[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 21 (Tuesday, February 3, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1427-S1428]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE STIMULUS BILL

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, my colleague and friend Senator Coburn of 
Oklahoma spoke at length about our Nation's deficit. I share his 
concern about the impact of debt on future generations. It is an 
interesting moment in time when many of my friends from that side of 
the aisle are raising the issue of deficits and debt. We are in one of 
the most serious economic crises of our time--maybe the most serious 
since the Great Depression. This President, recently inaugurated, 2 
weeks ago, inherited the worst economic situation since Franklin 
Roosevelt in the Great Depression in 1933. He inherited a debt that was 
unimaginable 8 years ago when the previous President began his 
administration. When President Bush came to office, our national debt 
was in the range of $5 trillion. When he left office, he doubled that 
national debt to more than $10 trillion--in an 8-year period of time. 
The accumulated debt of the United States of America,

[[Page S1428]]

from its inception to that moment, was $5 trillion; in 8 years 
President Bush doubled the national debt.
  Many people believe it is going to continue to grow because of some 
of the decisions he made. One was to wage a war and not pay for it, 
adding almost $1 trillion to our national debt in the process. Many 
other decisions, such as cutting taxes at a time when our country 
couldn't afford it, and it turned out to be foolhardy and with little 
positive impact on our economy, President Obama inherited that. Now he 
is faced with not only that debt, which my colleague from Oklahoma has 
aptly described, but also an economic crisis that cannot be ignored.
  We were told a week ago that the gross domestic product of the United 
States of America had declined precipitously for the first time in 25 
years. It is an indication that our sense of economic decline has been 
borne out by the numbers and statistics. We see it in every State with 
increased unemployment. So President Obama is faced with a terrible 
situation: the largest deficit and debt in the history of the United 
States, left by the previous President, and the worst economic crisis 
in 75 years.
  Well, my colleague who spoke is a medical doctor. He knows the first 
thing you have to do in the most serious trauma cases is to try to 
stabilize the patient, and that is what President Obama is trying to 
do, stabilize the economy. Every economist--virtually every one--
liberal and conservative, agrees that you cannot stabilizes the economy 
by cutting spending. You have to do the opposite. You have to encourage 
economic activity, economic growth, business, jobs. Those are the 
things that have to be done, and the Government must spend money, even 
if it is in debt. Failing to do that will cause our economy to decline 
even further, and more suffering will be borne by the families and 
businesses across America.
  So when the Senator from Oklahoma comes to the floor and says this is 
the wrong time to spend money, I have to tell him that there is no 
recourse but to try to get this economy moving forward by creating 
good-paying jobs in America, investing in our future, making sure we 
are moving toward energy independence, trying to prepare our 
educational resources for the 21st century by modernizing labs and 
libraries and classrooms, trying to bring the kind of changes to health 
care where technology will make health care more affordable and safer 
for patients across America. These are investments that will not only 
help us through the current recession but will pay off for decades to 
come.
  We are clearly spending this money in a deficit situation because we 
have no choice. Across the Rotunda in the House of Representatives, 
when President Obama's recovery and reinvestment bill came forward, not 
a single Republican Representative would vote for it. That is 
unfortunate. The President reached out to them personally and asked 
them to join him in a bipartisan effort, both political parties 
cooperating and working together. Sadly, it didn't occur.
  I hope that is not the case in the Senate. I trust that some 
Republican Senators will come forward and realize that we are making a 
good-faith effort to accommodate any reasonable change they want to 
make to the program. If they want to reduce spending in some areas, we 
are open to it. If they have ideas that are better than ours, we are 
open to them as well. I tried to make that clear. I think my colleagues 
on this side and the White House have tried to make that clear.
  At the end of the day, we are going to have to face reality. We will 
be spending money now to try to stop this economic tailspin. Once we 
get the economy stabilized and start investing toward growth again so 
people have peace of mind about their jobs and businesses, savings, and 
the future, then we can address responsibly, as we must, the deficit 
and debt situation. I look forward to working with the Senator from 
Oklahoma when that day arrives. Right now, we have to stabilize the 
patient.
  I say to my friend, Dr. Coburn, join us in this important effort, and 
then we can join hands together and try to find the way through the 
fiscal problems we are currently facing.

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