[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 51 (Wednesday, March 25, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3773-S3776]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, next week the Senate is going to take up 
the budget. The budget, of course, is one of the most important 
documents the Congress considers each year. It is really the blueprint 
for spending. At the end of that debate in the Senate, hopefully the 
budget will pass and the same thing will happen in the House. The two 
Chambers will come together and agree on a spending pattern for the

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next fiscal year, which begins October 1.
  It is an elaborate process, a lengthy process, many times a divisive 
process, but one that is absolutely essential because this budget book 
really reflects who we are and where our values are. That is why we 
spend so much time thinking about it and planning it. We have to look 
ahead, and not just to the next fiscal year from October 1 of this year 
through September 30 of 2010 but to what the budget will mean in the 
outyears. What will it do for the following year? What do we anticipate 
will happen?
  Some of it is speculation. There are great speculators, and people 
paid a lot of money to speculate on what is going to happen to the 
economy, and they come up with different conclusions. I was thinking 
the other day, when the Congressional Budget Office came out with 
different projections for economic growth: I wonder if any speculators 
on economic growth 2 years ago would have predicted we would be where 
we are today. I do not think so because there would have been a race 
for the exits, with people selling their stocks and mutual funds and 
liquidating as fast as they could. We did not receive fair warning this 
was going to happen, although there were some storm clouds that really 
should have been heeded.
  Well, when this President came to office, he inherited quite a 
situation. We started the year 2009 with President Obama in the midst 
of a crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime. As the Budget 
Office book indicates, our economy is in deep recession that threatens 
to be deeper and longer than any since the Great Depression 75 years 
ago.
  More than 3.5 million jobs were lost over the past 13 months, before 
President Obama came to office--more jobs than at any time since World 
War II. Another 8.8 million Americans who want and need full-time work 
have had to settle for part-time jobs. Manufacturing employment has hit 
a 60-year low. Capital markets are virtually frozen, making it 
difficult for businesses to grow and families to borrow for a home, a 
car, or the college education expenses of their kids. Families are 
struggling to pay their bills and make their mortgage payments. 
Trillions of dollars of wealth have been wiped out. There is hardly 
anyone with a savings account or any kind of investment who has not 
seen it diminished by this economy over the last year. That is just a 
fact.
  It is in that environment and in that context that we discuss what to 
do in the next budget. What should the Federal Government do in light 
of these economic realities?
  Well, the first thing we did for this President was to pass a 
recovery and reinvestment package, the stimulus bill. The President 
came to us and said: Here is the fundamental problem we run into. 
People are worried. When their confidence is low, they stop spending. 
And if they are not spending on basic appliances and cars and things 
people spend money on, then, of course, there is no demand for goods 
and services. Without that demand, businesses start contracting and 
shrinking, laying off employees, and the situation goes from bad to 
worse.

  So the President came to us and said: I am asking for $800 billion in 
a recovery and reinvestment package to try to breathe some life back 
into this economy, to create jobs and save jobs, so people will have a 
paycheck they will spend for goods and services, which will invigorate 
businesses across America.
  That, to me, was just fundamental. I took some economics courses in 
college way back when, and we basically learned what was known as 
Keynesian economics; that is, if you do not have enough aggregate 
demand in your economy, you can create that demand in three different 
ways: consumer spending, investment, or Government spending. Well, we 
cannot get people to invest because they are afraid of the stock 
market. Consumer spending is down because people are worried about the 
future. That leaves you one option: Government spending.
  A lot of people say: Well, how can we spend money--$800 billion--
Senator, when we have all these deficits? You are just piling up more 
debt for our kids to pay. There is truth to that, but it does not tell 
the whole story. If we do not turn this recession around, if we do not 
put people back to work and businesses back in business, then, sadly, 
the recession gets worse, the overall deficit gets worse, and the 
prospects that those kids of yours or grandkids will even find a job 
are diminished. So our investment in the recovery plan is a basic 
investment to try to create more consumer demand for goods and services 
and get the economy chugging forward again.
  The budget the President proposes, the one for the next fiscal year, 
for our Government that we will be debating next week on the floor of 
the Senate, is a smart, fair, and responsible budget. The President has 
proposed--and he described it last night in his press conference--to 
restore fairness for middle-class families, reestablish responsibility 
in the budgeting process, and make smart investments for America's 
future. I think we have to do all three.
  The Republican response to this on the other side of the aisle is 
that the President's budget just spends too much money. It taxes too 
much. It borrows too much.
  The President's increase in what we call nondefense discretionary 
spending--that is outside of the mandatory programs such as Social 
Security and Medicare and Medicaid and other programs, veterans 
programs, and defense spending--all the rest of the budget is 
relatively small in comparison. But it is true that the President calls 
for increased spending in that area--but in two specifics: one, more 
money for veterans. You cannot visit a veterans hospital or meet with 
veterans today without realizing that the promise we made to them has 
to be kept, and it will cost money. I had a hearing today where two 
generals spoke to us from the Air National Guard and the Army National 
Guard and they talked about returning veterans and the problems they 
face, and we know there are many. Some come home with terrible wounds 
from war and have a long period of time ahead of them for 
rehabilitation and recovery. Some, however, come home with invisible 
wounds, psychological wounds, posttraumatic stress disorder and the 
like. LTG Vaughn from the Army Guard and Reserve said that suicide 
rates are up 140 to 150 percent. The same thing is true with the air 
guard returnees. It is an indication that we have an obligation that 
needs to be met. We need to spend money to make sure these veterans get 
the kind of care we promised, to put them back in a position in life 
where they can proceed to get a job and build a home and a family and 
have a good future. They served us. They risked their lives for 
America. We promised we would stand by them. President Obama keeps the 
promise in this budget.

