[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16643-16644]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            THE FISCAL CLIFF

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, with the fiscal cliff fast approaching, 
I feel the need to point out something this morning that is perfectly 
obvious to most Americans but which Democrats in Washington still don't 
seem to grasp. I am referring to the fact that any solution to our 
spending and debt problem has to involve cuts to out-of-control 
Washington spending.
  I know that might sound obvious to most people, but for all the 
President's talk about the need for a balanced approach, the truth is 
he and his Democratic allies simply refuse to be pinned down on any 
spending cuts. Americans overwhelmingly support some level of cuts to 
government spending as part of a plan to cut the Federal deficit. Yet 
the President will not commit to it. He refuses to lead on the issue. 
The President seems to think if all he talks about is taxes, and that 
is all reporters write about, somehow the rest of us will magically 
forget that government spending is completely out of control and that 
he himself has been insistent on balance.
  A couple of weeks ago we saw his plan. After four straight trillion-
dollar deficits and 2 years of running around calling for a balanced 
approach to bring those deficits under control, we saw his idea of 
balance--a $1.6 trillion tax hike, new and totally unprecedented power 
to raise the Federal debt limit at his whim, and a $50 billion stimulus 
for infrastructure; in other words, even more spending.
  So when it came to offering his idea of a balanced approach, the 
President was vague about cuts but very specific in his request for 
more government spending--something no reasonable person had publicly 
contemplated previously. It raises the question: Do Democrats even 
believe their own rhetoric on spending? Or, contrary to the clear 
wishes of the majority of Americans, do they just want more tax revenue 
to fund a government without any limits--any limits whatsoever--which 
keeps getting bigger and bigger with every passing year?
  Think about it. The Federal Government spent $1.8 trillion in 2001, 
and last year--10 years later--$3.6 trillion. These are nominal 
dollars, I realize, but by any measure the size of government has grown 
well beyond its means. Government spending is completely and totally 
out of control and we need to start acting like it.
  Yesterday the Government Accountability Office revealed that 
government workers and private contractors are doing the same exact 
work on Medicaid claims, leading to billions in waste. Meanwhile, 
Senator Coburn has shown all of us some of the ridiculous things 
taxpayers are paying for with their tax dollars--some of the things 
that caused us to spend a trillion dollars more than we take in every 
single year.
  Last year he put out a report showing how we could save more than 
$100 billion--about one-tenth of the annual deficit--by eliminating 
duplicative and overlapping government programs. We have 94 Federal 
initiatives aimed at encouraging green building through 11 different 
Federal agencies. We have 14 programs with the sole purpose of reducing 
diesel emissions.
  A few weeks ago Senator Coburn issued a study that showed taxpayers 
are funding Moroccan pottery classes, promoting shampoo and other 
beauty products for cats and dogs, and a video game that allows them to 
relive prom night.
  Taxpayers also just spent $325,000 on a robotic squirrel named Robo-
Squirrel. The President just sent us a 73-page report detailing how $60 
billion in Sandy funds would be spent. Don't you think he could put 
together a list of spending cuts that would at least include Robo-
Squirrel?
  We are still waiting. Why? Because for Democrats apparently every 
dollar in Federal spending is sacred; once secured, it can't be cut. 
That is why we have trillion-dollar deficits. The truth is, until the 
President gets specific about cuts, nobody should trust Democrats to 
put a dime in new revenue toward real deficit reduction or to stop 
their shakedown of the taxpayers at the top 2 percent. As one liberal 
lawmaker put it last week, that's just the beginning.
  When it comes to deficit deals, the taxpayers need to trust but 
verify. On cuts, that means specifics.


                             Richard Lugar

  Mr. President, as we enter the final weeks of the 112th Congress, one 
of the toughest tasks for me is saying goodbye to colleagues who will 
not be with us at the start of the next Congress.
  I would like to kick it off this morning by spending just a few 
minutes bragging on my longtime friend and neighbor to the north, 
Senator Dick Lugar.
  Let me start by saying I am grateful to have served alongside this 
good man and to have had a front-row seat for much of his illustrious 
career.
  To give an idea of the kind of career Dick Lugar has had, consider 
this: He was an Eagle Scout, first in his class in high school, first 
in his class in college, a Rhodes Scholar, Naval intelligence briefer, 
corporate turnaround artist, and big-city mayor. That was all by the 
age of 35. He has excelled at everything he has ever done. Most 
incredibly, he has done it with perfectly smooth elbows. Walk into any 
office on Capitol Hill and you would not find a single person who would 
say a bad word about Dick Lugar. He has earned the respect and 
admiration of everyone who ever crossed his path. I assure you, in the 
world of politics, that is nothing short of a miracle. Now Dick has 
decided to press his luck. He is moving into the only line of work 
where rivalries are even more vicious than in politics--he is becoming 
a college professor.

