Paul Broun

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Now, Dr. Fleming, you better explain about retro spectroscope because a lot of people haven't heard about that. They have heard of a colonoscope or sigmoidoscope, but you are not talking about the same thing.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Let me interrupt you a minute, Dr. Fleming, and reclaim my time, but I want to ask you a question. Have you heard any of our Democratic colleagues say we need to move on, it's now law and we need to accept it, and we just need to go forward and it's the law of the land and, thus, we're being sore losers? We're just being nothing but soreheads because we're talking about health care still. But it's critical the American people understand that it's not put in place completely, and the most onerous parts of ObamaCare are yet to come, and it's a few years out. So we can repeal ObamaCare. We can replace it with something that makes sense. I've already introduced one repeal and replace bill. I had introduced a bill, H.R. 3889, prior to ObamaCare passing, which was my own comprehensive health care reform bill. Comprehensive. It dealt with Medicare, helped reform Medicare so that people could continue to get Medicare and could continue getting their money back that they invested in the Federal Government through Medicare through their FICA taxes and their payroll deductions and stuff like that. And I reintroduced it as repeal ObamaCare and replace it with my H.R. 3889. Just this week I'm going to introduce another one that puts in place repealing ObamaCare and puts in place four things: Number one, across-State-line purchases for individuals and businesses. Number two, where anybody in this country can join an association just for a meager amount of money, 5, 10 bucks, $25, have multiple insurance products that they can buy and own themselves, have huge pools with these associations. The third thing is to encourage the State to set up a high-risk pool. The fourth thing is to have tax fairness for everybody in this country so that everybody can deduct every health care cost that they have, including purchasing insurance. Makes sense. I have had many of my Democratic colleagues--when I challenged them before ObamaCare passed--I challenged Democrat after Democrat individually to introduce those four things in a bill, that I would give them the legislative language. I would give them the bill, have a blank. They would just write their name in the blank. And then it would be a Democratic bill. They could claim that as being ObamaCare, as far as I was concerned, because it's not about my name being on anything. I am just concerned about policy. I had Democrat after Democrat say, Paul, I would love to do it. It makes sense. Many of our Democratic colleagues said, Paul, that makes sense to do this and to work on this incrementally. Many Democrats wanted to work on this incrementally. But their leadership wouldn't let them, Dr. Fleming. They were forced to swallow ObamaCare just like the American public is being forced to swallow ObamaCare. And those four things would radically change the health care financing, would solve a lot of problems, not all of them, but would solve a lot of the problems we have. It would help cover a lot of people who can't afford health insurance today, would cover a lot of people who can't get health insurance because of preexisting conditions. We have very few people. In fact, ObamaCare is not going to cover everybody in this country either until we get everybody in the same pool that the President wants us to go in. But these are all failed promises and high spending that we are getting from our leadership. I just wanted to throw that in, Dr. Fleming.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. What? Not one doctor on our side? Not one?

