The Deficit

Floor Speech

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, as the debate over spending gears up ahead of the President's budget next week, I thought it important that we just step back this morning and note one thing: and that is the fact that this debate has completely changed. Two years ago, the President and Democrats running Congress were not debating whether to cut spending. They were debating how much to spend.

You will recall that a lot of them were disappointed that the stimulus wasn't bigger than it ended up being. Some still are.

So we have seen a welcome shift. Today, the only debate is how much to cut. It is a debate that Republicans and, I think, the vast majority of Americans, are happy to have.

And it is in that context that I wanted to mention the President's pledge to freeze his already outrageous spending levels for the next 5 years, and some troubling estimates we got yesterday about what that would mean for the deficit from the people whose job it is to analyze spending and debt here in Washington.

In their monthly budget review, the Congressional Budget Office said that if the current spending levels are frozen at the same level as they are now, and Congress were to enact no other legislation affecting spending or revenues, the Federal Government would end this fiscal year with a deficit of $1.5 trillion, or about $200 billion more than the deficit Democrats ran last year.

In other words, even if we do not add another dime to the current spending levels, the deficit will get even worse than last year. That is what would happen under the President's best offer, which is to lock in the dramatically higher spending levels from the past 2 years and put the budget on cruise control. The deficit would not stand still, it will grow by $200 billion, over the next several months.

So yesterday's predictions by the CBO should be a wake up call to anyone who thinks they can hide behind a spending freeze. This is a dire warning that business as usual is a recipe for disaster. If we do not immediately reduce the size and scope of the Federal Government, the deficit will be even bigger than last year's record deficit.

So we have to get real. We need to listen to our constituents. Freezes are not going to cut it.

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