Congressional Budget For The United States Government For Fiscal Year 2008
Floor Speech
CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET FOR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008 -- (Senate - March 22, 2007)
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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, this amendment is one that I offered during the Budget Committee's deliberations. Unfortunately, the majority did not support this important amendment that reduces our Nation's debt, the bill that we will pass on to our children and grandchildren.
My amendment reduces the debt by instructing the Senate Finance Committee to find approximately $34 billion in savings over the next 5 years, and this is out of almost a $3 trillion budget.
Two years ago, Congress made some progress in getting a handle on mandatory, or entitlement, spending by passing the Deficit Reduction Act, using the reconciliation process, I believe, for the first time since about 1997.
The Deficit Reduction Act reduced the rate of growth in spending. I will say that again because it is important. It reduced the rate of growth of spending--it did not represent an actual cut in the way most Americans would think about a cut--by nearly $100 billion over the next decade. It was a very good first step in getting our fiscal house in order but, clearly, more needs to be done.
Today, the Federal budget is already heavily weighted toward entitlement spending, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, which takes up some two-thirds of all Federal spending, which is literally on autopilot because it grows at roughly 8 percent a year. As people live longer--as we hope we will continue to do--and the baby boom generation starts to retire, entitlements will continue to eat up a larger share of our budget and we will consume more of the economy.
In the most recent long-term projections prepared by the Congressional Budget Office, CBO, outlays for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid combined are projected to increase to 10.5 percent of our GDP by 2015--an increase of about 2 percentage points of GDP in less than a decade. By 2030, according to the CBO, outlays for those three programs will reach about 15 percent of GDP.
The chairman of the Senate Budget Committee held a number of hearings on this fiscal timebomb earlier this year. Our Committee has received testimony from the Office of Management and Budget, the Treasury Secretary, the General Accounting Office, the Comptroller, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and a number of think-tank representatives, and all, without regard to partisan stripe or affiliation, have highlighted the need for us to get a handle on our mandatory budget or entitlement spending.
The chairman of the Federal Reserve noted that these rising entitlement obligations will put enormous pressure on the Federal budget in the coming years.
In fact, if we do nothing over the next 30 years, we would not have a dime to pay for anything except for four areas: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and part of the interest on the debt.
We will not have the resources for other important priorities, including fighting the global war on terror, securing our borders, veterans health care, and education.
As we all know, the President's budget includes a number of proposals to slow down the rate of growth in entitlement spending. I think this is a good place for the Senate Finance Committee to look at reducing the debt.
If the majority has ideas that will also help reduce the debt, my amendment gives them the opportunity to put it in action because it is an instruction to the Finance Committee to come up with a way, in their wisdom, that they believe they can accomplish this important goal.
Last year, I offered a similar amendment on the floor. Some on the other side noted how my amendment may be a little unpopular back home. That is what happens when you go on a budget. We have been on a binge, with no limitation on spending, and it is time for the Federal Government, similar to the American family, to get on a budget. No one likes budgets, but it is the responsible thing for us to do.
I don't think it is unreasonable for us to find savings in the amount of $34 billion out of the growth of entitlement spending over the next 5 years given that under the budget during that period of time, the Federal Government will spend some $15 trillion. In other words, we are looking for $34 billion in savings over the same period of time the Federal Government will spend $15 trillion.
As Chairman Bernanke said in his written testimony to our committee:
Addressing the country's fiscal problems will take persistence and a willingness to make difficult choices.
The Comptroller General of the United States, in his written testimony to the Budget Committee, said:
We owe it to our country, children and grandchildren to address our fiscal and other key sustainability challenges.
As I said, this is not a partisan issue, or certainly should not be. Our distinguished chairman of the Budget Committee has been eloquent on this subject. We see on this chart, he said on February 7, 2007:
I have said I am prepared to get savings out of long-term entitlement programs.
Unfortunately, the number reflected at the bottom of this chart is the number of savings from entitlement programs in the budget he has proposed. It is a big fat goose egg. I think we can do better.
I heard time and time again Members on a bipartisan basis say this is one area where we ought to work together to try to solve this problem for our children and grandchildren so we don't pass our debt to them for what we are spending today in these entitlement programs. But I ask: If not us, then who? And if not now, then when?
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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, as the Budget chairman has said repeatedly, this does not direct the Finance Committee how to do this or to consider specific proposals. But I do believe the reforms the President has put on the table would be a good place to start looking. We know a fiscal tsunami is coming. We all talk about the wall of debt, but now is the time to act by passing this amendment. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.
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