[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 43 (Wednesday, March 11, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2994-S2995]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, we have seen the numbers. Unemployment 
is at a 25-year high. Millions are worried about holding on to their 
jobs and their homes. With every passing day, Americans are waiting for 
the administration to offer its plan to fix the banking crisis that 
continues to paralyze our economy. Every day, it seems, the 
administration officials are unveiling one new plan after another on 
everything from education to health care. Meanwhile, the details of a 
banking plan to address our main problem have yet to emerge.
  We need reforms in health care and education and in many other areas. 
But Americans want the administration to fix the economy first. 
Unfortunately, the budget avoids the issue entirely. It simply assumes 
this enormously complex problem will be fixed, and then it proposes 
massive taxes, spending, and borrowing to finance a massive expansion 
of Government. It assumes the best of times, and, as millions of 
Americans will attest, these are not the best of times.
  Over the next few weeks, the Senate will debate the details of this 
budget. One thing is already certain: It spends too much, it taxes too 
much, and it borrows too much. This budget would be a stretch in boom 
times. In a time of hardship and uncertainty, it is exactly the wrong 
approach. The budget's $3.6 trillion price tag comes on top of a 
housing plan that went into effect last week that could cost a quarter 
of a trillion dollars, a financial bailout that could cost another $1 
trillion to $2 trillion, and a stimulus bill that will cost, with 
interest, more than a trillion dollars. Some are now talking about yet 
another stimulus. The national debt is more than $10 trillion, and 
yesterday we passed a $410 billion Government spending bill that 
represented an increase in Government spending over last year of twice 
the rate of inflation. In just 50 days, Congress has voted to spend 
about $1.2 trillion between the stimulus and the omnibus. To put that 
into perspective, that is about $24 billion a day or about $1 billion 
an hour--most of it, of course, borrowed. There is simply no question 
that Government spending has spun out of control.
  Given all this spending and debt, the cost of the budget might not 
seem like much to some people. But this is precisely the problem. To 
most people, it seems that lawmakers in Washington have lost the 
perspective of the taxpayer. It is long past time we started to think 
about the long-term sustainability of our economy, about creating jobs 
and opportunity for future generations. That will require hard choices. 
The omnibus bill avoided every one, and, unfortunately, so does the 
budget.
  Stuart Taylor of the National Journal recently praised the President 
in two consecutive columns. Yet he was shocked by the President's 
budget. Here is what Taylor said about the budget:

       ``. . . Not to deny that the liberal wish list in Obama's 
     staggering $3.6 trillion budget would be wonderful if we had 
     limitless resources,'' Mr. Taylor wrote. ``But in the real 
     world, it could put vast areas of the economy under permanent 
     government mismanagement, kill millions of jobs, drive 
     investors and employers overseas, and bankrupt the nation.''

  There is no question, in the midst of an economic crisis, this budget 
simply spends far too much. In order to pay for all this spending, the 
budget anticipates a number of rosy scenarios. It doesn't explain how 
the economic recovery will come about, it simply assumes that it will. 
It projects sustained growth beginning this year and continuing to grow 
3.2 percent in 2010.
  Let me say that again. It projects sustained growth beginning this 
year and continuing to grow 3.2 percent in 2010, 4 percent in 2011, and 
4.6 percent in 2012. While we all hope to soon return to this growth, 
we cannot promise the growth we hope to have, especially when this 
growth is far from likely, particularly given a host of new policy 
proposals in the budget itself that are certain to tamp down growth 
even more. There is simply no question that this budget spends too 
much.
  But even if this growth does occur, it would not be enough to support 
the

[[Page S2995]]

spending proposals. That is why the budget calls for a massive tax 
hike. In fact, this budget calls for the largest tax increase in 
history, including a new energy tax that will be charged to every 
single American who turns on a light switch, drives a car, or buys 
groceries. Unless you are living in a cave, this new energy tax will 
hit you like a hammer.
  During the campaign, the President said his plan for an energy tax 
will ``cause utility rates to skyrocket.'' He was right. The new energy 
tax will cost every American household. I can't imagine how increasing 
the average American's annual tax bill will lift us out of the worst 
recession in decades.

  There is more. A new tax related to charitable giving would punish 
the very organizations Americans depend on more and more during times 
of distress. One study suggests that the President's new tax on 
charitable giving could cost U.S. charities and educational 
institutions up to $9 billion a year--money that will presumably be 
redirected to the 250,000 new Government workers the budget is expected 
to create. There is no question that this budget taxes too much.
  Remarkably, the largest tax increase in history and a new energy tax 
still aren't enough to pay for all the programs this budget creates. To 
pay for everything else, we will have to borrow--borrow a lot. This 
budget calls for the highest level of borrowing ever.
  Now, if there is one thing Americans have learned the hard way over 
the past several months, it is that spending more than you can afford 
has serious, sometimes tragic, consequences. Yet Government doesn't 
seem ready to face that reality--not when it is spending other people's 
money and not when it is borrowing from others to fund its policy 
dreams.
  It is not fair to load future generations with trillions and 
trillions of dollars in debt at a moment when the economy is 
contracting, millions are losing jobs, and millions more are worried 
about losing homes. It is time the Government realized that it is a 
steward of the people's money, not the other way around, and that it 
has a responsibility not only to use tax dollars wisely but to make 
sure the institutions of Government are sustainable for generations to 
come.
  I don't know anybody who would borrow money from people thousands of 
miles away for things they don't even need. Yet this is precisely what 
our Government is doing every single day by asking countries such as 
Saudi Arabia, Japan, and China to finance a colossal budget in the 
midst of an economic crisis.
  The administration has said it intends to be bold, and I have no 
doubt this budget reflects their honest attempt to implement what they 
believe to be the best prescription for success. We appreciate that 
effort. We simply see it differently. A $3.6 trillion budget that 
spends too much, taxes too much, and borrows too much in a time of 
economic hardship may be bold, but the question is, Is it wise? Most of 
the people who have taken the time to study this budget have concluded 
it is not wise. Republicans will spend the next few weeks explaining 
why to the American people.
  Americans want serious reforms. But in the midst of a deepening 
recession, they are looking at all this spending, taxing, and 
borrowing, and they are wondering whether, for the first time in our 
Nation's history, we are actually giving up on the notion that if we 
work hard, our children will live better lives and have greater 
opportunities than ourselves.
  Americans are looking at this spending, taxing, and borrowing, and 
they are wondering whether we are reversing the order--whether we are 
beginning to say with our actions that we want everything now--and 
putting off the hard choices, once again, for future generations to 
make. That would be a most important question in this upcoming budget 
debate.
  It is important, once again, to sum up the core problem with the 
budget we will be voting on in a few weeks: It spends too much, taxes 
too much, and it borrows too much.

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