[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 51 (Wednesday, March 25, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3740-S3742]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  Mrs. BOXER. I came to the floor to talk about the budget debate. I 
think it is very important that we let the American people know where 
we are on the budget and what this debate is really all about.
  We have a new President and we have a new budget, thank goodness. We 
have a budget that reflects the hopes and dreams of the American 
people. We have a budget that is going to cut the deficit in half by 
the time this President's term is over. We have a budget that is 
absolutely open in terms of the way it spends our money and the way it 
saves our money.
  It is important that we take a look at the type of economy this young 
President inherited: Record deficits. Record deficits that President 
George W. Bush's own party supported. It is very important that we 
remember that when George W. Bush got the key to the Oval Office, we 
had surpluses. Then we saw a 50-percent increase in spending. We saw a 
debt that was about to be put away go up in major proportions. We are 
seeing the playing out of the worst recession since the Great 
Depression, a financial market in crisis, and a housing market in 
crisis because of the deregulation that was the centerpiece of George 
W. Bush's and the Republicans' leadership.
  We are paying the price of those years today. We have a young 
President who came into office and said: Be patient, we are going to 
change the way we do business in this country. And we are going to do 
that. We started with the stimulus bill that got not one Republican 
vote on the House side, although some of my Republican friends over 
there are running around my State taking credit for the bill they voted 
against. We had three Republicans over here, whom I praise mightily for 
having the courage to do the right thing and get this economy back on 
track.
  We have seen the loss of 3.3 million jobs in the last 6 months. The 
President is dealing with two ongoing wars that, by the way, were never 
paid for in the budget. They were taken off the budget. He now puts 
them in the budget so that the American people can see the truth. 
President Bush put them in emergency spending even though we knew he 
needed to fund them.
  What we have in the President's budget is a refreshing change of 
reality, honesty, integrity, and investments that have to be made. What 
are we getting from our Republican friends? We are getting just what we 
got when the Clinton budget passed without one Republican vote. I want 
to take us back to that because I think it is very interesting, 
intriguing, and enlightening to see what our Republican friends said 
about the last Democratic President's budget. You would have thought 
the sky was falling. You would have thought the universe would never 
survive. I have some of the quotes they made about the Clinton budgets.
  If people will remember, Al Gore, as Vice President, had to come over 
here and cast the tie-breaking vote on that budget. Here is what 
happened as a result of that budget; we will talk about that first. As 
a result of the Clinton budget, we saw 23 million new jobs created in 
this country--not millions of jobs lost but 23 million jobs created. 
What happened to the deficit under the Clinton budget? It went down, 
down, down, and we wound up with a surplus. We voted for the Clinton 
budget, the first Democratic budget in a while, and what happened? 
Twenty-three million new jobs were created and the budget was in 
balance.
  As a matter of fact, George W. Bush, when he took the keys to the 
Oval Office, had a surplus. What happened with the Republican rule? 
Deficits as far as the eye can see. These are the facts. This isn't 
rhetoric--debt of $10 trillion, $11 trillion.
  Let's look at what the Republicans said about the Clinton budget that 
we know, because time has passed, history has shown, created 23 million 
jobs, stopped the deficits, turned them into surpluses, and got the 
debt going on the way down. What did our Republican friends say then?
  Wayne Allard said then as a Representative:

       In summary, the plan has a fatal flaw--it does not reduce 
     the deficit.

  Wrong. Wrong. Wayne Allard continued:

       So we are still going to pile up some more debt, but most 
     of all, we are going to cost jobs in this country.

  That is what Republican Wayne Allard said about the Clinton budget--
``. . . we are still going to pile up some more debt, but most of all, 
we are going to cost jobs. . . .'' Wrong--23 million jobs created.
  Senator Pete Domenici said of the Clinton budget that created 23 
million jobs and turned the deficit into a surplus:

       It's just a mockery.

  Our friend, Senator Orrin Hatch, a leader of the Republicans, still 
here and going strong, I am happy to say, he is my friend--he said:

       Make no mistake, these higher rates will cost jobs.

  Talking about the Clinton budget and the taxes in it.

       Make no mistake, these higher rates will cost jobs.

  Wrong--23 million jobs created.
  How about Senator Phil Gramm, one of the leaders of the Republicans 
in the Senate at the time of the Clinton budget that created 23 million 
jobs, took the deficit, turned it into surplus, what did he say?

