[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 10149-10150]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             SHORT MEMORIES

  Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, just listening to my good friend from 
Utah speaking--and he is a good friend of mine--and others who have 
been speaking for the last half hour, memories are short, very short--I 
mean very short. Forget about the attention span. Memories are very 
short. How soon we forget that at the end of the Clinton years, after 
we had worked with President Clinton to pass measures that brought in 
more revenues that kept our spending under control, we had 4 years of 
balanced budgets--4 years--not only of balanced budgets but budget 
surpluses.
  When President Clinton left office, he left George W. Bush the 
biggest surplus ever in our history. CBO said if we just continued on 
with the policies we had, we would have paid off the national debt by 
2010. But what did the Republicans do? They came riding into town in 
2001. They got the White House. They got the Senate. They got the 
House. What did they do? They took that surplus we had and said: Hey, 
we have to give this to the wealthy. We

[[Page 10150]]

have to have tax cuts for the wealthiest in our society. That is what 
they did. How did they do it? They snuck it through on something called 
reconciliation--a budget measure which means we cannot filibuster it, 
and it only takes 50 votes. That is what the Republicans did. They 
squandered it--squandered it--to give more to the wealthiest in our 
society. Look what has happened since then.
  Then we had two unpaid-for wars. George Bush got us in those wars. 
Don't pay for them; we will just borrow it from China, borrow it from 
other countries. Then a new prescription drug benefit, unpaid for. We 
will just borrow more money.
  Now these same Republicans who ran up the deficit, squandered the 
surplus, are now saying we have to balance the budget on the backs of 
the middle class. We have to balance the budget on those who already 
are hurting so much. But, no, we cannot raise revenues on the wealthy. 
Oh, no. No, no, we cannot do that.
  As I said, memories are short. They all want a balanced budget 
amendment now. Why don't we do what we did under the Clinton years? 
Let's have the same kind of economic policies we had then? Then we will 
have balanced budgets. But, no, not my Republican friends. No. They say 
they want to limit government spending to 18 percent of GDP. I would 
like to ask: Where does that number come from? Why is it 18 percent? 
Why isn't it 18.5 percent? Why isn't it 17.75 percent? Why isn't it 
19.23 percent? Where does 18 percent come from?
  Let me tell you where this comes from. The last time the Federal 
Government was 18 percent of GDP spending was 1967, before Medicare got 
underway. So read between the lines what the Republicans are saying: If 
they could get that down to 18 percent, they can do away with Medicare, 
which is what they want to do anyway. The Republicans want to do away 
with Medicare. If we can get the Federal Government's role of spending 
down to 18 percent, we are back where we were in 1967. Guess what. We 
can get rid of Medicare and turn it back over to the private insurance 
companies. That is what the Ryan budget did. That is what the 
Republican budget did. That is what they all voted for.
  So when they tell us about 18 percent of GDP, think Medicare. Think 
Medicare. Goodbye Medicare. That is what they are after.

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