Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. Speaker, there is no more noble endeavor that we can engage in than to cure human diseases. All of us in Congress I think have an obligation to be sure that we are, for example, doubling the investment we make in the National Institutes of Health, in the National Science Foundation, in the research work that they're doing to identify and cure human diseases at the earlier stages.

I represent the Texas Medical Center, and I'm proud to do so. Those institutions, the greatest in the world, the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Texas Children's Hospital, Baylor, University of Texas Health Science Center is doing research today, particularly on nano research, where we have the potential, within the next 10 to 15 years, of being able to identify in a child before she's born genetic predisposition to certain diseases, for example, like Lou Gehrig's disease, or diabetes, or cystic fibrosis. These genetically-based diseases can be identified before a child is born using nanotechnology, reinjecting, for example, nano sponges with a protein fix back into the mother's amniotic fluid. The child would then take up those nano sponges. And we can cure diseases in children before they are born.

We have the potential, if we will just invest in the National Institutes of Health and their competitive peer reviewed grant process, if we will just invest the money that's needed right here in America for the National Science Foundation, we have the ability to detect cancer when it's only a few hundred cells in the body using nanotechnology and gold nano shells that will attach to the cancer cells and destroy them before they turn into a tumor.

We have not adequately invested in our own scientific and medical infrastructure in the United States, first and foremost, before you even begin to talk about curing disease globally. We have not secured our border. The southern border is essentially wide open and unprotected in areas other than Del Rio and Laredo. What are we doing to make sure that we've done all that we can do here at home first and foremost for our own folks?

But then finally, and most importantly, and the reason I'm so spun up about this, is the fact that this Democrat Thelma and Louise Congress, Obama-Hillary-Pelosi Democrat Congress, is managing this economy of the United States like Thelma and Louise, driving right off the cliff.

I urge you to go to gao.gov and look at the Fiscal Wake-Up Tour that David Walker has put up on the Web site. The Comptroller of the United States has notified us formally that we are spending money so irresponsibly, so rapidly that the Standard & Poor's and Moody's has already formally notified the Treasury that they are beginning the process of downgrading U.S. Treasury bonds.

The Comptroller has told us that by the year 2020, in 12 years, young people who are 18, if you're listening, by the time you turn 30, Medicare is bankrupt, Treasury bills will be graded as junk. Let me repeat that, Treasury bills are on a path to be graded as junk bonds if we don't stop spending money and focus on the bare essentials. Every American already owes $175,000 a person.

This bill creates a worldwide entitlement to anyone in the world that has AIDS or malaria or tuberculosis at U.S. taxpayer expense. It's unaffordable. It's unacceptable. It is utterly irresponsible at a time of record national debt, record deficits, record Federal spending that we need to reign in, otherwise America is going to become Argentina. The dollar is rapidly becoming the peso. It's time for this Thelma and Louise Democrat Congress to quit spending money on things that are not absolutely essential to this Nation's survival.

Let us focus on protecting the United States of America and quit spending my daughter's money that she does not have and driving our kids and our grandchildren deeper into debt. It is irresponsible. It is, frankly, criminal, in my opinion, to drive up the national debt and the deficit to record levels.

It is a noble, good thing to try to cure disease in Africa. Why don't we focus on clean drinking water, for example, if you really want to fix disease in Africa. Quit spending my children's money that they don't have.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair will remind Members to direct their comments to the Chair.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

To be honest, Mr. Speaker, I find it stunning that a Member from the Republican Party would come up here and talk about the debt that our children have been forced to inherit. I will remind my colleagues that when Bill Clinton left office, we had a surplus. After the leadership of George Bush and the Republican Congresses, we are now in historic record debt. I now have inherited a debt tax.

I am all for investing more in medical research. I would much rather do that, quite frankly, than invest in tax cuts for Donald Trump or more subsidies to Big Oil companies or more tax giveaways to big corporations that are gouging the American taxpayer.

But what we have here, Mr. Speaker, is a bill to save lives. This is a moral imperative. It is a product of bipartisan collaboration. This is something that we can be proud of. This is something the American people, I think, support overwhelmingly.

And so, we don't need any lectures about the mess this economy is in. This President and the Republican Congresses have driven this economy into a ditch, and we're trying to get us out of that ditch.

So, I would urge my colleagues to focus on what is being debated here today, which is a bill to save lives, to end the scourge of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. This is a worthy goal. This is something that we should be committed to. And I think that the bipartisan collaboration that has produced this deserves to be praised and not ridiculed.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional minute to Mr. Culberson of Texas.

Mr. CULBERSON. I want to thank Mr. McGovern for his thoughtful response and point out that over the last 60 years, the Republicans have been in control of the Congress for I think about 14 of that. We were in control about 12 years, and then I think there were 2 or maybe 4 years under Eisenhower that the Republicans were in control. So, Democrats have controlled the Congress for the overwhelming majority of the last 60 years.

I got here in 2001. And I can tell you, Mr. McGovern, and you're a thoughtful, good man, I enjoy working with you, that I personally, on behalf of my constituents, have voted against every major spending initiative that the White House has pushed on us because I recognized this problem the comptroller has put out before us. I voted against the farm bill. I voted against the Medicare Prescription Drug bill. I voted against the No Child Left Behind Act. I voted against the AIDS in Africa bill the last time it came up because we cannot continue to spend money that our children cannot afford to pay. The money we spend today will be paid by our kids and our grandchildren. And that's the fundamental message here, Mr. McGovern.

I would encourage everyone in this Congress, and I know you're a thoughtful guy, why don't we focus on providing clean drinking water. Let's convert existing foreign aid in Africa to clean drinking water, which I've lead the effort to provide $500 million. Focus on clean drinking water and research here in America.