[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 9664-9666]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  EDA

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, there was a vote yesterday on the Senate 
floor about a bill that was pending. It goes directly to the topic just 
raised by the Senator from Iowa. It was the Economic Development 
Revitalization Act. The EDA is an agency created almost a half century 
ago to create incentives for businesses to build, expand, and locate in 
places across America where there is high unemployment. It has been a 
success in Illinois and almost every other State.
  For every $1 the Federal Government puts on the table, it generates 
$7 in economic activity. There is not a lot to go around, so they pick 
those projects that are the most promising, and it is a good agency. It 
is an agency that has enjoyed wide bipartisan support. Yet, when it 
came time yesterday to vote on whether we go ahead and pass the bill to 
reauthorize the agency, unfortunately, we could not find 60 Senators on 
the floor to vote yes. So the bill languishes and basically was pulled 
from the calendar.
  It is the second time this year, when we face this recession and high 
unemployment, the Senate has refused to take up a bill that literally 
will help businesses create jobs across America. It does not make 
sense, does it, that when we have so many people out of work, we cannot 
even agree on a bill to create jobs and help business. It does not make 
sense, unless the premise of this debate is understood.
  The Republican minority leader, Senator McConnell, said his highest 
legislative priority this session was to make sure President Obama is a 
one-term President. It is that guiding force that led to the vote 
yesterday. It is that guiding force that has stopped us from passing 
meaningful legislation when it comes to unemployment in America, time 
and again. You see, if we are destined and determined to stop this 
President and frustrate any efforts to build jobs, then the Senate will 
continue to languish.
  How does this work? It works because when bills come to the floor, 
brought by the majority leader, Harry Reid, Senators from the other 
side of the aisle start a steady stream procession to this desk to file 
amendment after amendment, until we had literally 100 amendments filed 
to the Economic Development Administration bill. You say: Well, maybe 
this bill needed some work.
  The amendments had little or nothing do with the bill. They are about 
everything under the Sun--every issue a Senator can dream up or that 
his or her staff thinks might be interesting. Believe me, 100 is a 
modest number. We could certainly, our staff people and others, come up 
with hundreds more. But at the end of the day we still would not pass 
the Economic Development Revitalization Act. We would not help 
businesses locate, expand, and create jobs, and we will still continue 
to languish with millions of Americans unemployed.
  I think it is time for us to face reality. The reality we face is 
that America has two deficits. The one we talk about a lot is the 
budget deficit, and it is serious. I was on the deficit commission, the 
Bowles-Simpson Commission. We looked at it long and hard and realized 
it is unsustainable for America to borrow 40 cents for every dollar it 
spends in Washington. We can't continue to do this. The debt of our 
Nation is growing dramatically, and we have to bring it to a stop. That 
means cutting spending and raising revenue. Those are the only two ways 
to reduce the deficit, and we have to do both. That is what the Bowles-
Simpson Commission said--and I voted for it--a bipartisan vote for the 
Commission to move forward on the deficit. But they said something 
else: Don't do this too quickly; don't do it precipitously; be careful 
that we don't kill off the recovery we are engaged in.
  The Bowles-Simpson Commission basically said to wait a year. Make a 
plan, make a commitment, but say for this year we are going to get 
America back to work. The Bowles-Simpson Commission knew--and we all 
know--we can't balance America's budget with 14 million people out of 
work. These are folks who should be earning a paycheck and paying taxes 
but instead are home looking for work, searching the Internet, 
searching the classifieds, and drawing benefits from the government 
instead of paying taxes. So as long as 14 million Americans are in that 
position, then, sadly, we are going to have a deficit that is 
aggravated rather than one that is cured.
  So the Bowles-Simpson Commission said don't move too quickly to kill 
programs that make a difference. They are right. I happen to think they 
were right in many other respects.
  When we deal with our budget deficit, let's be honest about it. It is 
going to take sacrifice from everybody. Maybe some of the poorest among 
us cannot sacrifice any more. I understand that. But for most of us a 
little change in our lifestyle, a little change in the government 
benefits we might be receiving or the taxes we might be paying is not 
too high a price or too much to ask to put this economy on the right 
track.

