[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 9432-9434]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              THE ECONOMY

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, our Nation's challenges grow by the day. 
The citizens of Utah get this. The citizens in this country get this.
  A recent NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll found that 62 percent of 
Americans think the country is on the wrong track. Only 37 percent of 
Americans approve of the President's job of handling the economy. I 
would like to meet those people, because when I talk to Utahns, the 
numbers are much lower than that, and I understand why.
  Applications for unemployment have been above 400,000 for 7 straight 
weeks. Economic growth is stagnant. Job growth is pathetic. The real 
estate market remains in free-fall. Since 2007, housing values have 
dropped by more than during the Great Depression.
  Medicare is going bankrupt, and when it does, it will take down this 
country and tens of millions of seniors with it. Yet President Obama 
and his Democratic allies steadfastly refuse to acknowledge that there 
is a problem with Medicare. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, when asked 
where the Democrats' reform plan was, responded:

       We have a plan. It's called Medicare.

  Meanwhile, the President's handpicked chairwoman of the Democratic 
National Committee gleefully demagogs Republicans' efforts to fix this 
dying program.
  There are legitimate fears that the Federal Reserve's loose money 
policy is creating yet another stock market bubble that could pop and 
destroy the retirement savings of millions of Americans. Most 
ominously, PIMCO, the world's largest bond fund manager, is looking to 
countries such as Australia, Canada, Brazil, and Mexico, countries 
without our massive fiscal problems, to invest. As I have said before, 
there is a genuine risk that the United States is in a debt bubble. 
Because of historically low interest rates, we may be totally 
underestimating how dangerously leveraged this country is. But the 
minute rates start going up, citizens are going to realize how much 
they are on the hook for. When the word on the street is that U.S. 
Treasurys are not worth investing in, higher interest rates are just 
around the corner.
  So we have a lot of work to do, but I wish to touch on three things 
we should be doing now, and I mean right now. The people are demanding 
action, and there are a few things Congress can do that would bring 
relief to struggling American families.
  First, the President needs to submit the Colombia, Panama, and South 
Korean Free Trade Agreements to Congress. They are long overdue. The 
failure to submit these agreements has

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stalled U.S. job growth at a time when it is desperately needed. There 
is only upside to these agreements. Consider that from Utah alone, 
South Korea imported more than $294 million of goods in 2009.
  The former Director of the Congressional Budget Office, Doug Holtz-
Eakin, has it right. This is what he said earlier this week in a letter 
to the President:

       Opening Colombia, South Korea, and Panama to U.S. 
     businesses is anticipated to increase total exports by $12 
     billion, and will add at least $14 billion to the United 
     States gross domestic product, promoting increased investment 
     and job creation at home.

