[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 15 (Tuesday, January 24, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S64-S66]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DEBT CEILING
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, we have seen this movie before. The Senate
finds itself in familiar territory. The United States narrowly avoided
hitting the debt ceiling over a year ago, but now we are staring down
the barrel of another debt crisis.
The United States hit the debt limit last Thursday, according to the
Secretary of Treasury, and now the Treasury is using what they refer
to, euphemistically, as ``extraordinary measures'' in order to prevent
the government from defaulting on its debts. Unless the Congress takes
action in the coming months, the American economy will be confronted
with an unprecedented crisis.
But here is what I find strange: Despite the fact that we are
hurtling toward this disaster, the White House seems completely
disinterested in finding a solution. President Biden has drawn a
redline. He said: We are not going to negotiate on the debt ceiling. In
other words, he expects Congress to raise the debt ceiling with no
conditions attached and let this reckless runaway spending and
outrageous debt continue to rise.
Now, I don't want to disparage drunken sailors, but it seems to me
that that is the model for how the White House is responding.
It is as if you or I were spending beyond our means on our credit
card, and then the issuer of the credit card said: You know, you are
going to have to pay the money back at some point.
And you say: To heck with that. I want you to raise my credit limit
even higher, without any demonstrated means or plan to actually pay the
money back.
We know what would happen for you and me is the issuer of the credit
card would cancel our credit card, as well it should, if we responded
the way that the White House is responding.
So apparently what the administration plans to continue to do is
continue this spending bender. It can't cover the current bills--now it
is roughly $30 trillion--and it expects somebody, anybody, maybe
nobody, to pay the money back and to deal with this ever-growing
national debt.
We know this is an even bigger problem in inflationary times because
the more money the Federal Government continues to spend, it is like
throwing gasoline on inflation, and consumers have already experienced
sky-high prices--some of the highest prices in 40 years--on everything
from gasoline to food, to housing, and to the essentials of life.
So why in the world does it make sense for the administration to say:
We are not even going to talk; we are not even going to negotiate with
the House when it comes to the debt ceiling. We are just going to keep
spending as much money as we can, racking up more and more debt.
I know that President Biden has children and grandchildren. Is he
concerned for their welfare?
We are writing checks that we are not going to have to pay back, Mr.
President. You and I are at the age where this bird is not going to
come home to roost in our lifetime, but it will in the lifetimes of our
children and grandchildren, including those of President Biden.
So how responsible--or I should say how irresponsible--is it for the
President to say: We are just going to keep on keeping on, and we are
not even going to talk about what we need to do to deal with this
mounting debt. We are not even going to entertain any reasonable ideas
or suggestions about how we dig our way out of this hole.
Well, the American people witnessed our Democratic colleagues'
wasteful spending over the last 2 years and chose a new direction in
the midterm elections that gave Republicans the House after 2 years in
which our Democratic colleagues spent $1.9 trillion on the so-called
American Rescue Plan and then another 700-or-so billion dollars on the
so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which, by the way, doesn't reduce
inflation, but that is what it is called.
In response, the voters gave Republicans the majority in the House. I
can only imagine that part of that was a response to what they saw as a
reckless spending binge that was going to continue without end if they
maintained Democratic control of both Houses and the White House.
So the new reality of divided government means there is only one path
we can take to avoiding a debt bomb: Republicans and Democrats have to
reach a compromise.
I know the Presiding Officer believes that part of our responsibility
is to negotiate and try to come up with common ground where we can and
not simply to give the Heisman to one another and say we are not even
going to talk.
I don't know why we are here as Members of Congress or why you would
want to be President of the United States when you would see such a big
problem growing bigger by the day and say: Forget it. I am not talking.
I am not going to try to solve the problem. That is somebody else's
issue; that is not ours.
[[Page S65]]
I don't believe that is a responsible reaction, and I don't think
most Members of Congress think it is a responsible reaction, but that
is where we are today, but it needs to change.
As we know, the reality of Republican control of the House means that
the negotiation on the debt ceiling--and there has to be a
negotiation--in reality, has to be between the House and the White
House. Nothing we do here that would get 60 votes would pass the House,
I believe. I think that is pretty clear.
But in order to avoid a catastrophe, a bill not only has to pass the
House, it needs to get 60 votes in the Senate and the President's
signature. Those are the facts.
