[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6727-6728]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  Mr. REID. Madam President, on Thursday Speaker Boehner said a 
remarkable thing. He said: We can't cut our way to prosperity. It was 
good to hear him speaking candidly, for that is what Democrats have 
been saying for years--we cannot cut our way to prosperity. It is 
important that we have done some cutting. That is very important. And 
we are proud of the work we have done. To this point, we have cut more 
than $2\1/2\ trillion.
  But it will take more than meat-ax budget cuts to keep our economy on 
the path to full recovery. To protect our economic growth, it will take 
a balanced approach, one that couples smart spending cuts with 
investments in our future and some new revenue from closing these 
wasteful loopholes I have spoken about to members of the Finance 
Committee in my caucus on many occasions. Nothing could be further from 
that balanced policy than the so-called sequester. As long as the 
sequester's harmful across-the-board cuts remain in effect, our economy 
is in jeopardy. And as long as Republicans refuse to go to conference 
on the budget and work out our differences, the sequester will remain 
in effect.
  It has now been 52 days since the Senate passed its budget. Why are 
Republicans standing in the way? We have talked about that for weeks. 
We need to move forward and pass a budget that encourages economic 
expansion by investing in what makes America strong while cutting the 
deficit.

[[Page 6728]]

  After years--years--of calling for regular order, after years of 
demanding the Senate pass a budget, I expected Republicans to embrace 
this process, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Republicans have 
objected to a conference half a dozen times and counting. It is obvious 
they are delaying for one nakedly partisan reason: They hope to delay 
compromise long enough to create another manufactured crisis, as the 
Nation once again approaches the debt limit.
  The debt ceiling is something we used to just move past. The elephant 
never forgets, but Republicans obviously don't follow their mascot--the 
elephant--as they have a very short memory. Elephants don't, but the 
Republican Party does. They should remember the political pain they 
inflicted upon themselves--the Republicans--and our country over the 
last 2 years, in part by driving the country from one manufactured 
crisis to the next.
  It is astonishing that Republicans would once again--as they did in 
the House last week--pass a bill to hold the full faith and credit of 
the U.S. Government hostage, if only because it is so bad for their 
political brand. But it is also bad for our country. The last time 
Republicans drove us to the brink of default, it cost the United States 
its pristine credit rating, and it cost the economy billions of 
dollars.
  When I talk about Republicans, I am not speaking about Republicans 
generically--that is, Republicans around the country--because many 
Republicans, if not most, agree these manufactured crises are a waste 
of time and not good for our country. I am talking about and directing 
my attention to the Republicans in the Congress because they do not, 
obviously, agree with the Republicans around the country.
  I hope my Republican colleagues will not take their partisan ploy as 
far as they did in the past. It is time to embrace regular order. It is 
time to get away from last-minute negotiations and short-term fixes. It 
is time to engage in a responsible budget process. The budget process 
is the only way to work through our differences without bringing the 
country to the verge of another artificial crisis.
  Americans are tired of bitter battles over whether the Federal 
Government should pay the bills it has incurred. That is what we have 
done. We have incurred these bills, and we have to pay them. We have 
made purchases on credit. Americans know, as Democrats do, that 
Congress won't set sound fiscal policy during last-minute negotiations 
and Congress won't set sound fiscal policy through extortion or 
hostage-taking.
  The Secretary of Defense is going to announce later today that 
800,000 civilian employees at the Defense Department are going to get 
furloughs. The decision is how long it is going to be. He hopes he can 
make it 11 days, but probably it will be 2 weeks. That may not sound 
like much, but for somebody who is on a budget, a personal budget, 
depending on their wages, to suddenly hear that during the time until 
September 1 they are going to be furloughed, that they are not going to 
get paid for 14 days, that is a significant amount of money and can 
wreak havoc with their personal budget.
  What this sequestration is doing is setting bad fiscal policy. It 
can't happen. We have to compromise. We won't set sound fiscal policy 
without sitting down and finding common ground between the Republican 
priorities and the Democratic priorities in this Congress. Passing the 
budget would clarify each side's values. We did that. We had a vote-
athon here determining what Republicans wanted to do and what Democrats 
wanted to do. We finished at 5 o'clock in the morning. We thought that 
was a good step toward compromise, but we were wrong.
  Republicans will not move forward. We have waited 52 days. The next 
step is to name conferees, and that will only be a first step. After 
conferees are named, we have to make sure they meet and work things 
out. Right now, Republicans are the only party standing in the way of 
progress in getting rid of this sequestration. If my Republican 
colleagues are serious about reducing the deficit and charting a course 
for economic growth, they should stop waiting around for another crisis 
and start working with Democrats today.
  Finally, again, it has been 52 days since the Senate passed this 
bill. We need Republicans to follow regular order and move to a 
conference.

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