[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3198-3199]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       SURFACE TRANSPORATION ACT

  Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, later today I will be down on the floor to 
offer a budget point of order on the highway bill. I have been down 
here several times over the course of the last several days.
  I think most in this body--a large majority of people in this body--
have been a part of encouraging us to, in a very bipartisan way, solve 
the budget problems we have in this country. There were 64 of us--32 on 
each side of the aisle--who signed a letter to the President 
encouraging him to really adopt some of the principles that were laid 
out in Bowles-Simpson. After that, there was a very large number of 
Senators on both sides of the aisle who signed a letter to the 
supercommittee asking them to go big and really deal in a serious way 
with the budget issues, the deficit issues with which our country is 
dealing.
  I have been down here multiple times talking about the various 
oddities in this bill. What is getting ready to happen in this bill is 
that we are actually, over the next 2 years, going to create a $10 
billion to $11 billion deficit. Because of the various gimmickry we 
use, we are figuring out ways to get around that. One of the budget 
gimmicks we are using in the bill is that we are going to spend the 
money over a 2-year period but pay for it over a 10-year period--2 
years worth of spending, 10 years worth of revenues.
  I think the Acting President pro tempore was here during the period 
of time we had the health care debate in our

[[Page 3199]]

Nation, and many of the folks on my side of the aisle, rightfully so, 
were concerned about the health care bill because there were 6 years' 
worth of costs and 10 years' worth of revenues, and a lot of people 
thought that was a budget gimmick. Candidly, many of my friends on the 
other side of the aisle, while they may have supported the bill, were 
also concerned about those same types of gimmicks being used in the 
health care bill, and it caused them concern.
  My point is, in a bipartisan way, we have tried to deal with our 
budget deficits in this country. I notice the Senator from Illinois 
just stepped on the floor. He has been a major player in those 
initiatives. What we did last year was we passed something called the 
Budget Control Act. We did so in order to raise the debt ceiling and to 
accomplish discipline in this body so that over the next 2 years we 
established overall caps on spending.
  This bill, believe it or not--here we are in March, with a very 
popular bill, which speaks to the fact, to me, that it is the kind of 
bill that many of us would think, if you really want to pass a highway 
bill, you would prioritize it higher than other spending, that it is 
the kind of situation that, in a bipartisan way, we would come together 
and say: OK, we really want to see infrastructure spending in this 
country, so let's make this of higher priority than other spending.
  That is not what we are doing. Believe it or not, this Senate--which 
has talked big about deficit spending, written lots of letters, had 
lots of meetings--what this Senate is getting ready to do with this 
bill is violate the Budget Control Act that we passed last year trying 
to show the American people we had at least a modicum of discipline.
  Let me say it one more time. This highway bill, in March of this 
year--I think we passed the Budget Control Act last August, in the 
early part of August, to demonstrate to the American people that this 
Senate, this Congress had the discipline to put caps on spending over 
the next 2 years to begin the process of addressing deficit reduction. 
What we are going to do, if we pass this highway bill, as laid out, is 
violate that budget cap right now.
  I want everybody in this body to know that I plan to offer a budget 
point of order. I hope at least all of those 64 Senators--32 on each 
side--would join me in opposing breaking the Budget Control Act we just 
put in place in an effort to demonstrate to the American people and, 
candidly, to the world that buys our Treasury bonds that we have the 
ability, the discipline to deal with the fiscal issues we have in our 
Nation.
  Mr. President, I know we have the distinguished Senator from Texas in 
the Chamber, who was to speak exactly right now. I yield the floor and 
thank the Acting President pro tempore for the time.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Texas is 
recognized.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, what is the regular order?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senate is currently in morning 
business, with 20 minutes 16 seconds remaining on the Republican side.
  Mr. CORNYN. I thank the Acting President pro tempore.

                          ____________________