[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 10 (Tuesday, January 26, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S210-S211]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              THE ECONOMY

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, a year ago this week, millions of 
Americans were looking to Washington with the hope that always comes 
with a new beginning. In the midst of a terrible economic downturn, a 
new President was vowing to meet our problems head-on. Americans hoped 
for every success, but in the 12 months that have passed since then, 
Americans have not seen the improvements they were hoping for. Far from 
it. Since last January, nearly 3.5 million Americans have lost their 
jobs and nearly 3 million have lost their homes. Americans are still 
struggling, and they are looking to Washington for the policies that 
will right our economic ship.
  To their credit, the President and his allies in Congress tried to do 
something about our economic situation. Unfortunately, their policies 
missed the mark, and 2009 was another very difficult year. Americans 
waited patiently for the administration and Congress to implement 
policies that would create the conditions for creating jobs, growing 
businesses, and helping struggling middle-class families weather the 
recession. Instead, they got policies that vastly increased government 
spending and put a crushing amount of debt onto the Federal credit 
card. Then Americans looked on in disbelief as the administration spent 
almost an entire year--an entire year--pursuing a closed-door, partisan 
health care plan that would have raised their taxes and their health 
insurance premiums and slashed Medicare for seniors in the middle of a 
recession.
  By the time November came around, Americans had clearly run out of 
patience--not with the President, whom they like, but with the 
administration's policies. They rejected a trillion-dollar stimulus 
bill that was supposed to stop unemployment at 8 percent but did not. 
They rejected a budget that will double the national debt in 5 years 
and triple it in 10. And they rejected a health care plan that would 
have led to higher costs, lower quality, and massive new government 
spending. The American people have spoken clearly. They want a new 
policy direction.
  This is why some of the comments we have been hearing in the 
administration about its plans for the year ahead are so distressing. 
The lesson of the last year should be crystal clear: Americans are not 
happy with the administration's approach. They are tired of the 
spending, debt, and government takeovers. They want a step-by-step 
approach to our problems, not grand government experiments and schemes. 
Yet some in the administration seem to believe that the message of 
Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts is something entirely 
different. They seem to think the voters are frustrated at nothing in 
particular, that they are just angry in general. The proper response to 
these elections, the administration seems to think, is to retool its 
message to make people believe it is finding new ways to help the 
economy, even as it continues to pursue the exact same policies as 
before. One of the President's top advisers insisted over the weekend, 
for example, that the administration will continue to pursue its plan 
for health care even as it works to retool its message on the economy. 
This is a clear sign that the administration has not gotten the 
message; that it has become too attached to its own pet goals; that it 
is stuck in neutral when the American people are asking it to change 
direction. And then the administration said over the weekend that 
Americans will not know what is in the Democratic plan for health care 
unless and until it is passed. That is precisely the problem. Americans 
do not want to have to learn about what politicians in Washington are 
doing to their health care after the fact. They want to know the 
details before the changes are approved, not later.
  Americans are not frustrated in general; they are frustrated with an 
administration that insists on taking them in a direction they do not 
want to go and which does not seem to be interested in acknowledging 
the direction in which Americans actually want to go.
  These are some of the signs that the administration has not gotten 
the message. But it is not too late. Tomorrow night, the President will 
deliver his State of the Union Address. It is my hope that he deals not 
in a retooled message but in a changed direction and that he advances 
it with the same kind of enthusiasm and intensity that he attempted to 
advance his health care plan.
  Here are some of the things the President could do tomorrow night:
  First, put the 2,700-page Democratic health care bill on the shelf 
and leave it there. The best first step we could take in righting our 
economic ship is to take this job-killing and tax-increasing 
monstrosity off the table once and for all and move toward the kind of 
step-by-step approach Americans really want.
  Second, declare that taxes will not go up at the end of the year as 
scheduled for millions of American families and businesses. Even some 
Democrats are calling on the President to do this. Struggling small 
businesses are asking themselves whether they can hire new workers. The 
prospect of a massive tax hike makes it far less likely that they will.
  Third, return unused TARP money and put it toward paying down the 
deficit. Taxpayers who bailed out the banks last year are wondering why 
their money is still laying around unspent. Money that has come back to 
the Treasury should be used to pay down the deficit, not used on new 
spending programs.
  Fourth, job programs. The stimulus was sold to the public on the 
promise that it would hold unemployment at 8 percent. A year later, 
unemployment is at 10 percent, its highest level in a quarter century. 
At a time of trillion-dollar deficits, the President should direct 
unspent stimulus funds to pay down our debts right now, rather than 
have the money spent on questionable projects 9 years down the road.
  Fifth, no more debt. Later this week, the administration, with an 
assist from Democrats in Congress, plans to increase the amount of 
money available on the Federal credit card by nearly $2 trillion. In 
other words, they want to increase the amount of money we can borrow by 
an amount equivalent to what it cost to pay for the entire Federal 
budget 10 years ago.
  Sixth, explain to the American people how the Federal Government will 
end its ownership of auto companies, insurance companies, and banks. 
Americans do not think the U.S. Government should be one of the largest 
shareholders of GM, Chrysler, and AIG.
  Seventh, energy. Nuclear power is one of the cleanest, most efficient 
sources of energy. The President should commit to expanding it. Until 
these clean green sites are up and running, he should allow the States 
to drill for oil and natural gas off their shores, if they want to.

  These are just a few concrete things the President could do to show 
the

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American people he is committed to working with both parties to address 
the problems Americans are most concerned about, such as doing whatever 
it takes to create jobs and get people who have lost their jobs back to 
work.
  Americans aren't looking for cosmetic proposals. They do not want the 
administration to push sweeping changes it wants but to nibble around 
the edges when it comes to changes the American people want. It is time 
for the White House to show it is listening to the American people. If 
the President opts for solutions that reflect the real concerns of the 
American people, if he moves to the middle with commonsense bipartisan 
ideas on job creation, then he can expect the support of Republicans.
  It is not too late. It is not too late to deliver the kind of 
commonsense reforms Americans want.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.

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