[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 113 (Tuesday, July 26, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S4898]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           BUDGET COMPROMISE

  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I don't need to tell anybody in this 
Chamber that our Nation is at a crossroads. We are at a crossroads. We 
have said for many months that we would be at this point, and now we 
are here. For months, we have said we will need to make tough choices 
and difficult decisions, and now we are at that very point when we need 
to make those tough choices and difficult decisions to rein in the debt 
and the deficit, and to put our fiscal house in order, even as we raise 
the debt ceiling.
  This decision is difficult, tough, and excruciating for us. But it is 
hardly different than what American families are doing all around this 
country, and in Connecticut, because I have seen them and I have heard 
from them. So have you in this Chamber--families who are struggling to 
make ends meet, to stay in their homes, to keep their families 
together, to make those cuts in their spending, which we are now 
required to do in this Chamber for the Nation.
  It is a historic responsibility. We cannot keep kicking the can down 
the road. That is the analogy that has been drawn countless times in 
this Chamber, around the country, and by the President of the United 
States himself. The point is that the time for action is now--not delay 
or indecision, but real action that achieves a credible solution, which 
will demand compromise.
  Compromise is the essence of the American Republic. It is the way our 
Nation was founded--through compromise, people coming together, 
bringing differences to the table and resolving them. Families in 
Connecticut and all across the country are making these kinds of 
choices every day when they buy a car, a house, decide to go to school, 
and even marriage requires compromise. Compromise is the essence of the 
American Republic and the way we do business in this Chamber, in this 
city, in State capitals around the country, and in places of business 
and all places where momentous decisions are made.
  The American people expect nothing less of us than they do of 
themselves. There is no avoiding these tough choices and compromises 
now that will help us get our debt and deficit under control in a 
meaningful way.
  The markets and the Nation need a real plan, not a short-term or 
stopgap effort. We must demonstrate that we are committed to finding a 
real solution. A short-term plan would not provide the kind of 
certainty and reliability the markets are desperately seeking at this 
point. A short-term or stopgap solution risks many of the same dire 
economic consequences that would be triggered by a default itself.
  A financial Armageddon now, a catastrophic failure to raise the debt 
ceiling now, is exactly the same risk 6 months from now if we attempt 
to address our present issues through a short-term, stopgap measure. 
That financial Armageddon will affect every American family, every 
American small business, every American worker, and every job seeker. 
It is about jobs and economic recovery, because a failure to raise the 
debt ceiling will increase the cost of borrowing for every homeowner, 
every car buyer, every small business, and every person who has a 
credit card or otherwise seeks capital or credit in the market. By 
raising the cost of borrowing, it will simply crush our fragile 
economic recovery. It will be a job killer for this Nation. It is time 
now for compromise that will avoid those dire consequences for the 
American people.
  The Reid proposal is a compromise in the best sense of the term. It 
is a solution that meets all the criteria our Republican friends have 
been insisting on for weeks. It does not include revenue increases. It 
includes enough spending cuts to meet the amount of debt ceiling 
increase, dollar for dollar. It includes spending cuts that have been 
approved by many Republicans. Many of those spending cuts have been 
voted for.
  Most important, from my standpoint, and from the standpoint of many 
colleagues on this side of the aisle, it does not make spending cuts on 
the backs of our seniors and our most vulnerable citizens. It avoids 
spending cuts to Medicare and Social Security that would imperil or 
diminish the benefits of those programs.
  Let me tell you about this compromise, the Reid proposal. It is not 
transformational. It is not a grand bargain. It is incremental. It 
achieves progress step by step by step--the way progress has been made 
in this great Nation from its founding--step by step by step. It 
represents, as perhaps one of the columnists might have described it--
in fact, this morning in the New York Times, David Brooks said there 
has been an outbreak of sanity. This proposal represents an outbreak of 
sanity in roiled waters of emotionalism, personality conflicts, 
political acrimony.
  I hope my Republican colleagues will join us in seeking and ensuring 
stability for the markets and our fragile economic recovery, focusing 
on what concerns the American people now, and should, which is job 
growth. It is about jobs. We should get on with that historic path of 
creating jobs and enabling small businesses to borrow at rates they can 
afford, without hiking those interest rates as a result of a financial 
crisis that is truly avoidable. Failure would be the result of our own 
doing and our own failure in this Chamber.
  We need to keep our economy moving in the right direction. I am 
hopeful, even confident, that we can come together with good will on 
both sides to overcome our differences and achieve that compromise that 
the Reid proposal represents.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.
  Mr. ROBERTS. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, so ordered.
  The Senator from Kansas.

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