[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 10141-10142]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              THE DEFICIT

  Mr. JOHNSON of Wisconsin. Mr. President, I realize a number of people 
in this Chamber are asking why I am doing this. First of all, I think 
it is important for everybody to realize that--and I certainly mean no 
offense to anybody in this Chamber--I did not run for the Senate 
because I wanted to be a Senator. I ran for the Senate because I 
realized we are bankrupting this Nation.
  I think the evidence is quite clear, if we take a look at the budget 
deficit for

[[Page 10142]]

just the last 3 years: $1.4 trillion, $1.3 trillion, and for this year 
estimates as high as $1.65 trillion. We have incurred over $4 trillion 
worth of debt in just the last 3 years, and our Nation's debt stands at 
$14.3 trillion. We have reached our debt limit. Our debt is almost the 
size of our entire economy.
  I have been watching Washington for 32 years from Oshkosh, WI, and I 
realized that Washington was pretty broken. I have been here now for 6 
months, and I haven't seen anything here that convinces me otherwise.
  The Senate has not passed a budget for over 2 years. Of the six 
pieces of legislation we have passed--only six pieces of legislation we 
have passed from this Chamber have actually become law, and of those 
six three dealt with last year's business. They were pieces of 
legislation dealing with this year's budget that should have been 
passed last summer.
  The bottom line is the Senate is fiddling while America is going 
bankrupt.
  As I mentioned, the debt ceiling has now been reached. What are we 
doing about it? The answer is virtually nothing. We are scheduled to go 
on recess next week. We should not be doing that. We should be staying 
in session. We should be debating. We should be developing a budget. 
Bottom line, all we are doing is waiting for the results of a 
negotiation between a limited number of people, conducted behind closed 
doors, far away from the view of any American citizen.
  Is this the process we are going to rely on to prevent the bankruptcy 
of America? Is this on what we are placing the future of America? I 
hope not.
  The Senate needs to get back to work. We need to pass a budget. It 
should not be that hard. American families do it every day. They figure 
out what their income is and they figure out how to learn to live 
within their means. The U.S. Government needs to figure out how to live 
within its means as well.
  Let me kind of start the process by naming a figure. I would start 
with $2.6 trillion. That is the amount of money President Obama, in his 
budget, says we will receive in revenue to the Federal Government next 
year--$2.6 trillion. It is $800 billion more than we spent just 10 
years ago.
  It would pay for 100 percent of the interest payment, which is $256 
billion. It would pay for all of Social Security, which is $760 
billion. That totals $1 trillion. There would be $1.6 trillion to pay 
for all other essentials: defense, security, health and safety 
spending.
  If that is not enough--and, again, that would be living within our 
means--then what I believe is required is every Member of Congress, 
members of the administration should come down into congressional 
committees, and they need to, in the open, justify how much they want 
to spend, how much they are willing to borrow, and how much debt they 
are willing to pile on the backs of our children, our grandchildren, 
and our great-grandchildren because that is what we are doing to this 
country.
  So tonight I will leave the floor. But unless the Senate gets serious 
about addressing the No. 1 problem facing this Nation--our debt and 
deficit--I will definitely be back. I will exercise my full rights. I 
will do everything in my power to prevent the bankrupting of America.
  I yield the floor.

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