[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 51 (Friday, April 8, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2314-S2319]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXTENSION OF MORNING BUSINESS
Mr. BEGICH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a period for
morning business for debate only be extended until 6 p.m., with
Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each, with the
majority leader to be recognized at 6 p.m.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Hearing no objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. BEGICH. I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today, as so many of
my colleagues have, to discuss the situation we find ourselves in. Many
ask: What has happened? Why are we here? Why is there so much coverage
and concern about a potential shutdown of the United States Government?
I was on a radio station report from Washington by phone to Wyoming
earlier this morning with a friend of mine, and he was asking how we
got into this situation and what we can do about it.
Well, there are two different situations we are in. One is, we are in
this situation because a budget, a responsible budget, that should have
been passed 7 months ago--when the Democrats were in charge of the
House, in charge of the Senate, and in the White House--was never
passed. That is what we are dealing with today in one part.
The bigger part of how we got into this situation is that we are a
nation in significant debt. We owe a remarkably large amount of money--
$14 trillion is the number that is consistently discussed. Very few
people have a concept of exactly how much money that is. Yet we owe
that amount of money. People say: Who do we owe it to? I visited with a
group of high school students from Douglas, WY, earlier this week, and
I asked them: Do you know who we owe the money to? They said: Yeah, we
owe a lot of it to China.
That is of great concern to the people of America, people concerned
about national security, our financial security, and how we as a nation
are viewed in the world, as well as how we view ourselves.
As families across this country, we live within our means. We balance
our budgets every year. I am from Wyoming, where, according to our
constitution, we must balance our budget every year, and we do. That is
why we have money available for scholarships and other opportunities
for young people, as we invest the money that we have saved from year
to year in our people, in our future, in our communities, and in our
land. Yet Washington doesn't seem to learn that lesson, even today.
So here we are with this situation where we are looking at a
potential shutdown of the government because this government has maxed
out its credit card. Others may decide to no longer extend credit to
us, and it has come down to the final hour.
Every day this government spends $4 billion more than it takes in.
Last month, Washington spent eight times as much money as it took in.
Every American child is now born owing $45,000. This is a travesty.
When I take a look at this and say, we know now how we got into this
situation: We have overspent. Our problem is not that we are taxed too
little, it is that we spend too much. The American people understand
that. So what we need to do is get the spending under control. We need
to spend less.
We are in a situation where you say, what can we do about it right
now, today? Well, for those same high school students who are here from
Douglas, WY, they know a bill starts in the House and then goes to the
Senate, and is passed by one body, passed by another body, goes to the
President for his signature. So here we are. We do have a bill that has
been passed by the House of Representatives to keep the government
open, to keep the government functioning. I am ready right now to vote
for that bill.
What has the President of the United States said about that? The
President has threatened to veto that bill. He said he would veto a
bill that would temporarily extend and keep the government open for 1
week. So apparently the President is not interested in keeping this
government open for the next week through tonight at midnight.
[[Page S2315]]
I would wish he would take a different tack and say, let's continue
to work on the overall problem but keep the government functioning. You
know, families all around this country--and I talk to people every
weekend in Wyoming--are worried about the cost and the quality of their
own lives. When they look at this incredible debt coming out of
Washington, they say, how is this going to continue to impact us? The
families all around Wyoming and around the country and the States are
finding they are going to pay about $700 more for fuel this year than
they did last year because of the pain at the pump.
Of course, I believe that is made worse by the policies of this
administration. But for families who have kids and with bills and a
mortgage, $700 increased gasoline prices impacts them in the money they
have available for other things. So it is a direct impact on the
quality of their lives. They are looking back here to Washington
saying, what are those people doing?
I had a call yesterday in my office from a man in the military. He
said, why are they not going to continue to fund the military? Well,
that is part of the bill that has passed the House that will continue
to keep the military funded, functioning. He said, you know, I am not
worried about me. He said, I am worried about these younger guys, the
newer ones in the military, the men and woman who may have a young
family. I want to make sure they are taken care of. He said, do not
worry about me. Worry about them. Think about each and every one of
those young men and women who are in uniform defending our country.
Why would the President say: If you pass what the House has passed--
which does cut some spending and keeps the military functioning--I will
veto it? That is what the President of the United States said, he would
veto it. Rather than keep everything functioning and fund the military,
the President has said he would veto it because it was only a 1-week
extension, so that all of the other issues could be worked out.
