[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 10032]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        RESTORING FISCAL BALANCE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the President has announced today he is 
directing the members of his Cabinet to cut wasteful Government 
spending. Obviously, I applaud such an effort, but it is important that 
we not lose sight of the enormity of our current spending and debt 
levels, which will only really be addressed through major, bipartisan, 
politically difficult reforms. The Cabinet has been asked to find $100 
million savings in a $4 trillion budget. Any amount of savings, 
obviously, is welcome, but according to the Congressional Budget Office 
numbers, that is about the average amount we will spend every single 
day--that $100 million is about the average amount we will spend every 
single day just covering the interest on the stimulus package we passed 
earlier this year.
  We need to cut waste, but we will need to do much more to restore 
fiscal balance. Senators Gregg and Conrad have proposed a plan that 
would force us to get debt and spending under control. It deserves our 
serious attention.
  I yield the floor.

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