Stakeout With Senators Mitch McConnell And Judd Gregg Following The Senate Policy Committee Luncheon

Press Conference

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SEN. MCCONNELL: Well, good afternoon, everyone.

As we all know, the -- both the president and his Cabinet members have been saying at the beginning of every sentence, "We inherited this particular problem." Well, we're about to, in a few weeks, take up an issue that the new administration and the majority in Congress did not inherit. And that is their budget, their blueprint for what we ought to be doing now and in the future.

Senate Republicans find the budget has three fatal flaws. Number one, it spends too much. Number two, it taxes too much.

And number three, it borrows too much.

So over the next three weeks, we'll be talking about, first, the fact that it spends too much: It's estimated that they could be hiring up to a quarter of a million new federal employees; second, that it taxes too much -- and, as you know, it's going to include energy taxes as well as increases in tax rates; and number three, of course, the borrowing is astonishing.

So with that, let me turn it over to our leader on the budget committee, who will further elaborate on our problems with this particular budget proposal.

SEN. GREGG: Thank you, Mr. Leader. As you say, this budget spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much. Just to put a few numbers on the table so you understand the enormity of it -- this is a massive movement of the government to the left -- in five years, it will double the public debt of the federal government. That means that in five years, this administration is proposing running up more debt than has been run up in all the time since the beginning of the republic, including George Bush -- all the presidents since the beginning of the republic.

In 10 years, it triples the public debt, passing on to our children a country which is simply not affordable relative to the debt. It creates a massive tax increase -- $1.4 trillion -- with a huge new sales tax on people's electricity bills, which is pretty darn expensive.

And what does it do with that revenue? Doesn't use it to try to bring down the debt; doesn't use it to try to bring down the deficit. It grows the government by about the same amount. And both numbers, quite honestly, are underestimated.

In addition, of course, after five years, when you would presume that we would be by this recession -- and we wouldn't have any issues relative to needing to do things to use the government to put the liquidity in the system and that's why we're having to borrow so much right now -- it maintains a borrowing-and-spending glide path -- it's not a glide path -- upward path which essentially puts us on a direction that you would call a "banana republic" direction: 67 percent of the public -- of the -- 67 percent relationship between debt and gross national product.

The deficit will continue to be around 3 to 4 percent of gross national product. That's where -- as far as the eye can see. That's not sustainable.

And what it ends up doing is essentially passing on, to our children, a country they can't afford, a country which will tax them at a rate that will basically limit their ability and their horizons. And it's unfair to do that.

But it's all done in the name of expanding the government. And it doesn't even produce a better government. And so this is a budget which is a blueprint for a massive amount of new spending, a massive amount of new taxes and a massive amount of new borrowing.

Thank you.

SEN. MCCONNELL: We'll take a couple of questions.

Q (Off mike) -- Council of Economic Advisers nominees?

SEN. MCCONNELL: I don't know that there is a complaint. We're going to have a discussion of the nominees. They probably will be confirmed later this week.

Q This morning, Senator Harkin introduced the Employee Free Choice Act known as card check. What do you think the prospects of that legislation are in the Senate?

SEN. MCCONNELL: I certainly hope they're bleak. We refer to it as the Employee No-Choice Act. As you know, in an act of incredible hypocrisy, the proponents of this bill are concluding that the secret ballot is appropriate for American elections, for everything from class president in the 1st grade to president of the United States. And of course, we've been preaching secret ballot to the rest of the world, for over 100 years.

It's an indispensable component part of any democracy. And now we want to take away democracy in effect from the workplace. This is an outrageous proposal. And we are going to strenuously object to it, fight it in every way and hope to be able to defeat it.

Q (Off mike.) Would you be willing to forgo the about $8 million or so that you asked Senator Reid to put in the congressional budget, to keep Senate Republican staffers onboard after losing seats in the election?

SEN. MCCONNELL: Are you talking about the bill currently on the floor?

Q (Off mike.)

SEN. MCCONNELL: Well, we have recommended a whole lot of things. One of them is getting rid of the 8 percent increase in the size. This bill, which has been described as last year's business, in fact has been dramatically altered from the size it was last year.

Now it's 8 percent -- that's twice the rate of inflation -- bigger. And we've offered amendments to try to slim it down. We've offered amendments to try to go at it, in a variety of different ways.

It appears as if our amendments are not going to pass, no matter what they offer. Our preference would be to defeat this bill, put it back together at last year's level and not continue the spending spree that we're currently engaged in.

Thanks, everybody.

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