Balanced Budget Amendment
Floor Speech
Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, over the past several days the American people have watched a serious debate unfold right here in Washington about our Nation's debt and about the future of our economy, and for many the debate has been extremely illuminating. It has done a lot to clarify where the two parties stand. Both sides agree that our deficits and our debt are unsustainable. But beyond that, the differences are stark.
Republicans believe if you increase spending to the point that you can no longer pay the bills, then you need to find a way to cut costs. Democrats seem to think if you increase spending to the point that you can no longer pay the bills, you need to find other people to pick up the tab. This is a fundamental difference between the two parties.
Republicans think Democrats should be held accountable for the way they have mismanaged the national checkbook over the past 2 years and Democrats seem to think that taxpayers should take the hit.
Democrats spend beyond their means and now they expect a bailout from the taxpayers. That is what this debate is all about. It is about holding Washington accountable, for a change. It is about drawing a line in the sand and saying, no, the taxpayers will not bail out politicians. It is about refusing to subsidize the Democrats' irresponsible spending habits another day. Democrats have shown through their reckless spending over the past 2 years that they are not at all concerned about our fiscal future. They should not expect to be rewarded for that.
The entire Democratic approach to this debate has been astonishing, really. I mean, here we are in the midst of two national crises: 14 million unemployed and more than $14 trillion in debt--14 million unemployed and $14 trillion in debt--chronic unemployment and record deficits and debt. And what are the Democrats proposing? Higher taxes and more spending. In the middle of a jobs crisis they want to slam already struggling businesses with a massive tax hike. In the middle of a debt crisis they want to borrow and spend more money as a solution to the problem. This is not a negotiation, it is a parody.
In a discussion about reducing the debt, they want to increase spending. Let me say that again. In a discussion about reducing the debt, they want to increase spending. In the middle of a jobs crisis they want to raise taxes--even as they claim to support job creation. Which is it? Yesterday the President went to a manufacturing plant to tout jobs. Yet even as he was speaking, his administration was looking to saddle manufacturing companies, including the one he was visiting yesterday, with billions of dollars in new taxes.
According to a letter from a group of trade associations, including the National Association of Manufacturers, this particular tax would be ``devastating'' to manufacturers. The President himself said as recently as 6 months ago that keeping taxes where they are enables businesses to hire more workers. Six months ago the President said that. In other words, he was saying that raising taxes leads to fewer jobs. So he can call for tax hikes but he cannot call for tax hikes and job creation. It is one or the other--six months ago making the argument that tax hikes lose jobs; today out touting jobs on the one hand and pushing for higher taxes on the other. He can't have it both ways.
The Democrats' spending spree has brought us to the brink of an economic calamity and now they are telling taxpayers they will not do anything to prevent it unless the taxpayers hand over more money in the form of tax hikes. And they have the nerve to call their critics immoral. I want to know what you call spending trillions more than you have and then expecting others to pick up the tab; that is what this is all about, spending trillions more than you have and expecting somebody else to pick up the tab.
Does anybody seriously propose tax hikes as a solution to a job crisis? Who proposes more spending as a solution to a debt crisis? Who thinks if we raise the debt limit now without enacting serious spending cuts and meaningful reforms first it will lead to greater fiscal discipline later?
There is an important principle at stake in this debate. It is not about rich versus poor. It is not about an election. It is about whether Washington will ever be held accountable for its mistakes. That is why Republicans refuse to let the taxpayers take the hit when it comes to reducing the debt, and that is why all 47 Republicans in the Senate support a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The debate we have been having over the past few days shows more than ever why we need a balanced budget amendment in Congress. A balanced budget amendment would require that lawmakers stop spending money we don't have. When we come back after July 4, we will fight for an opportunity to vote for it. Broke or balanced, that is the choice. The American people should know where their Senators stand on this issue of accountability. Senators can talk all day long about the importance of balancing the books and living within our means, but a vote in favor of the balanced budget amendment will show we actually mean it. A vote against it will show that they don't.
Look, no one denies that both parties are guilty of spending beyond our means. But this White House has taken
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wasteful spending to new heights, and its allies in Congress are all too quick to defend it. The last time the Senate voted on a balanced budget amendment, the government's annual deficit was about $100 billion, the national debt was about $5.5 trillion, and it failed by a single vote--a single vote. Today, the annual deficit is $1.6 trillion, and the national debt is $14.5 trillion.
The President and his party need to be held accountable. The fiscal mess they have helped create calls for rehab. That is what the balanced budget amendment would provide--a spending straitjacket. No more blank checks. If Democrats won't pass a budget of their own, it is time Americans impose a budget on them. Americans are not about to let Democrats use another crisis as an excuse to expand the size of government.
If ever there were a time for Washington to pass through a crisis and come out smaller on the other side, it is right now. Republicans are totally united in this effort. All we need is 20 Democrats to join us. Washington should be forced to make the kinds of difficult choices the rest of the country has to make. Lawmakers should have to make the case for a spending increase before they approve it. Never again can they just spend away and then demand in the teeth of a crisis that taxpayers cough up the money--as I said earlier, the taxpayer bailout.
It is time to put the American people back at the helm of our ship of state, and if that is what this vote achieves, then this debate we are having this summer will have been well worth it. If Washington is forced to finally reform its ways, then one day we will look back and say that the American people won this debate, and we will say the balanced budget amendment was just the thing we needed to get the house in order. Broke or balanced, that is the choice before us.
I look forward to this vote. The American people clearly want it. Let's hold Washington accountable, and let's begin to restore power to the people who sent us here not to do our own will but to carry out theirs. That is the principle at stake. It is about the kind of government we want to have--a government of the people or a government above the people. That is the choice. Much depends on the outcome.
Madam President, I yield the floor.
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