[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 56 (Thursday, April 2, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4232-S4233]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, anyone who turned on C-SPAN2 over the 
past 2 weeks could be excused for wondering what has been going on here 
in the Capitol. Most people outside Washington do not know much about 
reconciliation instructions or points of order. But behind the 
legislative lingo, an extremely important debate has been taking place 
on the Senate floor. It is a debate about the future of our country. 
And in the course of that debate, two very different philosophies have 
emerged. On one side are those who think American lives will improve in 
direct proportion to the size of the Federal Government; that the 
answer to all the challenges we face as a nation is to just simply 
follow Europe, where people look to the government for almost 
everything from the cradle to the grave. On the other side are those 
who think Government has an important role to play in keeping people 
safe and creating the conditions in which Americans can succeed and 
that Government can also play a role in helping people weather 
temporary or permanent troubles and even to provide temporary help to 
private institutions if the failure of those institutions imperils the 
well-being of the whole.
  But in all these areas, the role of Government is limited. Liberty 
and freedom are primary. The first group defends the administration's 
budget proposal which we first saw a couple of months ago and which 
outlines the administration's vision for America over the next several 
years. The second group has warned about the consequences of the 
budget, which calls for a dramatic and potentially irreversible shift 
of our Nation to the left in the areas of health care, education, and 
private enterprise, and which in order to get there imposes the biggest 
tax hike in history, massive spending, and a titanic amount of debt our 
children and grandchildren will have to pay back.

  This is a debate that has been worth tuning in to because its outcome 
affects absolutely everyone. So I would like to highlight just a couple 
of things we have seen over the course of this debate that everyone 
should know.
  The first thing people should know is the one thing that many already 
do know: The administration's budget simply taxes too much, spends too 
much, and borrows too much at a moment, interestingly enough, when we 
can least afford it. There is good reason to believe the American 
people agree. Several of the amendments Republicans have proposed 
adding to the budget as a way of protecting American businesses and 
families have been approved by wide, bipartisan margins.
  The American people cannot afford new taxes, and that is why Senators 
approved the Johanns amendment yesterday, an amendment which forces an 
open debate on the budget's proposal for a massive new national energy 
tax that would hit every American family by up to $3,100 a year. As the 
senior Senator from Missouri put it on Tuesday, ``Families are 
struggling to make ends meet, unable to pay their mortgage, bills or 
debts . . . We should oppose an energy tax.''
  The junior Senator from Nevada also knows Americans cannot afford 
having their taxes raised, especially in a recession. That is why he 
offered an amendment yesterday that would make it harder to raise taxes 
on middle-class couples. As he put it, ``Americans are struggling to 
pay for life's essentials . . . What we should be discussing is 
extending tax relief,'' not raising taxes. This is common sense. His 
amendment passed.
  The junior Senator from Texas knows that business owners cannot 
afford a tax hike. That is why he offered an amendment that would make 
it harder for Democrats to raise taxes on small businesses. This is 
also common sense. His amendment also was adopted overwhelmingly.
  Americans know the trouble they get into when they spend money they 
do not have, and they do not want Government to spend money it does not 
have. That is why the junior Senator from Alabama came to the floor 
Monday and lamented the lack of fiscal responsibility in this budget.
  The American people are worried about the size of the national debt, 
and they are worried about a budget that doubles that debt in 5 years 
and triples it in 10--a budget that adds more debt in 5 years than the 
entire debt accumulated under every President from George Washington 
through George W. Bush. The senior Senator from Tennessee is worried 
about the size of the debt too, and that is why he offered an amendment 
to keep the growth of that debt relative to the GDP in check. As he put 
it on the Senate floor on Tuesday:

       This is not a matter of not letting the horse get out of 
     the barn. This recognizes that the horse is already out of 
     the barn and we're trying to put a fence around him before he 
     gets into the next country.

  Democrats rejected that amendment too.
  Throughout this debate, Americans have started to focus a lot on the 
national debt, and they have heard some troubling things.
  If they were listening Tuesday, they would have heard a very 
illuminating discussion on the topic between the senior Senator from 
Tennessee and the senior Senator from New Hampshire. The senior Senator 
from New Hampshire said that at the end of this budget, every American 
household will have an obligation relative to the Federal debt of 
$133,000--$133,000 per household. The senior Senator from Tennessee 
asked who holds that debt. The answer, of course, is that China is the 
primary holder of that debt, along with Russia and oil-producing 
nations in the Middle East.
  Americans are worried about more Government spending, higher taxes, 
and higher debt that we may never be able to repay, and a lot of groups 
that represent these Americans are amassing against these things. 
Groups opposed to this budget include the National Association of 
Manufacturers, the Tax Relief Coalition, the American Conservative 
Union, Americans for Prosperity, Citizens Against Government Waste, the 
Club for Growth, the Council on National Policy, Associated Builders 
and Contractors, Independent Electric Contractors, International 
Foodservice Distributors Administration, and the National Association 
of Wholesaler-Distributors. These groups represent millions of small 
business owners, independent contractors, and millions of ordinary 
Americans who do not want to see their dreams fade away because of 
someone else's vision of what Government should do for them.
  Americans want the freedom to do for themselves, and they worry 
freedom may slip away if this budget passes in its current form. They 
cannot afford a new national energy tax that could cost every American 
household up to $3,100 a year. They do not want to have to pay for 
250,000 bureaucrats who will be needed just to spend the money this 
budget wants to spend. And they do not want their children literally 
buried in debt. What Americans want is for Republicans and Democrats to 
work together to craft a budget that let's them keep their hard-earned 
wages, spends their tax dollars wisely, and does not saddle their 
children and grandchildren with debt. That is what they have not seen 
this week.
  What they also will not see are the backdoor negotiations where the 
chairman of the Budget Committee, the senior Senator from North Dakota, 
has said he will strip out many of these good amendments we have 
adopted this week and where some budget writers intend to fast track a 
massive new energy tax even though we passed an amendment to keep that 
from happening. Americans oppose this energy tax. And if the senior 
Senator from North Dakota has as much influence over the outcome of the 
budget as I hope he does, then he will make sure that the will of the 
Senate and the American people is reflected in the final product. I 
hope he will make sure that a new national energy tax costing American 
households up to $3,100 a year is not rushed through Congress on a 
party-line vote.
  So the drama that has unfolded in the Senate put two very different 
philosophies on display. It showed Republicans fighting to keep our 
Nation from an irreversible drift to the left, and it showed some 
Democrats agreeing to

[[Page S4233]]

some of our proposals. But the proof of their commitment is in the 
final product--what finally comes out of conference.

  This debate isn't over with the passage of this budget today, and 
Republicans are not finished fighting on behalf of the priorities of 
the American people--not even close.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

                          ____________________