[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 194 (Friday, December 16, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8704-S8706]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             APPROPRIATIONS

  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, we seem to be heading to an agreement

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today. At this point, the House appears to be ready to vote on the 
conference report on the appropriations bills for the rest of the 
fiscal year, which would be until the end of September of next year. I 
think this is good. We came to an agreement in August called the Budget 
Control Act. It was a 10-year commitment to lower spending, lower our 
deficits. It required a cap in each of the next 10 years that would be 
a down payment on our debt, would lower the deficit and lower the debt.
  The Omnibus appropriations bill, obviously, because it has so many 
different agencies in it, rather than each separate agency bill going 
forward as we have done normally in the past in the Senate--because it 
has so many, there are people who are going to disagree with parts of 
it. There is no getting around that. The military construction, of 
which I am on the subcommittee and have chaired it in the past, is part 
of this bill. So are many of the other bills that are very important 
for the functioning of our government.
  However, the appropriations bill sticks with the agreement we all 
made. In August, there was a lot of negotiation on how we deal with the 
debt. To be honest, I did not think it was enough. Many of us did not 
think it was enough. But we have not been able to come to terms between 
the two Houses of Congress and with the President on how we can do more 
and get the votes to do it and get the President to sign the bill.
  So I am not saying we are going to agree with everything in this 
Omnibus appropriations bill. But every one of these bills did go 
through the committee, and they have been vetted. They did keep the 
agreement. We have lowered the spending across the board. We set the 
final fiscal year 2012 funding at $1.043 trillion. This is $7 billion 
less than last year's level, and it is almost $100 billion less than 
the President's request.
  Now, it is not enough for many people in this body, but we all voted 
in the majority; 74 separate Members voted in favor of the Budget 
Control Act, and the appropriations bills all have met those caps. That 
is something I do not hear said very often in this body, that we have 
met the caps.
  I was vice chairman, the ranking member, of one of the very important 
appropriations committees that funded NASA, the Department of Commerce, 
the Department of Justice. We met these caps. It was hard. Each one of 
the subcommittees of the Appropriations Committees on the Senate side 
met the caps, even though we had to cut and balance and set priorities 
and not fund some of the important areas that we would like to have 
funded. But that is what choosing and prioritizing are about. That is 
why we made the agreement, and we stuck to it. So when all of these 
appropriations bills are complete, we will have cut discretionary 
spending for 2 years in a row for the first time in modern history, 
frankly, really cut.
  So now we are working toward cutting the deficits over a 10-year 
period as we agreed we would do. In the next few days, I hope we are 
going to take fiscal year 2012 off the books and immediately focus our 
attention on long-term deficit reduction and, hopefully, comprehensive 
tax reform because the real issue is how we are going to get the debt 
down more.
  We are talking about a $15 trillion debt. If we cut the debt $1 
trillion, it is a down payment. But I think we need to do more in a 
responsible way. But we cannot do it all in discretionary spending. If 
we are going to do what the taxpayers elected us to do, then we are 
going to have to deal with entitlements. We are going to have to deal 
with Social Security reform and Medicare reform.
  Everyone knows, common sense tells us, Social Security has changed 
since the time it was passed and today when people are living longer 
and retiring later. But we have not accommodated those changes. We have 
not set the actuarial tables that would sustain Social Security for the 
next 75 years. We could do it by just very gradually, 3 months a year 
only, increasing the age of retirement; put a cap on it at 68 or 69. We 
could bring Social Security into balance.
  We would also have to make adjustments in the cost of living 
increases. But we would not have to raise taxes, and we would not have 
to cut the core benefits in any reduction. So we can do this and make 
significant deficit reductions so the $15 trillion starts coming down. 
That is our debt.
  We have to deal with Social Security reform. I have introduced 
legislation, the Defend and Save Social Security Act, with Senator Kyl 
as my cosponsor that has done exactly that. Other Senators have 
introduced legislation. Senator Paul introduced legislation that would 
gradually bring down the Social Security deficit, which would also 
bring down the debt of our country. This is responsible. I am going to 
push next year to try to get this Social Security reform.
  But in the next 2 days we are going to deal with discretionary 
spending because that is all we have on the table to deal with, and we 
are going to keep the agreements we made in the Budget Control Act, 
which 74 Members of the Senate supported. The appropriators have kept 
their word. Every single bill has had a cap on spending. Where we have 
the capability to deal with discretionary spending--and that is all we 
have, we cannot deal with entitlements until we have entitlement 
reform. But in discretionary spending, the appropriators have kept 
their word. That is what we will be voting on, to keep the word that 74 
Senators agreed was the right approach.
  We are going to vote on a bill that will be passed by the House today 
and, hopefully, be passed by the Senate tonight or tomorrow as our 
leader has said we will. I hope we can pass that bill.
  We also have to deal with the long term. We are not going to be able 
to do it in the next 2 days, but surely when we come back next year we 
can pick up tax reform. We can put our Tax Code in a better structure 
so our corporations will bring their businesses that are now overseas 
back to America. Those are going to be jobs in America. That is how we 
want to create revenue in this country, not by taxing the people who 
would hire people but by having an equitable Tax Code that will make 
corporations do their business here so people will have jobs, and they 
will increase their revenue and the economy of our country.