       I want to predict here tonight that if we adopt this bill, 
     the American economy is going to get weaker and not stronger, 
     the deficit 4 years from today will be higher than it is 
     today and not lower. . . . When all is said and done, people 
     will pay more taxes, the economy will create fewer jobs, 
     Government will spend more money, and the American people 
     will be worse off.

  Wrong. Phil Gramm was wrong. Oh, Phil Gramm, he is the one who said 
this recession was in our minds.
  Here is another quote of Phil Gramm--remember, he was a leader of the 
Republicans then--talking about the Clinton budget that created 23 
million jobs and cut our deficit and turned it into a surplus:

       . . . [T]his program is going to make the economy weaker. . 
     . . Hundreds of thousands of people are going to lose their 
     jobs as a result of this program.

  Guess what he also said:

       I believe that hundreds of thousands of people are going to 
     lose their jobs as a result of this program. I believe that 
     Bill Clinton will be one of those people.

  Bill Clinton got reelected and the economy created 23 million jobs, 
the

[[Page S3741]]

deficits went down, we had a surplus, and the debt was almost 
eviscerated.
  What did our good friend Chuck Grassley say? Chuck Grassley is our 
good friend. He has taken a lead against this budget document. He is 
one of the leaders against the Obama budget. Let's see what he said 
about the Clinton budget that created 23 million new jobs and cut the 
deficits, turned them into surpluses, and had the debt going down, one 
of the most prosperous times in our history as a result of the Clinton 
budget. What did Chuck Grassley say?

       I really do not think it takes a rocket scientist to know 
     this bill will cost jobs.

  Wrong.
  Connie Mack, another leader, a friend of mine, now retired, a 
Republican leader--this is what he said about the Clinton budget:

       This bill will cost America jobs, no doubt about it.

  Bill Roth said:

       It will flatten the economy. . . . I am concerned what it 
     will do to jobs. I am concerned what it will do to our 
     families, our communities, to our children's future.

  Senator Roth was wrong--23 million jobs created, one of the most 
prosperous times in our Nation's history, deficits went down, debt on 
the way out.
  So our Republicans have a visceral reaction when there is a 
Democratic President. They come and they excoriate our Democratic 
President, and they are wrong. They are wrong. Look at the record. This 
is the beauty of what I am saying. I do not have to defend it. I know 
what they said, and I know what happened to the economy.
  Newt Gingrich--still a major leader in the Republican Party, some 
people say the leader--about the Democratic President's budget, Bill 
Clinton: ``It will kill jobs.'' Wrong. It will ``lead to a recession, 
and the recession will force people off of work and onto unemployment 
and will . . . increase the deficit.'' Wrong.
  John Kasich--we have seen him on television a lot. He was a leader 
then in the Republican Party. This is what he said about Bill Clinton's 
budget, not dissimilar to the Barak Obama budget in the sense that it 
is a plan to cut the deficit and make investments--make good 
investments. This is what he said:

       This plan will not work. If it was to work, I'd have to 
     become a Democrat . . .

  John, if you are watching me, it is your time because the plan 
worked--23 million jobs. You didn't become a Democrat. You said you 
would.
  Peter King--what did Peter King say about the Clinton budget that 
created 23 million jobs and cured the deficit problem?

       [I]t is because of budgets such as this that the economy is 
     going to be damaged.