Remember, all we are talking about is this year's budget. We are now
at 7 months into the fiscal year. This is something that should have
been done last year. But the Democrats have absolutely failed to live
up to their obligations of passing a budget. Certainly failed the
obligations of living within the budget. But there is a proposal today
to keep the government open, to fund the troops, and yet I hear the
President of the United States say no.
There has been discussion on this floor about things that are called
policy riders. It was interesting because today in Politico, there is a
headline: ``Dems Embraced Policy Riders in the Past.''
What sort of policy riders? When I hear on the floor: Oh, no, policy
riders are all bad. Well, the repeal of a school voucher program in the
District of Colombia. That was a policy rider in the past. Travel to
Cuba, that was a policy that Democrats put in in the past. And it
mentions a project--they call it a pet project--of the majority leader.
It says: Delaying the development of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste
storage site, as part of a policy rider on a budget bill issue.
So this is something that, to me is not new, to this body is not new.
What is new is that the President of the United States has threatened
to veto and to shut down the government of this country because he will
not deal with a bill that will fund our troops, and will make cuts in
spending because it is for a time-limited issue, and at a time when we
ought to say, let's keep the government open and let us fund the
military.
Who, in fact, would be wanting for there to be a shutdown? I am not
looking for that sort of thing. And then I see there is someone who has
actually been rooting for a shutdown. It is the former chairman of the
Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean. These are the things that
he said about a shutdown. He said: ``If I was head of the Democratic
National Committee, I would be quietly rooting for it.''
He went on to say: ``From a partisan point of view, I think it would
be best thing in the world to have a shutdown.'' Is that what we need,
a partisan point of view? What we need are solutions for America.
I see that there are colleagues on the floor ready to speak. So with
that, I ask that we come to a solution, deal with the issues of the
incredible amount of debt, keep the government going, pass what has
passed the House, fund the troops, cut the spending and get this to the
President to sign.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.
Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I wanted to take the floor for a few
minutes to talk about where I was supposed to be today, which is
Denver, CO, not on this floor, because we were hosting a townhall
meeting in Denver, Mark Udall and I were, to discuss our long-term
deficit and debt problems.
We had invited Senator Simpson from Wyoming--my colleague from
Wyoming just spoke--a great Republican Senator, the co-chair of the
President's Deficit and Debt Commission, to Denver for this session. He
agreed to come.
The former head of the Office and Management and Budget got on a
plane, flew to Denver, they agreed to come, and some others. More
important than that, we put this out to the public, and it was almost
immediately oversubscribed so many people wanted to get in, to have a
real conversation, an authentic conversation, about what we were going
to do finally to dig out from underneath this incredible deficit and
debt we face.
I inconvenienced a lot of people inviting them to Denver. But they
are happy to do it anyway because they are so committed to this set of
issues, and they think having a conversation in the center of our
country, in our Rocky Mountain West about these issues may allow some
common sense to prevail.
But the inconvenience they suffered by traveling to Denver is
nothing, nothing compared to the inconvenience, to say the least, that
the American people are going to suffer if this government shuts down.
It is not just 850,000 Federal employees. The fact that we have got
troops deployed all across the globe, small businesses trying to get
loans from the SBA, homeowners, or people who hope to become
homeowners, trying to get a mortgage through the FHA, all of that will
shut down if this government shuts down. Not to mention the fact we
have been told that the shutdown will cost our economy at least $8
billion a week, if this government is shut down, and .2 percent of GDP
growth for every week this government is shut down, just at a time when
our economy is starting to show some sign of life.
I have said on the floor over the last couple of days that no local
government official in my State, none, zero, Republican or Democrat,
would ever say, we are going to close the government. We have decided
that we cannot get along, we cannot agree, we cannot figure it out, so
the city and County of Denver is going to close, the city of Grand
Junction will close, or the school district is going to close. No one
in Colorado would think to say that to their constituents and we should
not think about it either. But some people say, wow, there must be some
incredibly significant disagreement that is keeping the House and the
Senate from working together to get this done, Republicans and
Democrats from working together, to get this done.
Last night I brought a slide to show what that disagreement looks
like. This was yesterday. I have heard some people say that there is
agreement on the number of cuts we are going to make today and last
night. But yesterday, the parties were several billion dollars apart.