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. That's another plus side, Dr. Fleming. We were told that the cost curve would go down. Now that may be a nebulous term to most people in the country, some of that congressional speak language we talk about up here. We have heard over and over again from our Democratic colleagues, particularly in leadership, that the cost curve would go down. In other words, that the spending, the total level of spending, the total level of spending in this country on health care would go down with ObamaCare.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Dr. Roe, just tonight I went to a meeting just before we came down for this last series of votes. In fact, I came from that meeting here to the floor of the House. And I was talking to a leader of a large transportation organization, and he told me that they've studied ObamaCare and they've decided that they're going to do exactly what you said. They're going to push all of their employees into the public exchange, which--they're just going to pay the $2,000. Just tonight I talked to a guy, just an hour and a half ago, who said that hundreds of their employees are going to be pushed into the public exchange. This goes back to fulfill Barack Obama's promise of wanting to try to develop one pool for everybody. But he has failed in his promises because we were assured that their new law would be the answer to health care financing problems. Au, contraire. I am not good at speaking French. My wife, Niki, all the time chastises me for my not being able to speak these things and not even--she's from Indiana, so she doesn't even think I speak English. But we see over and over again where these failed promises and this increased debt and all of the things that are going on are costing hundreds of jobs and are going to force people into government health insurance programs. So the spending has to stop. This outrageous spending has to stop here. And unfortunately, we have failed promises by the Federal Government. Dr. Roe is unfortunately having to leave, and I thank Dr. Roe for spending some time with us and with the American people this evening. Thank you, Dr. Roe. I want to go to our next doctor who's here with us tonight, a good friend, great Member of Congress, Dr. John Fleming. Family doctor from the northwest corner of Louisiana. One of my favorite States. I love to go down there and go duck hunting. And they're struggling by the Federal Government's failure to deal with this outrageous economic as well as environmental disaster that's going on down there. In fact, failing--our Federal Government and this administration is failing to take care of what they're charged to do under Federal law. In fact, Steve Scalise, our good friend from New Orleans, came to the floor yesterday and was talking about that. He was even chastised by one of our dear Democratic colleagues. But the Federal Government has a responsibility under Federal law on these major oil spills to get engaged in trying to deal with that. They failed to do so. But thankfully, your district is up in the northwest corner. I know your patients miss you like my patients miss me. I am still practicing medicine, but, Dr. Fleming, thanks for joining us tonight. And I yield to you, sir.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Doc, let me interject something there.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. One of our constituents in northeast Georgia in my 10th Congressional District just wrote us a note saying that he is a small businessman, and he said that his small business was going to survive this economic downturn. But the way it was going to survive was he was going to let all of his employees go, and he and his family were going to run the small business. That's the only way you can stay in business. It is ObamaCare that is running his employees, even of a small business, very small business, where they are having to let employees go because of ObamaCare, right now today.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Those are big words. What's that mean?

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Say that again, please, so people can understand, because we just saw a report. I don't know if you saw the report, because we haven't talked about it. There was a report just recently where businesses that were going to hire new employees, that are right on the cusp, have decided not to hire those new employees. So it's killing jobs, right?

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Let me interrupt you again a half second, if you don't mind, Dr. Fleming, because I have got some news for the American people. The Congressional Budget Office, even missing all the numbers, as Dr. Roe and I were just talking about, the Congressional Budget Office has stated that the law will raise the individual market premiums by an average of $2,100 per family, raise them. They are going to go up above what would have been if we did nothing. Now, I don't want to do nothing. I know that you don't want to do nothing. You made that very clear in many hours here on the floor, talking. But the cost is going to go up by $2,100 per family on the average across this country. That's another failed promise by Speaker Pelosi and Barack Obama.