[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 18, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3327-S3328]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I left a wonderful meeting with a group 
of organizations--many of our national faith leaders--from around the 
country and those who have been deeply involved in the issues around 
the Federal budget and expenditures and what our priorities should be 
as a country. There was a new optimism in the room about the direction 
of the country because for the first time in a long time--certainly 
since 2001--we have actually been talking about how does a budget 
reflect what is right for the majority of the American people; how do 
we address what is happening for children and families; middle-class 
workers who have lost their jobs and are trying just to put food on the 
table; people who have been struggling and not doing well even before 
the recession; the poor who find themselves hit over and over again and 
need to know there is a ladder out of poverty and into the middle 
class.
  It was wonderful to see the commitment in that room and to see the 
fact that people around the country are coming together to focus on how 
we strengthen our country in very real ways. Not what has happened in 
the last 8 years--where it has been all about tax policies to help the 
privileged few, spending to help the privileged few--but how do we have 
a country where everybody has a chance to achieve the American dream 
for themselves and their families.
  We talked about the fact that the budget we will be taking up next 
week, the week after, and every year is a moral document. It is about 
who we are as Americans: What do we believe in? What do we care about? 
I am very proud President Obama has given us a moral document that 
reflects the values and the priorities of the American people; the fact 
that he has focused on education, health care, getting us off our 
dependence on foreign oil so we can bring down the costs of energy and 
create jobs through the new green economy, and that we are turning the 
corner as we look at a tax policy to focus on the middle class and to 
focus on families who are working hard every day or trying to find a 
job. So these were all positive things.
  But I also thought in that meeting this morning--when we were talking 
about the budget as a moral document--how there has been created in 
this country a culture of greed. Greed has been rewarded for too long 
at the expense of the majority of Americans--certainly at the expense 
of the people in my great State of Michigan. Nowhere is that more 
epitomized than looking at recent outrages, whether it be Bernie Madoff 
and what happened with all the people who were victimized and who lost 
their savings and all the people who have been impacted--wiped out--by 
a Ponzi scheme and the greed of one individual or a few individuals or 
turning closer to home and what we have been talking about for the last 
couple days, which is the outrageous bonuses--$165 million in bonuses--
to a group of people at AIG who actually created the situation we are 
in today--not only for this country but which has created a ripple 
effect that has caused a global credit crisis. We look at the morality 
of that--the morality of $165 million in bonuses.
  I am also outraged at the fact that we have put so much money into 
this company. Taxpayers now own 80 percent of it. Yet we have not seen 
the oversight, the accountability one would expect, whether it is the 
bonuses or anything else for that matter. Now, we all know President 
Obama inherited an incredible mess and is working with all of us to dig 
our way out, but we have to have accountability with AIG and every 
other entity that has stepped up to ask for or received taxpayer 
dollars. Bonuses? They are absolutely an outrage, especially for people 
who didn't deserve a bonus for their performance. In fact, many left, 
and should leave, because of what has been done. They should be fired, 
if they

[[Page S3328]]