[[Page 16644]]

  Dick and I go all the way back to my first Senate race in 1984. He 
was the head of the NRSC at the time. He took a chance on me, and I 
have always been grateful. He has been a friend ever since.
  A lot of Hoosiers cross the Ohio River every day to work in Kentucky, 
but it is not often a Hoosier Senator crosses it to help a Kentuckian 
making his first bid for the Senate. Since we are from neighboring 
States, our work in the Senate has often overlapped over the years. I 
truly lucked out. Dick has always been helpful and cooperative and a 
perfect gentleman.
  With his six terms in the Senate, Senator Lugar is the longest 
serving Member of Congress in Indiana history. He ranks 10th on the 
list of Senators who have cast the most rollcall votes.
  As the longtime chair or ranking member on the Foreign Relations 
Committee, he has become one of America's most respected voices on 
matters pertaining to foreign policy. Indeed, Senator Lugar commands 
the highest respect not only from his peers in the Senate but around 
the world, for his deep knowledge of foreign policy, national security, 
agriculture, and trade.
  To a lot of liberals, he is a walking contradiction: a Republican 
intellectual. He has always worn that reputation lightly. Anyone who 
has ever been on a CODEL with Dick has seen his method. He stuffs his 
carry-on to the point of bursting with memos, newspapers, magazines, 
journals, reports, survey data, you name it. Apparently, Trent Lott sat 
next to him on the plane once and was horrified at the way he tore out 
the pages and scribbled notes on them. We all know Trent would never be 
so indelicate.
  Senator Lugar has always had a global view. It started during his 
days as a Rhodes Scholar and an intelligence briefer in the Navy and he 
brought that global view back to Indiana. After the untimely death of 
his dad, Dick and his brother took over the family business and 
reinvented it from a struggling domestic operation to a global leader 
in the manufacture of baking machinery.
  He went from success to success, moving from a seat on the 
Indianapolis school board into the mayor's office, and then, in 1996, 
on to the Senate. What a Senate career it has been.
  For my part, I think Senator Lugar's achievement in passing the Nunn-
Lugar Cooperative Threats Reduction Program in 1991 was a great 
achievement, not just for himself but for the entire world.
  The Nunn-Lugar program provides assistance to former Soviet states 
such as Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus in helping them 
dismantle and destroy their nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, 
in order to prevent them from coming under the control of terrorists.
  As of 2011, Nunn-Lugar has deactivated over 7,600 strategic warheads, 
791 intercontinental ballistic missiles, 669 submarine-launched 
ballistic missiles, 32 nuclear submarines, and 194 nuclear test 
tunnels. It has neutralized 1,395 metric tons of chemical weapons, and 
it has certified that the countries of the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and 
Belarus--which once held the third, fourth, and eighth largest nuclear 
arsenals in the world, respectively--are now nuclear-free. What an 
incredible legacy.
  After the September 11 attacks, Senator Lugar called for and helped 
pass the expansion of the Nunn-Lugar approach, resulting in the Global 
Threat Reduction Initiative, which aims to prevent chemical and 
biological weapons from falling into the hands of terrorists. He has 
been a leader in Congress on the issue of ensuring food safety and 
supply internationally for years.
  It is the mark of a leader that he thinks not only of his own moment 
in time but of the future of his community and of his fellow man, here 
and around the world. I think it is safe to say few Senators embody 
that spirit as fully as Senator Lugar. That is not just my opinion. For 
his work to make the world a safer place, Senator Lugar has been justly 
nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
  Senator Lugar was first elected to the Senate in 1976 and has served 
for six terms. He is beloved in his home State of Indiana and in 
bordering Kentucky too. There is not only a lot of admiration but a lot 
of affection for this giant of the Senate just south of Hoosier 
territory.
  Senator Lugar has put his extraordinary talent to the service of this 
institution and his fellow countrymen, and I have no doubt he will be 
remembered as one of the best.
  Senator Lugar would probably tell us his greatest achievement was 
marrying Char. They have been married now for more than 50 years. They 
are proud of their four sons and their 13 grandchildren, and they can 
be proud of the great teamwork they have had together over the years, 
from their time as co-presidents of their senior class at Denison 
University. Char and the boys were involved in all his campaigns. The 
Senate family is sad to see them go as well.
  Senator, you are a treasure to the Senate and a model of the public 
servant. We are sorry to see you go, and I am sorry to lose your wise 
counsel. I know that whatever you turn to next, you will be a great 
success, and I look forward to hearing all about it. Thank you for your 
tremendous service to this body, to the State of Indiana, and to the 
Nation.

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