That is what was said. So I made a chart that showed the American
people what that meant, and $7 billion is what I assigned to the
difference. That is probably more than the difference was. It is
certainly more than it is today. That is a lot of money, by the way.
But we have a $3.5 trillion operating budget, and a $1.6 trillion
deficit.
I wanted to show what the dispute looked like compared to our
deficit, and compared to our operating budget. And, sorry, but I could
not fit it on one chart. It actually is on two charts. I could not get
it enough charts or hold them together, because this is the operating
budget over here. I would need two more of these posters on top of this
to be able to show you the relationship between the so-called dispute
and our operating budget.
[[Page S2316]]
I have spent half my life in business and half my life working in
local government. I can tell you that this is a meaningless dispute,
utterly meaningless. Look at it. It has nothing to do with our long-
term deficit and debt problem. It has nothing to do with what the good
people in Colorado are talking about today at the forum that I am not
going to be able to attend.
So in view of that, it seems to me that taking the risk of closing
our government down, charging our economy an $8 billion note every
week, and concerning our troops, who should not be worried about
whether they are going to get a paycheck, makes no sense at all.
My hope is this--I see other colleagues on the floor--that the
leadership of both parties in the Senate and the House and our
President, in the next several hours, will seal a deal that makes sure
our government stays open.
But beyond that, to all of my colleagues in this body, looking
forward to the negotiation we are going to have on the debt ceiling,
looking forward to the negotiation we are going to have on our deficit
and our debt, I hope we can come together and agree on a process and a
structure that actually leads us to agreement rather than one that
leads us in the direction we have been in over the last 2 or 3 weeks.
Our country simply cannot afford for us not to get our job done and
be distracted by disagreements that are meaningless to people in their
daily lives. I know we can do better. I know we can do better as
Democrats and Republicans. And once we get through this, I want to say,
I will do absolutely everything I can to build bipartisan support for a
solution to our fiscal problems.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Udall of New Mexico). The Senator from
Alabama.
Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, if the differences are meaningless maybe
our Democratic colleague would agree and we would have an agreement if
it is so insignificant. But it is not totally insignificant.
If you take $61 billion in spending down from the baseline as the
House legislation that they have passed and sent here does, it reduces
spending by $61 billion. If you do that, it reduces the baseline $61
billion. My staff on the Budget Committee has calculated that would
save $860 billion over 10 years. Those numbers have not been disputed.
In fact, it does make a difference. We are on the wrong trajectory.
We need to get on the right trajectory. Our Democratic colleagues, it
seems, have to be dragged, kicking and screaming out of denial and into
the reality that we are spending too much. We are running up too much
debt.
I am pleased to see they have agreed to consider these proposals and
have passed a couple of continuing resolutions to fund the government
at a slightly lower level. That is progress.
We have avoided shutdowns to this date. Hopefully we can avoid
another one. But if we have another short-term agreement today, it is
nowhere close to what is needed to put our country on a sound financial
course. We have been warned we are facing another recessions if we do
not change. That is what we have got to do. This spasm has come about
because our Democratic colleagues' failed to pass a budget last year.
They did not even bring a budget to the floor.
They passed not a single appropriations bill last year on the floor
of the Senate and still have not brought to the floor any legislation
to even begin to form a budget for this year and to propose any funding
for the last 6 months of this fiscal year. We haven't seen legislation
about that. They want to meet in secret and talk and negotiate.
The House has passed legislation that funds the government, that
funds the military through the end of the year, reduces $61 billion.
They have also sent legislation over that says: OK, we will do 1 more
week with a small reduction of $12 billion, and we will fund the
military. And let's do that if you don't want to agree to the full
agreement for the rest of the year.
The lack of action is only in one Chamber; that is, this Chamber. Has
the Senate proposed any new legislation? No. I am saying this really
not quite as critically as it probably sounds; our colleagues just have
not comprehended the plain fact that business as usual is over. They
think this country can continue to spend the way we have been doing.
