[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 45 (Thursday, March 31, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2005-S2006]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          BUDGET NEGOTIATIONS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we are continuing to work very hard to avoid 
the terrible consequences that would come with a government shutdown. 
As Vice President Biden announced last night after a 1\1/2\-hour 
meeting we had in his office just a few feet from where I speak, the 
Democrats and Republicans have agreed upon a number on which to base 
our budget cuts. That number is $73 billion below the President's 
budget proposal. Now we have to get to that $73 billion number.
  As I said all along, this is not just about dollars and deficits; it 
is about principles and priorities. What we cut is much more important 
than how much we cut. The media is very concerned with which party will 
win this fight politically. I am much more concerned with making sure 
the American people do not lose out on this program we are doing. We 
have to make sure the cuts do not damage the basic fiber of our 
country.
  Let me once again remind the Senate that children, students, 
teachers, nurses, and seniors would be significantly hurt by the cuts 
in the Republican-passed H.R. 1. The tea party is here today. They are 
here demonstrating that H.R. 1 should be followed--$100 billion--
damaging children, students, teachers, nurses, seniors, and many other 
people in this country. H.R. 1 is not a piece of legislation of which 
anyone should be proud. Not a single child, not a single student, not a 
single teacher, not a single nurse, not a single police officer, not a 
single senior led us into this recession--not one. Punishing innocent 
bystanders will not lead us to a recovery.
  We will continue talking and continue working to find a middle 
ground. Again, we have agreed on a number. We have not agreed on how to 
get to that number. I hope an agreement can be reached as to how we get 
to that number, but it will not come on the backs of middle-class 
families and the jobs they need, and it will not come if the other side 
continues to insist on unreasonable and unrealistic tea party cuts.
  I appreciate Speaker Boehner and the rest of his Republican 
leadership in the House. What a tremendously difficult job they have. I 
am sure it is not easy trying to negotiate with the tea party screaming 
in their ears.
  We have a lot more work to do. This country is at a crossroads in a 
lot of different ways. The economy is recovering--not as much and not 
as rapidly as we would like, but we cannot have what is going on here 
with the tea party demonstrating all these very harsh cuts, unrealistic 
riders, punishing innocent folks just for political ideology.
  We have a lot more to do. I hope this latest development is the 
beginning of the end of this crisis because, remember, this is not the 
only crisis we as a country are dealing with. We have about a score of 
ships from our Navy trying to help the good people of Japan. We have a 
big situation going on in the Middle East, not only in Libya but all 
over the Middle East. We have a war going on in Afghanistan. As I 
speak, we have men and women whose lives are on the line in 
Afghanistan. We are trying to draw down in Iraq. We have a lot of 
issues we need to deal with.
  We know there have to be budget cuts, and we are willing to do that. 
But

[[Page S2006]]

let's also understand we cannot balance our budget with what the tea 
party is wanting us to do. We have a huge problem in this country with 
deficits. We have been a pretty good example of how we can balance the 
budget. We did it in the Clinton years. We spent far less money than we 
were taking in. We were reducing the debt. We were not having annual 
deficits. We know it can be done, but we have to do it in the right 
way, as we did.
  We want to work with our Republican colleagues. We have proven we can 
do that with the two short-term CRs we have had. But I hope everyone 
understands that there is only so much the middle class of this country 
can take. There is only so much we can do to damage the basic fiber of 
our children, students, teachers, our nurses, and our seniors.
  Head Start is a program that has been around for decades, and it 
helps a lot. It helps little boys and girls learn to read and do their 
math that they would not ordinarily have the opportunity to do. These 
are really poor children. H.R. 1 cuts hundreds of thousands of little 
boys and girls from that program. That does not help our country.
  We know cuts must be made, but they must be smart cuts, and we want 
to do the best we can to work together to do whatever is reasonable to 
reduce this debt we have. We know it can be done. It has been done in 
recent history.

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