[[Page 9665]]

  I think a lot about sacrifices being made by Americans, and the first 
people who come to mind are our men and women in uniform who are 
serving around the world. I think about the sacrifice they have 
volunteered to make every single day. They are willing to risk and, in 
many cases, give their lives for this Nation. If they are willing to 
make that kind of sacrifice, can we honestly say with a straight face 
we can make no sacrifice to make America stronger? I think we can. I 
think we should. I think we ought to come together in a bipartisan 
fashion.
  I am frustrated by the fact that for the last 5 months I have been 
meeting with a bipartisan group of Senators and we have come up with 
the basic outline of an approach which would dramatically reduce 
America's deficit in a balanced and fair way. It would put everything 
on the table. Let me underline the word ``everything.'' Many of my 
colleagues don't want everything on the table. On this side of the 
aisle they don't want to talk about our entitlement programs. On the 
other side of the aisle they don't want to talk about revenue. I 
understand that, but we both have to give a little for the good of this 
country. But after 5 months of long, tortured negotiation; after what I 
consider to be a successful effort--95 percent successful--in producing 
a plan for deficit reduction, I am sorry to report we are just not 
ready to let the world in on what we have been doing. I wish we would.
  I am prepared, and I hope other colleagues will be too, to come to 
the floor and to lay this out and say: If this helps--if this helps our 
country, if this helps Congress, if it helps the President, if it helps 
those who are working with Vice President Biden--then here is our 
offering. Here is our best effort. It is not perfect, and it won't be 
the end product. But for goodness' sakes, the time is over for talking 
behind closed doors. I appeal to all of my colleagues who believe we 
should come forward with this Gang of 6--now down to Gang of 5--
proposal, to let it be known: Come to the floor, talk to our 
colleagues, let us break this logjam which has stopped us from bringing 
these ideas forward.
  I want to keep my good faith with those who are engaged in this 
effort. I am not going to stand here and describe in any detail what we 
have been doing. I will, however, tell my colleagues I have reached a 
level of frustration. After all this work and all this time, all this 
effort and all the political courage I have seen exhibited behind 
closed doors, we need to step forward and say something publicly. We 
need to do it in a fashion that gives some guidance to those who are 
making critical decisions.
  Let's not reach the point where we literally test the 
creditworthiness of the United States of America by refusing to extend 
the debt ceiling. That is a bill which goes largely unnoticed each 
year. It is when America renews its mortgage. It comes due August 2 
this year. If we don't do it, I can tell my colleagues what is going to 
happen. My projections are not based on any great expertise I have but 
on what has been told to me by the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, by 
the Secretary of the Treasury, by the President.
  Here is what will happen: If the United States does not show we are 
ready to pay our debts in a timely fashion, what is going to happen 
automatically is that interest rates will rise. The Federal Reserve is 
supposed to report this week that they are going to keep interest rates 
low because they want America's economy to recover. We can spoil this 
party in a hurry if we get engaged in a political cat fight between the 
House and the Senate and both political parties and do not extend the 
debt ceiling. Failure to extend the debt ceiling or creating 
uncertainty about its extension will raise interest rates. Who will pay 
the price? Americans across the board.
  When we want to buy a car, we will pay a higher interest rate. When 
we want to buy a home, we will pay a higher interest rate. If we want 
to start a business and expand and hire more people, if we can borrow 
money, it will be at a higher interest rate. This will slow down our 
recovery at a time when we need just the opposite.
  So let me suggest that those who believe, as I do--and I think I have 
put up my beliefs for display when it comes to this deficit--that we 
need a bipartisan approach that is serious, for goodness' sakes, let's 
not bargain with the debt ceiling. Let's do what is right for America 
in a bipartisan fashion and then stand up together and accept the 
responsibility of governing, the responsibility of reaching a decision 
and moving forward.
