[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5727-5728]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        THE DEFICIT AND THE DEBT

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, as the Senate gets back to work this 
week, it is worth noting that a sea change appears to have taken place 
in Washington over the past few weeks. Just 2 months ago, the President 
proposed a vision of government that ignored the fiscal crisis 
virtually everyone else in the country knows we need to address. And 
Democrats in Congress proposed that rather than cutting Washington 
spending, we instead raise taxes on oil and gas companies, who, as we 
know, would pass it along to American consumers in the form of higher 
gas prices, at a time when gas prices are double what they were a mere 
2 years ago.
  In other words, it wasn't that long ago that both the White House and 
Democrat leaders in Congress were doing everything they could to ignore 
the Nation's $14 trillion debt and to preserve the massive growth in 
government that they have presided over the past 2 years. But at some 
point in the past few weeks, Democrats in Washington finally got the 
message. The ground shifted and spending reductions Democrats recently 
described as ``extreme'' and ``draconian,'' they are now calling 
``historic'' and ``commonsense.'' The debate has turned from how much 
to grow government to how much to reduce it.
  This is a major departure from the standard Democrat position--and it 
suggests one of two things: either Democrats in Washington are finally 
waking up to the fact that our only hope of averting the kind of 
disaster we are seeing unfold in Europe is by forcing Washington to 
live within its means, or they have made a political calculation that 
Americans will no longer take them seriously if they continue to 
pretend otherwise. But either way, there now appears to be a bipartisan 
agreement in Washington that something serious must be done. Which 
brings us to an announcement by the Obama administration's top 
political advisor over the weekend that the President will change his 
position on entitlement reform, the deficit, and debt in a speech he 
will deliver tomorrow afternoon.
  According to the administration officials, the President will now 
propose an outline of his goals in these areas. Apparently the 
President is finally ready to acknowledge problems that the rest of the 
country has been waiting for him to address. It is unfortunate that he 
had to be dragged into this discussion. But those on the left and right 
who have been clamoring for presidential leadership on these issues 
have to welcome the President's long-awaited decision to engage on 
them.
  We all look forward to hearing what the President has to say, but it 
is my hope that in doing so, he offers more than the outline his 
political adviser suggested. As we know, House Republicans have put 
forward a detailed plan that seeks to preserve and protect Medicare for 
current beneficiaries and strengthen Medicaid, in part, by giving 
States more flexibility to implement it. At a time when thousands of 
baby boomers are retiring every day, putting even more pressure on our 
already overburdened finances, creative solutions like these are 
needed.
  Hopefully the President will put forward a plan that does not just 
pay lipservice to the commitments we have made to seniors and the poor, 
but which acknowledges the unique problems that this generation and a 
rising generation of Americans face. Too often, it seems, Democrats in 
Washington claim to be interested in helping those in need, when what 
they really seek is to protect big government. Meanwhile, Republicans 
are developing solutions that will enable us to keep

[[Page 5728]]

our commitments to seniors even as we create new opportunities for the 
young and middle class with low-tax policies that lead to private 
sector job growth. Whereas Republicans see America growing its way to 
prosperity, Democrats seem to want to constrict opportunities for 
everyone, so everyone is forced to do with less--except, of course, the 
politically connected and those who are lucky enough to get a waiver.
  But at least the President is joining in the conversation. Hopefully 
that conversation is an adult one, and does not devolve into the kind 
of unhelpful scripted, and frankly juvenile, name-calling that we saw 
in the closing hours of the debate over the continuing resolution last 
week. We all know that both sides will have to play a part in 
addressing the crises we face, so we would do well to leave all 
dishonest rhetoric aside. Both sides want to preserve what is best 
about America. If both sides acknowledge that up front, as we move from 
a conversation about billions to trillions, we will have much progress 
even though we have much work ahead of us.
  I yield the floor.

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