Budget Negotiations

Floor Speech

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, yesterday I accepted the President's invitation to the White House to discuss what the two parties can do together to reduce our Nation's out-of-control deficit and debt, to create jobs, and to put the American economy back on solid footing.

As I have said for many months, the upcoming vote on the debt limit should be viewed as an opportunity to do something big that would send a clear message to the American people and the world that we could come together and put our fiscal house in order.
It is notable that the President, who not that long ago preferred we raise the debt ceiling without any corresponding plan to do any of these things, now wants to discuss the need to do something about our crushing debt burden. Thursday's meeting will give us a chance to see if the President means what he says. It is an opportunity to see if the President is finally willing to agree on a serious plan to pay our bills without killing jobs in the process.

Until now, the President's proposals have been inadequate and, frankly, indefensible. It is ludicrous for the administration to propose raising hundreds of billions in taxes at a time when 14 million Americans are looking for work and job creators are struggling. Just last December, the President acknowledged that preventing a tax hike meant more resources were available for job creators to add employees. That was the President just last December in describing why he decided to extend the current tax rates for 2 more years--because, he said, it would be bad for job creators. That was just 6 months ago, and I do not think anybody thinks the economy is in better shape now than it was 6 months ago. Does the President now think the economy is doing so well, that unemployment is so low, and economic growth so rapid that we can take billions of dollars away from these very same job creators? That seems to be what he is saying now. It is equally ludicrous to propose more stimulus spending as part of a deficit reduction package. Republicans and, yes, some Democrats oppose these ideas because they will not solve the debt crisis and they certainly will not create any jobs.

Americans expect that in a negotiation about a debt crisis we would actually do something to significantly reduce the debt. And with so many still out of work, we expect the President to not insist on proposals his own administration says will put even more people in the unemployment line.

We are eager to meet with the President to see if he is really willing to do something big for the country. We do not think it is absolutist to oppose more stimulus spending. We do not think it is maximalist to oppose hundreds of billions of dollars in tax hikes in the middle of a job crisis. We have a better term for it: common sense.

We are ready to meet with the President on Thursday. Maybe he will have changed his mind and returned to his commonsense approach just back in December when he said that preventing tax hikes means ``freeing up other money to hire new workers.'' Hopefully, we can finally do something big to reduce the deficit, put people back to work, and prevent Medicare's bankruptcy. That should be our goal.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

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