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Speaker, tonight the Doctors Caucus, people who are physicians, and those of us who are involved in health care on the Republican side, are going to be talking a little bit tonight about ObamaCare. We've talked about ObamaCare a lot over the last several months, and it's now law. We hear over and over again about how ObamaCare is beginning to filter out, and how it's going to affect the American people. Our President has said, Madam Speaker, that when the American people know what's in the bill, they're going to like it. Well, to the contrary. As the American people get to know what's in the bill, they dislike it more and more, as they rightfully should, because ObamaCare is going to be extremely expensive for everyone. It's going to be very onerous to almost everyone, except for the Federal bureaucrats who are going to be hired to put ObamaCare into place and who are going to be enforcing it. And in fact, we are even going to have to hire, I think it is 16,500 new IRS agents to enforce it. That's right, Madam Speaker, 16,500 new IRS agents just to enforce ObamaCare on small businessmen and women around this country. The more the American people discover about ObamaCare, the less they like it. We just heard, I think it was last week, where the Congressional Budget Office said, Oops, we made a mistake. We made a mistake. We were $115 billion too little on our estimate, which puts it way over a trillion dollars. Our Democratic colleagues, their leadership-- actually, it's not even all the Democrats, because there are many of them who are very reasonable over there on that side. But the leadership of the Democratic Caucus wanted to get ObamaCare and the President wanted to get ObamaCare passed, and forced the CBO through the parameters that they gave them to try to get the numbers below $1 trillion. Well, they are north of $1 trillion. Frankly, if you look at Medicare, when CBO projected the cost of Medicare, CBO missed it, missed it terribly. And in fact, I think that's what's going to happen here too. I think ObamaCare is going to be $3 trillion, $5 trillion, maybe $10 trillion. And it's money that our children and our grandchildren are going to have to pay because we don't have the money. In fact, we just had a lecture about hypocrisy by one of our colleagues just a moment ago, talking about saying one thing and believing another. Frankly, we are continuing to fight to stop this outrageous spending. As Republicans here, we are fighting against ObamaCare. Every single Republican voted against it. Even several Democrats, many Democrats, voted against it. The only bipartisan vote was a vote of ``no'' against ObamaCare, because it's going to be terrible. Unfortunately, it passed the House by five votes. Five votes. That's certainly not a mandate from the House. The American people, as they study the bill, they are beginning more and more to see how bad it is. The feelings against ObamaCare have been described by one Democratic pollster as hardening against it. We need to repeal and replace ObamaCare. It's the only rational, reasonable thing to do. It's the only economically feasible thing to do. We see colleagues on the other side talk about budget deficits. They don't care about budget deficits. They don't care about the huge debt that's created. In fact, just last week I was down here on the floor and heard several of our Democratic colleagues blame this economic woe that we have and this huge Federal debt and deficit on George Bush. Can you imagine? On George Bush. We have created more debt in the last year-and-a-half than George Bush did in 8 years. But my Democratic colleagues continue to blame George Bush. I blame George Bush for bringing us the first tranche of the TARP bill. I voted against it. Many Republicans voted against it. I thought it was a mistake. Then the President came back, our current President, President Obama, came back and he wanted another $350-plus billion to bail out Wall Street even more. Now they are talking about a Financial Services bill to regulate Wall Street that they, the Democrat leadership in this House and the President, want to bail them out and then regulate them on the other hand. And if the American people will look at who Wall Street gives money to, it's the Democrats. They give the Democrats and the Democratic Party a whole lot more money than they give Republicans. The best friends of big business and the best friends of Wall Street are our Democratic colleagues. So we are here tonight to talk about spending and failed promises. I am joined in this discussion tonight with two very good friends, two great Members of the House, both freshmen. Both are physicians. We have got Dr. Phil Roe, who is an OB/GYN from Johnson City, Tennessee, and we have got my fellow family doctor, Dr. John Fleming, from Shreveport, Louisiana, that have joined us tonight. I understand that Dr. Phil Gingrey may join us. He is in a markup. And so is Dr. Burgess. They are both in markups in Energy and Commerce. But now we've got three stellar Members of this U.S. House of Representatives, three stellar members of the Republican Caucus, three stellar members of the Doctors Caucus who have been leaders here. I want to thank the people of Tennessee and Louisiana for sending these two gentlemen here and being part of our conference and being part of this Congress, fighting for the interests of their constituents. I want to thank the people of Louisiana, Madam Speaker, and thank the people of Tennessee for sending Dr. Phil Roe and Dr. John Fleming here. So to kick this off, I will go to Dr. Phil Roe to put in his input about failed promises and the huge spending that ObamaCare, as well as the Democrats not only with ObamaCare, but with their stimulus bill. Dr. Roe, we are fixing to have another bill that our Democratic colleagues are calling a jobs bill. If they liked the first nonstimulus bill--actually, it stimulated big government. It has been an abject failure. But they want to give us another bill. They call it the extenders bill here in Congress, but the American people are going to hear it described as a jobs bill. And that is just absolutely incorrect. Thanks for joining us.