  When the Republicans on the other side say cut spending, I wonder if 
we will see any amendments from the Republican side to cut President 
Obama's requested increase in spending to help our veterans. It is one 
of the highlights of his budget. I don't think they will offer that 
amendment. They may complain about the spending level, but I doubt if 
they will stand up here and say we are spending too much money on our 
veterans.
  The President, of course, puts money into education, as he should. 
President Obama understands that a lot of middle-income families are 
struggling to keep their kids in school. Sometimes they are not making 
as much money at home as they used to. Some kids have been asked to 
come home from the campuses and not go back to school for awhile until 
things get better. Well, that interrupted education is not good, and we 
want these kids, these young men and women, to have a bright future. 
President Obama's budget spends money in providing financial and tax 
assistance to students in school. If that isn't a smart investment for 
our future, I don't know what is. It is critically important.
  So to my Republican friends who say we spend too much, I guess my 
basic answer to them is: Please show us your budget. Unfortunately, 
what we have heard and what we have seen from the Republican side of 
the aisle is the same old politics and the same old policies--policies 
that brought us into this economic mess, and they still cling to them. 
Unfortunately, they don't reflect the reality of where America is 
today.
  They say, of course, on the Republican side that the President taxes 
too much--taxes too much in his budget. Well, since 95 percent of 
Americans would receive a tax cut and any tax increases are for the 
richest Americans--

