[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 48 (Thursday, March 19, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3578-S3579]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about the budget 
as proposed by President Obama and, to put it very bluntly, I am 
worried. While several aspects of the budget concern me, the one I find 
most troubling is the direction in which it will take this Nation's 
deficit. The budget's cost has been pointed out many times on this 
floor during the past week--$3.5 trillion is, indeed, a lot of money. 
But what I would also emphasize is that the President's budget will 
spawn a deficit of $1.17 trillion next year.

[[Page S3579]]

  There are many items on the President's wish list. Some are 
worthwhile, but many, such as his health care plan, tax increases, and 
climate change, deserve a long and lively debate in front of the 
American people before we have any vote on any of those measures. I 
have four grandchildren--John, Parker, Kimbro, and Anderson--and I am 
very proud of all four of them. This budget will spend more money than 
my four grandchildren's generation will ever have a hope of paying back 
in their lifetimes.
  This is not a temporary spike in the deficit. Despite the President's 
stated intention to reduce the deficit, the smallest deficit envisioned 
by this budget--$533 billion in the year 2013--would still be larger 
than any of the annual budget deficits of the last 8 years. The last 8 
years have received a lot of criticism from folks on the other side of 
the aisle, including our President, but the fact is that the last 8 
years are going to pale in comparison, from a deficit standpoint, in 
the event this budget should pass.
  Further, the debt held by the public doubles, from $5.8 trillion, 41 
percent of our GDP, in 2008, to $11.5 trillion, or 66 percent of GDP, 
in 2013. If that were not astounding enough, by 2019 debt will have 
tripled from the 2008 to $15.4 trillion, or an astonishing 67 percent 
of our GDP.
  Unfortunately, that is not the worst of it. The CBO is expected to 
release its numbers for this budget tomorrow. Early reports suggest 
that its deficit forecast will be some 20 percent higher than the White 
House has expected with the numbers to which I just alluded.
  I am also worried about this budget's $1.4 trillion tax increase, 
which will hit our small businesses, the engines of our economy, 
particularly hard. More than half of small business, with 20 or more 
employees, will get hit with tax hikes proposed in this budget. That 
will have a dampening effect on the ability of the small business 
community to maintain the jobs it has today, much less to think about 
hiring additional employees.
  In my home State of Georgia, fully 98 percent of the State's 
employers in 2006 were small businesses, according to the U.S. Small 
Business Administration Office of Advocacy. With a record statewide 
unemployment rate of 9 percent today, to say that many of them are 
having a hard time is an understatement. These are small businesses, 
such as Dixie Industrial Finishing Company in Tucker, GA, which does 
electroplating. Dixie's vice president, Jim Jones, is also worried. His 
company has been in business for nearly 50 years and has about 10 
employees. Just in the past 2 weeks, because of the very difficult 
economic times we are in, Jim has had to lay off almost 10 percent of 
his workforce. Some of these employees have been with the company for 
20 to 25 years and were getting close to retirement. I am afraid that, 
coming during a recession, such tax increases will only add to the 
financial strain at Dixie as well as other small businesses and further 
feed the growing job losses in Georgia and elsewhere.
  I am a firm believer in the optimism that birthed this great Nation. 
But no matter how hard we try, we cannot wish the deficit away. We 
cannot let ourselves throw caution to the wind and act with such fiscal 
irresponsibility. We are leaving our children and grandchildren in hock 
forever to pay for the wants of today. Now, not in 5 years or 10 years, 
is the time for us to exercise responsibility and enact some spending 
restraint to get this deficit under control. Nothing less than our 
country's future depends on it.
  The American people understand our fiscal problem. The phone calls 
into my office are overwhelmingly asking the question: Where in the 
world is this administration taking our country? What is happening to 
our country from a fiscally responsible standpoint? In what direction 
is this country really going?
  We have to be much more fiscally responsible than the President has 
proposed in his budget. Very simply stated, his budget spends too much, 
it taxes too much, and it borrows too much. That is the wrong direction 
in which this country needs to be going in difficult times or in good 
times.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama.

                          ____________________