[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 992-994]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, last night the President spoke to the 
Nation in his State of the Union Address. It is one of the great 
traditions of American Government. One of the most interesting parts of 
this spectator sport is to watch and see who stands up on which issue 
when the President talks or who is sitting by whom. It is well watched 
across our country, and it is a sign of respect to the Presidency as an 
institution.

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  The President was in a good mood. It was his eighth such address. He 
was reflective, but he was decisive. He looked ahead. He talked about 
the issues facing our country. He did his job, and he challenged us to 
do ours.
  The President devoted a good deal of time to the progress of the war 
in Iraq, and we devoted a good deal of time today to making sure we 
have a strong system of intelligence to protect ourselves from 
terrorists. So I wish to comment on what the President talked about at 
home, because a great deal of what President Bush said last night was 
that as important as our role is in the world, as important as the 
long-term fight against terrorism is, we have work to do at home, and 
we need to roll up our sleeves and get busy.
  This is a Presidential year. Many of the pundits are saying, some 
politicians even: The Congress will get nothing done. We Republicans 
believe there is no excuse for taking a year off, given the number of 
serious issues facing our country. Let me mention a few the President 
discussed last night.
  To begin with, the American economy. The President acknowledged that 
as strong as our economy is, 52 months of growing jobs, it has taken a 
downward turn, and we need to take appropriate action to help it 
continue to produce more jobs. That means steps that are temporary, 
targeted, and that grow the economy and not the Government.
  The President has agreed with the Speaker of the House and the 
Republican leader of the House on a simple package that is aimed to do 
that: Rebates for individuals, most of whom pay taxes, and incentives 
to small businesses to create new jobs. It is a simple idea.
  Speaking as one Senator, I do not believe we can afford to let this 
economic growth package, which should pass the House today, become a 
Christmas tree in the Senate for everyone's favorite idea for spending 
taxpayers' dollars.
  I have some ideas. I think every Member of the Senate has some ideas. 
But maybe we should recognize the American people would like to see us 
act and act promptly and act decisively.
  Someone has said the Senate wishes to speak on the issue. I know very 
well none of us is guilty, usually, of having an unexpressed thought. 
We love to speak. But one way for us to speak is to say to the House of 
Representatives: Madam Speaker, and to the House itself, we agree with 
you. We think your package is simple, temporary, targeted, and a good 
idea. And to the President: Mr. President, each of us might have 
written the package a little differently, but we agree with you and we 
are ready to pass it before the end of next week.
  I would like to write it differently, but I like the idea that it 
goes mostly to taxpayers, that it is family friendly, that it gives 
incentives to small business, and that it temporarily helps with 
housing.
  I believe it is important for our Government, particularly at this 
moment, to send a strong message that we will take the action 
appropriate to keep the economy strong and that we are capable of 
functioning as a Government and working in bipartisan ways to deal with 
real issues.
  The American people are tired of petty politics. They are tired of 
playpen politics on the Senate floor. They do not believe they elected 
us to stick our fingers in the eyes of the Democrats or the Democrats 
to stick their fingers in our eyes. We have a good example of our 
leadership working together with the President, and as one Senator, my 
recommendation is we support what the President and the House of 
Representatives is about to do.
  The President said we should get to work this year to make sure every 
American can have access to health care insurance. At our Republican 
conference last week, that was the first item on our agenda, and I 
believe it is fair for me to say virtually every single Republican 
Senator believes every American should be insured and is ready to go to 
work this year to help make that possible.
  The President talked about his plan, which he talked about last year, 
to redo our Tax Code so dollars would be available to American families 
to buy at least a basic health care policy that they wouldn't lose when 
they change jobs.
  We have had a number of Senators on this side--Senator Burr, Senator 
Corker, Senator Coburn, for example, Senator Bennett who has authored a 
bill with Senator Wyden, which has significant bipartisan support. We 
are all ready to go to work this year. We believe we should start this 
year to help make sure every American is insured.
