Fiscal Responsibility

Floor Speech

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, just 3 days ago, a bipartisan majority of the members of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform endorsed a package of proposals to reposition our Nation on a more responsible fiscal course.

I wish to commend my good friend, the Senator from Illinois, who was a member of that Commission and took what I thought was an extraordinarily courageous vote on a package of proposals. Honestly, I know he didn't agree with every one of them, but he did understand how serious this issue is. I thank him and all my other colleagues from both sides of the aisle, along with the economists and policymakers and others who invested the time and effort and courageously grappled with these difficult choices.

On Friday, 11 of the 18 members of the Commission voted to support a tough, bipartisan prescription for fiscal health. I regret that the 11 ``yes'' votes fell short of the 14 votes required to forward this plan to Congress for our consideration.

In the hours leading up to Friday's vote, I was proud to work with 13 of my Senate colleagues, including the Presiding Officer, to draft a joint letter to the White House and to the bipartisan congressional leadership.

This letter, signed by 14 Senators and distributed before the Commission's final vote on Friday, requested that the panel's recommendation come to Congress for our consideration regardless of the outcome of the Commission's final vote.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have a copy of this joint letter printed in the Record.

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record

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Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I have a reason for coming to the floor and drawing attention to our letter and this issue again.

The seriousness of our Nation's fiscal challenges--the compelling need to address these issues in a responsible and bipartisan way--did not suddenly dissipate or magically disappear over the course of the weekend that just ended.

In fact, since the Commission's final meeting ended on Friday afternoon, the national debt--the running tally of what the U.S. Government owes--has increased by an estimated $15 billion. Our total national debt is a staggering $13.8 trillion. I will repeat that. Our national debt is approaching $14 trillion.

Every day you can listen to a lot of talk from people in this town about deficit reduction. But as I said, when the Commission first unveiled its proposals 1 week ago, while I would have made some different choices, we were being presented with a unique opportunity to finally get real about the deficits and debt.

Actually, when the Commission came out, I was a little more blunt than that. I said that after all the campaign rhetoric about deficit reduction, the time had come to put up or shut up. I believe this Commission earned credibility by describing our fiscal challenges in stark and honest terms. They deserve our respect for crafting a clear roadmap to help steer our Nation back to a more responsible fiscal path.

The Commission's leaders and its members made difficult decisions, and they didn't shy away from examining expenditures and revenues.

They concluded, correctly, that our Nation's fiscal challenges are too serious, and the fiscal hole we have dug ourselves into is too deep to be solved by simply looking at only one side of the ledger. To say we can tax our way out of this or cut spending alone will not get us there.

To be sure, there is something for everyone to dislike in these recommendations, but that is simply a reflection of how large the problem is.

Whether you look at this report and are concerned about the viability of Social Security or tax rates, levels of Defense spending or any other specific government program or service, failing to act makes those choices and decisions even tougher with every day that goes by.

The fiscal commission came forward with a framework for improving our country's global economic competitiveness while still maintaining our shared commitment to protect our most vulnerable citizens. One of the things that got lost in the headlines was that while this took a positive step toward deficit reduction, this Commission did two other things we talk about. One is that they would lower business tax rates and also dramatically simplify the individual Tax Code and get rid of a lot of clutter.

This Commission also deserves enormous credit for recognizing that the hard work of getting our Nation's fiscal house in order is also an urgent matter of national security because it is clear America cannot be a leader in the world, projecting strength and promoting democracy, if we are weakened at home by our deficits and debt.

Ever since this economic downturn began, individual Americans and their families have been required to make tough choices of their own about how to make ends meet. It is time we did the same here in Washington.

Many of you know I came to public service after a relatively successful career in business. In the business world, investors and shareholders have a reasonable expectation that at the end of each fiscal year, we would end up balancing our company's books. Similar to the Presiding Officer, who was a mayor of a great city, I had the honor of serving as the Governor of Virginia, where there was a 2-to-1 Republican legislature. We worked in a bipartisan way to make the tough choices required to balance our State's budget during tough economic times. Proudly, Virginia has been named as the best-managed State and the best State for business.

I have only been in this body, as has the Presiding Officer, for about 2 years. One thing I have already learned is that if Washington can find an excuse to punt on a difficult decision, it almost always will.

Most days, it is easier to retreat to our partisan corners and default to the political gamesmanship you see every day on cable TV.

As the current economic upheaval in Europe so clearly demonstrates, we cannot simply ignore this challenge because it is inconvenient or because the choices are too tough. Maybe 20 years ago our country had the luxury of having the rest of the world have to wait until we got our act together before they could move forward. But anybody who surveys the other economies around the world realizes China, India, and even Brazil are not waiting for us to get our financial house in order or get our act together.

Now is the time to make these tough choices--not when the bond markets lose their patience and confidence in our long-term economic viability, which is what recently happened in Greece and now Ireland and who knows who is next.

The fact is that if interest rates were not at historic lows today, we would already be in a world of hurt at this point. As it is, if we don't take action soon to stabilize our debt, we could be spending upward of $1 trillion a year just on debt service by 2020. Think about how many taxes would have to be raised and programs that would have to be cut just to meet basic debt service.

So now it is time for us to agree that we will not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. Our own political discomfort should not be used as an excuse to delay holding an honest and long overdue discussion about the complicated fiscal choices confronting us today. Every day, every week, every month that we put off that discussion, our options become more limited and the choices become tougher.

Resolving America's fiscal problems must be one of our top priorities. Yes, it will require difficult decisions. There is no easy fix or easy way out. But those of us who were hired by folks across the country should expect nothing less.

I appreciate the chance to address this issue. Again, I compliment my good friend, the Senator from Illinois, for his courage and leadership on this issue and for his vote on what I know had to be a very difficult decision. He and some other Members on the other side said that even though this was not a perfect plan, it was more important to bring this discussion forward. I compliment them on their action, and I thank the Presiding Officer for joining me and a number of other colleagues. We will be back to continue to bring this issue before our fellow colleagues and the people of the country.

With that, I yield the floor.

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