[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 34 (Wednesday, March 10, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1330-S1332]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             TAX EXTENDERS

  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, I wish to spend time talking about the 
bill we are considering.
  Yesterday afternoon, I had the great fortune--my daughter was 
performing in Florida and was driving back to New York. I got to see my 
7-month-old granddaughter. Anybody who is a grandparent knows what it 
is like to see your grandchildren. There is nothing wrong with it and 
everything right with it. You get a picture and see in your 
grandchildren aspects of your children. It draws back memories.
  But I was struck by that encounter with my daughter and granddaughter 
and, by the way, her dog. What are our hopes and dreams about? What are 
the hopes and dreams we have for our children and our grandchildren? 
Our hopes and dreams are that they will have great opportunity to 
flower and blossom in a way that they can take advantage of their God-
given talents and their hard work and become a success in their life's 
endeavors. And then you contrast that with the heritage of our Nation--
a heritage which is about sacrifice--where one generation makes hard 
choices, makes difficult decisions, where they sacrifice their own 
benefits from their own endeavors to create opportunity so that the 
next generation of Americans can have that opportunity to fulfill and 
expand their heart's desires.

  We heard the Senator from Utah today talk about where the problems 
were with our Nation, and he talked about where all the gold was in 
terms of fixing what is wrong. I would have to say I disagree with him. 
When I look at the U.S. Constitution, and then I look at all the 
government programs the Federal Government has fostered, passed, and 
funds, I see a black-and-white slate. I see on the one hand the very 
limited intent of our Founders, which was spelled out very clearly in

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Article I, Section 8 of the enumerated powers--here are the powers you 
are to have. We are designing this to be a limited Federal Government 
and we are going to reserve everything else to the people and the 
States through the tenth amendment. Those words are actually in there. 
What is not spelled out for the U.S. Federal Government is explicitly 
reserved for the people and their States.
  So when we consider the mess we are in--the fact we had a $1.56 
trillion deficit last year, that 43 cents of every dollar we spent we 
borrowed from our grandchildren, that this year it will be $1.8 
trillion, that over the next 9 years we will spend $10 trillion we 
don't have--and I would put forward most of it on things we don't 
need--look at it in the light of what our constitutional charge is.
  I have made this statement from the floor several times. The oath we 
take--when I was sworn in, in January of 2005--is to uphold the 
Constitution. The Constitution is our guideline, our direction for what 
our responsibility is and what should be left to the States. So I agree 
with my colleague that unless we reform entitlements, we are going to 
have a difficult time solving our problems, but there is another 
answer. Actually, there are two other answers.
  One of the other answers is to go through with a fine-tooth comb and 
look at every Federal Government program and ask: Is it a legitimate 
responsibility of the Federal Government? And if it is, is it a program 
we need?
  You know, in 2 weeks time, my staff found 640 duplicative programs in 
the Federal Government, across all agencies, that all do the same 
thing--105 programs to encourage students to go into technology, math, 
engineering, and science. There are 105 different programs. So as we 
look at comparing what is our obligation and what is our charge under 
the Constitution with what is happening, all of a sudden a wide world 
opens up of monies we don't have to spend, that aren't absolutely 
necessary, that aren't absolutely a priority, that we shouldn't be 
spending money on in a time when we are borrowing and stealing the 
future of my little granddaughter Katie Rose, and everybody else's 
granddaughter.
  Why would we not demand that we do the hard work of going through 
what is truly our obligation and eliminating what is not, and 
eliminating the multitude of duplications that the Federal Government 
has? Why shouldn't we put ourselves to the same test every other family 
in America is put to. Once you have maxed out your credit card, once 
you have passed your limits, they do not continue to extend you money. 
Unfortunately, what they do is jack up your interest rate. Well, guess 
what is getting ready to happen to us. We do not have an unlimited 
credit card. What is going to happen to us over the next few years? We 
are seeing 30-year bond obligations today going for a higher percentage 
than what they have ever gone for in the last 4 or 5 years, and we are 
going to see that trend continue. Out of the $10 trillion we are going 
to spend--money we don't have--in the next 9 years, $5.6 trillion of 
that is to pay interest on the national debt. So we are going to find 
ourselves in the same predicament as that person who has maxed out 
their credit card who is now paying interest on the interest instead of 
paying off the debt.