Now, drawing unreasonable lines in the sand and issuing ultimatums do
nothing to solve the problem. Instead of doling out marching orders,
the President needs to do his job and listen to what is being proposed
and to negotiate a solution.
Nobody I know of thinks that breaching the debt ceiling is an
acceptable outcome. If that is true, and I believe it is true, then
there is only one alternative: try to work together to come up with
some negotiated outcome that avoids breaching the debt ceiling but at
the same time provides some answer to those people concerned--and I am
one of them--about the ever-increasing debt and what high interest
rates that are used to combat inflation are going to mean in terms of
how much money we are going to have to pay to service that debt and
where that will come--out of things like defense spending or other
priorities.
President Biden served as a Member of the Senate for many, many
years, and he ran on the promise of continuing his same approach as a
dealmaker as President of the United States. In fact, he pointed to his
record in the Senate and as Vice President as proof of his ability to
reach across the aisle and to strike a compromise.
Now, I know in some quarters ``compromise'' is a dirty word these
days, but there is no other way for us to function here because none of
us is a dictator, none of us can say: This is the way it is and
actually be able to accomplish what they seek.
Instead, the President does have some record--a good record, in one
instance--of doing exactly what he refuses to do today.
As Vice President, Joe Biden helped negotiate the 2011 Budget Control
Act, which was the last substantial and meaningful attempt to rein in
wasteful Washington spending.
At that point, our economy was still recovering from a recession
caused by the financial crisis in 2008. Federal spending soared,
revenues plummeted, and it was clear that something--something--had to
be done to stave off an even bigger economic crisis.
President Obama was in the White House, and Congress was divided;
Democrats controlled the Senate, Republicans controlled the House in
2011. And as it turns out, then-Vice President Biden was a key
negotiator. He helped broker the agreement, working principally with
then-Senator McConnell, the Republican leader, to come up with a bill
that passed with strong bipartisan support.
So here we are, a dozen years later, and we find ourselves in a
similar condition, without the solution.
Our economy is recovering from an unprecedented pandemic. Federal
spending has soared. A large part of that was roughly $5 trillion that
Democrats and Republicans spent together because we saw no alternative
but to try to respond to the COVID crisis in a way that addressed
public health needs--like coming up with a vaccine--and helped sustain
our economy during this crisis.
But then the wheels came off the bipartisanship over the last 2
years, as I mentioned, with the ARP and the IRA, to use a couple of
acronyms.
But the American people have nowhere else to turn but here for to us
address this problem.
Now, I think it is easy to engage in the blame game, and we do it
here all the time. In fact, here in Washington, DC, it is a world-class
sport, but at some point you have got to quit pointing the finger and
you have got to try to step up and roll up your sleeves and try to
solve the immediate problem.
I am not suggesting we can solve all of our problems or even do it
permanently, but we can address this current crisis by doing what we
are paid to do, what we are elected to do, what we took an oath to do,
which is to represent our constituents to the best of our ability.
So this is the time for President Biden to step up. He is President
of the United States, and he has done it before when he was Vice
President in 2011.
All it would take to start this process is to invite the House, the
Senate: Come. Sit around the table to discuss the problem and to try to
listen to what potential solutions there might be, just as he promised
to do on the campaign trail.
So it is time for him to do what he promised to do all along and
lead. Presidents can't be a spectator. They can't sit on the sidelines.
Nobody in America expects a President of the United States to do that.
And the fact is, the President is not just a leader of the Democratic
Party. He is the elected leader of the United States of America--all
330-plus million of us.
So taking a partisan position, knowing the challenges that the House
is going to have dealing with a debt ceiling, and just sort of enjoying
watching them struggle to deal with this is not an act of courage. It
is not an act of leadership. We expect our Presidents to make tough
decisions, just as we ourselves are expected to make tough decisions
and to try to come up with solutions.
I can't imagine any responsible person in the country, much less in
Congress, who would take the position that a clean debt ceiling
increase is the way to go. I mentioned that a moment ago.
Who is going to pay the 30 trillion back we already owe? Is the idea
that we can just continue to heap debt upon debt upon debt? Does
anybody think that is a good idea? How, if we have another fiscal
crisis like we had in 2008, would we be able to respond? How, if we had
another pandemic, would we be able to respond with this debt
handcuffing Congress when we need maximum flexibility to be able to
respond?
