Schock: 1,400 Days, Deeper in Debt, and Still Democrats Do Nothing
Washington,
Feb 9 -
By Congressman Aaron Schock
Illinois Review – Saturday, February 09, 2013
In the nearly 1,400 days since the Democrat-controlled Senate has failed to pass a budget, one could have taken 179 trips to the moon, or closer to earth, our country could have constructed the entire Keystone XL pipelines twice.
With a national debt of more than $16 trillion - $53,000 for every American - House Republicans continue to fight the inactivity of the Democrats who control Washington. After four years of the Senate failing to pass a budget and years of failed leadership by President Obama to garner the support of his own party, House Republicans are putting Democrats feet to the fire and we won’t be backing down any time soon.
In January, the House voted to suspend its pay unless we pass a budget by April 15. The Senate followed and finally passed the “No Budget, No Pay Act.” While that shouldn’t sound like a major feat, it wasn’t until we put Senators paychecks on the line that we were able to come to this place.
This week, the House passed the “Require a PLAN Act,” which forces the President to put together a balanced budget. Last Congress, I voted in favor of the Budget Control Act and a Balanced Budget Amendment.
House Republicans remain committed to continuing to restore fiscal order to the Federal budgetary process. In doing so, the House under the leadership of Budget Chairman Paul Ryan won’t shy away from proposing a budget that addresses the major drivers of our debt and sets forth a plan to balance the budget and wipe away the trillion dollar deficits that have occurred under the Obama Administration.
We have two paths we can go down: Senate Democrats can pass a budget, as House Republicans have done since regaining the majority, and negotiate in good faith with the House to address out-of-control spending, reform our entitlement programs and put our country on a fiscally sustainable path. Or we can go the way of the Senate the last four years, which is the way of the ostrich and just put our heads in the sand and hope we don’t turn out like Greece.
We will find out April 15 when the House and Senate will be forced to offer budget proposals of their own, or go without pay.
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