[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 7757-7758]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            S. CON. RES. 21

  Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about the budget 
resolution that the U.S. Senate adopted last Friday.
  Every year, Congress considers a budget resolution, setting the 
Government's priorities for the coming year. For the past 2 years since 
my election to the Senate, I have been compelled to vote against budget 
resolutions that I believed were out of touch with our fiscal realities 
and national priorities. This year, I was proud to support the 
resolution.
  I commend the outstanding leadership of Chairman Conrad, who helped 
to produce a resolution that makes great progress getting our Nation's 
priorities back on track. Instead of deepening our fiscal hole with 
irresponsible tax giveaways to the wealthy, this budget makes an 
important departure from the Republican budgets of the recent past and 
brings our budget back into balance. Instead of gutting programs that 
help our most vulnerable citizens and communities, this budget allows 
these programs--like the State Children's Health Insurance Program, the 
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, Medicare, COPS, and others--
to keep serving those who rely on the important moral commitments our 
Nation has made. Instead of budget gimmicks and deferred 
responsibility, this budget brings greater transparency and 
responsibility back to Washington.
  It does so first by reinstating pay-go. In a Democratic Senate, new 
mandatory spending, just like new tax cuts, must be paid for by 
offsetting spending reductions or revenue increases. Pay-go will 
require tough choices and difficult tradeoffs. We will not be able 
simply to pass along the debt to future generations for the choices we 
make today. We will have to be accountable for paying our own bills and 
collecting our own revenue. Pay-go by itself will not bring our budget 
back to balance, but it will prevent deficits from getting worse. Pay-
go by itself cannot resolve our Nation's long-term liabilities, but it 
will restore the budget discipline that has been lacking in Washington 
for too long.
  When I travel around the country or talk to families in Illinois, I 
hear about the same priorities again and again. People from all walks 
of life--farmers and small businesspeople, teachers and veterans, 
salespeople and service workers, doctors and senior citizens, people 
prospering and those struggling at the margins--all share a common set 
of concerns and aspirations. They want affordable health care for 
themselves and their children. They want a quality education for their 
children. They want to retire with dignity. They are concerned about 
our national security and our domestic security.
  Unfortunately, many Americans are not convinced that their voices are 
heard here in Washington. They are not convinced because the President 
proposed a budget that ignores their priorities. They are not convinced 
because they don't see enough serious efforts to reduce their health 
care costs or to improve educational opportunities. They are not 
convinced because it appears that for too long no one in Government has 
been held accountable for incompetent leadership and neglect of the 
public interest.
  Fortunately, the budget resolution we adopted last week responds to 
their voices. It demonstrates to families across the Nation that we are 
once again paying attention to their concerns. They have a reason to 
start once again to have confidence in their Government.
  Let me give a few reasons, why I supported this resolution.
  The failure of our Nation to guarantee access to affordable health 
care for children is shameful, and the President's budget threatened to 
worsen the situation for children in working families. This budget 
rejects the President's proposed cuts to the State Children's Health 
Insurance Program, extends care to 6 million additional eligible 
children, and makes children's healthcare a priority for Congress.
  This budget also makes progress to ensure that preschool children 
from disadvantaged backgrounds will receive quality care and education; 
that children, no matter where they go to school, will have an equal 
opportunity for quality education; and will make college more 
affordable so that our children can compete in a global marketplace. By 
rejecting the President's proposed cuts in education and training, this 
budget shores up the Federal end of the bargain to support No Child 
Left Behind and support programs that educate individuals with 
disabilities.
  This budget also includes $100 million for grants to establish summer 
learning programs in local school districts through the Summer Term 
Education Program. I thank Chairman Conrad for his assistance in 
getting my amendment to fund these programs included in the final 
resolution. These grants will help students in early elementary grades 
by supporting their participation in 6 weeks of summer school. Teachers 
tell us that students return to school each September at levels below 
their successes of the previous spring. Educators know this as ``summer 
learning loss,'' and research has shown that students, on average, lose 
more than 1 month of reading skills and 2 months of math skills during 
the summer. The impact of summer learning loss is greatest for children 
living in poverty, children with learning disabilities, and children 
who do not speak English at home. The achievement gap in education 
begins early in life and remains a burden for too many throughout their 
time in school. The Summer Term Education Program funded by this 
resolution will help to bridge this gap through structured summer 
learning opportunities.
  The security of our Nation at home and abroad is also a critical 
priority, and honoring our veterans should be considered a sacred 
obligation. This budget fully funds our defense and

[[Page 7758]]

homeland security funding needs and respects our duty to support our 
veterans. These brave men and women have sacrificed so much for us and 
for our Nation. Sadly, as uncovered by the Walter Reed scandal, our 
Government is failing them. This budget makes it possible to provide 
the quality health care and services that our veterans deserve. We 
cannot ignore the reality that there are financial and human costs to 
war. This budget recognizes that reality.
  I am also pleased that the budget resolution includes an important 
bipartisan amendment that I offered with my colleagues, Senators 
Bunning, Bingaman, Lugar, and Boxer, to triple the administration's 
recommendation for carbon sequestration. This amendment provides an 
additional $200 million for Department of Energy efforts on carbon 
sequestration, for a total of $279 million in that account. Both 
environmental groups and the coal industry acknowledge the importance 
of better technology for carbon sequestration and control. The 
International Panel on Climate Change, environmental groups like NRDC, 
and the mining industry all are on record that the long-term deep 
geological storage of carbon is possible and is happening now on a 
small scale. But for it to occur on a far larger scale, we must 
redouble Federal efforts to make technologies widespread and economical 
in the next 15 years. A recent report by the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology recommended a $5 billion program over the next 10 years to 
achieve that goal. My amendment today provides a significant increase 
down that path.
  Too many Americans say they lack confidence in our tax system because 
they hear about well-connected individuals and corporations getting 
away without paying their fair share. I believe this budget will begin 
to restore the confidence necessary for a fair and effective tax 
system. Instead of reaching deeper into the pockets of hard-working 
Americans, this budget will collect taxes where taxes are due. This 
budget calls for strong new measures to close the tax gap, shut down 
tax scams, and address offshore tax havens. I am proud of my efforts 
with Senator Levin and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to 
stop tax haven abuses, and I look forward to working with my colleagues 
in the 110th Congress to improve the fairness of our Tax Code.
  The budget resolution we passed last week demonstrates that we can 
rise above ideology and gimmicks and begin tackling the serious 
challenges we face as a nation. It demonstrates that vision matters and 
leadership matters. I am grateful for Chairman Conrad's extraordinary 
leadership and the terrific work of his talented, dedicated, and hard-
working staff. They worked well in committee and on the floor to help 
assemble a budget resolution that a majority of us in the Senate could 
vote for in good conscience and with confidence that America's fiscal 
policies have a chance, at long last, to get back on track.

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