[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 43 (Tuesday, March 7, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S660-S661]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Government Funding

  Mr. President, the budget. For the last 2 months, Democrats have 
highlighted the contrast between our vision and the Republican vision 
for our country. Republicans, meanwhile, have spent all this time 
trying to prove us right.
  In a few days, President Biden will release his budget for the 2024 
fiscal year. Americans can expect the President to present a bold, 
optimistic, and responsible path for the Nation. The President's plan 
is going to show how we can lower the deficit in a responsible manner. 
His plan will strengthen Social Security and keep Medicare solvent for 
another 2 decades. And the President's plan will preserve his promise 
not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 a year.
  This isn't just talk because Democrats have already shown we can do 
these things. We already lowered the deficit by hundreds of billions of 
dollars. We already lowered the cost of prescription drugs, like 
insulin, and we hope to build on that promise in the near future. And 
the President explained this morning in an op-ed in the New York Times 
that he plans to build on the progress we made last year in the 
Inflation Reduction Act by making Medicare solvent through the year 
2050. Isn't that great news for the American people, even younger 
people who will need it before 2050?
  He will expand the list of drugs Medicare can renegotiate. He will 
take profits that used to go to Big Pharma and put it toward deficit 
reduction. Many Americans think it would be just a great idea to take 
the money that normally goes to Big Pharma and put it towards deficit 
reduction and towards keeping Medicare solvent longer. This commonsense 
step will help millions of ordinary Americans.
  Republicans, to their credit, are being very helpful about erasing 
any doubt about which party is fighting for the working people and the 
middle class. While Democrats are for keeping taxes low for most 
Americans, Republicans tried to push a national sales tax that would 
have sent taxes surging by 30 percent for millions. While Democrats 
want to make the wealthy pay their fair share, House Republicans passed 
their first bill, a proposal to carve out the IRS and make it easier 
for wealthy tax cheats to avoid detection.
  While Democrats will protect Social Security, Republicans, like the 
senior Senator from Wisconsin, decided to go on the radio the day after 
the State of the Union and call Social Security a ``Ponzi scheme.'' Can 
you imagine?
  If my Republican colleagues have a problem with what I am saying, 
there is an easy solution. Speaker McCarthy needs to stop dodging and 
show us the Republican plan. It is now March 7. Two months have passed 
already in this year. The debt ceiling X date is approaching. 
Republicans have said they will release a plan. They say they want 
spending cuts in return for just paying our debts which we already 
incurred. Where is their plan? What is the holdup?
  The President will release his budget very soon, and the onus is on 
Speaker McCarthy to respond with a serious plan of his own that is a 
budget plan

[[Page S661]]

that deals with deficit reduction, because we think that should occur 
without hostage-taking, without any brinkmanship, as it has been done 
three times in the past few years.
  So, Speaker McCarthy, respond with a plan, one that can unite the 
fractured and chaotic factions of the Republican Congress.