[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 223-224]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  Mr. ISAKSON. We are back. Tonight, I understand, the Presiding 
Officer and I will be sitting together at the State of the Union event, 
which I am pleased to do. It is always a historic and seminal moment in 
our legislative process when the President of the United States talks 
about and lays out his plans for the future.
  From watching this morning on television and from reading some of the 
accounts of what is thought will be said tonight--I don't know what is 
going to be said yet--one of the overriding themes is going to be that 
of fairness. I think that is an important point for us to focus on in a 
second, particularly with regard to our spending, our debt, and our 
deficit, about what is fair to the American people.
  Last night--and I brought some notes--I did a telephone townhall 
meeting back to Georgia. We had thousands of people listening in on the 
call. I was able to take 17 questions in the course of an hour and one 
of the questions was from Fred in Barnesville, GA. Fred is a small 
businessperson. He asked this question: Senator, you were a small 
businessman; I am a small businessman. We had to operate within a 
budget. Why is it the U.S. Government doesn't have a budget? I think 
today is the 1,000th day we have been operating without a budget.
  That was a fair question. So if we want to talk about fairness for a 
minute, my contribution to fairness is going to be: What is fair to the 
American people, the American businessman, the American employer, the 
American employee? Let's think about it for a second.
  A budget is a guide by which we try to live under. It is an 
appropriation of our priorities for the future based on what we think 
we will need to accomplish our goals. But if we are without a budget, 
then we have the tendency to do what America has done over the last 3 
years; that is, exponentially increase its debt and its deficit. What 
that has done is put a pall on the recovery and a pall on the economy.
  I would suggest the fairest thing we can do in the Congress and the 
fairest thing the administration can do is to see to it that we have a 
budget submitted, that it come to the floor of the House and Senate, 
that it be adopted, and then, more important, that we change our pace 
around here and live within that budget.
  I have some suggestions as to how we do that, but first and foremost 
I urge the White House to submit a budget this year. I understand, from 
this morning's announcements, it will be delayed until February 13. 
That is fine with me. But the quicker we get it to us, the better we 
are. Then, let the Budget Committees of the House and Senate act, and 
let us end up with a framework--not just for 1 year but, as the 
Presiding Officer knows, for 10 years--because we forecast out those 
budgets and those complications of those budgets for 10 years.
  But we have a broken system. We also have a broken will to do what is 
most important for the American people when it comes to spending their 
money. I wish to suggest how we change our habits and become a fairer 
legislative body and a fairer governing body for the American people.
  Senator Jeanne Shaheen and I introduced a bill 1 year ago called the 
biennial budget. It amends the Budget Control Act of the United States 
of America and changes the way we do business. It portends that, in the 
future, instead of appropriating and budgeting for 1 year, we will do 
it in 2-year cycles, and we will always do our appropriating and our 
budgeting in the odd-numbered years so, in the even-numbered year of 
reelection, we are doing oversight and fiscal responsibility.
  I think everybody in this room will admit we make an effort at 
oversight, to a certain extent, but practically speaking not near the 
oversight the American people have to do.
  It is ironic that our country, our people, our families, our 
retirees, our business folks, our employees the last 4 years of the 
recession have sat around their kitchen table lots of times. They 
reprioritized what they could afford and what they couldn't. They 
reallocated their resources to take care of their family and their 
children and they have been frugal and they have been conservative 
because they have to. They can't deficit spend. They can't borrow 
themselves into oblivion. They can't print the money and they can't 
write the checks. Don't you think the government of the people who are 
having to do that ought to have to at least live under the same set of 
circumstances?
  We need for this room to become a big kitchen table, big enough for 
100 people of good will to sit down together. We need a White House 
that will submit a budget we can then argue about and set the 
priorities of this country and try and put a governor on what we are 
spending, try and put some type of accountability for where we are 
going, try and forecast into the future what it is the American people 
can expect of all of us.
  So when tonight the President talks about fairness, I hope one of his 
quotes will be: It is only fair to expect me, the President, to submit 
a budget to the Congress, and it is only fair for me, the President, to 
expect the Congress to act on that budget--because, after all, 
everything else flows from that. In the absence of budget 
responsibility, budget restrictions, budget projections, and a calculus 
for the future, we are spending without any governor or guide. It is 
akin to trying to drive from here to Alaska without a roadmap. I 
couldn't get there. I would probably have a wreck. I would probably run 
off the road because we don't know where we are going and we don't know 
how we are getting there.
  Unfortunately, of all the institutions in America, there is only one 
that doesn't know where it is going and how it is getting there, and 
that happens to be the government of the United States of America.
  So my message, this day of the State of the Union and this statement 
of fairness, let's be fair to the American people. Let's ask of 
ourselves what they are having to askof themselves because of high 
deficits and high debt. Those living on fixed incomes are seeing 
interest rates of 0.25 percent--almost negligible. Markets have been 
flat in terms of investment. Real estate values are down 33 percent 
nationwide. I saw last night in Tampa, where the Presidential debate 
was, it is 52 percent. The worst it got post-1929 was 31 percent.
  We have the most significant, serious financial crisis in the history 
of the United States of America, and it is impacting our families and 
our people.
  So let's ask of ourselves, let's ask of our President what every 
American family has had to ask of itself--sit around our kitchen table 
and budget and prioritize. I would submit Senator Shaheen and I have a 
roadmap that works for process. It says do it in 2-year cycles, so we 
are committed to spending in 1 year and we are committed to savings, 
efficiency, accountability, and repealing out-of-date programs the 
other year.
  Wouldn't it be a great change in the body of politics for you and for 
I to be campaigning in even-numbered years, talking about what we are 
looking to save and cut, rather than what we are going to do to bring 
home the bacon?
  I think the day of bacon coming home reckoning is here, and it is 
time

[[Page 224]]

for the next bacon to be brought home to be a sound budget and fiscal 
policy for the people of the United States of America.
  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 South Dakota.
  Mr. THUNE. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call 
be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

                          ____________________