They think these huge deficits can be funded out of thin air without
consequence, that we can borrow unlimited amounts--$1.6 trillion to
fund the government this year, borrow that without consequence. They
think the American people will not support and will defeat Members of
Congress who tell the truth about the condition we are in and who have
the gumption to take real steps to reduce spending. They think it is
inconceivable that our government spending levels can actually be
reduced. They think if they plan a 3-percent increase in spending and
it gets increased only 1 percent, the government has suffered a 2-
percent cut. That is the way they talk about it. That is why we are
broke, that kind of accounting. They think the government can create
money, create wealth out of nothing. We can just pass a law, and it
becomes so. They ignore the fact that debts must be paid and interest
on our debt has to be paid.
Expert after expert has told the Congress, has written papers and
articles and op-eds, that we are on an unsustainable path. There is not
one expert I know of who would deny that the budget submitted to the
Congress just a few weeks ago by the President is sound. Indeed,
President Obama's choice to head the debt commission, Erskine Bowles,
when the budget was first announced, said it is nowhere close to what
is needed to avoid our fiscal nightmare. This is a man he appointed to
head the debt commission who has spent weeks and months taking
testimony about the financial condition of America, the man he asked to
sum up the kind of problem we have and how to get out of it.
The American people understand it. They have been shocked by the
irresponsibility shown by Congress. They have been shocked by what we
have been doing. Four years ago, our deficit was $162 billion. It
jumped to 450. Then the next year it was $1.3 trillion; the next year,
$1.2 trillion. The next year, this year, on September 30, it is
projected to be $1.5 or $1.6 trillion. We are on a completely
unsustainable course. President Obama's budget, as scored by the CBO,
shows that in the 10th year the projected deficit would be $1.2
trillion. This year, we take in $2.2 trillion and we spend $3.7
trillion. Forty percent of what we are spending this year is borrowed.
That is why this is an unsustainable course. There is no other
alternative than to acknowledge that.
The American people have sent letters, e-mails, telegrams, phone
calls, attended town meetings, had conferences to try to save this
country we love from the fiscal nightmare Chairman Bowles said awaits
us if we don't take real action. Is there something wrong with that?
Should they not be upset with Congress going down a path without any
attempt to get off it, with the most reckless debts we have ever seen
in the history of America and with no end in sight?
These concerned Americans, many of whom have not been active
politically before, did one more thing: They went to the polls and
voted. They voted for new candidates they felt would take the action
necessary to protect America from financial disaster and to defend the
bedrock of our legal system--the Constitution. The result was a
colossal and historic shellacking from the big spenders.
Those who said: Things are fine. We in Washington will take care of
you. Don't question us. We will pass a Federal takeover of health care.
I know you don't want it, but we know better. Isn't that what they
said? We are progressives. We are smart. We are educated, more than
you. We know deficits don't really matter. Countries have deficits all
the time. While you don't understand, we know we have to bail out these
bankers and these financiers, these Wall Street big shots, because
principles of responsibility and accountability don't really apply
because we know better. We are smarter. Your old principles are fuddy-
duddy. Following the rules is not important. Rules don't have fixed
meanings. The Constitution doesn't really apply. It is old. It is out
of date. Just leave us alone with your money and the power to borrow,
and we will take care of you. Trust us. That didn't sit well with the
American people this last election.
[[Page S2317]]
They sent a message, in my opinion, that was crystal clear.
So should anybody be surprised, should there be any surprise that 64
new Members of Congress who had run and won elections promising to do
something about reckless spending didn't rubberstamp the Senate and the
President's proposal to fund increased funding for the rest of the
fiscal year, that they insisted that reductions occur and sent over a
$61 billion reduction, which, out of a $3,700 billion budget, is not
much, about 1 percent? States are reducing spending far more than that.
We have a choice, don't we? What is the choice? Business as usual or
taking the tough steps like Governors, mayors, counties commissioners,
and families are making this very moment. Our Governor in Alabama
announced a 15-percent reduction in spending.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired.
Mr. SESSIONS. This $61 billion doesn't come close to that. It is 1 or
2 percent of total government spending.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I rise to speak about decisions we need to
make about cutting spending, decisions we need to make now.
The Congress and the White House have not agreed on how much spending
needs to be cut or where the cuts need to come from, but at least we
can all agree that spending does need to be cut. Republican and
Democratic administrations and Congresses for decades have continually
increased Federal spending. Change is hard. It can be painful. That is
because we have lots of ideas for great programs that would really help
people out. But it is absolutely essential that our spending habits
take a 180-degree turn starting right now.
Tonight at midnight, the government will shut down if Congress does
not pass a continuing resolution. This situation can be avoided if
decisions are made in the next several hours.