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Thank you, Dr. Fleming. We have just a couple of minutes left, and maybe I will get back to you in a second. But I want to tell Madam Speaker and the American people that Republicans have been charged by our Democrat colleagues--and I've heard many a Democratic colleague come stand down here in the well or stand back there at the Speaker's desk and say that the Republican Party is the party of ``no.'' We are the party of ``k-n-o-w.'' So I'll admit that we are the party of ``know'' because we know how--k-n-o-w-- we know how to reduce the cost of health care for everybody in this country. We know how to solve the problems of insuring those people who are uninsurable today because of preexisting conditions. We know how to maintain that doctor-patient relationship; it's how health care decisions are made. ObamaCare doesn't do that. That's another failed promise, another myth that our President and Nancy Pelosi and company have given to the American people. President Obama said over and over again, If you like your insurance, you can keep it. And Dr. Fleming was just talking about, no, you can't. That's another myth; that's another failed promise. But the Republicans are the party of ``k-n-o-w,'' know, because we know how to do those things. We know how to create jobs. We've been asking over and over again, Where are the jobs? The American people are hurting. We see the statistics, 9.9 percent, but that's not correct. It's much higher than that. As an example, one of my county commission chairmen just told me that 1 year ago the unemployment in their county was 14.3 percent. Now it's down to, according to the statistics, 10.7. I said to him, That is fantastic. Where did the jobs come from? He said, Paul, there aren't any jobs; people have just gotten discouraged and fallen off the rolls. And I think that's why we see it below 10 percent today. We also mentioned earlier where teachers and policemen and other people are being furloughed and not being paid for those furlough days. There are millions of people who are unemployed. And people who are unemployed and getting jobs, the few that are out there, are being employed at a lower level than they are really qualified. So the unemployment, the underemployment, those that are off the rolls, it's much, much higher than 10 percent. I think it's above 20 percent, maybe even 25 percent; I don't have the data because we can't get those data. But the Republicans do have alternatives. And we're going to try our best to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with things that make sense, that will build jobs, build a stronger economy. We're just going to see, in the next few days here on the floor of the House, a bill that they're going to call a ``jobs'' bill, and that's not correct. They are naming anything a ``jobs'' bill these days, but jobs are being killed by this outrageous spending. The health care quality in this country is going to go down. The American people deserve better. We are going to try to repeal and replace ObamaCare and put in place something that makes sense economically and is good for the American people. I yield back.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. You're right, Dr. Fleming. Let me reclaim my time. Just today, the consulting firm of Towers Watson just released a study of large employers across the country, what their response is to ObamaCare. And it's not at all surprising, really, to us because we've been talking about it. You and I and many of our Doctors Caucus members have been here on the floor talking about these things, you're just talking about it now, as we did for months and months before ObamaCare was put in place. But let me give you the data, some things that Towers Watson found that just released today. The overwhelming majority, 90 percent of employers, believe that health care reform will increase their organization's health care costs. They're right. I don't know why it's not 100 percent, because it's going to; but 90 percent of employers believe their health care costs will go up, and they will. Sixty-eight percent plan to re-examine their health benefit strategy for active employees this year. Now, I'll tell you something, just Sunday, I think it was in the Sunday Athens Banner-Herald, there was an article where the University of Georgia is very seriously considering not giving any new hire that the University of Georgia puts on their payroll retirement benefits once they retire, or health care retirement benefits because of the cost, because of ObamaCare, and because of the strain on the budget that University of Georgia is suffering from right now. So I know University of Georgia, there are a lot of people in Athens, Georgia, who want to go to work for