[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 716-717]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         GROWTH AND OPPORTUNITY

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, over the past several days, I have 
spoken of the need for the two parties to come together to address the 
Federal debt. We need to act quickly if we are going to avert a 
European-style debt crisis and avoid the harsh austerity that would 
bring.
  But this is about more than just avoiding a calamity, as serious as 
that

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prospect has become. What this debate offers is a once-in-a-generation 
opportunity to update government for the 21st century, to modernize 
programs that work, and to reform ones that do not. Many Federal 
bureaucracies have not been reformed in any real way since the age of 
black-and-white television. Even if we did not have a debt crisis, we 
should want to reform them. This debate is an opportunity to do so.
  By making government leaner and more efficient, we can sweep away 
outdated and heavyhanded regulations that have impeded private sector 
growth and the job creation we so desperately need. And by reducing the 
debt, we can eliminate an additional drag on our economy.
  So this is not a conversation about austerity; it is a conversation 
about growth and opportunity. That does not mean we are all going to 
agree on the path forward. Americans certainly expect a serious policy 
debate. They expect both parties to offer competing plans to preserve 
and protect long-term entitlement programs, and they expect both sides 
to propose different plans to get our fiscal house in order and our 
country back to economic health.
  Republicans have done their part. The budgets passed by House 
Republicans over the past couple of years contain fresh ideas that 
would help solve our fiscal crisis. Policymakers from both Chambers and 
from statehouses across the country have put forward a number of their 
own ideas and proposals as well. But from the Democrats? So far, not 
much. Four years on, President Obama and congressional Democrats still 
have yet to offer a serious plan to address the economic challenges we 
face. They have been content to wage political war instead.
  It is my hope, however, that the debate over the debt ceiling will 
finally move our friends on the other side beyond their preoccupation 
with the horse race. Already, Senate Democrats have committed to 
developing a budget this year, after years of ducking their 
responsibility to do so. Hopefully, this will be a serious exercise and 
not simply an excuse for them to try to raise taxes, which, as we all 
know, is just another way to avoid solving core problems. Last week I 
came to the floor with a chart which showed that even if the President 
got every single tax increase he asked for, every one of them, we would 
still not even come close to solving the problem--not even close.
  So let's not waste time with more pointless arguments about tax 
increases. We had that debated already. It is done. It is over. 
Instead, I call on Democrats to approach the spending debate with the 
seriousness it demands and to do it through regular order. We have to 
break this penchant among Democrats for putting off all important work 
until the final hour. We need to get back to regular order, and that 
takes time, and that is why we need to get started right now. Let the 
tough work of developing a budget and putting together long-term 
policies to control government spending begin today--not 1 minute or 1 
hour before we come up against a deadline but today.
  Americans deserve better than what they have been getting from 
Washington the past few years. Democrats were reelected, and I 
congratulate them. It is time now to get serious about actually 
governing.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SESSIONS. I thank the Chair.

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