And I mentioned the interest rates that are higher than they have
been in a long time, which continue to eat up more and more tax revenue
just to service that debt to pay their bondholders on their investment.
So this is not just a problem that can be punted. This does not call
for partisan responses. This calls for statesmanship. It calls for
leadership.
And as part of this, we have to look at what got us in this condition
in the first place. Why it is that we need to raise the debt ceiling.
We know that America's debt crisis didn't appear overnight. It has
been building for decades. And lest anybody believe that I am
suggesting that this is strictly a Democratic problem, it has really
been something that both political parties have contributed to over
time. Somehow, we became anaesthetized or desensitized to the fact that
we continue to spend borrowed money. It is true that we point to the
various crises we have had, and we say, ``Well, we really didn't have
any other choice.'' But now we do have a choice. We can respond to this
responsibly and do our jobs.
Well, we need to get out-of-control spending habits in check. No
household, no city council, no county government, no State government
could possibly do what the Federal Government is doing. They have to
live with a balanced budget. They have to live within their means. I am
not suggesting it is going to be easy--because it is not--but it is not
optional.
One of the most important things we can do as part of this response
is to return to a regular appropriations process in funding the
government each year. The idea that we can do this through an omnibus
appropriations process, like we were forced to do last year in backing
it up to December 23rd, right before Christmas, and threatening a
shutdown, is not the right way to do business.
The House and Senate Appropriations Committees have 12 separate bills
to fund each of the different components of the Federal Government.
These bills are supposed to pass both Chambers and be signed into law
before the end of the fiscal year, which is September 30. That didn't
happen in 2022 or 2021. The Democratic-led Senate did not pass a single
appropriations bill,
[[Page S66]]
and I understand why. The majority leader Senator Schumer and Speaker
Pelosi realized that delaying the appropriations process and not going
through this regular order gave them immense power because they could
decide what went into that omnibus bill. They could say yes to some and
no to others, and they knew that the only alternative would be a
government shutdown and that rank-and-file Members of the Senate and
the House would be left with no other choice than to vote yes or no.
Congress cannot continue to operate like this. We have to swear off
this newfound habit of continuing resolutions and last-minute omnibuses
and return to a regular, on-time appropriations process. It is more
transparent. It allows every Member of the Congress to participate, to
offer amendments, to debate, and to vote--something denied to rank-and-
file Members of Congress when you do this through an omnibus bill at
the end of the year. But we shouldn't stop there. We need to look at
broader reforms to the government's spending habits. The good news is
that there are a number of ideas that have been proposed.
Last Congress, Senator Romney, the Senator from Utah, introduced
something he calls the TRUST Act, which creates a process to save
Social Security and protect this critical lifeline for Americans.
Social Security, you might recall, is going to become insolvent in the
coming years. This is a responsible way to save Social Security and to
address what is, roughly, a part of the two-thirds of the Federal
spending. In other words, about a third of it is discretionary spending
we appropriate, and the other two-thirds is mandatory, or automatic,
spending. I am a proud cosponsor of this legislation, and would
encourage the President and our Democratic colleagues to consider it as
part of the debt ceiling discussion.
I am also a supporter of a balanced budget amendment to the
Constitution. As I said, Republicans and Democrats are responsible for
where we are today, but it would finally make clear that we have to
live under the same sort of spending limits that every family in
America has to live under and that every local and State government has
to live with--a balanced budget. Now, that is common sense. Families
and businesses across the country have no choice but to operate within
a balanced budget.
My State of Texas has a balanced budget requirement, and lo and
behold, it just started the current legislative session with a $33
billion surplus. We are looking at a $30 trillion debt. My State has a
$33 billion surplus in part, I believe, because it is required by law
to balance its budget each year.
I have introduced, cosponsored, and voted for balanced budget
amendments in the past, and I plan on doing so again this year. That
should be part of the conversation.
There is a wide range of ideas from our colleagues that would help
the Federal Government get its financial house in order, and I would
hope that the President would take these ideas and his responsibility
seriously. No matter how inconvenient this may be for President Biden,
we are operating under a divided government. The ``drunken sailor''
approach may have worked when the Democrats controlled both Houses of
Congress, but it won't succeed now. It is time for the administration
to sober up and get serious about bipartisan solutions. It is the only
path out of this mess.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hickenlooper). The clerk will call the
roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask for permission to complete my
remarks before the recess.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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