The House approved a temporary plan yesterday to fund the government
for another week while a longer term deal was worked out. That plan
also funds our military through September. It includes language the
Democrats have approved in the past and the President has signed. But
the full Senate--all Senators, Democrats and Republicans alike--has not
been allowed a chance to vote on it.
In the Senate, we don't always agree on every line included in a
given bill, and we don't get a chance to vote on every line included in
a given bill, but I will venture to say most of us can agree on some of
them. We can all agree that a government shutdown is not an outcome
anyone wants.
The bottom line is that talk is cheap, and it is time to stop talking
about passing a continuing resolution and take action. Actually, it is
action that should have happened last September. Then we could be
working on the next year instead of the last year. The House-passed
bill gives us such an opportunity. It is the only bill that provides
funding for the troops, funds the government, and continues the
practice of cutting spending.
We are in this position because we do not have a budget from last
year, and we do not have completed funding bills for the current fiscal
year. The current fiscal year started last October 1--not January 1,
last October 1. We were supposed to get that finished up in September
so that agencies know what they are going to be spending for the next
fiscal year beginning October 1. Without action, the agencies get to
spend a proportionate amount of what they spent the previous year.
This year, we haven't had nearly the pressure to get a budget done
that we have had in previous years. But it is easy to know why. The
previous year, the spending increased by 18 percent. So agencies get to
continue spending at 18 percent above previous levels until we do
something about it.
It is far too late to do what we should have done last September,
which is make drastic cuts. We have already had 6 months of additional
spending, which makes it a little tougher at this time of year because
any spending cuts have to be taken out of the total year's revenue
beginning now. So a 50-percent decrease in an overall budget now is
tough because it is taken from funding for the remainder of the fiscal
year. I am an accountant, so I like to explain how funding cuts work.
I am especially concerned about our men and women in uniform who are
putting their lives on the line for this country. They will be paid
despite the shutdown, but their compensation should not have to be
delayed. They don't hesitate to defend this country, and we should not
hesitate to return that loyalty. I strongly support efforts to make
sure military personnel and their families are paid without delay if
the government shuts down.
I am hearing from servicemembers and their families in Wyoming. They
are worried about paying the rent, paying the bills, feeding their
children. Some have recently been transferred and are dealing with the
expense of moving their families across country or, in some cases, back
to the United States. They do not know where the backpay will come from
and are not sure what to tell their landlords or their banks. They want
and deserve answers.
For some time, we have been talking about reining in spending and
making sure our grandchildren are not saddled with the enormous debt
this country is facing. What we need to do in Washington is live within
our means. We have not been doing that, and it shows. We have a $14
trillion debt, and it is growing daily. Does anybody know what 1
trillion is? I will tell you a good start: Write the number ``14'' and
put 12 zeros after it. It is a whole different number than 1,000 or 1
million or 1 billion. I saw a kid with a T-shirt that said: Please
don't tell them what comes after a trillion. They are worried about it,
and they should be. We should all be worried about it.
This year we are going to take in $2.2 trillion. That is a lot of
money. Unfortunately, we are going to spend $3.7 trillion. Imagine if
you are a person who makes about $67,000 a year, and you spend $100,000
a year, each and every year. Where are you going to get the money?
Well, for a while you could probably borrow it. That is what we have
been doing. We are borrowing 40 cents of every $1 we spend. That is the
only way we can stay afloat--by borrowing 40 cents of every $1.
That means the interest on what we owe is $616 million a day--a day.
We are haggling over $61 billion in cuts. That would fund the
government's interest for 100 days--a drop in the bucket. But we have
to start sometime, and the best time to start is now.
Yesterday, Britain raised their interest rates one-quarter of a
percent. That is not much. Do you know what happens if our bonds go up
one-quarter of a percent? We are spending $240 billion--with a B--a
year on interest. If it goes up by 1 percent, we are going to spend
another $140 billion a year on interest. Interest payments do not buy
military equipment. They do not build schools. Interest payments go to
other parts of the world, some of which are not our friends. If our
interest rates increased by one quarter of one percent, that would be
an additional $35 billion owed--$35 billion just in increased interest.
If it goes up a whole percent, it is $140 billion.
