[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 11341]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         CUT, CAP, AND BALANCE

  Mr. SCHUMER. Now to perhaps a less happy subject, the so-called Cut, 
Cap, and Balance Plan.
  Let me say we are going to be debating this in the House and in the 
Senate over the next week. Theater trumps serious solutions as the 
House Republicans plan a vote on their unrealistic Cut, Cap, and 
Balance proposal. It truly is theater trumping serious solutions when 
you put something on the floor that you know may not pass your own body 
in the House, certainly won't pass the Senate, and would be vetoed by 
the President, at a time when our Nation's credit is teetering on the 
edge. Let's stop playing games and solve this problem once and for all.
  We on this side of the aisle call the plan Cut, Cap, and Kill 
Medicare for one good reason. Under this reckless plan, seniors could 
see their Medicare cuts go up by $2,500 beyond Ryan cuts, Social 
Security benefits could be slashed by $3,000 a year. It is the Ryan 
plan on steroids.
  The Ryan plan has been seriously rejected in a bipartisan vote in 
this body. The American people dislike it intensely. And yet now we 
have done something that is even more extreme. If you thought it wasn't 
possible to be more extreme, look at the Cut, Cap, and Kill Medicare 
plan that some of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are 
offering.
  There are three things wrong with their plan. First, we have a 
serious debt problem. If the credit of the United States goes into 
default, we will pay the price for a decade. It will make our deficit 
worse, it will raise costs to the Federal Government because interest 
rates on Federal bonds will go up and stay up for a very long time. It 
will raise the cost to average homeowners because both mortgages and 
credit card rates will go up. It could very well send our economy back 
into a recession. Let's roll up our sleeves, let's compromise, and 
let's meet in the middle and do something that will end our deficit 
problem, reduce our debt, and make sure we are able to pay the debts we 
have already incurred.
  But, no, theater is the day. Ideologues do not see the world as it 
is. I read some of the statements by some of the freshman colleagues 
from the Republican side in the House. They just do not get it. Their 
view is that they are so right that all they have to do is put this on 
the floor and all of America and every other Senator and Congressman 
will go along. Ideologues do not see the world as it is, and that is 
why I have never been too fond of them, whether they have been on the 
far right or on the far left. Yet that is who is governing here.
  If you read those statements in the papers this morning, that all 
they have to do is put this out there and everyone will see the 
righteousness of their cause, I have a word for them: Slashing Medicare 
and slashing Social Security is not the right thing to do, and I will 
never see things that way. Saying that millionaires should continue to 
get tax breaks while we are slashing Social Security and killing 
Medicare is something I will never go along with, nor will a single 
colleague on my side of the aisle.
  It is not going to pass. It is theater and politics at its worst. It 
is ideologues governing--or trying to govern. They are not able to 
govern because they do not see the grays in the world; it is only black 
or white.
  The plan has three strikes against it. No. 1, it will not solve the 
problem, and it is political theater. No. 2, it will kill Medicare as 
we know it. That is why we call it cut, cap, and kill Medicare. And, 
No. 3, it will not do a thing to help the middle class, while giving 
huge tax breaks to millionaires and corporate America. That is not the 
plan America wants. That is not the plan America needs. That is not the 
plan that will pass.
  I understand many of us have to bow to an extreme base in the party. 
That happens around here a lot--but not when we are 2 weeks away from 
defaulting on our debt, not when we are 2 weeks away from potentially 
walking off a cliff and incurring injuries from which we will never 
recuperate.
  I call on my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to stop the 
theater, to stop throwing red meat to the far right base, and join us 
in solving the problems of America.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Nebraska.
  Mr. JOHANNS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that I be 
permitted to enter into a colloquy with my Republican colleagues for up 
to 30 minutes. Senator Alexander of Tennessee, Senator Hoeven of North 
Dakota, and Senator Risch of Idaho will participate with me in this 
colloquy.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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