[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 8882-8883]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  EDA

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I was discussing with the majority 
leader privately the comments he made publicly about getting votes. I 
have talked to my Members, and I understand he indicated that most of 
our Members who have amendments are willing to take short time 
agreements. We ought to be able to move forward and have votes, and the 
Senate can function the way it should.
  Mr. President, with each passing day, the American people grow more 
concerned about our Nation's future. The Washington Post-ABC news poll 
this week said that by a ratio of 2 to 1, Americans believe we are on 
the wrong track, and 9 out of 10 rate the economy negatively. 
Yesterday's CNN poll found that many Americans expect another Great 
Depression.
  It is in this context that President Obama has started talking about 
how concerned he is about jobs. This week, the President said he wakes 
up every morning and asks himself what he can do to spur job creation. 
Every morning this week, I have come to the floor with some suggestions 
for him.
  The fact is that many Americans have a hard time believing the 
President is focused on jobs when so many

[[Page 8883]]

of his policies seem to be designed to destroy them. In some key areas, 
such as trade, energy, and debt, the President himself has acknowledged 
that a reversal of his policies would create jobs and spur recovery.
  Let's start with trade. Hoping to sound as though he had a plan for 
job creation, the President used the giant platform provided by his 
annual State of the Union Message in January to declare that he had 
finalized a trade agreement with South Korea that would support at 
least 70,000 American jobs. Yet, nearly 5 months later, he sent his 
aides out to say that he won't sign them into law unless Congress 
approves billions more in government spending first.
  On energy, the President has acknowledged the pressure that 
regulations put on job creators. That is why he ordered a review of 
them in January. Yet, by one estimate, the national energy tax his 
administration tried to pass through the EPA could cost, by some 
estimates, millions of jobs--millions. While the President has 
acknowledged that in order to sustain economic growth and create jobs, 
as he put it last year, we would need to harness traditional sources of 
energy, his continued refusal to issue drilling permits in the gulf has 
had a devastating economic effect.
  On the debt, the President himself has said, ``If we don't have a 
serious plan to tackle the debt and the deficit, that could actually 
end up being a bigger drag on the economy than anything else.'' Yet, 
under his leadership, the Nation's national debt has skyrocketed 35 
percent, from $10.6 trillion to $14.2 trillion, our deficit is three 
times bigger than the biggest annual deficit during the Bush 
administration, and the President refuses to put forward a serious plan 
to do anything to bring the debt or the deficit down.
  So there is a pattern here. The President likes to say he is 
concerned about the economy and jobs, but his policies tell an entirely 
different story. He can talk all he wants, but he cannot walk away from 
what he has done, and the things he is failing to do right now to 
create private sector jobs and to get our economy moving again. Chief 
among them is his refusal to do anything to lower the debt and deficits 
he has done so much to create.
  Right now, U.S. businesses are sitting on nearly $2 trillion in cash. 
Most of them would love to invest this cash in new products, ventures, 
and employees. Yet they are holding back. Why? It is not just the 
regulations and the mixed signals they are getting about taxes or the 
expectation that all the spending today will necessarily lead to higher 
taxes tomorrow; it is also the uncertainty surrounding our future. How 
can businesses be confident about the future and hire new workers to 
build that future if the Democrats who run the White House aren't 
willing to do anything--anything at all--about our deficits and our 
debt?
  Investment follows certainty. That is one thing this White House 
refuses to provide. This ongoing uncertainty is paralyzing our economic 
recovery and seriously hindering job creation.
  One recent study suggests that any nation which carries a public debt 
load at or above 90 percent of its economy loses one point of economic 
growth, which the administration's own economists have said is 
equivalent to 1 million jobs. So why won't they propose a serious plan 
to lower it? When will the administration follow through on what it 
knows it has to do to spur job growth? The solutions are right in front 
of us.
  The administration acknowledges that free trade agreements, expanding 
domestic energy exploration, cutting regulations, providing tax 
certainty, and reducing the debt will lead to a dramatic increase in 
jobs. So why won't it follow through?
  Too often, unfortunately, the answer is political. They don't want to 
cross some special interest group--whether it is those who don't like 
trade agreements or those who don't like the way private companies such 
as Boeing run their businesses or those who don't want to give up a 
single solitary penny of Federal spending.
  But the good of the country is more important than the goals of some 
political interest group. We have to rein in our debt, cut spending, 
reduce taxes, reform entitlements, and grow this economy. This 
administration knows this as well as I do. It is time to act.
  So, looking ahead, the key to success, in my view--and in the 
judgment of others, including Moody's--is for everyone involved to view 
the upcoming debt limit vote as an opportunity--an opportunity--to 
reduce Washington spending now and to save the taxpayers trillions of 
dollars over the long term. It is an opportunity to put our fiscal 
house in order and to prevent the fiscal crisis we all know is coming. 
We know what we need to do. The time to do it is now.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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