[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 592-593]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     CONFRONTING FISCAL CHALLENGES

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I do not know if you know anyone who 
has climbed to the top of Mount Everest, but I am told it is quite an 
undertaking. It apparently took Sir Edmund Hillary several weeks to do 
it back in the 1950s. I am told my friends across the aisle could have 
scaled Everest almost 300 times in the nearly 4 years that have gone by 
since they last passed a budget. They could have taken 179 trips to the 
Moon or built three Pentagons.
  Well, today it looks like that is all about to change. It is nice to 
see that after years of playing budget peekaboo, Senate Democrats are 
finally ready to take up their most basic of responsibilities--and only 
a few weeks after the chairwoman of the Budget Committee indicated they 
might skip it, for the fourth year in a row.
  There is an indication now that the majority is committed to passing 
a budget. What is unfortunate is that it has required so much pressure 
for them to do so. It is in stark contrast to the House of 
Representatives, who have taken their duties very seriously.
  Over there, committee hearings have been held, budget resolutions 
have been marked up, amendments have been considered. More importantly, 
the House has passed serious budgets annually, as the law requires. 
They have laid out their priorities for the public to see: their plans 
to control spending, to save our most important social programs from 
collapse, to reform an outdated anticompetitive Tax Code, and to 
streamline government bureaucracies that are literally suffocating job 
creation.
  They have done their jobs while Senate Democrats have tried to keep 
their priorities a secret.
  We know Senate Democrats do not like the House budgets. And we know 
they do not even support the President's budgets--at least not with 
their votes. What we have not known for nearly 4 years is what they are 
for because they have refused to put their plans for the country down 
on paper and actually vote for them.
  It is my hope the Democrats' sudden interest in passing a budget is 
not just another attempt to actually raise taxes. As I have said 
repeatedly, we are done with the revenue issue. The President has 
already said the so-called rich are now paying their ``fair share,'' 
and, of course, middle-income families are already on the hook for new 
taxes as a result of ObamaCare.
  So the question is, Who would be in the firing line this time? And at 
what cost?
  Look, struggling families should not have to pick up the tab again 
for Washington's inability to live within its means. We need to start 
solving the actual problem, which is spending, and we need to do it 
together.
  So if--and I say if--Democrats are finally ready to confront the 
massive fiscal and economic challenges facing our country, and to do so 
in a serious way, I assure them they will find partners on this side of 
the aisle.
  As for the debt limit, there is no need to wait for final resolution 
of the

[[Page 593]]

House's short-term legislation before we start putting a long-term debt 
reduction solution together in the Senate. If the bill the House passed 
yesterday is signed into law, Congress will have another 3 months to 
take the debt challenge--to take it on seriously--but that does not 
mean we should wait a minute longer to start working on it. There is no 
reason, for instance, that the Finance Committee should not begin 
preparing the critical spending reforms that will be necessary, for 
example, to get my vote and the vote of many of my colleagues for any 
kind of long-term increase in the debt ceiling.
  So let's get the process moving. No more brinksmanship. No more last-
minute deals. The American people have already had to wait 4 years--4 
years--for a budget from Senate Democrats. They should not have to wait 
nearly as long for us to confront a debt that threatens the economy, 
our jobs, and the future of our Nation.
  Yesterday I laid out the realities of the fiscal challenges we face 
as a country. We have delayed facing them long enough. Let's put the 
politics aside and finally do the work we were sent here to do.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I 
be recognized to speak for 10 minutes as in morning business.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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