the University of Georgia. It's a great place to work, it's a great school to go to. I'm a graduate of the University of Georgia. But 68 percent are going to re-examine their health benefit strategy. That, I'm sure, is going to please our President because he wants everybody to go off of private insurance; he said that himself. He didn't say it in those words; he said he wants everybody to be in the government pool, one pool. Eighty-eight percent plan to pass increased costs from the law onto their employees through high premiums. So those people who are working today, those middle class people that Barack Obama said it wouldn't affect them, we heard over and over--still hear--95 percent of Americans are not going to see an increase in taxes. That's just totally erroneous; it's nothing but falsehood. Eighty-eight percent plan to pass on the increased cost to their employees through high premiums. And let me give a couple more examples, and then I will yield back. Seventy-four percent plan to pass the law's higher costs onto their employees by changing the plan options, by restricting eligibility, which means more people won't be eligible to get insurance through their employer, or by increasing their deductibles or copays. More than one in 10 firms plan to pass on these higher costs of ObamaCare by reducing employment. Twelve percent say that they're going to do that, 12 percent, or by reducing employee contributions to their retirement plans, like their 401(k)s, 11 percent. Forty-three percent believe that their plans will be subject to the Cadillac tax on high-cost plans. Of course, our leadership here in the House and our President want to get rid of Cadillac plans unless they're for who? The unions. In fact, they've given the unions a pass on the Cadillac plans because they want to do everything that they can do to support the unions. Of those firms offering coverage, 43 percent said they are likely to eliminate or reduce retiree medical programs as a result of the law's enactment. That's what I just mentioned with the University of Georgia is a good example that is considering right now, very seriously--and I expect it probably will happen. Almost half of the companies in this country are going to reduce or eliminate their retirees' health care plans for their retirees. I yield back to Dr. Fleming.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. A football player.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Now this is the head of CMS, who is going to be heading up the comparative effectiveness rationing panel. I call it a rationing panel.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. But what you are just saying is great information, so that the American people can understand and hopefully our Democratic colleagues will understand, the cost curve goes up, higher than if we did nothing. In fact, this new estimate does not include any cost for the 52 new programs, 52 new programs that are in the bill that the CBO could not even measure and give us a figure for the cost because each program was authorized for such sums, blank check, such sums, funding level. So our leadership, Ms. Pelosi and company, have given us 52 new programs that are funded at such sums that they need and is not even scored or accounted in this new estimate of $150 million that the CBO missed because they couldn't even score that.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Thank you.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Yes, sir.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. They are going to use age as the means of trying to determine how to spend dollars. That means that one of my patients who is 75 that has diabetes versus another one of my patients that's 35 with diabetes, they are going to decide whether they are going to spend $100 on my 75-year-old diabetic patient or $100 on my 35-year-old diabetic patient. Dr. Roe was talking about seniors are very upset because we know where that decision is going to be, and that Federal bureaucrat who is not a doctor, that panel that is not going to be run by physicians, is going to be deciding the comparative effectiveness of spending dollars on an age-related basis with less dollars being divided by more people, which means rationing of care. And this panel is going to deny, deny, treatment to that 75-year-old. And the reason Governor Palin was talking about death panels is because they're going to just say, So sorry, you can't get that treatment because comparative effectiveness says spending $100 on you, a 75-year-old patient who has diabetes, is not as effective as spending $100 on a 35-year-old, and our senior citizens are going to be denied treatment. And what's going to happen? They're going to get gangrene in their legs, and they're going to die from that. They're going to get pneumonia, and they're going to die from that. This panel is not going to put them to death, but it's going to deny treatment, particularly the more expensive treatment.