[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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