to reinstate the PAYGO rules. It would be irresponsible for this body to raise the debt limit without a plan for controlling this runaway spending.

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to stand up for fiscal responsibility, to stand up for fiscal integrity and vote no on this rule and insist that we restore PAYGO.

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