So what we have been talking about is going back to 2008 levels of
spending, plus inflation. I have been talking to Wyoming folks who have
come out here. March is a big month for people to come to Washington
because they all come out for their special programs to make sure we
know how important they are. Of course, one disappointment I always
have is they think each one of those programs gets a vote. They do not.
By the time it gets here, what we get to do is vote for a package that
cuts spending or sometimes a package that increases spending. We do not
even get to vote on one that keeps spending neutral. In the condition
we are in, we have to be voting for the one that cuts spending--
whatever one it is that happens to get to us. Yes, cutting spending is
going to inflict some pain on some programs that each of us feels is
extremely important.
It will affect families. It will affect people. But that is what
happens when you get so delayed in outlining what you are going to pay
that you are 6 months late. If you were paying your own bills and you
were 6 months late paying them, what would your creditors say? They
would be a little upset. That is where we are. We are that far behind.
It is a dilemma, how to fund
[[Page S2318]]
the government so it spends within its means. But we are going to have
to do that.
When I explain where we are and what we have to do and talk about
going back to 2008 levels, I have been real pleased that the Wyoming
people say: Well, we can live with that. Hopefully, we don't have to go
below the 2008 levels. Well, if we were being serious about it, we
would. But that is where we are talking about going, the 2008 levels.
So that is what we are facing today. The budget forecast for the future
is troubling if we make changes now and dire if we do not. With
Americans across the county tightening their belts, it is time for the
Federal Government to do the same.
Folks in Wyoming do understand this concept. Our State is required--
and many States are required--to operate under a balanced budget, and
that does not mean borrowing money in order to balance the budget. That
means spending less than the revenues you get in any given year.
Wyoming is one of the few States that are still operating in the black.
We noticed there was a problem, and I want to congratulate Senator
Conrad and Senator Gregg for getting together the deficit commission
bill. We got a lot of cosponsors on it, and we had a vote on it. We did
not have the 60 votes that were necessary to do it. But I applaud the
President for picking that up and appointing a deficit commission. I
think he had two great cochairs. He had Alan Simpson, a former Senator,
and Erskine Bowles, who was the Chief of Staff for President Clinton.
They joined with 16 other people to figure out how to get out of this
morass. They came up with a plan, a good plan.
Their 18-member Commission had to have 14 members in favor of it
before they could actually put it into a forced vote for us. They did
not get that. They came close, but they did not get that. Of course, I
would have liked them to have broken that down, promised they would do
all six parts but break it down into six different parts because
different people objected to different parts, and there would have been
enough support to pass each part. We may have to do that in order to
get the same thing done on the Senate floor. I hope we will pursue
that. We need to pursue that. It is an absolute must.
The President did the right thing appointing the Commission. But we
had the State of the Union speech this year, and I thought he would
take what the Commission said and make it clear to the United States
that we must follow the Commission's recommendations. The President is
very good at making things clear, and they gave him a blueprint to make
clear. I think everybody in the United States would have understood. In
fact, I think a lot of people in the United States understand, even
without the explanation. They know if you spend more than you take in,
you are going broke. We have been doing it so long we are $14.6
trillion broke.
President Obama had another opportunity, which was the budget, and I
hoped his budget would reflect what the deficit commission said. One of
the things I found was he took some of the savings in tax expenditures
that could have resulted in some lower tax rates to increase our
international competitiveness and he spent it on new programs. As I
mentioned before, everybody has ideas for new programs, and a lot of
them are good ideas, and they would have an impact. But we are not even
able to afford the programs we already have.
I wish to laud Senator Coburn for joining me in asking for a review
of duplicative programs. In one department, we found $10 billion worth
of duplicative programs. That is not fraud, waste, and abuse. That is
people doing the same things as everybody else. I know from working on
education that in preschool we have 69 different preschool programs
that receive almost as much money as all of kindergarten through high
school from the Federal Government. There is a review on which ones are
effective and which ones are not, but we do not ever do anything with
the ones that are not. We are going to have to start eliminating
ineffective programs.
Several of my colleagues and I have suggested going back to funding
levels enacted in 2008 before the economic stimulus bill became the
baseline for government spending.
It is time to start making tough choices. If we do not make cuts now,
all the scenarios down the road are worse than what we are facing
today.