haven't already left--the people who got us where we are today.
  I am amazed when I look at the fact that we are providing such a 
different standard between those on Wall Street, who got us into this 
mess--AIG and others receiving taxpayer money--and what I see happening 
with my own auto industry in Michigan, employing directly or indirectly 
3 million people. Where is the equivalent of the auto task force? I can 
tell you that every single line in every single budget, every single 
management plan, every part of the auto companies that has received a 
small fraction of what AIG has received has been gone through and is 
continuing to receive great scrutiny. I support that. They certainly 
are willing to do that. But where is the scrutiny on AIG? Where is the 
scrutiny on the other companies that have taken huge amounts of money 
from taxpayers?
  I find it incredible when they say they can't renegotiate contracts. 
Somebody should tell that to the United Auto Workers, who are 
renegotiating contracts right now, who have opened their contracts over 
and over again, with workers taking more and more cuts, paying more and 
more in health care. Yet we hear from this company and these executives 
with AIG that they have contractual agreements and they can't reopen 
contracts? I don't think there is anybody in my State who believes that 
is not possible, given what our families have gone through over and 
over again, with people who thought they had jobs, thought they had 
contracts but suddenly do not.
  Why is it the people who got us into this mess--with their 
complicated leveraging, the tools they put together that created this 
house of cards that has fallen and affected not only everyone in 
America but around the world--can't be asked to step up and reopen 
contracts? I don't understand that at all.
  We are going to do everything we can in order to get that money back 
for the American taxpayers. We have seen bills introduced, and I am 
proud to be cosponsoring one of those bills through the Finance 
Committee. Our leader, Senator Reid, has asked us to move as quickly as 
possible, and I know the Speaker of the House has as well, as has the 
President of the United States, and we are going to do everything we 
can to be able to recoup those dollars.
  When we talk about what is moral in this country, whether it is the 
budget, whether it is bonuses of millions of dollars for people who 
have hurt so many, caused so much damage, created such a crisis around 
the world or whether it is looking at what is happening to families 
every day, this is a moral issue. This is a question of right and 
wrong. It is a question of our priorities. The budget the President has 
proposed focuses us back on what is important for this country, and it 
is critical we get that budget passed. We have middle-class families 
across the country right now, and really all families, who never 
thought they would have to worry about trying to decide whether to buy 
groceries or to buy medicine; worrying about what happens tomorrow--
will there be food tomorrow. People are going to food banks who never 
thought they would have to go to a food bank. People who used to donate 
to the food bank are now going to the food bank, and others who have 
been relying on the food banks for a long time find it is getting 
tougher and tougher and tougher.
  More than 11 percent--in fact, close to 12 percent--of the people in 
my State do not have jobs right now. They are unemployed. That is only 
the official number. That doesn't count those who have been long-term 
unemployed, unable to find work and are no longer counted. It also 
doesn't count the number of people who are working one, two, and three 
part-time jobs trying to hold it together. That is a moral issue.
  The reason we tackled this recovery plan and so quickly brought it 
forward--to create jobs that we create in America, jobs in a green 
economy, focusing on job training and education and health care for 
people who have not been able to find a job so they will be able to 
keep health care going for their families--is because we understand 
what this is all about in terms of our values and priorities. Millions 
of families are in danger of losing their homes or have already lost 
their homes which is why we are focused on doing everything we can to 
help families, neighborhoods, and communities address the housing 
crisis. We know that education is the key to the future for all of us, 
for our children and our grandchildren. Keeping education a priority 
and investing in the future, in education and access to college, is a 
critical part of our budget because it is a critical part of the 
American dream.

  Yes, I am outraged about AIG giving away millions in bonuses--
absolutely. I am outraged about other injustices going on, about the 
focus over the last 8 years on those who are doing well and policies 
that made sure they were doing even better, oftentimes at the expense 
of middle-class Americans, at the expense of the majority of Americans 
in this country. I am outraged that billions of dollars are going to 
companies that do not have accountability attached to them. I know the 
people in Michigan are as well. But I also believe it is critical that 
we not only get the money back from these bonuses and provide the 
accountability but we redirect back to the priorities of the American 
people. That is what this budget is all about.
  We need jobs. We need jobs in this country because, if people have 
money in their pockets and they can pay their bills and keep that 
mortgage and invest in their families' education, this country is going 
to turn around.
  The budget the President has proposed, the budget the people with 
whom I met this morning are so encouraged about, is, in fact, a moral 
document. It changes the way this country has been operating--from a 
culture of greed, where somehow bonuses for AIG made sense to somebody 
somewhere in AIG, to a situation where we are focused again on what is 
important for the majority of the American people, what will allow us 
to be strong as a country: putting people back to work; making sure we 
have access to health care, which is not only the moral thing to do but 
brings down costs; education and investing in a new energy economy that 
is not dependent on anybody else but American ingenuity. That is what 
is in this budget, and it is a budget that reflects the priorities and 
the values of the American people. We need to come together in a 
bipartisan way to pass this as quickly as possible.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Bennet). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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