[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 1]
[SE]
[Pages 766-767]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            SPENDING REFORM

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, a few weeks ago, President Obama 
reportedly said America does not have a spending problem. Well, of 
course, we know that is not accurate. This is completely at odds with 
what independent experts tell us and what is perfectly apparent to 
anybody who is alert. Last week, I brought this chart behind me to the 
floor to illustrate the point.
  As everyone knows, we are running trillion-dollar annual deficits. 
What this chart shows is that the gap between government spending and 
revenue just keeps getting wider and wider and wider. So let's take a 
look at it.
  The occupant of the chair is relatively new to the Senate but not new 
to the facts. The green area here represents both historic and 
projected tax revenue. The dark blue area--as you can see, the really 
kind of flat lines out here to 2040--is the new revenue the President 
received at the end of the year as a result of operation of the law. 
The tax rates sunsetted, expired at midnight on New Year's Eve. The 
Congress then wisely continued the current tax rates for 99 percent of 
Americans, made those rates permanent so we would not have another 
event like New Year's Eve where we came to an abrupt conclusion. Most 
importantly, for States such as the State of the occupant of the chair 
and my own, a $5 million per person exemption on the death tax was made 
permanent and indexed to inflation.
  The President wanted more revenue than that and continues to talk 
about more revenue. So if we take all the revenue the President said he 
wants to get, over and above the revenue he got as a result of the law 
expiring--that is this dark blue area--if we gave him every bit of new 
tax revenue he wanted over and above that, we would have this light 
blue area like this.
  So we can see, colleagues, that even if the President got all the 
revenue he wanted, it only produces this much in a pretty flat line 
going way out into the future.
  So, clearly, what one can conclude from this--whether you think the 
revenue the President got is enough or you think the President ought to 
have as much revenue as he wants--factually, it does not solve the 
problem. It does not solve the problem because we do not have this 
problem because we tax too little; we have it because we spend way too 
much because the red area is the spending trajectory.
  So it is perfectly obvious for anybody who is not going to ignore the 
facts that this is not a revenue problem; this is a spending problem. 
And until we solve this problem, we cannot leave behind for our 
children and our grandchildren the kind of country our parents left 
behind for us.
  This, my colleagues, is the Europeanization of America. This is the 
pathway to Greece and Italy and Spain, and maybe now even France as 
well--perpetual high unemployment, an economy kind of in a death spiral 
that just kind of bumps along like ours, which is now bumping along at 
a 1.5-percent growth rate.
  It is time to get serious about solving this problem. This ``red'' 
rises like a mountain over a relatively flat plain of green.
  Now, I know there is almost an article of faith on the other side 
with some--maybe not all--that it is a revenue problem. Clearly, it is 
not a revenue problem. More to the point, tax revenue as a share of our 
gross domestic product is today about the same as it has been over the 
last four decades. Spending, on the other hand, averaged just 18.5 
percent over that same period but today stands at about 23 percent of 
gross domestic product--one of the highest spending levels since World 
War II. It is about to get much worse, growing to nearly 40 percent of 
GDP in just a few decades--40 percent of GDP. There is simply no other 
way to solve this problem--no other way to solve the problem--than to 
get our spending under control.
  A significant portion of the dramatic spending increase to come is 
the result of tens of millions of baby boomers reaching retirement age. 
We know this. Erskine Bowles, the Chairman of the Bowles-Simpson 
Commission, said it was the most predictable crisis in American 
history.
  We are in a position to do something about this. We should. But that 
is only one part of the problem. It is the biggest part of the problem, 
but it is only one part of it. We need to shine a light into every 
corner of the budget, especially the dark corners that often evade real 
scrutiny. Programs that do not work should be scrapped, and when 
considering those that do, we still need to ask the question, Can it be 
done better, faster, more efficiently?
  We need to root out waste, which will serve as the first real test of 
the Democrats' seriousness in this debate. I mean, why is the Federal 
Government funding Chinese studies on pig manure--why--and research 
into the smoking habits of Jordanian college students and reality TV 
shows in India? Are our friends on the other side prepared to cut this 
kind of waste? Because if they are not, if they demand a 1-to-1 ratio 
between tax increases and pig manure cuts, then there is really no hope 
of ever putting our country back on the path to prosperity.
  The Senate will soon begin consideration of H.R. 325. If it passes, 
we will have a few more months to come up with the kinds of spending 
reforms necessary to secure a longer extension of the debt ceiling. 
That extra time will give us a chance to break the Democrats' other bad 
habit of leaving everything--literally everything--until the

[[Page 767]]

last minute. But we can only do it if we get to work now and return to 
what we call around here the regular order. Remember, regular order is 
how the Senate is supposed to function. Committees are supposed to be 
allowed to evaluate legislation. Amendments are supposed to be 
considered. The public is supposed to have a chance to scrutinize the 
proposals that are actually before us.
  Look, I know that solving the debt challenge is not going to be easy. 
Putting our country on a sustainable fiscal and economic path is going 
to require both parties committing to serious spending reforms. But 
this is a challenge we must overcome. By doing the hard work today, we 
can avoid a European-style catastrophe tomorrow. By reforming the 
functions of government that no longer make sense in 2013, we can do 
more than just control spending, we can encourage private sector growth 
and job creation and finally get the economy back on its feet. And by 
ridding ourselves of this massive burden of debt, we can remove the 
greatest obstacle to recovery.
  As I said yesterday, this is ultimately a conversation about growth 
and opportunity. It is not a conversation about austerity. It is one 
that Republicans are eager to have. For those who want to pretend our 
country does not have a spending problem, this is a pretense which is 
not borne out by the facts. Now is the time to face reality. We have 
known this for literally years. When are we going to face it? There is 
no better time than now.
  We can take on this challenge together if both sides are ready to do 
the necessary work to reform spending, but we need to get started 
today--not next week, not in April--today.
  I yield the floor.

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