Budget Negotiations

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I rise as someone who lives in a State where we balance our budget every year, where the citizens of Wyoming and families all across the State live within their means, balance their budgets. They know what it means to have to live within a budget. That is why our State is one that currently today does not have a deficit, does not have a debt, a State where every year, by constitutional mandate, we balance our budget. It is time for Washington to take a lesson from Wyoming and balance its budget. This irresponsible spending must stop.

Here we are, a day from when it looks as if we may be dealing with a government shutdown, and I am ready to vote. I am ready to vote for a bill that already passed the House of Representatives early today. I am ready to vote to keep the government open and functioning, to make sure services are there. The bill passed the House. People who have studied civics in school realize that is how we make a law in this country. It passes the House, the Senate, goes to the President, who signs it into law. The bill has already passed the House. It is coming to the Senate. I don't know where other Senators are, but I am ready to vote.

I heard my colleague talk about a shutdown and who was rooting for a shutdown. It is no surprise to people who may be watching at home that it is former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean who is rooting for a shutdown. The former chairman of the Democratic National Committee says:

I think it would be the best thing in the world to have a shutdown. He is the spokesman for the party of the other side of the aisle. That may be what he wants. I don't want to do that. I want to vote for the bill that passed the House. It is the only proposal that is out there. I haven't seen the Democrats offer anything. Even the New York Times said of the President that he was ``silent for too long.''

We have heard our previous speaker talk about the social issues. Let's remember that it is convenient amnesia for Democrats to talk about that specific issue because the President voted for and signed into law spending bills that included similar--actually the identical social issue in the past, the one he is opposing today. So did 49 current Senate Democrats. They also voted for a spending bill that dealt with that social issue. Why all of a sudden today it is different? I believe it has to do with what the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee said:

I think it would be the best thing in the world to have a shutdown.

Republicans are proposing solutions. What do we see from the other side of the aisle? We see the senior Senator from New York saying, ``I always use the word `extreme.' '' It doesn't matter what is proposed. He says, ``I always use the word `extreme.' '' There are tape recordings of him saying this. He then said, ``That is what the caucus instructed me to use this week.'' Regardless of how reasonable a proposal may be, regardless of the solutions that may be proposed, ``I always use the word `extreme.' That is what the caucus instructed me to use this week.''

I travel back and forth to Wyoming every weekend, visit with people and sit around at different locations, sometimes a morning breakfast group, sometimes it is people at lunch, dinners, community meetings.

I ask them: How many of you believe you have a life that is better than your parents had?

Every hand goes up.

Then I ask: How many of you believe your children will have a better life than you have right now?

Very few hands go up. That is the problem.

I ask them: What is the concern? Why do you believe you have a better life than your parents did but your children will not have as good a life as you?

The answer they give is the debt, the reckless spending in Washington--reckless, irresponsible, unsustainable. Yet, when we want to go ahead today, do cuts in spending, keep the military going, deal with the issue at hand, keep the government functioning so we can come back and continue to work on the debt and the spending, this body is not ready to vote.

I am ready to vote. I am ready to vote for the only proposal on the table--the one the Republicans in the House of Representatives passed today. That is real leadership. It is a plan. It will work. It is what the American people are asking for.

I have people from Wyoming coming to Washington all the time. They say: We realize things are tough this year. They come and explain a program that is good for people in the community, good for children, good for seniors--I met with six or seven groups like that today--good for students in school. They say: We know that all of us are going to have to deal with the realities of the facts, that we can't continue with this unsustainable spending where 40 cents out of every dollar we spend is borrowed, significant amounts from overseas. Our No. 1 lender is folks in China. I say: Is that your concern? That is absolutely the concern I hear around the State of Wyoming.

They see that the President of China comes over and tells America a few weeks ago that he wants the Chinese currency to be the currency of the future and the dollar to be the currency of the past. That is because he knows we have an addiction to spending, and it must stop. That is what I hear from people from Wyoming who come here as well. They say: We need to make sure we get the spending under control.

It seems reasonable to get back to the level of 2008 spending. That is the level many American families are living under. They balance their budgets. It is time for Washington to do the same.

I know the people in Wyoming. I have visited with a number through the week and in many communities last weekend--in Worland, Caspar, Laramie. What they are saying is, get the spending under control, and do it in a reasonable manner. But for someone to come from the other side of the aisle and say he thinks the best thing in the world to do is to have a shutdown and for another person to say he always uses the word ``extreme'' because that is what his caucus instructed him to use this week--that doesn't solve the problem. That doesn't let us find a solution. There is a solution on the table right now. It is a solution that has been proposed. This Senate ought to be voting on it tonight.

For the President to say he is going to veto it shows that the President is truly not engaged in this process. He has been silent too long, according to the New York Times.

His budget that he has proposed, the Economist, a world-renowned, respected publication, called ``dishonest.'' That is not the kind of leadership we need. We need someone in the White House fully engaged, taking an active role, and making sure we get back on a course that is responsible, that allows us to live within our means, as families know, because we have to stop spending money we do not have. Stop spending money we do not have. That is the way for Washington to behave in a responsible way, to make the difficult decisions necessary for the future of the country, to focus on the issues that affect families and their needs. Families who are trying to deal with kids and bills and a mortgage know what it means to have to live within their means.

When we see policies coming out of this administration that are ones making the pain at the pump even worse, as families are noticing they are paying $700 on average more for gasoline this year than last year, that is money that is not available for other bills or for a mortgage or to help with their kids. Those are the issues they are facing, people trying to pay for their own health insurance, realizing the increased cost of the insurance because of the Obama health care law that passed way over the objections of the American people, crammed down the throats of the American people by the other side of the aisle.

The American people are saying: This is absolutely wrong. That is why I think we saw last November the election results we did across the country. That is why we see people continuing to stand up and speak out across the country. That is why people continue to go to townhall meetings and share their views about the problems happening in this country.

It is interesting. When I think of the great Presidents through the history of our country--we all have our favorites--I think of Ronald Reagan. He said that you can't be for big government and big spending and big taxes and still be for the little guy. We have on the other side of the aisle people who are for big government, big spending, and big taxes. They are not for the little guy.

I yield the floor.

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