  I said there were two ways of looking at this. The second is to go 
through the Federal Government and eliminate the waste, fraud, abuse, 
and duplication. One is to eliminate where we don't truly have a 
responsibility or authority for what we are doing under the 
Constitution, but the second is we have identified $350 billion a year 
of waste, fraud, and duplication in the Federal Government. We have 
done that over a period of hearings over the past 4 years. One 
amendment out of about 800 I have offered over the last 5 years has 
been accepted to eliminate something--just one. They have all otherwise 
been voted down. And they have been voted down because Members of this 
body refuse to make the hard choices about priorities, because they 
think we don't have to.
  Well, the gig is up. There is a real rumble among the American 
people. There is a rumble in America about holding us accountable for 
the future of this country, which means no longer ignoring the hard 
choices, no longer adding to the credit card. I say all that to talk 
about the bill that is before us. We have a bill before us that is 
called the tax extenders bill. But that is not what it is. It is the 
debt extender bill. Because this bill, in light of all the speeches we 
will hear in this body, and all of the excuses and all the press 
releases that are going to be released, is going to add $104 billion to 
our children's credit card.
  Yesterday this body voted to go forward with that. They voted to not 
make the hard choices, not offset the spending. If these are priority 
items that we should be doing in this bill, then why aren't we going 
after some of the waste, fraud, and abuse in the Federal Government and 
getting rid of it? There is $104 billion over the next 10 years, with 
this one bill alone, that we are going to add to the debt, and that 
comes down to $10.4 billion a year. We have $350 billion worth of 
waste. Yet we refuse to go into that $350 billion worth of waste, 
fraud, and duplication, and eliminate anything to pay for this. 
Instead, we are going to steal that opportunity, we are going to steal 
that future, we are going to put a blight on the blossom of opportunity 
for our children and grandchildren. I beg America to hold us 
accountable; to not accept business as usual anymore.
  When you get down to it and start talking about what this means--when 
you take the $104 billion and divide it by the 300 million people in 
this country and then multiply it by the average family size--what you 
get is $1,282 per family that this bill will add. So if in fact you go 
to sleep the day after tomorrow, when this bill has passed the Senate, 
when 60 Senators vote for it and we go on and do this--35 or 36 will 
vote against it, but 64 or 65 will vote for it--when you put your head 
on your pillow at night, you can thank them for jeopardizing the future 
of your children. And not because what they want to do in the bill is 
necessarily wrong, but because they lacked the courage to stand up and 
make the hard choices that are required in times of distress in our 
country.
  If you study our history, our greatest leaders exhibited courage in 
the face of adversity. They pulled us through by making hard choices, 
not running away from the hard choices. We had a lot of people who were 
critical of Senator Bunning because he raised the issue on a $12 
billion jobs bill--that isn't going to do anything--and said we ought 
to pay for it. We voted him down. We said no. But you know what, as I 
read the American public, about 80 percent of them said we should have 
paid for it. We should have done that. And those people who were most 
critical of Senator Bunning on the floor are the people who have hardly 
ever voted against any spending bill in their entire career in the 
Senate. They honestly believe it is okay to mortgage the future of our 
children to benefit their own political careers.
  So what we have developing in the Senate isn't partisanship, it is 
policy differences that will make the difference for this country. And 
if the ne'er-do-wells of doing it the same old way win, our children 
won't have a future. What they will have is a debt burden they will 
never get out of.
  We hear speeches, as we did from the Senator from Utah, that tend to 
push us, and we think, well, we have to figure out how we can fix 
Medicare and Social Security. Well, how do we fix Medicare and Social 
Security? We have to delay retirement, lessen benefits, eliminate fraud 
in Medicare, and delay eligibility. Those are the only answers. Or we 
have to raise taxes.
  But how do you raise taxes on the American people when you know you 
are spending $350 billion a year that is wasted? How do you, in good 
conscience, even consider that? I am not against having a tax increase 
when and if we have done everything we can do to get this government 
efficient and eliminated what is not our role and gotten rid of the 
fraud, waste, and duplication. And most of America wouldn't be against 
that either. But right now they do not trust us. And for good reason 
they don't trust this body. Because we are not shooting straight with 
them. We are not telling them that we are going to add $1,282 to their 
kids' debt.
  When you take this number--this 347 figure, and you look at kids 25 
years and younger, and you take that out 20 years, here is what you 
find: Not only

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are they going to be responsible for the debt we have today, but the 
$78 trillion worth of unfunded liabilities for Medicare, Medicaid, 
Social Security, and all the other trust funds, including Federal 
employees' retirement, which adds up to $1.3 million for every person 
in this country under 25, ask yourself: How in the world will they ever 
own a home or send their kids to college if in fact they are having to 
support $60,000 a year in interest on a debt they didn't create?
