[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 10080]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            THE DEBT CEILING

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, a little later today, I will sit down 
with President Obama to discuss his request to raise the Nation's debt 
ceiling. When I do, I intend to make a request of my own. I intend to 
ask the President what he is prepared to do, outside of raising taxes, 
about the massive deficits and debt that have accumulated on his watch. 
I will tell him what Republicans are looking for in this debate: to cut 
spending now, cap runaway spending in the future, save our entitlements 
from bankruptcy, and get our economy moving. I will tell him the truth 
about requests by some in his party that we increase spending and raise 
taxes as a way of solving the debt and jobs crisis that precipitated 
the President's request to raise the debt limit in the first place: Not 
only are they counterproductive from the standpoint of an economic 
recovery, they are also politically impossible since Republicans oppose 
tax hikes and Democrats have already shown they will not raise taxes in 
a down economy either.
  Let's start by taking both proposals off the table and focus on what 
can actually pass Congress and what will actually spur the private 
sector in our future and create jobs. Those who are calling for tax 
hikes as a part of these debt discussions either have amnesia about the 
fate of similar proposals just 6 months ago when Democrats controlled 
both Chambers of Congress by very large margins, as well as the White 
House, or they are acting in bad faith since we all know that including 
massive job-killing tax hikes would be a poison pill.
  Let's move past the tax hikes, talk about what is actually possible, 
and let's talk about what has and has not worked over the last 2 years. 
On this second point, this much is clear: If government spending were 
the answer to an economic slowdown, we would be in a boom time right 
now. Instead, we are facing record deficits and debt and a seemingly 
endless stream of bad economic news. Despite massive spending increases 
by Democrats, millions have lost their jobs.
  The problem is that Washington spends too much. That means Democrats 
are simply going to have to make the kinds of tough choices about 
Washington's budget that most other Americans have been forced to make 
about their own budgets over the past couple of years.
  Last week, President Obama told a group of people he was prepared to 
bring down the deficit by trillions of dollars but refused to list any 
of the ways he was willing to do it. All he did was list the things he 
refused to cut. This weekend, the President proposed even more deficit-
financed spending disguised as what he calls investment. You really 
cannot have it both ways.
  At some point, the President needs to realize that the reason our 
debt has skyrocketed 35 percent over the last 2 years and that our 
annual deficit is now three times greater than the highest deficit the 
previous administration ever ran is that spending has spiraled 
completely and totally out of control and that the big-government 
policies of the last 2 years simply have to change. Consider the failed 
stimulus bill when Democrats passed it. They said it was a one-time 
cash infusion that was supposed to keep unemployment below 8 percent. 
Two years later, with unemployment still hovering around 9 percent, 
they are saying we need to keep up the stimulus-level spending, despite 
its obvious failure. Their commitment to spending and tax hikes is so 
deeply held, it seems they do not even recognize the state of our 
economy or the fact that the tax-and-spend policies of the past 2 years 
have made matters worse, and they have to change if they are ever going 
to get out of the fiscal mess we are in.
  Democrats seem to think the solution to our tax crisis is to ask 
taxpayers and businesses to reward their economic stewardship with even 
more money to spend as they please. They don't seem to understand that 
the voters didn't elect dozens of additional Republicans to the House 
of Representatives last November because they wanted their taxes 
raised. They sent them to reverse policies that had failed. We have 
seen the consequences of giving Washington a blank check. It is the 
reason we are in the mess to begin with.
  So my message to the President is quite simple. It is time for 
Washington to focus on fixing itself. It is time for Washington to take 
the hit, not the taxpayers.
  I yield the floor.

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