[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 152 (Tuesday, October 20, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S10573]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. FEINGOLD:
  S. 1808. A bill to control Federal spending now; to the Committee on 
Finance.
  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, fiscal responsibility is a Wisconsin 
tradition and it has been a major priority of mine throughout my years 
in the Senate. In 1992 when I first ran for the job I hold now, I put 
together an 82-point plan to save hundreds of billions of dollars in 
wasteful, inefficient or unneeded government spending. Back then, the 
country was facing huge budget deficits and Americans were 
understandably concerned about the debt we were piling up. Fortunately, 
we took some strong steps in the 1990s to clean up that fiscal mess--
including passing some of the reforms I championed in my 82-point 
plan--and we were able to get the country back on the right track.
  Unfortunately, we face a similar crisis today. In fact, in many ways 
it is worse because the deficits are even bigger while the economy is 
in such bad shape. The reckless fiscal policies of the past eight 
years, combined with the current recession those policies helped 
create, have dug a deep hole, and we need to start filling it in. Some 
may argue that we can't cut government spending now because that would 
make the recession we are in even worse. I don't agree--while we 
shouldn't be slashing, say, unemployment insurance or education 
funding, we should absolutely be targeting the waste and fat in the 
federal budget. That's the message I am consistently hearing as I 
travel around Wisconsin. My constituents are rightly concerned about 
the burden that their children and grandchildren will be forced to 
shoulder.
  That is why I am introducing the Control Spending Now Act. This bill 
consists of dozens of different initiatives that would collectively 
reduce the deficit by over $\1/2\ trillion over 10 years. It includes 
procedural reforms that would make it easier to eliminate funding for 
pet projects slipped into larger spending bills, as well as cuts to 
spending that isn't working or needed, from $4 billion for C-17 
aircraft the Department of Defense didn't ask for and doesn't want to 
$30 million for a program that sends a radio and TV signal to Cuba that 
nobody gets. The bill also would save $244 billion by rescinding 
unobligated TARP payments and returning them to the Treasury--I opposed 
the Wall Street bail-out from the start, and it's high time we brought 
it to an end.
  The ideas I am proposing are not all new--for example, I have been 
fighting to end earmark abuses and give the president a line-item veto 
for some time. And not all the ideas were thought up by me--there are a 
lot of good proposals out there, and I have tried to bring them 
together in one comprehensive bill. I have included legislation drafted 
by Senators Byron Dorgan and Jeff Bingaman that would save the Federal 
Government and consumers money by bringing down prescription drug 
prices, as well as biennial budgeting reforms that former Senator Pete 
Domenici championed, and that Senator Johnny Isakson is now seeking to 
advance. I also included provisions crafted by Senators Kit Bond, Jay 
Rockefeller and Dianne Feinstein and included in the Senate-passed 
intelligence authorization bill for fiscal year 2010 that would help 
eliminate wasteful spending in the intelligence budget. I am grateful 
to my colleagues for the work they are doing to return the country to 
the path of fiscal responsibility.
  Not everyone will agree with every one of my proposals--in fact, for 
every proposal, there is probably one or more entrenched group 
committed to preserving the status quo. But the status quo isn't good 
enough--we need to make tough spending choices, which is why I am 
proposing this legislation, and why I will continue working to control 
spending now.
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