  The promise of America was freedom. Debt is a hard taskmaster. But it 
is doubly hard when it wasn't your debt but that of your parents and 
your grandparents, yet you are tasked with changing your lifestyle, 
your opportunities, your hope and vision for your children because this 
generation didn't have the courage to stand up and say: Enough is 
enough.
  When will it ever be enough--when we can't sell our bonds? When will 
it ever be okay to offend those who are on the dole and who don't 
deserve to be on the dole? When will it be okay to eliminate the waste 
in the Federal Government, if not at a time we are going to have a $1.8 
trillion deficit; if not at a time when $50 billion is going to be 
defrauded out of the stimulus program? When will we ever do it?
  We have never been in the financial situation our country is in 
today--never before in our history.
  Our whole foreign policy is now being affected and impacted because 
of our debt. We have to keep an ear toward China as we conduct our 
foreign policy, in the fear that they may dump our bonds. Why would we 
put ourselves in that position when we do not have to? Because there is 
no spine in the Senate. There is no spine in the Congress. There is no 
spine to go out and say: Yes, I made the hard choices. You may not like 
it, but your children deserve that we make hard choices and difficult 
decisions. If I am not here, it is OK, I did the right thing. I secured 
our future. I will be able to sleep at night, knowing I was not a part 
of taking and stealing that blossom of potential from our children and 
grandchildren.
  I will finish by asking a question of the American people. Is it 
right that you have to make choices within a finite budget, yet your 
elected leadership in Washington does not? Is it fair for you to have 
to sacrifice to create a future for your children, when we are 
destroying that future in Washington?
  It is a time for Americans who have never been involved in the 
political arena, in our Nation, to get involved because the future of 
your children and your children's children depends on it. We have a 
very short window within which to recapture the economic renaissance in 
our country, and it is less than 4 years. If you look at what we are 
coming to in terms of debt-to-GDP ratio and in terms of the size of the 
government to the size of the GDP, we will be on an irreversible course 
that will eliminate American exceptionalism forever because the thing 
that made us free and kept us free was a fairly limited Federal 
Government. What we have in front of us is an attempt not to get it 
back down to a size that is manageable and within the intent of our 
Founders' vision and the American people's expectation; we have an 
intent to grow. The discretionary budget of the Federal Government, on 
the rate that has been passed by this body the last 2 years alone, not 
counting the stimulus, will cause the Federal Government to double in 
size in 5 years. We are 40 percent bigger than we were 2 years ago; 
actually, it is 38.6 percent bigger. We hear the average Federal 
employee now makes $72,000 and the average private employee now makes 
$40,000. We have added 170,000 new jobs in the government in the last 7 
months, while we have lost three times that in the private sector. 
Things are out of whack. The only way they are going to change is if 
the American public demands it to be changed.
  I will go back. This is not a tax extenders bill. This is a debt 
extension bill. We are going to extend another $104 billion of debt 
across the threshold of opportunity for our children and grandchildren. 
I am not going to be a part of that. I am not going to be complicit in 
it. If that is not satisfactory to the people of Oklahoma, I am fine 
with that. I am ready to make the hard choices to make us a lean mean 
fighting machine again as an economy, a lean mean fighting machine as 
far as opportunity. The way to do that is to downsize the Federal 
Government, put it back within the role of its intended purposes, and 
return to the States both the money and the authority to handle what is 
rightfully theirs in the first place.
  The second thing that is important is to get rid of the $350 billion 
worth of waste, fraud, abuse, and duplication that occurs every year 
that we do nothing about. We do nothing about it. We send out press 
releases, but when it comes time to vote to make a hard choice, we do 
not do it. We refuse to do it. We refuse to offend those who are well 
connected and well heeled, while we send our country into the trash 
heap of history through financial collapse.
  My hope is, my colleagues will stand and say we are not going to pass 
this debt extender bill until you pay for it, until you make the hard 
choices about what is waste, what is duplication, what is fraud, and 
get rid of some of that to pay, if these are truly priority items.
  You see, if they are truly priority, if America truly needs them, 
then there has to be something that is a lower priority that we can 
take away. But we do not have that kind of thought in the Senate 
because we just keep putting the credit card into the machine. Thank 
you, China. It is not going to be too long before we are saying: May we 
please, China. May we please. May we.
  Watch what is happening to Greece. Look at the articles on Ireland 
today, the hard choices they had to make to get themselves out of 
trouble. But they are doing it. We are ignoring it in this body, and we 
are going to pass another $104 billion along to our children and 
grandchildren.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Hagan.) Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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