[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 9843-9844]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            KENTUCKY STORMS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, people in my hometown of Louisville, 
KY, are still recovering this morning from a series of storms and 
possible tornadoes last night that inflicted considerable damage across 
the city, including at the historic Churchill Downs racetrack, home of 
the Kentucky Derby.
  More than 600 Louisvillians were without power this morning after 
thousands lost power yesterday. The storms did their worst at Churchill 
Downs in South Louisville, where there were reports of funnel clouds, 
and some barns were destroyed, sending many horses running loose. In 
many parts of the city, there were downed power lines. The storms also 
did considerable damage near my alma mater, the University of 
Louisville, and in the Jeffersontown area.
  The National Weather Service plans to be in Louisville today to 
survey the damage and determine if the city was indeed struck by 
tornadoes. The town is bracing itself for another round of severe 
weather with severe thunderstorms, high winds, and even hail in the 
forecast for today.
  Luckily, it appears so far that only property was damaged and no 
lives were lost or people injured. The horses are all OK too, for that 
matter, which is extremely important to us in Kentucky.
  We are thinking of those who have been affected by these storms and 
will continue to keep a close eye on the city of Louisville and make 
sure the people have everything they need to clean up and rebuild.


                               Debt Limit

  Mr. President, this morning I would like to address what I view as a 
worrisome development in connection with the ongoing debt limit talks, 
but first I think it is important to remind ourselves what the purpose 
of these talks is.
  From the very beginning, the goal has been clear: to come up with a 
serious and significant plan for reducing the deficit as a condition 
for any agreement to raise the limit. Without such a plan, we are told, 
America could very quickly face an economic calamity of historic 
proportions, at a time when millions of Americans are still trying to 
recover from the last one.
  As one of the major credit agencies recently put it:

       The rating outlook [of the U.S.] will depend on the outcome 
     of negotiations on deficit reduction . . . a credible 
     agreement on substantial deficit reduction would support a 
     continued stable outlook; lack of such an agreement would 
     prompt Moody's to change its outlook to negative on the AAA 
     rating.

  This is serious stuff, and many of us have been hoping for and 
working toward a serious bipartisan solution, a plan that would 
convince the American people, the markets, and the world that America 
is capable of getting its fiscal house in order. Let's be clear about 
something else: We all know what such a plan would look like. Everyone, 
including the President, knows we cannot rein in our debt without a 
reform of long-term entitlements. It cannot be done. And everyone knows 
any serious plan would have to be in the trillions to get the job done. 
That is why even the Democratic chairman of the Budget Committee said 
this week that he wouldn't even support a plan that proposed to cut 
less than $4 trillion over the next 10 years. That is also why it is so 
concerning to many of us that some have begun to suggest a different 
goal for these talks.
  Over the past several days, some have suggested in various news 
stories that the real goal of these talks is to devise a plan that 
satisfies one side by reducing the debt and satisfies the other side by 
raising taxes. The suggestion here is that all this is all just some 
quid pro quo exercise between the two parties. This is a dangerous 
trend, and it is wrong. It is important that we dispel it.
  The central issue in these talks, as every serious person knows, is 
our Nation's massive deficit and debt and the disastrous long-term 
consequences for jobs and the economy that would result if we do 
absolutely nothing about it. We have this problem for one very 
understandable reason: The government spends too much. The way to solve 
it is to spend less.
  It is mystifying, really, that at the eleventh hour some would now 
propose tax hikes as a condition to any agreement. It is mystifying not 
only because of the absurdity of proposing a tax hike as a way to help 
the economy and create jobs, it is mystifying above all because we know 
quite well that a tax hike would never make it through Congress, not 
because of Republican opposition but because of Republican and 
Democratic opposition. We have already had the votes to prove it. Six 
months ago, Democrats couldn't even muster enough votes to pass a tax 
hike on upper income Americans when they

[[Page 9844]]

had 59 seats in the Senate, a 40-seat majority in the House, and a 
Democrat in the White House. They couldn't get that done 6 months ago. 
Less than 2 weeks later, right after that effort to raise taxes, which 
they couldn't get done, they voted almost 4 to 1 in favor of keeping 
the current tax rates in place. That was when the Democrats had a huge 
majority in the Senate, a huge majority in the House, and a President 
of the United States. They couldn't raise taxes.
  So there is one of two things going on here: Either someone on the 
other side has forgotten that there is strong bipartisan opposition in 
Congress to raising taxes or someone involved is acting in bad faith. 
We have known from the beginning that tax hikes would be a poison pill 
to any deficit reduction proposal. Those who are proposing them now 
either know this or they need to realize it very quickly.
  That is to say nothing of those who are now proposing more spending 
as a solution to our debt crisis. This isn't just mystifying, it is 
absolutely farcical. Most Americans had to wonder if they were dreaming 
this morning when they saw this headline: ``Democrats Call for New 
Spending in U.S. Debt Deal.'' It is unbelievable. More spending as a 
solution to the debt crisis? What planet are they on?
  All of which gets at the larger issue in this whole debate, and here 
I am referring to the continuing silence of the one person who matters 
most to its outcome.
  For weeks, lawmakers have worked around the clock to hammer out a 
plan that would help us avert a crisis we all know is coming. Do you 
remember what Admiral Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of 
Staff, said when asked what our biggest national security threat was? 
He said: Our debt. Erskine Bowles, Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff, 
Cochairman of the deficit reduction commission, called it the most 
predictable crisis in American history. We all know this crisis is 
coming, knowing at some point the President will have to sign on to 
some solution. So it is worth asking, where in the world has President 
Obama been for the last month? Where is he? What does he propose? What 
is he willing to do to reduce the debt and to avoid this crisis that is 
building on his watch? He is the one in charge. I think most Americans 
think it is about time he started acting like it.
  It is not enough for the President to step in front of a microphone 
every once in a while and say a few words that somebody hands him to 
say about the jobs situation and our economy. Americans want to see 
that he is actually doing something about it. What they see instead is 
more bad economic news every day, a gathering crisis that threatens to 
make current problems even worse, and a President who is either 
unwilling or unable to recognize that our Nation's economy is in very 
serious trouble. He is the President. He needs to lead. He needs to 
show that he recognizes the problem. He needs to do something about it. 
We are not in the majority. We can't sign anything into law. That is 
the President's job. That is his job. Yet, until now, he has stood in 
the background. He has acted as if it is not his problem. Well, it is 
his problem. This is his problem to solve. America is waiting.
  I yield the floor.

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