Fiscal and Economic

Here is an appropriations bill originating in this House that still has outrageously wasteful and indefensible spending. Perhaps the flagship of this folly is the $182 million in unauthorized - there's that word again: unauthorized - spending for the Economic Development Administration. This is solely and simply a slush fund that gives away money for the most dubious of local projects.

This amendment cuts more than a quarter billion dollars of unauthorized appropriations from the International Trade Administration. What does it do, exactly? The ITA has some legitimate functions enforcing trade agreements and treaties. This amendment leaves these functions untouched. But it also - to quote from its own material - provides counseling to American companies in order to develop the most profitable and sustainable plans for pricing, export, and the full range of public and private trade promotion assistance... as well as market intelligence, and industry and market specific research." That's well and good, but Mme. Chairman, isn't that what businesses, trade associations and the Chamber of Commerce are supposed to do with their own money?

I thank the gentleman (Mr. Ryan) for yielding and I thank him for his vision and courage. It has truly been an honor to serve on this committee under his leadership. Mr. Chairman, a year ago, the House passed a budget that would have put our nation back on the path to fiscal solvency and ultimately paid off the entire national debt. It would have saved Medicare and Medicaid from collapse and put them back on a solid and secure foundation.

The House is about to consider a budget in a dangerous hour in the life of our country. Last year, we barreled past several urgent warning signals: the loss of our nation's triple-A credit rating; the size of the national debt surpassing our entire economy; a record third year of trillion dollar-plus annual deficits.

This nation is on a collision course with a sovereign debt crisis the magnitude of which we have never experienced. This is not some moonless night on the Atlantic. We are spending full speed ahead toward that iceberg of debt in the full light of day and we can all see it plainly.

The reason these times are so impassioned is because we have arrived at a moment when two very different visions of society are competing for our nation’s future, and they are very much reflected in the budgets put forward by the two parties in this House.