[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 10436-10437]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           THE NATIONAL DEBT

  Mr. BROWN of Massachusetts. I want to shift gears and kind of get 
back to business a little bit. Today, I rise to discuss the extension 
bill we are considering on the floor of the Senate. I will be brief.
  As you know, this week our national debt crossed the $13 trillion 
mark and is on pace to reach almost $20 trillion by the year 2015. That 
is $20 trillion with a T.
  Let's stop for a minute and take note of that amazing number. I know 
I am the new guy around here, and I will probably be racing you home in 
a little bit to get back to Massachusetts and New Hampshire, Madam 
President. But in my short time in Washington, it has been a little 
unsettling to hear the words like ``billion'' and ``trillion'' thrown 
with little regard to the impact these incredible numbers have on our 
economy, both now and in years to come.
  For example, yesterday the Federal Reserve Chairman warned us that 
the federal budget is on an unsustainable path. In 1987, when the 
national debt was approaching $1 trillion, then-President Ronald Reagan 
called it ``out of control.'' One can only imagine what he would be 
saying today.
  Some on the other side of the aisle argued that voting against the 
debt extenders is about partisan politics and that borrowing another 
$80 billion from China to pay for these programs is somehow just 
another drop in the bucket.
  I have to respectfully disagree. That could not be further from the 
truth. When, if not now, when our Nation's debt is growing at a record 
pace with no end in sight, will we as elected officials start standing 
up and making the

[[Page 10437]]

hard decisions we were sent here to make? Today I am saying to my 
colleagues: Please start to tear down the terrible prison of debt we 
are building for our children, our grandchildren, and our great-
grandchildren. We need to start finding ways to pay for things and stop 
spending so much, stop treating everything as an emergency to try to 
get around the pay-go rules put in place before I got here.
  If we continue down this path of reckless spending and borrowing, I 
believe--and others do throughout the country--the consequences are 
dire. To be blunt, the push for higher taxes and more dependence on 
government debt threatens American leadership in the world as well as 
our national and economic security. As we continue to borrow more and 
more from countries that are not necessarily friendly to us, it leads 
us down a path similar to what we are seeing with the European model as 
it is decaying before our very eyes.
  Look at Greece right now, where unchecked government spending has 
threatened the financial stability of the entire European Union. We are 
at a point where soon our excessive level of debt will start to hinder 
the economic growth we so desperately need to get the economic engine 
moving and continue to create jobs and be competitive.
  Make no mistake, I believe we should temporarily extend unemployment 
benefits and other measures such as the summer jobs program and address 
the critical issue of lack of jobs for American citizens. We can and 
should provide temporary relief for the neediest among us, but we need 
to find a way to pay for it without taxing or resorting to borrowing 
more money. The fact is, we could easily pay for these extensions by 
cutting unnecessary spending such as the nearly $50 billion of unused, 
unallocated, or unobligated stimulus funds. Instead we are raising 
permanent taxes by more than $50 billion extra, including taxes on 
entrepreneurial businesses and investors, the venture capitalists that 
hope to be the economic engine and job creators of tomorrow.
  The administration and the majority party say these taxes are 
necessary to help to partially offset this extension, but these taxes 
are necessary because of our reckless spending habits. During the last 
18 months, this administration and the Congress have spent more money 
than the previous administration spent on Iraq, Afghanistan, and the 
Katrina recovery combined. It was with straight faces they promised to 
usher in a new era of fiscal responsibility.
  Last year the President and the Congress pushed through an Omnibus 
appropriations bill that included an 8-percent increase in 
discretionary spending. This was followed by the infamous, nearly 
trillion-dollar stimulus bill that has not created one new net job. In 
fact, the unemployment rate in Massachusetts alone since its passage 
has increased. The President signed another omnibus spending bill with 
a 12-percent annual increase and jammed through the trillion-dollar, 
government-run health care bill that was at great cost and clearly was 
opposed by the American people.
  The problem is on both sides of the aisle. The President has said he 
would like to go through the Federal budget line by line and identify 
wasteful programs. By golly, let's do it. Let's do a top-to-bottom 
review of every Federal program, weed out the waste and fraud and put 
what is left over to help with these needed programs. In his budget, 
the President has identified programs to terminate and cuts that would 
save nearly $25 billion next year. Let's do it. This could help pay for 
some of these emergency extensions.
  Yet year after year, Congress continues to earmark their special pet 
projects within the budget without any hope for any type of termination 
of that practice.
  In addition, we need to do a top-to-bottom review of all Federal 
programs, including the military, and we must get aggressive about 
reining in waste, fraud, and abuse and demand a clawback of some of the 
billions in overpayments made to Federal contractors that have been 
owed to us for many years. Let's use that money to help offset the 
amount we are trying to pay in the extenders bill. Fraud in Medicare 
and Medicaid costs the taxpayers more than $60 billion annually, and 
the GAO has investigated numerous programs that are failing to fulfill 
their missions. Yet more money from Congress is given to them each 
year, year after year. No respectable business would be run this way, 
not in Massachusetts, not in New Hampshire, not anywhere.
  There is no shortage of ways Washington can rein in its excessive 
spending habits while also funding these worthwhile programs. But it is 
going to require elected officials to make hard and even sometimes 
unpopular choices. If we begin using commonsense steps to get our 
fiscal house in order, we can absolutely put our country back on a path 
to fiscal security, get back to fiscal sanity, and get our appetite for 
spending and borrowing under control. Both are crucial for the fiscal 
and economic stability of our country.
  We can start down the path today by saying no to the extender bill 
that would add close to $80 billion to our over $13 trillion national 
debt right now, an amount we cannot afford and something our children, 
grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will be forced to pay back.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. FRANKEN. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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