  Runaway Federal spending. The President talked about controlling 
entitlement spending. This is an issue that is beginning to get the 
country's attention, and it should have the country's attention. It 
certainly has mine.
  What do we mean by entitlement spending? We mean 40 percent of the 
budget is Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and it goes up 
automatically every year. Over the next 10 years, the annual growth of 
Social Security is predicted to be about 6 percent, according to the 
Congressional Budget Office, Medicare about 7.2 percent, Medicaid about 
8 percent. Entitlement spending and interest on the debt is 60 percent 
of every dollar we spend. Another 20 percent is defense, the war and 
other necessary actions to defend ourselves, and 19 percent is 
everything else.
  The ``everything else'' was flat last year. The Congressional Budget 
Office says the ``everything else''--that is, parks and roads and many 
of the items Americans believe Government ought to be doing--that is 
going to go up about 2 percent annually over the next 10 years, 
according to the Congressional Budget Office. Our defense goes up 3 
percent annually, and entitlement spending goes up 7 or 8 percent.
  Senator Gregg and Senator Conrad have pointed out to us--they are the 
heads of our Budget Committee--that we pretty soon are going to be 
faced with an absolutely impossible situation that will require massive 
cuts in benefits, massive tax increases that the net worth even of this 
great country will not be able to pay, and that every year we wait, we 
risk another problem. The President said do something about it. He 
challenged us to do it, and Senator Gregg and Senator Conrad have a 
proposal to do that. We should act on it this year.
  That is not all there is to holding down spending. The President 
mentioned earmarks. There are too many earmarks. They are not as 
transparent as they ought to be. That is a smaller part of the budget. 
It is our constitutional responsibility to deal with earmarks, but we 
should do that ourselves. We should begin that this year.
  We could pass a 2-year budget plan, such as Senator Domenici and 
Senator Lieberman and Senator Feingold at various times have proposed, 
and Senator Sessions, Senator Isakson. That would give us oversight to 
repeal rules and regulations every other year. So there are three ways 
to get a handle on Federal spending.
  Senator Hutchison and Senator Bingaman have been leaders, as well as 
others here, on keeping good jobs from going overseas. We passed the 
America COMPETES Act last year, and the President challenged us to fund 
it this year. He is right about that.
  Finally, President Bush mentioned something that is close to my 
heart. He called it the Pell grants for kids. I remember being in a 
visit with him a couple years ago, and he said to me: We have to do 
something about inner-city children who cannot afford to go to good 
schools. Why don't we have Pell grants for kids? I said: Mr. President, 
I had a hearing on that idea last month. He looked at me and said: I 
thought it was my idea. I said: Mr. President, it is your idea. Any 
idea the President has is his idea, but he had it before anyone 
suggested it to him.
  The idea is very simple. We take this brilliant idea that Congress 
has invented over the last 50 years of giving money directly to college 
students which they can spend at any institution of education of their 
choice--public, private, nonprofit, Catholic, Jewish, the University of 
Tennessee, Notre Dame, National Auto Diesel College.

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As long as it is accredited, they can go there, and it especially helps 
those with less money. Let's try that with the poorest children.
  Sixteen years ago, when I was Education Secretary, the first 
President Bush proposed a GI bill for kids. Much the same idea. It was 
the largest provision in his budget, half a billion dollars that year, 
to give poor kids access to some of the same educational opportunities 
others had.
  I proposed, in a Pell grants for kids version, that we give every 
child, the middle- and low-income children--that is 60 percent of them 
all $500 for afterschool programs or other programs. The President has 
advanced the idea.
  President Bush has painted a strong agenda for America this year. He 
has said let's give a boost to the economy, let's begin to give every 
American health insurance, let's control entitlement spending, let's 
fund programs to keep good jobs here, and let's give poor children an 
opportunity to go to more of the better schools. He has challenged us 
to go to work. We are ready to go to work. We are ready to get results, 
which means working across the aisle in a bipartisan way.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, may I inquire how much time remains on our 
side?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. There is 11 minutes remaining.
  Mr. CORNYN. I appreciate that, Mr. President.

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