  Wrong. Wrong.
  Flash forward. We know what happened under Bill Clinton. We know 
about the 23 million jobs. We know what happened to the debt. It went 
down. We know what happened to the deficits. They turned into 
surpluses. George W. Bush takes the White House, the Republicans take 
over, and what happened? The worst recession since the Great 
Depression, terrible loss of jobs, deficits record high, which they 
never complained about, debt record high. We get a new President who 
comes in and says: I have a plan to turn it all around. What do they 
do? They come down to the floor with the same old politics.
  If I gave you the quotes I am hearing of my colleagues--Senator 
Shelby is all over, they are all over the place--disaster, Armageddon, 
the world is ending, we are going to lose jobs, we are going to have 
deficits as far as the eye can see; what a nightmare. It is the same 
old politics and, by the way, the same old policies, which is tax 
breaks for the wealthiest among us, shorting the investments that the 
people of this country need, not tackling health care, not tackling 
energy, not tackling education--all the things this President wants--
not tackling the deficits, and we have to know they got us into this 
crisis.
  I do not enjoy reiterating all of this because it brings back some 
fights I was in. But I am going to do it every day as long as I hear 
the same rhetoric, the same politics, the same policies that got us 
into this mess in the first place.
  The American people had a choice in November. They had a choice in 
Senate races, they had a choice in House races, they had a choice in 
the Presidential race. Did they want the same old politics, did they 
want the same old policies that got us into the crisis? Guess what they 
said. They wanted change, and they are getting change. We have the same 
rhetoric flowing from my friends on the other side of the aisle. I 
thought they were going to change the image of their party. I thought 
they were going to change the message of their party. It is the same 
old stuff. You could substitute a name for a name. It is the same thing 
they are saying about the Barak Obama budget that they said about the 
Clinton budget, and it doesn't fly because our new President 
understands we have to make some changes. He understands we need to 
invest in America's future, in jobs, in health care, in energy 
independence, and in education.
  We know the deficit predictions are different coming out of the 
Congressional Budget Office than they are coming out of the White House 
office. Everybody knows we are going to adjust this budget here and 
there to make sure the numbers reflect reality. This President 
understands that. I watched him at his press conference. He said: What 
I care about is jobs, health care, energy independence, education, and 
deficit reduction, he added. That is a major focus of his agenda. He 
says: As long as I get jobs, health care, energy independence, 
education, and deficit reduction, I am a happy person.

  The President is coming today to the Hill to meet with us. I am very 
much anticipating his presentation.
  We know what this President inherited. We know the fiscal 
mismanagement. We know the misplaced priorities. We know, we know, we 
know. The American people understand that is why this President, 
despite getting pounded day after day on this floor, on the airwaves, 
and on conservative talk shows, is still maintaining a strong majority 
of Americans who say: Give this man a chance.
  Who else in history inherited two wars and the biggest economic 
nightmare since the Great Depression? Nobody. The wars were not of his 
making, and the economic mess is not of his making. He is addressing 
them. He addressed it in the stimulus package that is going to start to 
pay off for us.
  It is tough times, but he is doing what has to be done. He went 
forward and he said: You know what, I have a plan to get these banks on 
their feet. He was honest. He said: I have bad choices and worst 
choices.
  If there is a tragedy in our families and we find out one of our 
loved ones has cancer and the doctor comes to us and says: There are 
two treatments. There is a tough chemotherapy treatment and there is a 
tough radiation treatment. You have to pick between those two 
treatments to cure this cancer. It is a hard choice. Our President 
faces very hard choices when it comes to straightening out this mess. 
But the American people want him to try and try he is.
  If we can get these bad assets off the hands of these banks and get 
them lending again, we basically save the financial system. If we don't 
save the financial system, we are going to have to take it over. This 
President does not want to do that and I do not want to do that and I 
do not think most Americans want that. So he is doing what it takes.
  The housing crisis--I am so happy to hear people are refinancing. It 
is very important. That is going to put more money in the pockets of 
people. It is going to make it more affordable for them to stay in 
their homes.
  Our President has a budget blueprint to get us out of this mess. We 
all know he is not going to get every line in there he wants. He knows 
that. Senator Conrad is working with him. We will have a reserve fund 
in there for the things we want to do for health care and energy, and I 
am going to work very hard so we can, in fact, have a cap-and-trade 
system that brings funding in and puts people to work, it gets us off 
dirty energy. We will have the ability to do that. The point is, this 
President deserves to have his priorities in place.
  I wish to say in closing to my Republican friends: Go back a few 
years in time. See how wrong you were. Admit that you were wrong. Then 
go back and see what you said about the Bush budget. I didn't get a 
chance to go through

[[Page S3742]]

those quotes. I will do that the next time I take the floor. When the 
Bush budget came down and we saw what happened with the Bush budgets, 
they were adopted by Republicans, and they received lots of votes from 
their side, unanimous. All we had out of that was unemployment and 
deficits. They said: Oh, this is going to be a great budget. They are 
wrong. They have been wrong--wrong on the Clinton budget, wrong on the 
Bush budget, and now they are wrong on the Obama budget.
  As one Senator, I wish to say this: I never forget. I forgive all the 
time, but I never forget. I have these quotes. They are real. They are 
in the Record. I am going to bring them out constantly.
  Remember, when you hear these Republicans come out and trash Barak 
Obama's budget, it is the same thing they did to the Clinton budget and 
they were wrong--wrong then and they are wrong now.
  We have to give this President the support he needs. Not that we are 
going to give every line--I don't agree with every line in it--but 
basically the thrust of what he wants, the investments and the deficit 
reduction.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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