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those at the highest level of income--then apparently the Republicans 
are complaining because those who are well off might end up paying more 
in taxes.
  Over the last several weeks we have heard quite a bit about how some 
of the wealthiest people in America are getting by and being 
compensated. I recognize that every wealthy American hasn't contributed 
to the decline in our economy, and not every wealthy American pulls 
down a hefty AIG bonus each year, but we are in this together. If we 
are asking sacrifice from average working families--and we are--is it 
too much to ask those making over $250,000 a year to pay a little bit 
more in taxes? People making over a quarter of a million dollars a year 
will have to pay a little bit more under President Obama's budget. That 
is a fact. Their taxes will go up. The complaints from the other side 
must be about those tax increases, because the overwhelming majority--
95 percent of American families--will see a tax cut, the President's 
Making Work Pay tax cut.
  Some of my friends on the other side of the aisle seem to have no 
problem asking middle-class American workers--people making $35,000 or 
$40,000 a year--to make wage and salary concessions when they 
renegotiate their contracts, but if you ask those on the other side of 
the aisle whether people making over a quarter of a million dollars a 
year or half a million a year or $1 million a year should pay a little 
more in taxes, they say it goes too far, it is fundamentally unfair. I 
disagree with that point of view. What the President has proposed is 
smart, fair, and responsible. Ninety-five percent of Americans will see 
their taxes go down, as long as those tax cuts are paid for.
  To those who say that raising taxes on anyone is a sure way to ruin 
the economy, look back to how our economy performed in the 1990s. Most 
Americans would gladly trade the prosperity of that decade for today's 
economy. No one in America will pay more taxes under the Obama budget 
than they would have paid in the 1990s under the Clinton 
administration. This budget takes a fair, responsible, and targeted 
approach to the current imbalance in our taxes.
  Then, of course, there is the criticism on the Republican side that 
President Obama's budget borrows too much, borrows too much money. 
Well, let's reflect on history for a moment. Eight years ago when 
President George W. Bush took office, he inherited a surplus from 
President Clinton, a 2-year surplus when we were generating more 
revenue than we were spending in Washington. It hadn't happened in 30 
years, but it happened under a Democratic President. George W. Bush 
inherited this. At the time he came to office, the sum total of the 
debt of America, from the days of George Washington through the Clinton 
administration, was about $5 trillion. President George W. Bush 
inherited a budget with a surplus and a $5 trillion mortgage on 
America. At the end of 8 years, what did President George W. Bush and 
the Republican administration leave us? The largest annual deficit in 
American history--$1.3 trillion--and a doubling of the national debt. 
In 8 years, President George Bush doubled all the debt accumulated by 
America in the entire history of our Nation.
  That happened on the watch of the Republicans who supported that 
President's policies. Now, this President, 65 days into his Presidency, 
is being accused of borrowing too much money, inheriting an economy 
flat on its back, trying to spend money and get us moving forward, and 
the criticism from the other side is he is going to have to borrow 
money.
  Where was all this worry about borrowing too much when nearly all the 
Republicans voted to permanently repeal the estate tax, a repeal which 
would cost the American taxpayers $1 trillion--$1 trillion--in order to 
provide a tax break to the wealthiest three-fourths of 1 percent of 
Americans? I can tell my colleagues, many of the same Senators who were 
crying copious tears over the thought of going into debt were the first 
to step forward and say, Give a tax break to the wealthiest people in 
America and we don't care what debt it incurs. I think their priorities 
are wrong.
  Where was this worry about borrowing too much when the Bush 
administration turned that Clinton surplus into the largest pile of 
debt this Nation has ever seen? Remember Vice President Dick Cheney's 
favorite quote: ``Reagan proved deficits don't matter.'' Well, I don't 
agree with that view. They do matter, to our kids and our grandkids. 
But those who should have been worrying about our deficits over the 
past 8 years turned a blind eye to them. They went along with Vice 
President Cheney. They said deficits don't count. They refused to do 
anything, while our national debt doubled under the last Republican 
administration, and we built up enormous debts we still owe to China 
and Japan, OPEC, and many other nations. They refused to act when our 
economy was growing and could have easily absorbed the necessary 
change. Now, when our economy is struggling and we need to spend the 
money to move forward, these same Republicans have decided that 
deficits are bad news. They have suddenly gotten a new brand of 
religion and they want us to end the deficits they supported in the 
first place. They were wrong then and they are wrong now. If we want to 
turn around the economy, now is the time for smart investments that pay 
off over the long term. We want to make sure we create jobs and 
business opportunities, investing in things that will pay off for a 
long time to come. The President spelled them out last night.
  We know if we invest in health care in America to reduce the cost so 
that individual families and businesses, State and local governments, 
as well as the Federal Government, have a reduced increase in the cost 
of health care each year, it will help us balance the books. President 
Obama is dedicated to doing that. It will not only be good from a 
budget viewpoint, it is good from a health care viewpoint. It makes 
health insurance more affordable. It makes health care more affordable. 
It will mean that by modernizing and computerizing health records, we 
will have a better diagnosis and we will avoid the medical errors that 
frequently occur when information isn't gathered correctly and 
completely. So that investment in health care is part of President 
Obama's spending, spending to bring us out of the recession the right 
way: investing in our future.
  He also invests in energy. It wasn't that long ago we were captives 
of the oil cartels that decided how much we would pay for gasoline. It 
went up to about $4.50 in the Midwest. In Illinois, where I am honored 
to be Senator, people were hurting. Filling a gas tank was a big deal. 
I remember pulling my little Ford pickup truck into a gas station in 
Springfield to fill it up on the weekend and it was 60 bucks and I 
couldn't believe it. I had never paid 60 bucks to fill up that little 
truck, ever. That is what happened. For other folks, they had to fill 
up every other day to get back and forth to work. We were the captives 
of these oil cartels, these dictators, who were draining off hundreds 
of billions of dollars from families and businesses in America for 
overpriced oil--$120 a barrel and beyond. President Obama wants to 
bring that to an end. He wants us to move toward energy independence.
  He wants to invest in making certain we have green energy sources, 
renewable and sustainable, right here at home. Is that a good thing for 
the long term? I think it is one of the best investments we can make. 
It is the kind of smart investment we need in a budget which many of my 
friends on the other side of the aisle have rejected. They were the 
first to complain about gas prices. They are obviously the last to sign 
up for changing our energy economy.
  The third area, of course, is education. I wouldn't be here today 
without it. Most of us have profited from education that has given us 
chances we never dreamed of. President Obama can tell that story 
personally and many others can as well. His investment in education is 
to make sure we have better teachers, better classrooms, new libraries, 
laboratories, buildings that will service us in the 21st century. These 
are investments that will pay off for a long time to come as our kids 
get the education they need to compete in the 21st century.
  We will hear a lot about the budget debate next week. There will be a 
ton of amendments. There always have been. Everybody has their favorite 
issue, their favorite amendment. But when it gets down to the bottom 
line,

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the question is what that budget will say about who we are and what we 
value. President Obama has proposed a budget that will make critical 
investments in our Nation's highest priorities at a time when America 
needs them more than ever. This budget would provide a little bit of 
help to hard-working families who desperately need it: tax cuts, as 
long as we pay for them, education assistance, health care, and 
alternative energy investments. That is what this budget is all about. 
The budget restores fairness, reestablishes responsibility.
  Incidentally, we are finally going to put in this budget the real 
cost of Iraq and Afghanistan. For 8 years the Republican administration 
ignored it, wouldn't count it, said it was some mystery emergency 
spending. We know better. This budget is more honest.
  We also realize to make smart investments--and this budget will make 
a lasting impact on our country by improving our economy, that will 
benefit our children and grandchildren for many years to come.
  When the time comes next week, I hope my colleagues will step 
forward, be part of a new era of responsibility, be part of renewing 
America's promises, promises we have made that we will show good 
stewardship in leading this country out of this recession into a bright 
day tomorrow.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. 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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