The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Bucshon) for 5 minutes.
Mr. BUCSHON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remind the American people why we're here. We're here today because of the failure of the 111th Congress to pass a budget for the first time in decades. You might think that for one party that controlled the White House and both Chambers of Congress, this would be a relatively easy thing to do, but you have to try. In an effort to protect a few powerful committee chairmen and other incumbents in their own party, they made a political decision not to pass a budget because it had a $1.5 trillion deficit attached to it. You can't run and you can't hide from the American people.
Now, even after the people have spoken in November, they are continuing to protect the status quo, protecting out-of-control Washington spending, and offering no solutions of their own other than raising everyone's taxes and demagoging anyone who puts forward a plan. Again, I would like to see their plan.
I began running to represent Indiana's Eighth Congressional District in October of 2009, an endeavor I had never undertaken before. I was a practicing physician, cardiothoracic surgeon. I decided to seek public office because of our government's inability to control spending. Let's remind everyone where the status quo has led us. It has led us to historic unemployment and a mounting debt that is mortgaging the future of our children and grandchildren.
But yesterday, our counterparts in the Senate and the White House showed different intentions. I can't stand before you today in good conscience not advocating for the men and women who have volunteered to wear the uniform of our great Nation. A notion that a bill to fund the troops for the remainder of the fiscal year is being threatened by a veto is preposterous.
This challenge to fix our government's spending habits is above politics and talking points. While I stand here today in the people's House, individuals are playing petty politics while we offered a solution yesterday that pays our troops and avoids a government shutdown.
We passed H.R. 1 with a modest $61 billion down payment on controlling Washington spending, and we have been criticized in the face of a $1.5 trillion deficit. I implore the Senate and the White House to join with us here in the House and act to significantly reduce spending and avoid a government shutdown.
And I offer one last observation since I am new to Congress, a continuing frustration that I am finding here in Washington, D.C., and that is I am amazed by the resistance of some in Congress to tackling this problem, especially the fact that some continue to find excuses why we can't even consolidate programs and downsize government and make things more efficient here in Washington, D.C. at the very least. But I found this at a committee hearing the other day when the Democrats continued to make excuses after a Government Accountability Office report showed the excesses that we have here in Washington, D.C.
This is a serious issue we face together as a Nation. I began this conversation when I began running for Congress almost 2 years ago, and it's a conversation I continue to have with my constituents. This is an adult conversation about facts and our future.
Until we come to a solution that will put hardworking Americans and Hoosiers back to work and our government begins to act in a responsible manner when it comes to our Nation's fiscal issues, I will continue to have this conversation with my constituents and with the American people.
