[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 132 (Tuesday, December 5, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11117-S11118]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       109TH CONGRESS FINAL WEEK

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I agree with my colleague, the Democratic 
leader, Senator Reid. We spend a lot of time making speeches in the 
Senate. Elected officials and Government officials and politicians 
across America speak a lot to the American people. The American people 
have an opportunity once every 2 years to speak to us. On November 7 
the American people spoke to the Members of Congress. The message was 
very clear. It was a message calling for change and new direction.
  Equally important, it was a message from the American people to the 
Members of the Senate and the House, stop the infighting, roll up your 
sleeves, do your work, get your work done, and do something to help 
America, help the families across America, who count on you to be 
responsive to the costs of health insurance, the cost of gasoline, the 
issues that confront us in America.
  That was the message of November 7, a message of change. And there 
will be changes in Congress as a result of that election. That is why 
it was such a surprise for us to return to Washington at the end of 
this session and to hear the Republican leadership in the House and the 
Senate announce that, frankly, they were going to adjourn without doing 
their work.
  The Republican leaders in the Senate and the House have decided to 
race for the exits. They have decided to leave without doing the most 
fundamental job Congress is expected to do; that is, pass the spending 
bills, pass the appropriations bills so our Government can continue to 
perform the valuable functions which are their responsibility.
  To call this Congress a do-nothing Congress would slight Harry 
Truman's original 1948 do-nothing Congress. The congressional scholar 
Thomas Mann pointed out that even that do-nothing Congress of 1948 did 
pass the Marshall Plan, and that was certainly historic and noteworthy.
  According to Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, this Congress worked 
less than 100 days this year. It is like the average person who works 
across America showing up for work 2 days a week. Would you expect to 
get a full paycheck, would you expect to get praise from your boss if 
you worked 2 days a week instead of 5? The 100 days was less than any 
other Congress in our lifetimes. For at least 25 of those days, 
incidentally, there were no votes scheduled before 6:30 in the evening, 
so they were really more like half days or quarter days. Yet during 
that period of time, this Congress refused to increase the minimum wage 
for millions of American workers, who got up this morning, and every 
single morning, to clean the rooms and bus the tables and wash the 
dishes and prepare the food for America, at a minimum wage of $5.15 an 
hour.
  For 10 straight years, this Congress has refused to give those 
people, struggling at the lowest end of income in America, an increase 
in the minimum wage. And for 10 years, Congress has voted itself a pay 
raise during that period of time to the tune of $30,000, saying no to 
minimum wage workers and yes to Members of Congress--another 
illustration of how this Republican Congress lost its way and forgot 
the values that should bind us together as Americans.
  Well, the Democrats heard the message voters sent last month. We are 
ready to work hard for the American people, as hard as they work for 
their own families. But let's be clear. It is not going to be easy to 
clean up the financial mess of 12 years of Republican control of 
Congress.
  We wanted to start off the 110th Congress, the next Congress, by 
working on urgent challenges, such as health care and making it more 
affordable, helping middle-class families pay for college, and we will 
focus on those. But at the same time, we have to finish the unfinished 
work of this Republican Congress.
  The last time a new majority party took charge of both Houses, in 
1994, the Democrats passed every single appropriations bill by October 
1, which is the deadline. That marked the last time all these bills 
were passed on time, by the way.
  Now that the Democrats are taking over both Houses, will the 
Republicans finish their work before leaving town? Sadly, they will 
not. It is a fitting end to the do-nothing Congress. They will not only 
do nothing this year, they will do less when it comes to meeting their 
constitutional responsibility.
  Refusing to work on this year's budget is just the tip of the 
iceberg. The increase in our national debt left behind by this 
Republican Congress and this administration and the deterioration of 
our fiscal health are a matter of public record. The President likes to 
say we are on track to ``cut the deficit in half'' by the time he 
leaves office.
  But, as Paul Harvey says, let's go to the rest of the story. First, 
there was no national deficit when President Bush took office. 
President Clinton eliminated the deficit and we were paying down our 
national debt.
  Second, this year's $248 billion deficit, which the White House 
points to as a source of pride, is still nearly as large as the largest 
deficit under the first President Bush, which was, until this President 
Bush, the largest deficit in U.S. history.
  Third, and most important, that $248 billion figure for this year's 
deficit is not a true reflection of fiscal reality. It does not include 
the interest we have to pay on all of that borrowing, nor does it 
include all the funds that have been raided from the Social Security 
trust fund that will have to be paid back. When you add up all of that, 
we do not have a national deficit of $248 billion; our deficit is $546 
billion, more than twice what the President admits.
  If you want to understand how big a hole the Republicans are leaving 
behind after this Congress, look at our national debt. Why? Because 
when you sit down with your family's finances, what do you really worry 
about? How many new charges you put on your credit card in the last 
month or the total amount you owe on that credit card? It is the total 
amount of the debt that matters. The total amount of debt on our 
national credit card today is $8.5 trillion--$3 trillion more today 
than when President Bush took office 6 years ago. That is $30,000 in 
debt for every man, woman, and child in America.
  Think about this fact: Under President Bush, America has borrowed 
more money from foreign governments to keep our ship of state afloat, 
borrowed more money than all of the Presidents in the history of the 
United States combined. And who are the creditors? China, Japan, many 
others--the same countries that, sadly, are showing an advantage when 
it comes to trading with the United States.
  The Nation's fiscal situation is difficult. If we continue to follow 
the Republican playbook, it would only get worse. By 2011, the national 
debt would grow to $11.6 trillion. That is nearly $40,000 in debt for 
every American. It is a debt tax that is being left by this Republican 
Congress. We cannot sustain this level of debt. David Walker of the 
Government Accountability Office recently said:

       The status quo is unacceptable and unsustainable, and 
     anybody who tells you--whether they be Republican, Democrat, 
     or Independent--that we can solve this problem without having 
     to reform entitlement programs, re-engineering the base of 
     discretionary spending, and have additional tax revenues--
     anybody who says that we are not going to have to do all 
     three of those is not telling you the truth. It's as simple 
     as that.

  The American people deserve honest budgeting and a restoration of the 
``pay as you go principle''--not more out-of-control deficits. The 
American people deserve better than a Congress that votes itself a pay 
raise and continues to vote that the minimum wage stay without any 
increase.
  Americans want ethical standards for Congress that are tough and 
enforced, a plan to protect our country with the 9/11 Commission 
recommendations, help in paying for college for working families, lower 
prices for prescription drugs, Federal support for stem cell research, 
a real national energy plan, and much more. They deserve a Congress 
that works as hard as Americans work themselves.
  Sadly, this Congress is going to be AWOL, absent without leave. It 
will

[[Page S11118]]

leave behind a continuing resolution so we can limp along for another 
few weeks without addressing the serious responsibility every Congress 
faces. So we will not only, in a new Congress, face a new agenda, we 
are going to have to finish the unfinished business of this Republican 
Congress.
  Mr. President, I yield floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Ohio.

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