Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019
Floor Speech
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Mr. PAUL. Madam President, some say it is irresponsible not to raise the debt ceiling. Well, true fiscal conservatives say it is irresponsible to raise the debt ceiling without any reform of our profligate spending ways. To allow the debt ceiling to go up an infinite amount--as much as Congress can possibly spend and borrow over a nearly 2-year period--is fiscally irresponsible and has never been seen in our history. This may well be the most fiscally irresponsible thing we have done in the history of the United States.
The Federal Government is currently spending nearly $2 million every minute. Don't let anybody fool you--this is a spending problem. The annual deficit this year will exceed $1.2 trillion. What is irresponsible is recklessly indenturing our children and our grandchildren. What is irresponsible is binding our kids to this massive burden of debt. What is irresponsible is a Congress that believes it is Santa Claus and that it can be everything to everyone and that everything is free.
At least the Democrats are honest. The Democrats don't care about deficits, and they will tell you that to your face. The Democrats, in fact, are falling all over themselves to propose more than $50 trillion in new spending in addition to the trillion-dollar annual deficits. They want to add $50 trillion in spending.
Yet it is not just the Democrats. The Republicans are also guilty--at least the Big Government Republicans who will vote for this monstrous addition of debt. Many of the supporters of this debt deal ran around their States for years and complained that President Obama was spending too much and borrowing too much. These same Republicans now--the whole disingenuous lot of them--will wiggle their way to the front of the spending trough to vote for as much or more debt than President Obama ever added.
Get this. All of those who said the debt was bad under President Obama will today snuggle their way up, wiggle their way up to the spending trough, and they will do exactly what they condemned under President Obama. Shame. Shame on the politicians who have campaigned as conservatives but who have governed as big spenders.
America, wake up. The two parties are often one. The two parties that ostensibly fight are in reality one party of big spenders, separated only by where they want to spend the money.
The media reports of a lack of compromise. The opposite is true. There is too much compromise, and the compromise is always more debt, more porkbarrel spending, and more burden for our kids.
Yet there is another path. There is another form of compromise. Instead of compromising to raise spending for guns and butter, we could compromise to hold the line on all spending. Just a mere 2-percent cut in spending would balance the budget over a 5-year period--1 or 2 pennies out of a dollar. You get to spend 98 percent of what you spent last year, and we balance the budget. Yet that is never enough because these people are not honest with you. They are not willing to hold the line. They want more, more, more. More spending, though, means more debt, and that is what we are getting. So what I offer today is a compromise.
The right would have to deal with less military spending. The right says: Oh, we don't have enough. Perhaps the mission is too big for the budget. It isn't a lack of money. We spend more money on the military than the next 10 countries combined. We spend more money on the military than all of Europe spends. It isn't a lack of money; it is that the mission is too large. Why do we have troops in 50 of 55 African countries? Why are we involved in every civil war on the globe? We need to question what our mission is. The left would have to accept less welfare spending or at least hold the line and get 98 percent of what it spent last year on welfare. The right would have to spend 98 percent of what it spent on the military last year. Guess what. We would balance the budget.
My amendment is called cut, cap, and balance. When the balanced budget is passed and sent to the States, when spending caps are in place and when spending has been cut, then and only then would we raise the debt ceiling. This is the only responsible way of dealing with this. It is irresponsible to give a blank check to a government that has shown itself to be so reckless and for it to so recklessly disregard any kind of sense of sanity with regard to the budget.
Today's votes, though, will be a litmus test for fiscal conservatism. Those Senators who vote for an unlimited increase in the debt ceiling are not and have no right to call themselves conservatives.
America, wake up, watch the votes today, and discover who actually gives a damn about the future of our country.
I yield the remainder of my time.
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Mr. PAUL. Madam President, I call up my amendment No. 932.
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