[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 35 (Wednesday, March 9, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1491-S1492]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE BIG PICTURE

  Mr. FRANKEN. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about H.R. 1, the 
House bill we just voted down and which I will continue to oppose until 
major changes are made. With apologies to Nobel Prize-winning economist 
Paul Krugman, I would like to talk about Willy Sutton for a second. 
While we should not normally take fiscal lessons from criminals, Willy 
Sutton had it right. He said he robbed banks because ``that's where the 
money is.'' Of course, he didn't target places with only petty cash. 
What is the point of robbing a school or a homeless shelter? There is 
no money there. But that is exactly what H.R. 1 seeks to do.
  Instead of tackling our deficits by going after the bank, it is 
targeting our most vulnerable. Domestic nonsecurity discretionary 
spending makes up only 12 percent of our budget. We cannot balance the 
budget with only 12 percent of the budget on the table. We need to be 
looking at the big picture. We need to be focusing on the bank, where 
the money is.

[[Page S1492]]

  In President Obama's State of the Union Address he said in order to 
get back on track, to build prosperity, we need to out-educate, out-
build, and out-innovate the rest of the world. Ask any small business 
owner and they will agree that though sometimes they have to trim 
overhead, they have to also make smart target investments for their 
business to grow. So why does H.R. 1 do exactly the opposite?
  The President calls for education funding that supports afterschool 
programs from Bemidji to Worthington. Yet H.R. 1 cuts $100 million. In 
Minnesota, H.R. 1 would effectively eliminate afterschool programs for 
nearly 2,000 kids. H.R. 1 also cuts job training programs, virtually 
zeroing out the first title in WIA, even when 3,000 Minnesotans are on 
waiting lists to get training for jobs that are going unfilled. I 
talked to businesses all over Minnesota and they need trained workers. 
They support the Workforce Investment Act.
  The President calls for infrastructure. Yet H.R. 1 cuts surface 
transportation projects across the country, including nearly $8 million 
for a new railroad crossing in Staples and $250,000 for the St. Paul 
Complete Streets Plan.
  The Department of Transportation estimates that H.R. 1 would 
effectively cancel 75 projects in 40 States across the country and put 
more than 30,000 jobs at risk nationwide.
  The President calls for innovation. Yet H.R. 1 cuts $2.5 billion in 
lifesaving biomedical and health research at the National Institutes of 
Health and National Cancer Institute. The United States and my home 
State of Minnesota have been the world leaders in innovative biomedical 
research. Under H.R. 1, the United States will be forced to detour from 
our path toward breaking biomedical frontiers. I think we can agree we 
must not be penny-wise and pound-foolish when it comes to investing in 
our Nation's future.
  H.R. 1 does exactly the opposite of what our country should be doing 
during an economic recovery. H.R. 1 does not target Willy Sutton's 
bank, it goes after schools and roads and cancer research.
  I have a few ideas for targeting the bank where the money is. Let's 
start with big oil and gas. Over the past decade, the past 10 years, 
just the five largest oil and gas companies have made $1 trillion in 
profit--not revenues, profit; $1 trillion in profit. Yet we are giving 
them tax subsidies that have been in place since as far back as 1916. 
Eliminating these wasteful subsidies will bring in about $64 billion 
over 10 years. Let's do that.
  Another bank: Waste and fraud in the health care system. Provisions 
in the health reform law reduce waste. The value index that I and 
others pushed for in the health care reform bill is going to ensure 
that we reward value, not volume, in Medicare.
  In Texas, for example, Medicare reimbursements are about 50 percent 
higher per patient than they are in Minnesota. Yet in Minnesota we have 
better outcomes. Why? Because we deliver higher value health care at a 
much lower cost. Imagine how many tens of billions or hundreds of 
billions of dollars we could save if every State delivered health care 
like Minnesota does, like my State does.
  Also, in Medicare the government pays too much for Medicare 
prescription drugs. Because Medicare represents so many people, it 
could negotiate prices directly with the drug companies and deliver the 
same benefits for seniors at a lower cost. The VA already does this. 
This simple change could save taxpayers up to $24 billion a year or 
$240 billion over 10 years. This is where the money is. I am not the 
first to point out there is waste in health care, but we can do 
something about it. Guess what. H.R. 1 would cut $250 million from 
health care fraud and abuse control.
  Another bank is the Department of Defense. We all agree we cannot 
skimp on national security, believe me. When our troops are at war, two 
wars, we can do nothing to skimp on their safety, their security, their 
readiness, their ability to fight these wars, or on them when they come 
back from the war. H.R. 1 makes cuts to programs for homeless vets.
  We do not want to skimp on national security, but when the military 
says it doesn't need or want something, we should listen. When it says 
it doesn't need the F-35 alternate engine, the Marine Expeditionary 
Fighting Vehicle, or the Non-Line of Site Launch System, we should not 
buy them. This could save billions of dollars.
  Then, of course, there is revenue. H.R. 1 does nothing to shore up 
revenue at a time when we still have our troops overseas engaged in 
combat. We have always paid for our wars before. This time we passed 
huge tax cuts for the wealthy, and just a couple of months ago my 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle insisted on extending these 
tax breaks on income over $1 million. We had a vote on this. It was not 
enough to extend the tax breaks on the first million or the second 
million or the third million or the tenth million or the twentieth 
million or the fiftieth million or the hundredth million. Ending the 
tax breaks for millionaires could have brought in around $35 to $40 
billion every year. On the back of the envelope, that is $350 to $400 
billion over 10 years--I added a zero.
  The President has stated this was only a temporary extension, and I 
plan to hold him to that. If we are going to be talking about making 
shared sacrifices and cutting homeless vets and cutting Head Start, 
let's make sure those shared sacrifices are really shared.
  All these ideas need to be on the table, not just 12 percent of our 
entire budget. If we are at all serious about reforming our budget, and 
I am talking about serious about this, it has to include the bank. We 
have to go where the money is.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Whitehouse). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to address the 
Senate as in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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