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Dr. Fleming, you and I talked about creative effectiveness research and comparative effectiveness of different treatments. For instance, as an example, my trout fishing buddy at home, a retired full bird colonel, Randy Dudley, served a stellar service in the United States Air Force, retired. Randy Dudley has just undergone a series of treatments for his prostate cancer. He has been very open about it and that's the reason that I can bring that forward here tonight because HIPAA otherwise wouldn't let me do so. But Colonel Dudley looked at surgery, looked at high-dose radiation therapy, low-dose radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or a combination of those, as he chose his treatment. We, as physicians, do comparative effectiveness evaluation or research to look and see whether the surgery for him is better or which of those treatments are a combination of treatments or better. But this comparative effectiveness research that was started with a nonstimulus bill back a little over a year ago--that's when Nancy Pelosi and company funded the comparative effectiveness research--what the American people need to understand, Dr. Fleming, is something you and I understand very firmly; it's not about what's the best treatment, but it's how to spend dollars.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Thank you, Dr. Roe. I appreciate it. And you are exactly right. In the State of Georgia, they've just finished their session, a 40-day session. The general assembly just finished about 2 weeks ago. It took 40 legislative days, all the way to May to finish 40 legislative days, and it is because of the economic downturn and the lack of revenue. And we have a balanced budget requirement in our State constitution. So Georgia has to balance its budget, just like people have to balance their budgets, just as we should be balancing our budget here in the Federal Government. And in doing so, people who are paid by the State--teachers, policemen, State highway patrol, as an example. Just talked to Jimmy Williamson, the police chief at University of Georgia, as a person who is employed by the State. All of these folks are being furloughed. They're being furloughed on a day-by-day basis. So they have to lose a day of work, maybe a day a month, a day periodically. They're not counted in these unemployment statistics. They're not counted in how the Department of Labor gives us all of those numbers on a monthly basis. So our administration and the leadership up here don't count those furlough days, but they're unpaid furlough days. It's hurting their salary. It's hurting families. And it's because of this gross mismanagement of the Federal spending, this gross, outrageous spending that the Federal Government's doing that is going to put our children and our grandchildren in an economic squeeze where their standard of living is not going to be as high as ours. And ObamaCare is going to put a lot of people in a position, as you were just saying, where they can't find a doctor. In fact, during another previous Doctors Caucus period of time of discussing things during Special Orders, I said that people may have a free health care card, Medicaid card or whatever card it is, but it will be as worthless as a Confederate dollar was after the War Between the States. And the reason for that, you just brought up, Dr. Roe, is that doctors are not going to be able to accept Medicaid and Medicare because of the rationing of care, the marked reduction of their payments from the Federal Government and doctors who are trying to take care of poor people. And the elderly today are struggling because the Federal Government pays providers--whether it's a hospital, a doctor, or a physical therapist--less money today than it costs them to provide that service. I'll give you an example, just a number of years ago in my own practice when I was in an office. I've done house calls since 2002. So I'd go see my patients at home, and work was no longer office space. But when I was office space, Medicaid reimbursed us for the shots, immunizations for our kids, childhood immunizations, at less money than it cost to buy the serum. And then that doesn't count the cost of our nurses' time and the liability costs and the medical records costs and the syringe and the alcohol pad and these other things. Government was reimbursing us at a lower level. So I had to send all of my pediatric patients for their childhood immunizations over to the health department, and they were getting them from a government entity because I could not provide those services. But that comes back to another thing that you said, Dr. Roe, where just before ObamaCare was passed, our President said he wanted everybody in this country in one health care pool. What does that mean to the American people? What that means is that his desire is for us to have total socialized medicine where everybody in this country is in the same pool. Everybody's health care is controlled by the Federal Government. So there are panels here in Washington, D.C., that are going to ration care, as Dr. Roe was just mentioning. It's going to tell us who can go in the hospital, who can get a treatment, what medications we can get. There's going to be a tremendous rationing of care. Before that happens, I think, Dr. Roe, you're exactly right in that this unfunded mandate that's being forced on the States by the expansion of Medicaid rolls is going to hurt my State of Georgia that much more. They're struggling now to balance their budget. The teachers are being released from their duties and are not going to be rehired for next school year because the State of Georgia doesn't have the money to pay for Medicaid today. And it's going to be expanded. And we're going to fire all of the teachers? I hope not. We need to be paying our teachers more. We need to be doing more for our teachers. But we're in a bind. And the Federal Government, under this leadership of this administration and the leadership of the House and the Senate, are making matters worse and worse. Dr. Roe.