[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 14 (Thursday, January 31, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S429-S430]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE ECONOMY
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, the latest economic report came out
yesterday, and it showed that the economy of the United States actually
shrank in the last quarter of 2012, with U.S. exports plunging 5.7
percent. You heard me correctly--the economy is growing more slowly. In
fact, it is contracting rather than growing. This news is a sobering
reminder that we are still experiencing the weakest economic recovery
and the longest period of high unemployment since the Great Depression,
and it has very human consequences. Millions of Americans are out of
work or they are working part time when they wish they could work full
time so they can provide for their families.
We cannot create more jobs in this economy unless the economy grows.
We must never accept slow growth and high unemployment as the new
normal. As I said, these are not just economic concerns, these are
human concerns. When millions of people are unable to get full-time
jobs, the social and psychological effects can be devastating for
individuals, families, and entire communities. Yet it seems that the
President is no longer focused on the economy. By shutting down the
White House Jobs Council--with unemployment at 7.8 percent--the
President is sending a clear message that the economy and jobs are no
longer his top priorities and that his priorities lie elsewhere. This
is greatly disappointing.
We must do everything we can within our power to revive the American
jobs machine and accelerate the pace of U.S. economic growth. That
means doing some simple but apparently complicated things at the same
time, such as reforming our Tax Code, abolishing unnecessary and
harmful regulations, and removing the obstacles to greater domestic
energy production. In other words, we should copy the simple economic
blueprint that has proven so successful in my State of Texas: lower
taxes, limited government, sensible regulations, and strong support for
our domestic energy production. These policies have helped Texas turn a
$5 billion deficit into an $8.8 billion surplus while creating hundreds
of thousands of new jobs in the private sector.
Texas achieved that budget surplus by having the courage to make some
hard decisions when it came to spending.
Unfortunately, the Federal Government continues to spend and spend
and postpone its own hard decisions about America's long-term finances.
When we look back over the past several decades, for example, we see
our programs, such as Medicare and Social Security, on an unsustainable
path, and we see that virtually all of the increases in Federal
spending come from those programs. When we look ahead over the next
several decades, we see that these programs are headed for bankruptcy.
This is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue, this is
unacceptable to all of us. Why aren't we doing everything in our power
to preserve and protect Medicare and Social Security by taking the
steps we all know need to be taken in order to save these for future
generations?
I know there are some people in the Chamber and across the Capitol
who still believe we can solve all of our problems by raising taxes.
Well, we just saw the American people's taxes go up by roughly $60
billion a year as a result of the fiscal cliff negotiations. The
President has gotten his tax increase. The President has gotten his
pound of flesh. So now it is time for a little bit of what the
President himself likes to call ``balance.'' Where are the spending
cuts? Where is the spending restraint that would provide the balance to
offset that revenue increase? The President knows these facts as well
as anyone. He has acknowledged that tax increases alone cannot save
programs such as Medicare. Instead, we all know we need measured
structural reforms to make these programs sustainable in the long haul.
With the national debt now roughly around $16.5 trillion, with the
Medicare hospital trust fund projected to be insolvent within 11 years,
with our unfunded Medicare liabilities approaching $27 trillion, and
with our total unfunded liabilities exceeding $100 trillion, America's
toughest financial decisions must not be delayed any longer.
The politics, no doubt, are difficult, but the choice is pretty
simple: Either we will reform these programs--Medicare and Social
Security--gradually, slowing the rate of growth, or we will be forced
to slash them abruptly when the bottom drops out of our economy. If we
reform them gradually, starting now, we can minimize the impact and
protect our most vulnerable citizens. If we wait until a debt crisis
ensues and those changes have to be made abruptly, the impact will be
much harsher and they will disproportionately affect low-income people
and the needy. Nobody wants that. If we continue to kick the can down
the road, pretty soon we are going to run out of road.
I have one final point. I read in the Washington Post this morning
that people were saying that the contraction of the economy has been
because the Federal Government has not been spending enough. Well, I
would remind everyone here that about 40 cents out of every dollar the
Federal Government spends is borrowed money. That racks up trillion-
dollar-plus annual deficits and contributes to the $16.5 trillion
national debt. We cannot keep spending our way out of slow economic
growth. Over the past few years, we witnessed an explosion of new
Federal spending, and that has not solved our economic problems. We
have also seen the weakest economic recovery since the Great
Depression. So we have seen a confluence of unprecedented Federal
spending and weak economic growth. That is not a coincidence.
In 2008 America ranked No. 1 in the world for global competitiveness.
We were No. 1 in the world. In 2012 we ranked seventh. In 2008 we
ranked fifth on the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom.
Today we rank 10th. This decline is simply unacceptable and can be
easily reversed--not with more government spending of borrowed money,
thereby exacerbating our deficits and debt and crowding out the private
sector, creating uncertainty as to what our tax policy will be or what
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the fiscal consequences will be when the bottom drops out. Instead,
what we need are genuine progrowth policies designed to help small
businesses and middle-class families.
We don't need more government intervention; we need more
entrepreneurship and more innovation. Government must simply take its
boot off the neck of the great American jobs engine. After all, this is
still the most dynamic economy on Earth, and America continues to
attract the best and brightest from around the world who want to come
to America to achieve their own version of the American dream. With
better leadership--particularly from the President, whose leadership is
required--there is no reason we cannot turn this slow economic growth
around and turn it into fast growth, which in turn will increase
private sector job creation. It will create more taxpayers who will pay
more money into the Treasury, which will help us close that deficit. In
the process, we need to expand economic opportunity for all Americans.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.
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