Let's stop the partisan banter and concentrate on the job we are here
to do. The current discussions between the Congress and the White House
are the beginning of America's journey back from the brink of financial
ruin. This is the first of many budget engagements. Democrats and
Republicans are playing chicken and neither is swerving. There may be a
collision tonight, but in the end, amongst the wreckage, smoke, and
scattered debris, I know America has to be the one left standing.
We can make it easy or we can make it hard. We do need to focus on
getting a long-term funding bill passed for the remainder of the fiscal
year--not just the next 5 days, the remainder of the fiscal year. Time
is running out in that year.
If we can get this done, we can start doing the real work; that is,
focusing on the Nation's solvency for future generations. Senator
Conrad, who is the chairman of the Budget Committee, has said he is not
going to start on the next year's budget until we finish this year's
appropriations. I think that probably makes sense so you know how much
money there is left over. But, wait a minute, there is not any money
left over. We are overspending.
As a grandpa, I do want to get this done so my grandchildren and
other children across the State of Wyoming and across the Nation are
not stuck with the consequences of our inaction. I hope everyone here
hopes they never have to answer to any of their grandchildren why they
had a chance to fix the problem and they did not. I do not think that
will happen. I think we will reach an agreement. I hope it is done
tonight.
I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I will share a few thoughts, and if any
of my colleagues come to the floor, I would be pleased to yield to
them.
I indicated earlier, pretty firmly, that I thought our Democratic
colleagues did not recognize the severity of the crisis we are facing
and were unwilling to confront the reality that we have to change what
we are doing. We do not have the money. When you are spending $3.7
trillion and taking in $2.2 trillion and there is no real prospect of
any alteration of that trajectory, something has to change, just like
everybody in the States are doing.
But one of the things that is galling to me is that not only are they
resisting taking any action to change the trajectory in any significant
way, they are going about to savage, criticize good and decent people
who are calling for change, people who pay their salaries. They are
labeling the millions of Americans who took to the streets during the
last election, went door to door, or had town meetings or rallies or
protests, who wrote letters to Congress, wrote letters to the
newspaper, called in to radio programs and said, We don't like what is
going on in Washington--they are labeling those people who
participated, many of them in politics for the first time in their
lives because they were worried about America, as extremists, radicals,
blind ideologues, basically with no common sense. I don't think that is
accurate. I don't think that is fair. I think every expert we have had
testify before the Budget Committee has said the same thing: You are
spending this country into oblivion. Mr. President, you need to submit
a budget that gets us off this path. It needs short-term spending
reductions and long-term plans to deal with the surging instability in
our large entitlement programs. You need to get busy now, and if you
don't get busy now, things will be worse.
Chairman Bernanke of the Federal Reserve said to the Budget
Committee, regarding the debts over 10 years from now: Don't worry, it
is not going to get there, because you are going to have a debt crisis
before you get there, and you are going to have to make changes
[[Page S2319]]
in the midst of a financial crisis--the worst possible time to make
those choices.
These men and women who expressed their concerns about America are
good people. They have been using the phrase I thought was interesting,
that Pete Domenici, the former Senator from New Mexico and former
chairman of the Budget Committee said: ``I have never been more afraid
for my country.'' I have never been more afraid for my country. That is
the heart and soul of the people who stood up in this last election who
are concerned about their country. It is the establishment--the go-
along, the no-change, the people in denial, we can't cut spending, it
will never work, no matter what we do it won't make any difference.
I thank the Chair. I see my colleagues here. I will be pleased to
yield the floor.
I note the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
The Senator from Delaware.
Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I rise today to add my voice to those who
have spoken on this Chamber floor this afternoon to express frustration
and concern about where we are as our Federal Government seems to be
moving inexorably toward a shutdown this evening.
As I have worked hard with my staff here in Washington and at home to
help them prepare for and explain to the people whom I represent what
is going on here and why, I have struggled. I have genuinely struggled
to understand why this impasse is leading, I think now inevitably,
toward a government shutdown. I still remain hopeful we will be able to
find some resolution in these last few hours. But I think it is
critical the people of the United States understand the consequences of
a government shutdown.
This isn't just about sending home Federal employees. This is going
to have a significant impact on our economy, on our recovery, on
working families all over this country, and I think on our reputation
around the world. At a time when many of us are standing up and saying
the United States and our system of democratic capitalism is a model
other nations should follow, our inability as a Congress--the House and
Senate working together--to reach a responsible consensus on what we
all agree is one of our top priorities is profoundly frustrating to me.