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Tax increases.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, the University of Georgia is the first land grant college in the United States. A lot of people don't know that. The Graduate School of the University of Georgia is celebrating its centennial in June, as both speakers have just mentioned. In the hundred years since its organization, the University of Georgia's Graduate School has produced scholars of the highest caliber. Beginning with only seven pupils, it now boasts more than 7,000 students and hundreds of doctoral, master's and specialist degree programs. At the center of advanced learn at the State's flagship university, UGA's Graduate School has contributed to new knowledge, advancements in academic research, and the economic development of Georgia and the United States. Graduates of this great school occupy positions in school systems, businesses, and even the United States Congress. I'm honored to represent this great institution here in the U.S. Congress, and I urge my colleagues to join me in celebrating the graduate school on this great occasion of its centennial. The University of Georgia is a great institution for the people of the State of Georgia and this Nation. The graduate school has come within the purview of that great institution and has been a stellar school to produce some of the greatest leaders of our Nation. I congratulate them personally, and I'm glad that Congress, hopefully, is going to congratulate them with this resolution. And with that, I have one thing to say. Go Dogs.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Well, thank you for yielding back. What are the consequence of not passing a budget? Well, first thing if we don't pass the budget, then there's no cap on discretionary spending for this fiscal year. So they can spend whatever they want to because they have no constraints within a budget. I've got a friend whose wife said, Well, we have got plenty of money in the bank. I still have checks in my checkbook.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. That's the way this majority is acting. They still have the checks in the checkbook. They still have a credit card that is being held by the Chinese. But where does the money come from? With all this deficit spending, this outrageous spending that Congress has been doing, it is going to come from our children and great-grandchildren. They are going to live at a lower standard than we live today, be the first generation that has lived at a lower standard than the previous generation, and it is because of this ``gimme now'' attitude that this Congress, under the leadership of Nancy Pelosi, has been doing. So passing a budget will at least help stop this outrageous spending and will put some caps, maybe, on the discretionary spending for this year. Also, not passing a budget means that Congress will not muster the leadership to set any kind of framework for paring back the entitlement spending. We have got to control entitlement spending. Our colleague who is the ranking member on the Budget Committee, Paul Ryan, introduced a bill in the last Congress, in the 110th where you and I both were here, that would set forth some parameters for controlling entitlement spending. We have got to do that. There is no question. In fact, about two-thirds of the Federal budget is on autopilot, and it just continues to grow exponentially. We have got to change the whole budgetary process, and that is what I hope to see us do. And I think Republicans have that as part of what we want to do once we get control back of the House, is to change the budgetary process so that we balance our budget and we control entitlement spending. It is absolutely critical. But thirdly, most importantly, not passing a budget means not carving out priorities for the spending and giving us an extension of the tax cuts that were put in in 2001 and 2002, even for low-income families. So we are going to see tremendous increases in taxes for everybody in this country, even the people who can afford it the least, those on limited incomes, fixed incomes, and the poorest people in this country. In fact, we hear over and over again that our Democratic colleagues are interested in the middle class; but, actually, the middle class and the lower economic rungs of the ladder are going to be hit hardest by the health care bill that was passed, ObamaCare, by the nonstimulus bill that's been an abject failure, and all the outrageous spending that our Democratic colleagues have been doing here in the Congress. Beyond all these things, not passing a budget signals to the American people that we are not going to be held accountable. We are not going to deal with the Nation's spending addiction that Congress has, the deficit challenges that this government has. We have got to stop it. Families all over this country are balancing their budgets. My State of Georgia and many States have to live under a balanced budget. I believe the Federal Government should live under a balanced budget. But we are not even having a budget. Mr. Carter, what do you think we are going to do? Are we going to continue spending? I yield.