[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 52 (Wednesday, March 22, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S884-S885]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Budget

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, before I begin my remarks, just a quick 
observation.
  I know that the majority leader comes down on a fairly regular basis 
and attacks Republicans, particularly House Republicans, for not 
producing a budget. Obviously, for the House Republicans, it is their 
prerogative over there. If there is going to be a budget, it is 
probably going to be a budget that is put together by the House 
majority.
  But I think it kind of misses the broader point, and that is that, at 
least here in the Senate, which is our domain, our realm of 
responsibility, it is up to the majority to put a budget forward. They 
control the floor. They have all control here. They determine what 
comes to the floor and what doesn't, and if they want to put together a 
budget, they certainly could. One place to start, obviously, would be 
the President's budget.
  The President submitted a budget, which, by any estimation, is a 
massive expansion of the Federal Government, with lots of new 
spending--$5 trillion in new taxes, mostly on job creators and small 
businesses. At the end of the budget period, he would add $17 trillion 
to the Federal debt. Budget periods cover a window, typically, of 10 
years. The President's budget, as put forward, at the end of that 10-
year period, would add $17 trillion to the Federal debt and 
dramatically increase spending.
  Now, spending prepandemic, as we went into the pandemic, was about 
$4.4 trillion a year--all in Federal spending. Of course, during the 
pandemic, that increased. In a bipartisan way, there were some 
decisions made to support and increase spending in some areas that were 
designed to combat and deal with a lot of the adverse impacts of the 
pandemic. Now the pandemic is behind us, and a lot of that spending 
should have been temporary. A lot of that spending really shouldn't 
have been incorporated into the baseline.
  What the Democrats have done is incorporated that into the baseline 
so that, this year, the amount of spending in the President's budget--
about $6.9 trillion--is about 55 percent more than the baseline 
spending back in 2019, prepandemic, at a time when the population of 
the country has only increased by 1.8 percent. Now, you could argue, I 
suppose, if you had a massive increase in population--a lot more people 
in the country--that Federal spending would increase with it, but 
increasing Federal spending 55 percent at a time when you only have a 
1.8-percent population growth in the country seems like a lot of 
excessive spending spent on expanding and growing the size and the 
footprint of the Federal Government.
  Interestingly enough, at the end of that 10-year period--again, the 
budget window covers 10 years--spending under the President's budget 
would be $9.9 trillion--$9.9 trillion; in 2019, $4.4 trillion; at the 
end of the 10-year window covered by the President's budget,

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$9.9 trillion--more than double, way more than double the amount of 
spending that we had prior to the pandemic in 2019 and where some 
additional spending that was added at the time was and should have been 
temporary.
  So those are kind of the contours of the President's budget. That is 
his plan. The Senate Democrats, obviously, could put that on the floor 
or they could come up with a different budget. But the point, very 
simply, is they are the majority. That is their responsibility. If they 
want to put a budget out, if they want to vote on a budget, put a 
budget on the floor. We are happy to vote on it. We would be happy to 
offer amendments to it, and they would be amendments that would reflect 
the priorities that we have on our side, which call for less spending, 
less government, a lighter regulatory touch, and not the massive tax 
increases contemplated by the President's budget.
  So that is just a point I wanted to clarify. As we have this 
conversation around the budget of whose responsibility it is to advance 
a budget here in the U.S. Senate, it is the job of the majority, and so 
far the majority has not wanted to undertake that task. Perhaps, more 
importantly, I don't think it probably wants to vote on the President's 
budget, which, as I said, adds $17 trillion to the debt, which makes 
the debt at the end of that 10-year period--the 10-year window, by the 
way--$50 trillion; $50 trillion. That is what the President's budget 
would have us at in total debt, cumulative debt, at the end of that 10-
year period, but it adds $17 trillion during that 10-year window and 
increases spending from $4.4 trillion prepandemic in 2019 to $9.9 
trillion. It is pretty stunning, really, but that isn't what I came to 
talk about here today.