[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 18492-18493]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            THE FISCAL CLIFF

  Mr. COATS. Mr. President, I came to the floor before I heard the 
announcement that apparently we are closing in, thankfully, on 
something which I don't have all the details of as yet. So I can't 
simply say hooray, this is exactly what we ought to do. I think neither 
side is going to be able to say this is what we wanted to do.
  But in recognition of the fact that we are careening now--hours are 
ticking--hours away from a devastating impact on Americans all across 
the country, every taxpayer--Senator Lieberman announced the statistics 
relative to the impact on the average family in his State, and the same 
is true for Indiana and for all 50 States, to impose the massive tax 
increases which will occur on every taxpayer at midnight tonight, 
without addressing that, it is just simply unacceptable.
  It is hard for a lot of us to swallow how little we did in addressing 
the larger fiscal issue in this country in order to get past this 
imposed deadline on something I did not vote for and did not support 
because I could see it coming to this end, and it was absolutely the 
wrong way to legislate and the wrong way to govern--pushing us toward 
this fiscal cliff, laying that dark cloud of uncertainty over every 
business in America, every household in America.
  Everyone who had any interest in investing or was trying to plan for 
the future kept saying: I can't make a decision. I can't make plans. I 
don't know what you are going to do. Are we going over the cliff? Are 
my taxes going to rise? Are regulations going to increase? What is the 
future? And if the future remains uncertain, I can't plan ahead. If it 
is bad certainty, I can work around it. I might not like it, but I can 
make the adjustments necessary.
  So, as a result, we have a stagnant economy as a result of all this.
  I am hoping that when we learn the details of what we have finally 
arrived at, which we will be learning very shortly, I am hoping it is 
something we can swallow hard and accept, knowing--knowing--this fiscal 
cliff is nothing compared to the real fiscal cliff. The real fiscal 
cliff is the continued excessive borrowing and spending of over $1 
trillion a year that is driving this country into a serious fiscal 
situation for the future. And it is not just something our children and 
grandchildren are going to have to pay for years down the line. It is 
something we are all paying for now. It is something that is keeping 
people from getting back to work, keeping companies from expanding.
  We have an obligation to our generation and all future generations to 
address what I believe every American who is paying any attention 
whatsoever understands--and certainly everyone in this body and in our 
corresponding House down the hall understands, whether they are a 
Republican, a Democrat, liberal, or conservative--is just simple math. 
It is not even algebra or calculus. It is third grade math. You cannot 
raise $2.2 trillion a year and spend $3.5 trillion or $3.4 trillion. 
Literally, we have now added approaching $6 trillion in just the last 4 
years, and it is unsustainable. That is going to hurt everybody, and it 
is hurting our economy right now. That is the real cliff. That is the 
cliff we have to continue to address. That is the cliff we were hoping 
to address in the leverage of this situation, but we are coming up 
very, very short.
  Mr. President, I didn't realize we were under a time limitation. Are 
we under a time limitation?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Manchin). The Senator has 2 minutes 
remaining.
  Mr. COATS. All right. I thank the Chair. I saw some angst on the face 
of the Chair, and I thought my time was up.
  Let me just say this to my colleagues. Many of us who watched the 
President's press conference--no, it wasn't a press conference; the 
President's speech--felt we were seeing a rerun of something that took 
place during the campaign. We have all been watching a lot of football, 
and for Republicans to sit and listen and watch that, it reminded me of 
taunting those people on the other team. It stops you cold. It stands 
over you and taunts. It got so bad that now the NFL has made it a 
penalty and they throw the flag. It is not something we would expect 
out of the leader of this free Nation. It is not statesmanship. It is 
not leadership. It is in your face. It was dismissive, it was 
insulting, it was belittling, and in the end it was sad.
  Now, the natural reaction is to get angry and push back and get 
revenge. But that is not where we are, and that is not where we need to 
be. We need to set this aside. It is like the coach tapping us on the 
shoulder pad and saying: What was done speaks for itself; don't stoop 
to that level. So we need to set that aside now and go forward in the 
interest of the future of this country, in the interest of America and 
the families and people we represent in our States, and look at this 
very carefully.
  I think every one of us is going to say we haven't begun to address 
the spending, we haven't begun to address what we need to do, and so 
that has to be our charge in 2013--relentlessly.
  And I would say, Mr. President, I think people on the other side of 
the aisle were probably embarrassed also by that speech. It was a 
campaign speech, and the campaigns are over. The President doesn't need 
to run for office anymore. It is time to lead. So let's all get 
together.
  We have been working together----
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
  Mr. COATS. I ask unanimous consent for 1 more minute.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. COATS. I want to say this: To make laughter out of this, to 
ridicule it--it addresses all of us because I have been working with 
Senators across the aisle and they have been working with us. We all 
take this very, very seriously. This is not a joke. This is not 
something to make fun of. This is not something to politicize. This is 
something where we should rise above politics and do what is right for 
the future of America even though it is difficult. This is not doing 
what many of us would like to do, but we have been working together, 
Democrats and Republicans, and I can name dozens of Democrats who think 
this is a serious matter and who have been working hard for the last 2 
years to try to address it, as frustrated as we are on this side.
  So let's understand this is not a game. This is real. Let's work 
together to do what we can do and then continue to address the real 
issues as we go forward in 2013.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, let me first of all join my colleague from 
Indiana in expressing my concern about where we are on taxes and 
spending and my hope that we get somewhere and get somewhere quickly.
  We have certainly brought this down to the last moment. For months, 
many people on this floor talked about the importance of certainty as 
it relates to our economy moving forward, of certainty as it relates to 
family farms and small businesses and whether they can stay in the next 
generation of that family. So I hope we can achieve those things in the 
next coming hours as we finish this day and whatever it takes to create 
that level of certainty at the highest possible levels. How it impacts 
American individuals and families will be important.
  The kinds of things we are hearing about the agreement--that we might 
be able to go forward generally--sound as though, for most Americans, 
they will solve problems that have been out there now for decades. 
Temporary tax policies--even tax policies that last for a decade, 
particularly when they relate to things such as the inheritance tax or 
the death tax--create problems that

[[Page 18493]]

can be solved by just simply driving that place in the Tax Code and 
saying: This is what our policies are going to look like, and here is 
why they make sense for the American people. And hopefully we get 
there.
  (The remarks of Mr. Blunt and Ms. Landrieu are printed in today's 
Record under ``Submitted Resolutions.'')
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.

                          ____________________