  While the President is down in Florida yukking it up with rich 
liberals about how he wasted nearly $1 trillion on his stimulus 
boondoggle, he seems oblivious to the fact that he could just hit send, 
deliver these agreements to Congress, and have a trade-driven economic 
stimulus.
  If given a clean up-or-down vote, I am confident these agreements 
would pass. I have no doubt who would prevail if that debate were 
allowed to happen. But old habits die hard.
  The President's spend-first mentality is cluttering what should be a 
clean debate on the benefit of these free-trade agreements for the 
American economy. Rumors persist that the President may include a 
reauthorization of an expanded trade adjustment assistance bill into 
one or perhaps all the bills implementing our trade agreements with 
Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. This would be a grave mistake. That 
tactic raises serious procedural concerns which could jeopardize 
approval of these job-creating agreements.
  It also raises serious concerns about the President's commitment to 
gaining approval of our long-stalled trade agreements with these 
important allies. It would send a signal that further placating unions 
is more important than growing our economy, a position I simply cannot 
understand or support. If the President chooses this course of action, 
he needs to know I will vigorously oppose him and reserve the right to 
use all procedural options available to do so. If, as the President 
says, there is such strong bipartisan support for trade adjustment 
assistance, it should be considered on its own merits and not thrust 
upon an unwilling Congress through procedural shenanigans.
  These trade agreements are something Washington can do, and should 
do, to get our economy back on track. But we must also be vigilant in 
fighting against proposals that would undermine our economy and our 
sovereignty.
  Standard & Poor's recently downgraded Greece's debt rating to CCC, 
from a B. This is the world's lowest rating, and S&P concluded that a 
default on Greek debt was increasingly likely.
  So what was the President's response? Like the Siren's Call, a 
bailout beckoned. He seemed to go all in for an IMF bailout of Greece. 
Greece has already been bailed out once by the IMF, to the tune of $145 
billion. We cannot let this happen again. That is why today I am 
cosponsoring the anti-IMF bailout amendment with my good friends, 
Senators DeMint, Vitter, and Cornyn.
  This amendment, which we filed to the Economic Development 
Revitalization Act, would rescind bailout funds provided in 2009 to the 
International Monetary Fund. Under the urging of the Obama 
administration, additional funding of up to $108 billion was given to 
the IMF which it can use to bail out heavily indebted European 
countries such as Greece.
  The amendment I am cosponsoring would roll that funding back. Now is 
not the time, when Americans are struggling to find work and have 
budget problems of their own, to tap innocent American taxpayers in 
order to bail out profligate European governments. Rather, it is time 
to stop our own runaway spending and our continued movement toward 
European levels of government. If we go down that route, the 
destination is an America very different than the one our Founders 
intended, and it is critical we hit the brakes now and save our limited 
constitutional government.
  The American people are tired of bailouts. When ordinary Americans 
are struggling to get by and when our country faces its own debt 
crisis, the last thing we need is a bailout of irresponsible Socialist 
governments and the irresponsible investors who bet on them, which 
brings me to my final point.
  Earlier this week, my colleague and friend from Florida, Senator 
Marco Rubio, gave his maiden speech in the Senate. He is certainly to 
be commended. I sat here and listened to him. It was a tour de force, 
and I recommend that all my colleagues, and, for that matter, all the 
citizens of this Nation read it. He made it clear that he is confident 
in this Nation and our ability to weather the current storm and emerge 
in rich and steady seas.
  America's best days are ahead of it. America has been and will always 
be a shining city on a hill. But for there to be another American 
century, a century of liberty and prosperity both here and abroad, we 
have our work cut out for us.
  America is over $14 trillion in debt. We face our third straight year 
of trillion-dollar deficits. We have entitlement programs that are 
going bankrupt. Under this Presidency, we have lifted the debt ceiling 
three times and the last one, if I recall correctly, was about $1.9 
trillion and we have basically just given the administration an open 
checkbook. We have entitlement programs that are going bankrupt.
  Our total obligations, according to one account, are over $62 
trillion. This is a debt burden that is simply unsustainable. We need 
to get our spending under control immediately; otherwise, American 
families and citizens will be crushed under the weight of all this 
debt.
  The other side keeps telling us the problem is a lack of revenue. 
They say all we need to do is raise taxes and eliminate tax loopholes. 
Never mind the fact that raising taxes threatens to kill the small 
businesses that will be the engines of our economic recovery, and never 
mind the fact that these so-called loopholes include the IRAs, 401(k)s, 
and charitable deductions of American taxpayers.
  Let's not make any bones about it. The left's proposal to gut tax 
expenditures would put a bull's-eye on the backs of working families 
who have mortgages and save for the future.
  In the spirit of bipartisanship, as an aside to some of my friends on 
my side of the aisle who seem to think all expenditures are wasteful 
spending, consider the following: The third largest tax expenditure is 
the current lower rates for capital gains and dividends. Be careful, my 
friends; otherwise, you might end up inadvertently finding yourselves 
sharing the stage with my friend, the junior Senator from Vermont, in 
effect, advocating for a sharp hike in the rates of capital gains and 
dividends.
  Even if liberal Democrats did all these things, raising taxes on 
middle Americans and further hindering economic growth, we still would 
come nowhere close to balancing the budget.
  This is the dirty secret of President Obama and Democratic leadership 
to engage in meaningful efforts to balance the budget. As my colleague 
from Alabama, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, notes, 
it has been more than 770 days since Democrats passed a budget. That is 
disgraceful. For over 2 years, congressional Democrats have simply 
abdicated their most basic constitutional responsibility, and here is 
why. They have refused to cut spending, and they know balancing the 
budget for new taxes alone would be perceived as a full-blown assault 
on personal liberty and limited government. So instead of offering up a 
bogus budget, as the President did, and get laughed out of town, or 
offering up a proposal for balance that satisfies their liberal base, 
raises the tax burden to historic levels, and inspires the vitriol of 
their constituents, Democrats decided to keep their mouths shut.
  Where does that leave us? The answer, to me, is clear. We need to 
pass a balanced budget constitutional amendment. This is where the 
entire Republican caucus stands in the Senate. The amendment I 
introduced, S.J. Res. 10, is supported by every single Senate 
Republican. I bet it is the first time all