  When we see a bill such as the Economic Development Administration 
bill die on the Senate floor, as we did last night, it is a reminder of 
how partisanship run amok can hurt us when America needs leadership the 
most. To put 100 amendments on the floor to a bill as simple as this--
it used to pass with a voice vote--is an indication there are some in 
the Senate who want to accomplish absolutely nothing except partisan 
debate. That is not good for this country. If the best thing we can do 
at the end of the day, after all 100 Senators come filing through the 
door, is to pass some resolution extolling the virtue of someone across 
America--if that is the best we can do--maybe we don't deserve these 
paychecks we are being sent. Maybe it is time for the American people 
to demand an accounting of those elected to office.
  We have to be ready to not only make the speeches and make the 
political points, but we have to stand and make a difference. That 
means standing together. It means taking a risk of putting everything 
on the table and getting America moving. If we can get this deficit 
resolved, we can convince people across this country and around the 
world we are serious about it and we are going to launch an economic 
recovery that will create jobs and help businesses and make us a 
stronger nation and give our kids a chance. The alternative is 
unacceptable.
  Today, I hope my colleagues--if they believe we should move forward 
on a bipartisan basis to deal with this deficit and to put everything 
on the table now and get down to business--will come to the floor and 
say as much.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mr. CORKER. Madam President, I understand I have 10 minutes to speak; 
is that correct?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator is correct.
  Mr. CORKER. If the Chair will show me the courtesy of letting me know 
if I happen to get within 2 minutes of that.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair will.
  Mr. CORKER. Madam President, I rise to speak on the same topic the 
Senator from Illinois was speaking about; that is, the discussions 
taking place right now around the debt ceiling vote and what kind of 
arrangement or what kind of agreement can take place. These are called 
the Blair House negotiations. They are happening between the Vice 
President of the United States--the actual President of the Senate when 
he is here--and leaders on both the Republican and Democratic side of 
the House and Senate.
  What I wish to speak about today stems from reading some of the 
public comments. I am concerned the type of deal they may be trying to 
seek is not something many of us in this body would even agree to if 
they reached it, meaning it is far more modest than I think most of us 
have been looking at. It is my understanding they are going to be 
meeting all week. It is my understanding they had hoped to reach an 
agreement by next week. So my reason for coming to the floor is to ask 
the Vice President and those others who are involved in this to 
publicly tell us by the end of next week what deal it is they are 
trying to accomplish and in what timeframe.
  I think all of us are frustrated. We work in the Senate, and as the 
Senator from Illinois was just mentioning, we have done absolutely 
nothing in this body this year--nothing. We have voted on a few 
noncontroversial judges-- maybe we have done slightly more than that, 
but almost nothing--while our country languishes, worrying about what 
we are going to do with these

[[Page 9666]]

budget debates. As a matter of fact, we haven't passed a budget now in 
something like 770 days.
  So here we are shelling out taxpayer money each year--$3.5 trillion, 
$3.7 trillion--and we don't have a budget, which is about as 
irresponsible as one can be.
  Actually, there are groups working on other solutions. I think it 
would be good for this body to know what kind of arrangement is being 
looked at, what kind of goals are trying to be achieved, and in what 
timeframe they are going to be achieved so that people will know with 
some degree of certainty whether there is going to be something 
achieved to which we would agree.
  Let me give an example. One of the things I have heard is, we are 
going to have the same amount of debt limit extension as we do in 
reductions, meaning we will have $2.4 trillion in debt ceiling 
additions and $2.4 trillion in cuts. The problem is, the debt extension 
is over an 18-month period and the cuts are over a 10-year period. So 
we can see there is a vast discrepancy in what is taking place. The 
semantics may sound good, but the result, candidly, is not near what I 
believe the American people would like to see, nor what I believe 
financial markets would like to see. So if our goal is something we 
know on the front end is not even acceptable to this body, it seems to 
me it is not rational for us to be sitting here waiting on this group 
at the Blair House to make a deal we all know is not good enough.
  So I hope by the end of next week this group who is negotiating will 
come forth and tell us what it is they are trying to achieve, the 
likelihood of achieving it, and in what timeframe.
  I am also hearing there are discussions that we do not believe we 
will reach a deal by the August recess. There have been some public 
comments about short-term extensions. I cannot imagine going home to 
the people of Tennessee for recess on August 6 and telling them: We are 
on August recess, and I am here to tell you we haven't done a thing--
not one thing--to reach a deal on how many cuts are going to take place 
in spending relative to our debt ceiling extension. But I am here in 
Tennessee to tell you that we are on recess, and we have accomplished 
nothing.
