[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 23 (Wednesday, February 13, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S668-S670]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      STATE OF THE UNION REACTION

  Mr. COATS. Madam President, last night President Obama had the 
opportunity to present to the American people a plan envisioned for how 
he plans to strengthen the state of our Union.
  While I am pleased he finally turned his focus back to the ongoing 
jobs crisis in our country, I was left feeling disappointed and 
frustrated that the President continued to call for higher taxes to pay 
for more and more government spending.
  I don't believe the President acknowledges--or at least he didn't 
last evening--the seriousness of our debt and fiscal crisis. We are 
nearly $16.5 trillion in debt, and $6 trillion of that

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debt is from the President's spending over the last 4 years--and he now 
has 4 more years to go.
  Yet rather than tell the American people specifically how he will 
reduce this unsustainable debt, he once again pulled out the same tired 
playbook and made it clear his basic fiscal plan is ever higher taxes. 
It's almost an obsession with tax hikes and telling the American 
people: You are just not taxed enough, when we are practically taxed to 
death. When you add not just the Federal but the State and the local 
and the sales and the excise and gasoline and the entertainment and all 
the other taxes that American people pay in their daily lives, it cuts 
into their paycheck in a very significant way each week. The real 
question is, Is the solution to our problems more taxes on the American 
people?
  Mr. President, you got your taxes in the fiscal cliff debate. You had 
campaigned for this and you won the election. These tax levels were 
going to expire and hit every American with a massive tax increase. We 
clawed back a significant amount of that to protect the majority of 
Americans. But you got your taxes, Mr. President. Now is the time to 
address the other side of the so-called balanced approach that you have 
been promising: spending reductions.
  Sadly, last night gave us no indication that the President is 
committed to leading on this critical issue and fixing our economy and, 
more important, getting more people back to work.
  Instead of detailing a plan to reduce the record-high debt, he 
outlined a liberal laundry list of new government programs and 
initiatives. I could almost hear the sound of a cash register in the 
background--ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching--with every new program he put 
forward.
  Some of these ideas were worthy ideas, but we cannot afford them. How 
are we going to pay for them? What is the result? The President said in 
a most disingenuous way that none of these initiatives would add a dime 
to the already unsustainable debt. If they do not add a dime to the 
debt and you are proposing all kinds of programs that are going to cost 
a lot of money, there is only one way you can pay for them, and that is 
to raise taxes--either that or to continue to borrow money and put us 
in an ever-deeper hole of debt, more obligated to our creditors with 
each day that goes by.
  Hoosiers and Americans across the country are taxed enough. 
Washington cannot keep asking hard-working Americans to dig deeper and 
pony up more money so that the Federal Government can spend more. The 
American people no longer are falling for that. Hoosiers tell me they 
want to do their part to restore the fiscal health of this country. 
They want to do their part to help America become a better place and a 
more prosperous nation for their children and their grandchildren. They 
are willing to step up and do what it takes to help. But Hoosiers and 
the American people are not willing to be enablers to Washington's 
spending addiction. They want to see their lawmakers and this 
administration reform the outrageous, out-of-control spending, not 
continually call for higher taxes to pay for greater spending coming 
out of Washington.
  I have to say I was somewhat encouraged that the President mentioned 
he was willing to make modest reforms to programs like Medicare. Both 
Republicans and Democrats, including the President, agree that 
Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security represent the biggest portion 
and ever-growing percentage of government spending. The nonpartisan 
Congressional Budget Office recently reported that spending on 
Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security and the interest on the debt 
for that spending will consume 91 percent of all Federal revenues in 10 
years. That, then, takes all the wind out of our sails in terms of 
those necessary functions of the Federal Government, such as preparing 
adequately for our national security and defense and a number of other 
things the Federal Government is involved in that are essential 
functions. But with mandatory spending eating up, in 10 years, 91 
percent of all we take in, we still are not going to have the ability 
to pay for those programs.
  With 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day, we know the status quo 
is unsustainable. We cannot afford to continue the way we are. These 
programs are in jeopardy. We are not trying to take away the programs, 
we are trying to save the programs. They are in jeopardy, though, if we 
do not take steps now to structure them in a way that will control 
costs and preserve benefits for current and future recipients.
  Hard-working Hoosiers and millions of Americans have spent a lifetime 
paying into these programs, and they rely on the health and security 
benefits they receive from them. But these benefits will not last if we 
ignore the facts about the current fiscal status and insolvency these 
programs are careening toward and do nothing. I was glad the President 
at least acknowledged that we need to make modest reforms. I think we 
can do that.
  The reason we are dealing with this across-the-board sequester and 
the reason we are talking about potential cuts that have to be made is 
we have not had the courage and the will to stand up and recognize and 
acknowledge that it is the mandatory spending reforms that will put us 
in a place of fiscal health so we can continue the effective and 
essential functions of the Federal Government.
  According to the International Monetary Fund, to cover current 
obligations for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, our younger 
generation--our young people--will either have to pay 35 percent more 
taxes and receive 35 percent lower benefits. Those are the facts. Do 
the math, do the arithmetic. This is not ideological. This is not 
Republicans versus Democrats, liberals versus conservatives. This is 
pure numbers, pure math. It is an unsustainable course, and it is going 
to result in a massive decrease in benefits for those who pay into 
those programs over a lifetime or a massive increase in taxes on those 
who have to have that deducted from their paychecks and put into these 
programs in order to keep them solvent.
  We have to deal with that problem and deal with it now. We should 
have been dealing with it years ago. We have seen this train wreck 
coming, and it is getting ever closer. Now it is time for the 
President, having recognized the need to address this issue--now is the 
time that he needs to show the American people he is willing to lead, 
not from behind but from the front, and offer a specific plan to reform 
and strengthen our health and retirement security programs.
  The President said the sequester--the across-the-board cuts where 
everyone gets nicked--is a terrible idea. It is his terrible idea, and 
it is not the best way to address our spending plight. It is not the 
best way to deal with this because it basically assumes that every 
program is of equal value, that what is spent to provide security for 
the American people by having an adequate and strong military is at the 
same level as some program that has been proven years ago to be totally 
dysfunctional and efficient. But they would both get cut.
  I will be laying out a number of things, as others have--like Senator 
Coburn to highlight some of those programs that need to be reevaluated. 
Not that we think all of these ought to be eliminated or trimmed or 
that they don't fall into an essential category in terms of the role of 
the Federal Government but there are several programs that nonpartisan 
agencies, such as the General Accounting Office, or even the 
President's own Office of Management and Budget have recommended, are 
not worthy of the support they receive because they are not an 
essential function or they are even dysfunctional programs altogether.
  We do not have to delve into the across-the-board sequester, which we 
have no choice but to do now because we failed to live up to what we 
needed to do--and I will be talking about that later, as I said.
  I urge us to focus on fixing the country's fiscal health. We do not 
do that by raising taxes, we do it by enacting broad spending reforms. 
We do it by reducing our debt. We do it by creating a budget so we can 
live within our means. And we do it by promoting growth, growing our 
economy. A growing economy can solve a lot of problems and get a lot of 
people back to work. This is how we strengthen America, and this is how 
we get Americans back to work.
  It is time we get to work and accomplish this task that lies before 
us now,

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not later--no more deferrals, no more pushing it down the road. It is 
time to step up now, as the President said, putting the interest of our 
country ahead of our own personal political interest, rising above the 
political to do what is right for America.
  That is the challenge, and, Mr. President, we need your leadership.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
  Mr. VITTER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. VITTER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to enter into a 
colloquy with my Republican colleague from Alabama, as well as any 
other Members who may join us.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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