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Republican Senators have supported it. It is a good amendment that 
benefited from the input of many Senators, and it is a necessary 
amendment.
  Some people--the sophisticated set--argue this is not a serious 
proposal. The American people beg to differ. They know Congress will 
not balance the budget and shrink the size of government without 
meaningful constitutional restraints. The actions of Democrats and 
President Obama over the last few months are all the evidence we need 
to support this hypothesis. Facing a full-blown debt crisis, they still 
prefer to kick the spending can down the road.
  I want to be clear that I am deadly serious about this proposal, and 
so are the people of Utah. I have been pleased to work side-by-side 
with my colleague from Utah, Senator Mike Lee, on the balanced budget 
amendment, and Senator Cornyn and all the other Republicans. Some 
people might say Mike Lee and I are an odd couple. I have a few years 
on him, and I don't tend to be as animated as he is. He is a great 
young man with a lot of energy. But we share at least one thing, an 
absolute commitment to passing a balanced budget constitutional 
amendment and sending it to the people in the States for ratification. 
The people are demanding that we act, and it is well past time that we 
recognize their constitutional sovereignty and allow them to exercise 
it through State ratifying conventions.
  I would like to commend Senator Lee for his tireless work on this 
amendment. He is not the only one who deserves thanks, however. My 
colleagues, Senators Cornyn, Kyl, Toomey, DeMint, Rubio, Paul, and many 
other Republicans were essential in the development of this amendment, 
but it is special for me to be working with my friend, Senator Lee, on 
this critical constitutional amendment. He is a legitimate 
constitutional scholar, a steadfast advocate of our constitutionally 
limited government, and a hero to many. I could not be more proud to 
stand with him and lead this fight for the people of Utah and the 
taxpayers of this country.
  If the American people said anything last fall, it is they want their 
representatives in Washington to listen to them. They know we will not 
get it right every time, but they know we should always do our best to 
represent their values and their interests. This Congress needs to 
listen to the people. It needs to get these trade agreements done 
without holding them hostage to unrelated spending. It needs to say no 
to more bailouts, and it needs to pass a balanced budget constitutional 
amendment.
  In this country, the people are sovereign. I would have to say, if we 
would pass that constitutional amendment through the Senate, I believe 
we would get it through the House, and then it is up to the States. We 
still have to get three-quarters of the States to ratify it.
  To the extent that Democrats hate the constitutional amendment and 
hate that kind of restraint on their spending practices, they can lead 
the battle in the States. The problem is, they know this constitutional 
amendment would be ratified so fast our heads would be spinning.
  We need 38 States to ratify a constitutional amendment, and that is 
not easy under anybody's view. In this country let's let the people 
decide that. They are sovereign. It is well past time that Congress and 
the President listen to them.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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