  That is the way we need to deal with the long term. We need to deal 
with entitlement reform and Tax Code reform. We do not have a revenue 
problem in this country. We do not have a problem with people paying 
too little in taxes. We have a spending problem that has given us a $15 
trillion debt.
  So I hope as all of those families in America are settling in for the 
holidays that we would be doing the work in Washington that would 
assure a long-term future for these families, which means we are going 
to have to cut spending from the government, that we are not going to 
increase taxes on the working people of our country, and that we would 
have regulatory reform that would allow our small businesses to grow 
without the heavy hand of government putting a blanket on their ability 
to grow.
  When there is a blanket on the ability to grow, they are not going to 
hire more people. That is the problem we have in this country right 
now. So we are making, in the next 2 days, I hope--I hope my colleagues 
will support the agreement we made in August to start the down payment 
on the spending in this country, lowering it, lowering it from what the 
President sent over, a budget from which we have cut almost $100 
billion.
  Even in the face of this crisis in this country on spending, the 
President sent us a budget that was almost $100 billion more than we 
are going to pass in the House and Senate because we made an agreement 
in August to cut spending. The House is also going to send disaster 
relief, which I will certainly support, and they are going to send a 
bill that would pay for it with a 1.83-percent across-the-board cut in 
discretionary base spending, excluding the Department of Defense, 
military construction, and veterans affairs. I think that is a 
responsible approach.
  I think with the budget that we are putting forward with the 
appropriations, with a 1.83-percent across-the-board cut to fund 
disaster relief that we know is going to happen and be necessary in the 
next 9 months of next year, that we should pay for that. We should have 
disaster relief in our budgets in the future, and we should try to 
accommodate it right now.
  We are not going to withhold it for people who are in need. We do not

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know if it is going to be wildfires or droughts or hurricanes or 
tornados. We are not going to deny that help. But it should be budgeted 
just like everything we do. We should have some sense that we have 
prepared for it. Preparing for disasters should be part of our budget. 
There is not a business in this country that does not prepare for 
disasters. The government should do it too.
  I hope we will be on a trajectory to lower the spending, keeping our 
agreement of August with the Omnibus appropriations bill that is going 
to be passed by the House this afternoon and will come to the Senate. I 
hope we will be able to act by tomorrow on that piece of legislation 
that keeps the agreements we made.
  It is a down payment. It is not what all of us wanted, but I think we 
ought to put in disaster relief. I think we ought to pay for that with 
another 1.83-percent cut across the board. I think that would be the 
responsible approach, and then we can start next year on the long term. 
That would be regulatory reform, Social Security reform--to make it 
solvent for 75 years, at least--and Medicare reform. Those are the 
things that will give us a long-term, hopefully, solvent government 
that will be the model for the world because, is there any question 
that we need a model in the world right now for fiscal discipline and 
responsible governing? I hope America can provide it.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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