[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 86 (Wednesday, June 15, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3798-S3799]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           FISCAL DISCIPLINE

  Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I am actually glad to have come to the 
floor after my colleague from Illinois has just spoken. I was in 
Illinois this week talking with a number of people there in the 
business community as part of what I do on the Banking Committee. I 
wish to say that in talking to many of the great civic and business 
leaders who exist in Illinois, one of the biggest concerns they have 
is, in fact, this debt ceiling issue and the reduction of debt. I 
appreciate the work of the Senator from Illinois in trying to reach a 
compromise. As a matter of fact, I salute anybody who is trying to work 
to solve this problem.
  I wish to say, from my standpoint, I know the debt ceiling is a major 
issue, and for me to be able to support it, we need to have dramatic 
changes in the way spending is taking place in this country. I think 
there are numbers of people on both sides of the aisle who feel that 
way. I have offered the only, to my knowledge, concrete proposal that 
has bipartisan support in both the Senate and in the House. I wish to 
mention there are a number of discussions about the Medicare proposal 
Paul Ryan has put forth, and certainly it is not perfect.
  I would love to see a proposal made from the other side since 
everyone knows Medicare is going to be insolvent in the year 2024. The 
worst thing we can do, of course, is not pay attention. I hope at some 
point in the near future we will actually hear a concrete proposal from 
the other side of the aisle regarding Medicare.
  But let me go back to the State of Illinois and the state of our 
country and certainly the people in Tennessee. There is tremendous 
uncertainty out there in the business community. As a matter of fact, 
in talking to one of our leading economists last night, corporate 
balance sheets today are flush with cash, but companies are unwilling 
to invest that cash in long-term assets because they are concerned 
about what we are going to do here in Washington. They are concerned 
about whether we as a country are going to actually deal with our debt 
ceiling, deal with our indebtedness in a way that makes progress. So 
there is tremendous uncertainty.
  That is, in my opinion, one of the leading causes of the economic 
issues we are dealing with, the high unemployment. It has been 777 days 
since this body even passed a budget. If you can imagine having a 
country such as ours with 535 people in the House and Senate spending 
money without a budget for that long, obviously it is a display of an 
incredible lack of discipline and certainly sends the wrong signal to 
the business community.
  So I do think our country is suffering, suffering economically. Every 
person I talk to is concerned about the uncertainty of whether we as a 
country are going to be able to deal with our indebtedness, the 
tremendous amount of debt this country is piling up because we are 
spending money we do not have.
  I do look at this August 2 deadline as a line in the sand for us as a 
country. There is plenty of time for us between now--June 15--and 
August 2 to actually come to an agreement on these big issues. One of 
the things I hope will be a part of anything we do is something like 
the fiscal straitjacket that the CAP Act outlines. I do not think there 
is anybody in this body who disagrees with the fact that we as a 
country are spending money we do not have and more money than we 
should. As a country, we have spent about 20.6 percent of our country's 
gross domestic product for the last 40 years. That is the post-
entitlement period. Today as a country we are spending almost 25 
percent of our country's economic output on the Federal Government, and 
that number is rising geometrically.
  So we put forth a bill. It is called the CAP Act. Again, it has 
bipartisan support in the Senate, bipartisan support in the House, that 
would take us, over a 10-year period, down to the 40-year average and 
save our country about $7.6 trillion over what is called the 
alternative fiscal scenario as printed by CBO.
  There is no doubt in my mind--I do not think there is anybody in this 
body who would disagree with this--that the signals we are sending to 
the country and the world about our inability to come to a conclusion 
about our spending is affecting the economy. I cannot imagine there is 
anybody who would disagree with that. We have had people come in, 
economists telling us what will happen if we do not raise the debt 
ceiling, what will happen if we do and we do not do those things that 
are necessary to lower the amount of spending that is taking place here 
in Washington.
  Again, I have offered something that is practical. People on both 
sides of the aisle have joined. I know there are discussions that are 
taking place. They are called the Blair House negotiations between the 
Vice President and Members of this body, and I am understanding that a 
fiscal straitjacket is part of that discussion; in other words, making 
sure that over the next 10 years whatever costs we cut are actually 
locked in, and more cuts are gotten through the imposition, if you 
will, of a declining fiscal straitjacket, where we, in essence, get 
back to the norm as it relates to spending and our economy in this 
country.
  I want to say I think one of the greatest things we can do to 
actually spur the economy--as much as people care about spending in 
this country today; and there are a lot of people who do--believe it or 
not, they care, as they should, even more right now about the economy 
and their own family's situation. I think these two are intertwined. I 
think if we as a body were to show fiscal discipline, show some 
certainty into the future, show the business community and the world 
community we have the ability to have discipline, to act responsibly, I 
believe it would unleash tremendous amounts of investment.
  Again, a leading economist last night says he has never seen a 
situation where this much cash resides on corporate balance sheets, but 
corporations are unwilling to invest them in long-term assets. What 
that means, what that translates into is they are not building plants, 
they are not expanding because they are concerned about policies in 
Washington, one of which is: Can we control our spending?
  So I do think that August 2 is a seminal moment in our country's 
history. There is nothing happening here in the Senate. Let's face it. 
We are voting on judges we do not even need to vote on. We could pass 
them out of here by unanimous consent. We have bills on the floor that 
mean nothing, that are never going to become law, just to fill up time. 
We know that. It has to be the most boring time in the world for a 
Presiding Officer. Nothing is happening. The oxygen is taken out of the

