[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 126 (Thursday, July 25, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S5075]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            BUDGET AGREEMENT

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, on another matter--this is on deficits. 
I am not in the habit of commenting on every opinion issued by 
newspapers I don't typically agree with, but this week, the Wall Street 
Journal wrote such a howler of an editorial that I feel compelled to.
  The Wall Street Journal editorial board criticized the latest budget 
agreement for its increase in domestic spending, wringing its hands 
over the effect on deficits, while simultaneously praising defense 
spending, which the editorial board believes, for some reason, has 
nothing to do with deficits.
  This, by the way, is the same editorial board that played head 
cheerleader for the Republican tax bill, which contained such mammoth 
tax cuts for the biggest corporations and the already wealthy that it 
will add $2 trillion to our deficits--$2 trillion. Huge tax cuts 
contributed more to the deficit than all of these spending programs put 
together, but the Wall Street Journal cheered on the tax cuts and now 
says: Don't spend for the middle class on things like education and 
infrastructure that have broad support in America and helping kids go 
to college. Don't spend on that because it increases the deficit, but 
it is OK to pass massive tax cuts for the rich and the big corporations 
that are already profitable.
  So, for the sake of the record, the Wall Street Journal editorial 
board believes deficits are really bad but only if they are caused by 
investments in Americans' healthcare or education or infrastructure. 
When deficits are caused by defense spending and when deficits are 
caused by tax cuts for the wealthy, they are peachy.
  The truth is, so many of my Republican friends have engaged in the 
same egregious bit of hypocrisy. So I have a few words this morning for 
my deficit-scolding friends Mick Mulvaney and the Wall Street Journal 
editorial board: A deficit is a deficit is a deficit. They try to make 
the argument that massive tax cuts won't create a deficit, but all the 
numbers that are coming in now and are projected in the future say that 
is just not true. If the Wall Street Journal really cared about 
deficits above all, they wouldn't have supported the tax bill.
  When the Senate debated these tax cuts in 2017, there were several 
proposals on the table--many Democrats and Republicans supported them--
that would have reduced taxes on corporations while remaining deficit-
neutral. Many would have changed the Tax Code in ways I didn't support, 
but nonetheless they would have held revenues and expenditures in line. 
We didn't hear a peep out of the Journal to support those proposals--
oh, no. Democrats even put together a deficit-neutral middle-class tax 
cut at the time, but Republicans ignored it and pushed through Congress 
a bill that lined the pockets of the wealthy--blowing a $2 trillion 
hole in our deficit. The Wall Street Journal could have said something 
then. They didn't. They were asleep at the switch. They were asleep at 
the switch then, and they are crying now.
  The fact is, Republican tax cuts for the wealthy and endless wars in 
the Middle East, championed by George Bush and the Republican Party, 
are the big drivers of the Nation's debt and deficit, not nondefense 
domestic spending.
  President Obama, to his credit, cut the budget deficit in half during 
his term. The last time we had a surplus was under a Democratic 
President, Bill Clinton. In fact, every single Republican 
administration has added to the deficit, while every single Democratic 
administration has shrunk it since 1981--Reagan, deficit increased; H. 
W., deficit increased; Bill Clinton, deficit goes down; George Bush, 
deficit increased; Obama, deficit goes down; Donald Trump, deficit 
going up. What does that say?
  So, to the Wall Street Journal editorial board and my Republican 
friends who are silent about Trump-era deficits but rail against 
domestic spending, I say: Spare us. Enough. Enough with this deficit 
hypocrisy.

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