[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3578-3579]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  Mr. McCONNELL. Yesterday I asked Senate Democrats to forward a 
thoughtful budget that Americans of both parties could rally around, 
one that controls spending, gets our economy healthy again, and 
advances the serious reforms necessary to make government programs more 
efficient, effective, and responsive to the needs of 21st-century 
Americans. I asked them to please shelve the tax hikes. That is because 
we understand the negative effect more taxes would have on our fragile 
economy and the millions of Americans still looking for work. It is 
also because we know Washington Democrats already got $600 billion in 
taxes they demanded earlier this year. Remember, that is in addition to 
the more than $1 trillion they got in taxes from ObamaCare as well. So 
now it is time for the balance they promised. Washington does not need 
to tax more; it needs to finally figure out how to spend less.
  I said that these things were the least Senate Democrats owed the 
American people, given their lack of responsibility in not producing a 
budget for the last 4 years. I am sorry to report that the plan they 
put forward yesterday will do none of these things. Instead of getting 
Washington spending under control, their proposed budget doubles down 
on the same wasteful stimulus spending we already know does not work. 
We have tried that. In fact, at a time when Americans believe that 
about half of every dollar they send to Washington is wasted, the 
Democratic budget would increase spending by nearly 62 percent. Their 
budget will do more to harm the economy than to help it, and it will 
let Medicare and Social Security drift ever closer to bankruptcy.
  Then there is the Democrats' $1.5 trillion tax hike--that is trillion 
with a ``t.'' Let me repeat that. Any Senator who votes for that budget 
is voting for a $1.5 trillion tax hike--the largest tax hike in 
America's history. So the Senate Democratic budget is more than just 
disappointing, it is extreme. It is really one of the most extreme, 
most leftwing budgets of the modern era.
  I think it says something about today's Washington Democrats. There 
was a time when the Democratic Party cared about fiscal responsibility, 
when Democrats understood the need to be concerned about the impact 
their policies would have on hard-working taxpayers, a time when they 
would have rejected this budget as a joke. But those voices of reason 
have been mostly chased out of today's DC Democrats. The few who remain 
have been sidelined and silenced throughout the budget process. Even 
the chairman of the Finance Committee has been pushed aside so his 
fellow Democrats

[[Page 3579]]

can quickly ram through their massive tax hike.
  It will be no surprise to hear that my conference opposes a leftwing 
manifesto masquerading as a responsible budget, and when Americans get 
a chance to digest their budget and the one House Republicans put 
forward earlier this week, they will see some very clear differences 
between a budget that balances and one that enshrines waste and 
cronyism; between a budget that helps bring the economy back to health 
and one that kills jobs; between a budget that measures compassion in 
how many people it helps and one that counts compassion in how many 
hard-earned tax dollars are sent to Washington for politicians to 
waste; between a budget that strengthens Medicare and one that would 
put Medicare even further out of reach for future generations. In 
short, they will see a bold, reformist Republican budget centered on 
their needs and an extreme Democratic budget centered on the needs of 
Washington bureaucrats and politicians.
  I hope Senate Democrats think again before they choose to push such 
an extreme budget forward because I think they will find that Americans 
agree with Republicans on the most important point: We need to grow the 
economy, not the Government.

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