  I cannot imagine us doing that as a body.
  The other thing I am hearing is we may be looking at a short-term 
extension to move beyond the August recess, to get us back into this 
fall. Maybe that is a way of dealing with this issue. But, again, if we 
adopt a short-term extension to try to give us time to reach a deal we 
all know is unacceptable on the front end, why would we give a short-
term extension? So it just seems to me the most responsible happening 
would be for negotiators on both sides to tell this body--this body 
which has done nothing of importance this year--maybe a few minor 
things, not much; We spent no time dealing with serious issues; no time 
dealing with a budget; no time trying to deal publicly with the issues 
of deficit reduction--to let us know where they are.
  It seems to me a number of people in this body are getting very 
restless. They see what is happening. We have seen this movie before 
where we bump up against a deadline and we have to make a decision up 
or down because ``it is going to create havoc in the marketplace.'' It 
seems to me, again, the responsible thing for the Blair House group to 
do is to let us know where they are at the end of this next week so if 
Members of this body wanted to figure out a different route to go 
because they thought the route that was being taken was not acceptable, 
not good enough--as a matter of fact, I noticed yesterday where the 
chairman of the Budget Committee on the other side of the aisle has 
said the things he has heard are not good enough for him. I can tell my 
colleagues they are not good enough for me. So the goal we are trying 
to achieve is not something I would even agree to.
  So maybe if we cannot get some degree of clarity as to what is 
happening at the Blair House and some degree of update, maybe there is 
some other route we should take or maybe the market should know well in 
advance that this body does not have the discipline, does not have the 
ability, does not have the courage to deal with what we know is an 
upcoming calamity--a calamity that is either going to occur because we 
cannot reach agreement and we do not raise the debt ceiling or a 
calamity that occurs a little bit down the road because we have not 
shown the fiscal discipline in this body to put our house in order, 
knowing that at some point in time the markets will run from us, 
interest rates will rise, people will no longer be willing to loan us 
money because we have shown how irresponsible we are and we have a 
calamity on that end.
  So let me restate, I am 58 years old. I came to this body to solve 
problems. If there is going to be a calamity, I want the calamity to 
occur while I am here so I can deal with it and take responsibility for 
it versus kicking the can down the road for somebody else to have to 
deal with the fact that we as a body are irresponsible.
  In closing, Madam President, thank you for the time. I implore the 
folks who are meeting behind closed doors--implore them--to come 
forward and to outline the goals they are trying to achieve and when 
they think they are going to achieve them so all of us who are sitting 
around here cooling our heels, doing nothing--doing almost nothing of 
importance for this country--the Senator from Illinois talked about the 
EDA bill. We all knew it was not going to pass. Everybody knew that. 
Everybody knew that bill was offered on the floor to kill time, to make 
it look as though the Senate was doing something. That is all it was 
for. Everybody knew that. Everybody working up front knew that. The 
pages knew that. Everybody knew that. So for people to come down here 
and act as if it is a shock that cloture was not achieved on EDA when 
we knew it was here just for a filler is kind of surprising. We knew 
what it was about.
  So I would like for us to get on with dealing with the most important 
issue our country has to deal with; that is, the huge amount of deficit 
spending, where every day we are spending $4.1 billion we do not have. 
Every day we are borrowing 40 cents of that from other folks. Every day 
we are causing this country, because of that, to be in decline--
hopefully, we will rectify that, but to be in decline, lowering the 
standard of living of all Americans because we in this body do not show 
the capability, the will, the desire to solve that problem.
  I am hoping--I am hoping--the Blair House negotiations yield a 
result. I really do. That is why I think all of us are being patient as 
they meet in private, sharing no details about what they are doing. But 
at the end of this week, the end of this work period, I think it is 
time they come forth to give us a status as to where they are so that 
if there are other routes that ought to be taken, people have the 
ability to do that.
  With that, I yield the floor and 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.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Madam 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.

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