[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 7787-7788]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            LACK OF A BUDGET

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, sometime today or tomorrow, Senate 
Democrats will have an opportunity to show what kind of future they 
believe in. They can vote for one of the Republican plans to get our 
Nation's finances under control, each of which involves the kind of 
tough choices we will need to make to bring down our deficits and debt, 
or they can vote on the President's plan, which continues the 
unsustainable status quo. A vote to preserve our very way of life or 
throw it in jeopardy.
  It is interesting; when the President first announced his budget, 
most people panned it as tepid and irresponsible. The Washington Post 
summed it up pretty well by saying the President

[[Page 7788]]

punted. Yet Senate Democrats embraced it.
  The senior Senator from New York said the President's budget should 
have bipartisan support.
  The chairman of the Budget Committee gave the President, ``good 
grades for a beginning.''
  Other Democrat Senators called the President's budget ``a step in the 
right direction'' . . . ``an important step forward''. . . ``a good 
start'' . . . and ``a credible blueprint.''
  One even described it as ``wise.''
  That was then. How about today? Well, if we are to believe the news 
reports, every single Democrat in the Senate now plans to vote against 
the President's budget. They do not even want to use it as a starting 
point. Why? We got the answer earlier this week from Senator Schumer, 
when he indicated that Democrats now believe avoiding this debate 
altogether helps them in the next election.
  In other words, they think it is better not to keep track of our 
Nation's finances at all than to support any plan that does. So much so 
that they are about to reject a budget that even they embraced a few 
months ago. They will vote against every budget that comes to the 
floor, including the President's.
  Six weeks after the Democrat cochairman of the President's own debt 
commission told us that our Nation's deficits and debt are like a 
cancer that threatens to destroy America from within, Democrats are 
ready to call it a work period without supporting any of the proposals 
that have been made, without producing anything of their own.
  Nothing. That is their answer to this crisis.
  Their focus is on an election that is still almost 2 years away.
  I think it is a mistake. At a moment when our debts and deficits 
threaten the very future of our Nation, Democrats have no excuse for 
proposing no vision of their own. There is no defense.
  Washington is currently on pace to spend about $1.6 trillion more 
than it takes in this year, three times the biggest deficit we ever had 
before President Obama took office.
  Members of the President's own Cabinet admitted last week that 
Medicare is in need of urgent reform if we want to preserve it for 
future generations.
  Congressman Ryan has shown courage by proposing a budget that would 
tackle these problems.
  Democrats are showing none by ignoring our problems altogether. This 
is the contrast Americans will see in the Senate this week. More than 2 
years have passed since Democrats have produced a budget of their own. 
This is a complete and total abdication of their responsibilities. And 
there is no excuse for it. We have an obligation to come up with a 
plan. Democrats are officially abdicating that responsibility this 
week.

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