Pay-Go

Floor Speech

PAY-GO -- (Senate - November 08, 2007)

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I have the greatest respect for my colleague from New Hampshire, and he and I have had many conversations about our views on spending and budget policy.

Although he is critical of the pay-as-you-go approach, which the Democrats have brought to Congress since we came into the majority this year, the fact is, the Republicans, the so-called fiscally conservative party, never, ever initiated pay as you go.

What is ``pay as you go''? It is something with which every family is familiar. If you want to buy a new washer and dryer, do you have the money? If you do not have the money, you do not do it. You may borrow the money, but we are trying to avoid that.

Pay as you go says, if you want to spend new money on new projects, you either have to raise taxes or cut spending. If you want to cut taxes, you either have to increase another tax or cut spending. It is just that simple.

The Republicans, the fiscally conservative party, or so they brand themselves, did not initiate this. The Democrats did. And we are living by it.

The Senator quarrels with some of the conclusions on various bills. But he has to concede, I hope, the point that we are doing this, and doing it in a fiscally responsible way, and it is painful. It is not easy. It was far easier when the Republicans controlled Congress. They gave tax cuts to the wealthiest people in America, adding to our deficit without cutting spending on programs, without increasing other taxes.

They gave tax cuts.

When the Senator from New Hampshire says that when the President asked for $196 billion for the next year for the war because he wants to stand behind our soldiers, he expresses a partial sentiment we all share. We don't want to shortchange the soldiers in any way. But isn't the fiscally and morally responsible way to fund a war to pay for it? The documentary of Ken Burns on World War II talked a lot about the sacrifices Americans made to fund the war. It ran up quite a debt. Families across America bought U.S. savings bonds to help fund the debts of America. It was a special effort, a special sacrifice. This President, this administration has never asked for that level of sacrifice from anyone other than the soldiers and their families.

Instead, what he has said to the rest of America is: While we wage a war that costs almost $200 billion a year, $10 or $12 billion a month, we are going to give tax cuts to the wealthiest. So when my colleague from New Hampshire comes to give us pious exhortations about fiscal soundness, I am at a loss to understand how he can continue to vote for the war and $196 billion that is not paid for. If he believes we have to pay as you go, why wouldn't he want to pay for the war as we go? Clearly, he makes an exception.

When the President receives a bill such as the Labor-Health and Human Services legislation, which has $10 billion more in spending than he asked for, he says he will veto it. What is included in that $10 billion? For the first time since the President came up with the notion of No Child Left Behind, we are going to make a massive investment to help school districts get test scores up, improve the education of kids. The President vetoes it. He voted for the test. He voted for the critique of schools but would not provide the resources for those schools to improve test scores.

There is also money in there the President didn't ask for, for medical research at the National Institutes of Health. I would take that one on, on the stump, with the President any day. Let's have a debate on that. Should we spend $196 billion on the war in Iraq or should we at least put enough money in to improve medical research at the National Institutes of Health? It is a small amount in comparison. Most Americans believe as I do, that a strong America begins at home. It begins at home with health insurance for our children, a bill the President vetoed. It begins at home with better schools for our kids, which the President is about to veto on the Labor-Health and Human Services legislation.

It begins at home when we realize medical research is important for all of us. None of us knows what tomorrow may bring. We want to know if we are stricken, or someone in our family, we can count on the best minds in America looking for the cures. The President says we can't afford that. He is going to veto it.

Shortly, we will vote on something called the Water Resources Development Act, $23 billion over 5 years and $23 billion is a lot of money. How does it compare with the war that costs us $12, maybe $15 billion a month? The $23 billion for water resources development is money invested in America to build our infrastructure, the levees, the locks and dams, the things that are critical for America to function and succeed. The President says we can't afford that. He vetoed the bill. I hope we override it.

In the meantime, I hope the Labor-HHS bill, the one that includes money for No Child Left Behind and medical research, is a bill the President will reconsider and sign. If he does not, I hope on a bipartisan basis we will override that veto as well.

This President, for 6 years, never discovered his veto pen. Now he has found it. He has used it to veto our efforts to change direction in the policy in Iraq. He has used it twice to veto stem cell research to fund cures for diseases which threaten Americans and their families. He has used it to veto the Children's Health Insurance Program. He now threatens to use it to veto money for our schools. A pattern is emerging. This President, when he gets up in the morning and looks out the window of White House, sees Iraq. He does not see America and the American families who count on us, those families going to work every day who don't have health insurance for their children, those families sending their kids to school who are disappointed with test scores and believe their kids can do better and we can do better, and those families who want the American economy to be strong, creating good-paying jobs here at home that cannot be outsourced.

The President's veto pen is defining his Presidency. As it comes to a close, it is telling us his priorities. His priority is a war, a war that has cost us over $500 billion and, even more importantly, almost 3,900 American lives. America's priorities are not only to be safe and secure but also to make sure this economy grows and the people in America striving for opportunity and for a better day tomorrow have a chance through the programs we are supporting in this legislation.

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