Congress Budget for the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2009--Continued

Floor Speech

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET FOR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2009--Continued -- (Senate - March 11, 2008)

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I think people watching this on C-SPAN or wherever they may be watching--from the Galleries--can be forgiven if their head is spinning after this back and forth of how their tax dollars are being spent.

At a time when our economy has undergone tremendous growth over the last 5 years but has now hit a soft stretch, particularly in the housing area, where we are talking about the credit crunch coming from the subprime credit crisis, we have acted in a bipartisan way to try to get the economy moving again by passing a stimulus package. The Speaker, the Republican leader of the House, and the White House have joined to try to do what can be done on a bipartisan basis to get the economy moving again.

But the fact of the matter is, there is no better stimulus for the American economy other than leaving people with their own hard-earned money to spend it as they see fit. That is what helps create jobs in this country. The last thing we would want to do or should do is to see taxes be increased, particularly on small businesses, which are the primary job generator in this country, because it is through jobs and opportunity that people are able to achieve their own life and their own dreams and not depend on Government.

We ought to aspire to be a country where everyone can declare their own independence on Government and not say we must be more dependent on Government, which seems to be the conflicting visions we see play out on the Senate floor.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, will the Senator yield for a parliamentary question?

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I will.

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, so the question presented by this budget is whether we are going to make it easier for the average American to meet the obligations of their family budget or whether we are going to grow the size of the Federal Government to the point that it makes it virtually impossible for them to balance their own budget. This budget, unfortunately, does nothing to bring down the price of gasoline at the pump or to make it more affordable to buy your own health insurance, which are the two primary cost drivers which are making it harder and harder for people working in this country to make ends meet.

Instead, what this resolution does is, it adds additional burdens onto the average taxpayer. I know, as I said a moment ago, the heads of the people who are listening must be spinning trying to keep up with the various arguments that are being made back and forth. But the fact of the matter is, this budget resolution is the blueprint which authorizes additional activity, such as tax cuts.

The Baucus amendment is nothing more than an authorization, which if there is no action to actually cut those taxes, nothing will happen. That is what happened, that is what occurred last year. Under the very pay-go principles, the pay-as-you-go principles--which is sound, certainly, in theory, which says the Federal Government will not spend money it does not have, that it will pay as you go--that is a promise made to the American people that is honored more in the breach than in the observance.

I agree with the Senator from New Hampshire, the ranking member of the Budget Committee. This class rhetoric of: Well, we are just going to tax the rich--let me give you an example of how that usually turns out. The best example I can think of is the alternative minimum tax, which back in the 1960s was designed to target about 155 taxpayers who did not otherwise pay Federal income tax because of deductions they had.

Well, as a result of the failure to index that tax, 155 taxpayers turned into, last year, 6 million taxpayers and would have turned into 23 million middle-class taxpayers if we had not acted to provide some temporary relief on a 1-year basis last year.

That is exactly what happens every time the Federal Government says: We are just going to tax the rich. Because people will be amazed at how much the Federal Government considers ultimately the middle class, those people who are the most productive in our society, those people who create the jobs--by creating the small businesses that produce that opportunity--those are the producers who basically the Federal Government all too often seems at war with in the way we spend their hard-earned money.

Now, this budget does set out the framework over a period of 5 years. It contemplates a source of revenue in order to pay the bills. Under the pay-go principles that Congress has embraced, the only way those bills can be paid is if you have additional revenue or taxes to pay for them. So that is why, under this resolution, you will see, for example, 18 million seniors who will incur an additional tax burden of $2,200 each. You will see 43 million families incur an additional tax burden of $2,300 each. You will see the small businesses--27 million small businesses--incur additional tax obligations of $4,100 each.

Now, if our goal is to create jobs, it ought to be to lower the burden, to lower taxation, to lower the regulatory burden, and to reduce frivolous litigation to the point that small businesses can prosper and create jobs, not add to their burden. Additional taxes for each of these categories of taxpayers will do nothing but depress job creation in this country, not encourage it.

But I have to tell you, the most discouraging part of this budget is not what it does but what it fails to do. As the distinguished chairman of the Budget Committee knows, because he is the chief sponsor, along with the ranking member, of a bill that creates a task force to deal with runaway entitlement spending, this budget does nothing to deal with $66 trillion of future obligations of the American Government under entitlement spending, under Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.

As a matter of fact, if we do nothing, within the next decade we will see both Medicare and Social Security become insolvent. That is because, irresponsibly, we are spending the surplus of Social Security today to try to balance the books of the Federal Government, by spending Social Security taxes that are paid by average American workers. We are spending that in order to try to fund the operations of the Federal Government today.

So what this plan does, by inaction, is it creates the additional debt for our children of $27,000 each.

I believe, if I am correct, the unfunded liabilities going into the future of $66 trillion, if you divide that by each and every American man, woman, and child, would result in $175,000 of debt for each of those men, women, and children. This budget does exactly zero to address that.

I don't blame people across this country who look at Washington and are absolutely convinced that Washington is broken, because rather than solving problems, rather than trying to work together on a bipartisan basis to address these legitimate concerns, all they hear is more and more talk and precious little action, and particularly when it comes to the growing threat of entitlement spending and the increased debt that is passed down to our children and grandchildren.

I know we didn't get here overnight. This has been a long time coming, but
I hope we have the courage to deal with this today because, frankly, it is no mystery why change is the most dominant word in our political discourse today. The status quo is broken because Washington is not working, and people increasingly are turned off by what they see coming out of our Nation's Capital. They feel as if it is absolutely irrelevant to their lives or, if relevant, that Washington is burdening them and not helping them with their day-to-day concerns.

By raising taxes by $1.2 trillion over the next 5 years, by dramatically increasing spending, by growing debt by $2 trillion, by playing gimmicks with things such as pay as you go, which is more honored in the breach than in the observance, by ignoring $66 trillion in unfunded liabilities into the future, this budget resolution is a failure. We can and we should do better. We should focus on what we can do to help the average American balance their family budget and not present a budget that is a train wreck upon delivery. This budget will not work. If the average American tried to conduct their business--if a small business man or woman tried to conduct their business as the Federal Government, they would find themselves bankrupt or else they would find themselves in jail. It is only the Federal Government that can operate this way. It is only the Federal Government that can operate in a way that every man, woman, and child in this country cannot, and we can do better. I urge my colleagues to do better by turning down this budget and coming up with one that will help the average American balance their budget and not wreck the Federal budget in the process.

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