[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 36 (Wednesday, March 13, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Page S1718]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, four years, four long years, that is 
how long Kentuckians and Americans from coast to coast have had to wait 
for Senate Democrats to perform their most basic of legislative 
responsibilities.
  Later today, we hope, that long wait will come to an end when they 
finally release a budget plan.
  Given what we have heard about that budget so far, it is obvious why 
they refused to release one for so many years.
  We hear it won't prevent programs such as Medicare from going 
bankrupt.
  We hear it contains yet more wasteful ``stimulus'' spending, spending 
that turns out to be a lot more effective at generating jokes for late-
night comedians than jobs.
  And in order to finance more spending, we hear it relies on more than 
$1 trillion--that is trillion with a T--in new taxes, including on the 
middle class. Remember, Washington Democrats already got more than $600 
billion in taxes this year. So where is this new revenue going to come 
from, charities, the home mortgage interest deduction? Will they go 
after families and small businesses yet again?
  At least there is one thing we almost certainly know: their budget 
will never balance--not today, not tomorrow, not ever.
  If that was my vision for the country, frankly I would want to hide 
it from the American people too.
  Look, a budget like that would be a disaster for our country. It 
would betray those who are going to need Medicare when they retire.
  It would betray the younger Americans who would be forced to grapple 
with the consequences of Democrats' failure to get serious about the 
debt.
  It would betray the hard-working middle-class families that simply 
can't afford higher taxes, especially in the Obama economy.
  And if that is really the kind of budget Senate Democrats plan to 
offer, it would sacrifice Americans' hopes for sustained economic 
recovery at the altar of higher taxes and bloated, unaccountable 
government.
  It would also draw an important contrast with the budget Republicans 
put forward yesterday.
  Because here is the thing: Republicans believe we should be growing 
the economy, not the government--and the House Republican budget 
reflects just those priorities.
  It is a budget that does something else too; it actually balances.
  That is important for a number of reasons, not the least of which is 
that it would help unleash economic growth and bring down our country's 
massive debt load. Interest payments on the national debt alone are set 
to exceed everything we spend on defense in just a few years' time, so 
the path we are on clearly is not a sustainable one.
  With that in mind, I hope Democrats offer something serious today. I 
hope they face up to the fact that they already got the revenue they 
are going to get. So that they can start dealing with the real issues 
that are leading us to fiscal ruin.
  And I hope they will finally stop trying to shield the Washington 
establishment from every single attempt to inject a little 
accountability and reform, because if the reports I have seen are 
correct, the budget they plan to offer would do none of these things. 
It would only speed up the dangerous trajectory we are on rather than 
change it; entrench government waste and cronyism rather than root it 
out; and make things worse for the families we represent rather than 
give them hope. Hope is something the American people really need right 
now. They have been battered by the President's economy. They are tired 
of seeing their money wasted on an endless labyrinth of self-
perpetuating bureaucracy.
  So I am calling on my Democratic friends to shelve the extremist 
liberal budget we have been hearing so much about. Let's get serious 
here and start doing the things necessary to make government more 
efficient, more pro-growth, more responsive, and more compassionate--in 
other words, enact the same priorities Republicans have and, frankly, 
the priorities many of our constituents have too.
  After 4 long years, Senate Democrats should be willing to do more 
than just protect their buddies in government at all costs--to offer 
Americans something better than a budget that would expand the IRS and 
crush the middle class.
  The American people deserve better than that. Haven't they waited 
long enough already for true growth-oriented reform?
  I yield the floor.

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