I was elected by the people of Delaware and sent here to deal with
three things: to try and get our private sector going again, creating
high-quality, good jobs for the people of Delaware and our country; to
deal with our significant deficit and our dramatic national debt and
the very real challenge to our future posed by them; and to try and do
it in a responsible and balanced and bipartisan way. In my view, at
this point in this budget fight, from everything I have been able to
hear from the press and from the leadership of my party here in this
body, it has stopped being about cutting the deficit and has instead
turned into a fight about ideology. If I understand correctly, as of
last night at the end of the negotiations, they moved from having 60
riders, so-called, on the bill that would fund the Federal Government
for the rest of the year, to down to just 1 or 2.
I thought one of the good things that came out of the 2010 election
was a broad-based focus--particularly by some of the tea party, but
lots of folks in our country who were upset with how Washington works--
a broad-based focus to stop having bills that were loaded up with lots
of riders and lots of extraneous things and to try and have commonsense
legislation that is easy to understand and that does what it is meant
to do. This, as I understand it, is no longer about the deficit and
about the budget. We are not being asked to consider whether we should
cut $70 billion or $72 billion or $78 billion; we are instead being
asked to agree to defunding title X.
Title X, a program that goes back to 1970, was enacted and signed
into law by President Nixon and provides a remarkable range of health
services to women all across this country. In my State of Delaware,
there are 26 community health centers that are funded by title X. Just
five of them are affiliated in some way with Planned Parenthood.
I wanted to come to the floor and take a moment to focus on what
title X funds: preventive health services, contraceptive services,
pregnancy testing, but also screening for cervical and breast cancer,
screening for blood pressure, anemia, diabetes, basic infertility,
health education, and referrals for other health and social services. I
know and have visited several of these health centers in my State. They
provide services to folks who otherwise have no access to basic health
care. If I understand correctly, what has happened in this body is that
we have come down to being willing to shut down the entire Federal
Government over this one issue of ideology. I am embarrassed and
ashamed on some level that we can't get this resolved.
As I understand it, the folks who came to Washington seeking
aggressive deficit reduction and spending cuts in this fiscal year have
achieved virtually all of their objectives. I think the initial goal
was $100 billion. My understanding, as the Presiding Officer heard as
well in our caucus lunch, is that we have agreed to up to $78 billion
in cuts in this fiscal year across the board in lots of different
sources of discretionary as well as other programs that can be cut this
year. That is a hard concession for folks who support government action
in our community and in our society to accept.
But I think one of our challenges is for the folks who may be on the
other side of this debate to hear ``yes,'' to accept that we have come
almost 80 percent of the way to meeting their initial goal, and to
instead recognize that I think this has long since turned into a fight
over ideology--over the narrow issue of women's health.
Let me give one last example, if I can, of what this means in my
hometown. My Senate office in Delaware and I have been working hard for
several months to follow on the example of my predecessor in this seat,
Senator Ted Kaufman of Delaware, and host a job fair on Monday, from 9
to 4, at the single biggest public space in Delaware, the Riverfront
Arts Center. We are going to host a job fair. We have 50 employers
lined up ready to interview people. We expect more than 1,000 out-of-
work Delawareans to show up, resumes in hand, ready to interview and,
hopefully, to be hired. If I understand the rules right, if the Federal
Government shuts down tonight, my staff can't carry out this job fair
on Monday.
Job one for me, and I think job one for all of us in this Chamber, is
helping our private sector, helping small businesses, helping our
communities connect good jobs with the folks who are out of work and
seeking employment. Fortunately, in our case, we have scrambled and
worked hard the last few days. The Governor of Delaware, our Department
of Labor, the Delaware economic office, and other volunteers have
worked hard and stepped up to make sure this job fair comes off on
Monday just fine without interruption.
We need to be focused on reining in the deficit and the debt, dealing
with our long-term budget, and getting folks back to work.
In conclusion, it is my hope that as a body we can come together in a
commonsense way. If we need to have a vote on the floor, if we need to
have a fight about access to health care for women in title X, let's
have that debate, but this should be a discussion today about the
deficit and about funding the operations of the Federal Government for
the year ahead. I look forward and hope we can turn back to that very
real work and not instead have a fight about ideology and access to
women's health.
Thank you very much, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
____________________