Reducing The Deficit

Floor Speech

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I want to say a word about the President's press conference yesterday.

What I heard him propose is that we solve the debt crisis by spending more money--solve the debt crisis by spending more money; that we solve the jobs crisis by raising taxes--solve the jobs crisis by raising taxes.

I want to know, is there a single Member of Congress, Democrat or Republican, who thinks it is a good idea to raise hundreds of billions of dollars in new job-killing taxes at a time when 14 million Americans are out of work? If so, I haven't heard from any of them. But that is what the President was trying to defend yesterday.

Who thinks the answer to a $1.6 trillion deficit is a second stimulus, that the answer is more deficit spending? Where in the world did that idea come from? That is what the President was trying to defend yesterday.

Look, the President needs to get serious about this. He said yesterday that reducing the deficit grows the economy. That part of his press conference he got right. Reducing the deficit grows the economy.

His own Small Business Administration has told him not to enact one of the tax hikes he was proposing at the press conference yesterday. This is what they said over at SBA: "This can force many small businesses to close their doors.''

Fourteen million people are out of work, and he wants to take an action that could force small businesses across the country to close? That is his vision of shared sacrifice?

I think the American worker has sacrificed quite enough already. Besides, all of us know that Congress isn't going to approve hundreds of billions of dollars in tax hikes. It is simply not going to happen. We have known that for 6 months, and we have been saying it all along.

The President does not seem to get it. So let me do something that I think would be constructive. I want to invite the President to come to the Capitol today and meet with Senate Republicans anytime this afternoon that he is available; come on up to the Capitol and meet with Senate Republicans. That way, he can hear directly from Senate Republicans why what he is proposing will not pass. So I invite him to come up today and meet with Senate Republicans, hear directly from them, and we can discuss what he has in mind. Maybe we can start talking about what is actually possible.
The President says he wants us to get working. I can't think of a better way than to have him come right on over today--we are waiting--and hear from our conference about the legislative realities in Congress right now.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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