[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 33 (Monday, March 7, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1315-S1316]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          GOVERNMENT SPENDING

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, as we reengage in the ongoing debate 
over government spending this week, it is worth noting that some on the 
other side appear to have already decided to fold up their tents.
  Last week, Republicans showed we could change the status quo in 
Washington by cutting government spending. It was a small step but a 
step in the right direction. Some of us were hopeful momentum was 
finally building for the bipartisan consensus that would enable us to 
cut even more government red ink this week.
  The assistant majority leader seems to have had enough. Yesterday, he 
said cutting $6 billion pushes the limits of what is needed to live 
within our means. This is ludicrous, Mr. President. So far this fiscal 
year Washington has spent nearly $650 billion more than it has taken 
in--this year. That is a little more than $4 billion a day that 
Washington is spending over and above what it has to spend.
  Senator Durbin thinks Democrats in Congress have pushed the limits of 
responsibility by agreeing to cut $6 billion more this year. Imagine if 
every American had the same approach to their credit card bills. 
Imagine calling up your credit card company and asking first if you 
could just freeze your out-of-control spending habits in place. Then 
when they say no, imagine telling them you don't want to cut down your 
monthly spending because you prefer living outside your means.
  That is the logic of our friends on the other side. Now, according to 
this logic, they would rather draw a line in the sand than agree to cut 
another dime in spending at a time when Washington is spending about $4 
billion more every single day than it is taking in.
  Republicans have been hopeful that we could make progress and reach a 
bipartisan solution on this issue. It is my hope that the assistant 
majority leader was speaking for himself and not for his entire 
conference.
  This, of course, is the debate that most people in Washington will 
continue to be focused on this week, and it is an important debate. But 
focusing on day-to-day expenses threatens to obscure an even larger 
threat. Here I am talking about, of course, entitlement programs such 
as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
  Anyone who has looked at these programs closely knows they are 
becoming unaffordable, that doing nothing risks not only the future of 
these programs themselves but our Nation's future as well. Anyone who 
looks at history also knows the best time to address a crisis such as 
this is a time such as right now, when two parties share power in 
Washington. This is the time.
  I have made the case for action publicly and in private conversations 
with the White House. As Republican leader, I put this issue front and 
center my first day on the job. Four years ago, I came to the floor and 
said the demographic changes taking place in America made it incumbent 
upon us as a body to reform Social Security. Two years later, when the 
American people put a Democrat in the White House, I renewed my call to 
action. I said Republicans stood ready to work with the President on 
entitlement reform. I repeated that call again 4 months ago

[[Page S1316]]

when voters decided to put Republicans in charge of the House of 
Representatives.
  Throughout this time, I have held out hope that our friends on the 
other side would rise to the occasion, if not when Republicans 
controlled the White House, at least when they did.
  I was encouraged further when President Obama said repeatedly in 2009 
that his administration would seek to work with us on serious 
entitlement reform that preserves the safety net for our seniors, for 
people with disabilities, and which also puts it on a firmer, stable 
footing for generations to come.
  The President has acknowledged the seriousness of the problem. He has 
noted himself that costs are escalating, even as the population is 
getting older, creating a perfect storm for a fiscal crisis that dwarfs 
even today's budget crisis, as urgent as it is.
  If both parties agree on all this, I thought, then there is no reason 
we cannot do this for the good of the country. The urgency for action 
has only intensified in recent months, as we have seen an uproar in a 
number of State capitals.
  Every State is different, but the problems in every one of them can 
be summed up pretty easily. Lawmakers from New Jersey to California and 
just about everywhere in between made promises they could not keep. But 
the promises lawmakers in Washington have made put the States to shame. 
If you add up the unfunded liabilities in all 50 States, you get, by 
one estimate, about $3 trillion total. Add up Washington's promises on 
Social Security and Medicare alone, and it is over $50 trillion--$50 
trillion that we promised to the American people that we do not know 
how we are going to pay for.
  Something must be done, and now is the time to do it. Republicans are 
ready and willing. Where is the President? Suddenly, at the moment when 
we can actually do something about this, he is silent. As one columnist 
in the Washington Post put it: ``For a man who won office talking about 
change we can believe in, [the President] can be a strangely passive 
president.''
  On the greatest fiscal challenge of the day, he appears, at least so 
far, to have taken a pass. This is obviously deeply disappointing to me 
personally, given my repeated raising of this issue. But more 
importantly, it should be deeply disappointing to every American who 
had reason to hope we could tackle these issues in a moment of divided 
government. It should be disappointing to all those who believe this 
President when he pledged to shake up the status quo in Washington.
  Past Presidents had the foresight to seize the moment, to reach 
across party lines, and solve an earlier funding problem with Social 
Security, in the case of President Reagan, and welfare reform in the 
case of President Clinton.
  It is not a question of whether it is possible but a question of 
whether the President has the courage to step up to the challenges we 
face. In this case, one cannot help but wonder if the President, who 
came into office promising change, has been changed by the office 
instead.
  I hope I am wrong about all this, but all the signs point toward 
inaction on the part of the White House and, in my view, this would be 
a tragic failure of leadership.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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