[[Page S3799]]

room over this debt issue, and we are debating things that are never 
going to happen. It is almost a farce in many ways.
  So there is plenty of time--it is June 15--for us to negotiate 
something that is meaningful as it relates to cuts, and certainly 
plenty of time to act, to put something in place such as the CAP Act as 
part of the overall need to reform our entitlements and make sure they 
are here for future generations.
  Let me state one more time that I feel as if, in many ways, what we 
are reading in the media about these negotiations is almost a walking 
down of expectations. In other words, most of us want to see something 
big happen for this country. We see this as a true seminal moment for 
our country. But from what I read of the various snippets that are 
coming out of these discussions, it is almost intended each day to tamp 
down what our expectations are.
  I want to say to everybody in this body, unless I see dramatic 
changes in spending as a result of these negotiations, I absolutely 
will not vote for this debt ceiling increase. If we are going to have a 
calamity in this country--and there are economists who say we are going 
to have a calamity either way: in other words, if we do not act 
responsibly and pass a debt ceiling, we are going to send a signal to 
world markets that we do not have the ability to control spending; if 
we do not raise the debt ceiling, there are those who will say there is 
going to be a calamity.
  Here is what I would say. I am 58 years old. I came to this body 
because I wanted to solve our county's problems or be a part of that 
working with others. I want to say--I want to go on the record--that I 
would rather us have a calamity this summer on my watch while I am here 
so I can deal with it than I would to pass a debt ceiling and not do 
something that dramatically alters our fiscal situation in this country 
and pass it along to someone else who may come behind me. I think there 
is a lot of sentiment in that regard. I hope there is a lot of 
sentiment in that regard: that all of us--all of us--would rather bear 
the brunt of irresponsibility while we are here than pass it on down 
the road.
  So I am here to talk about a component of a solution which is the CAP 
Act. There may be some variation of this that makes more sense. 
Certainly, I have no monopoly on wisdom. But I hope something like 
this, if it is not exactly the CAP Act as written, is a component of 
the negotiations. I know during these negotiations this is actually 
being discussed: meaning, how we cap spending and actually put Congress 
in a fiscal straitjacket, for lack of a better word.
  This is a seminal moment. I hope we will not water down expectations. 
I hope we will rise to the occasion and, as the Senator from Illinois 
mentioned, deal with this in a responsible way. I hope very soon we 
will actually have a debate on this floor about what it is that has 
actually been arrived at, what the deal is, so we can actually talk 
about it in a responsible way and do those things we all know are very 
important to our country, very important to our country's solvency, and 
certainly very important to all those Americans out there who are 
uncertain as to whether the heads of households, who provide such great 
opportunities for those people coming under them, have the opportunity 
for good-paying jobs.
  With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.

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