Controlling Spending
Floor Speech
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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Tennessee for the kind words about the deficit commission. It was a controversial vote. I think it was the right vote to deal with our deficit and the problems we face.
I want to put what happened tonight into some perspective in light of the deficit commission. First, the Omnibus appropriations bill. The total amount being spent there was $1.108 trillion. The amount of that bill that was earmarked for specific projects was less than 1 percent of that--$8 billion out of $1.108 trillion. That is less than 1 percent. And that was within the total amount we were limited to spend. It wasn't as if we added it on. We were given a total amount, and less than 1 percent of it was earmarked as to where it was going, with complete transparency and disclosure. Again, it was $8 billion.
It troubles me when I hear Members come to the floor, as some did a few minutes ago on the other side, saying we put an end to porkbarrel spending, and now we are dealing with our deficit. Well, $8 billion is a lot of money to anybody, but in the context of the debt we face as a nation and the need to address it, it is not significant. It is not significant in that context.
I think about the fact that yesterday most of us voted--81 of us--for a tax bill, and included in that tax bill were tax cuts for people who were pretty well off in America; $20 billion a year in tax cuts for the richest estates in America to escape Federal taxation--$20 billion. We voted yesterday, and there weren't a lot of high-fives and glorious speeches given about the fact that we were adding $20 billion to the deficit with that vote yesterday for the wealthiest people in America. And $70 billion of it was for tax cuts for people making over a million dollars a year. Nobody came here and talked about deficits then. In fact, it was considered out of bounds.
We decided yesterday, on a bipartisan basis--and I joined in--that getting this economy moving again was critically important. That is why I voted for it--even though two of those provisions I particularly loathe. That is the nature of a compromise.
I want us to remember, as we talk about going to CRs and reducing spending, the tax bill we passed yesterday, which the House may pass today, is a stimulus to a weak economy, in an effort to help businesses, help individuals create more demands for goods and services, and create more jobs and reduce unemployment. That is what it is.
As we take spending out of the Federal side of this equation, we are removing money from the economy. The deficit commission was sensitive to this and said that before you start the cuts in spending for deficit reduction, get well, get the patient well first. Stop the bleeding before you address the fractured bone. Stop the bleeding of the recession. That is why the deficit commission did not call for significant spending cuts until January of 2013. We talked about it for a long time. If we let the deficit break--and that is what we are going to hear, I am afraid, for some time to come--too early, this economy is going to sputter and fail.
We cannot let that happen. It is not in the interest of either political party. We have to find the right combination that moves us toward long-term deficit reality but the short-term economic reality we face. I think the
deficit commission got the right balance. I hope we can build on that. I say to Senator Corker and Senator Alexander, if at the end of the day those of us in the Senate who voted for the deficit commission--in this case, it would be Senator Conrad, Senator Crapo, Senator Coburn, and myself--if we could reach the point where we come together in a bipartisan budget resolution based on that deficit commission, if we have a Senate budget resolution--and take the word ``bipartisan'' out of it--that reflects the feelings of that deficit commission, then that commission will have been a success and put us on the right track, and we can stand strong together.
I hope you agree that would be the best thing for this country. I hope we can reach that point. I thank the Senator for his kind words.
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