Amending the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, this is a historic vote. It is one that has involved a lot of emotion and soul searching and a lot of hard work. The leaders are on the Senate floor--the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate, Senators Reid and McConnell. I salute both of them for working so hard to bring us to this moment where we have an opportunity to vote.

The House has passed this legislation, the so-called Budget Control Act. The Senate will take it up shortly. It is my belief it will also pass in the Senate. But my vote for this legislation does not come without some pain.

We are told in life to follow our conscience. On this matter, my conscience is conflicted. If this bill should fail, we will default on our Nation's debt. That will be the first time that has ever happened. If we should default at midnight tonight on our Nation's debt, terrible consequences will ensue. We will find America's credit rating in the world diminished, the interest rates we pay as a nation increased, and the cost of money for businesses and families across the United States will increase--at exactly the wrong time, in the midst of recession.

If we fail to pass this legislation, tomorrow the Secretary of the Treasury will sit down with the President and decide in the month of August which Americans who were expecting a check will actually receive one. Will we pay Social Security recipients? Will we pay the members of our military? Will we pay the Central Intelligence Agency? It is an impossible choice that the President would face if we fail.

But there is another side to the story. If this bill passes, we will reduce spending on critical programs. We have to be honest about it. Fewer children from poor families will be enrolled in early childhood education. Working families and their children will face even more debt to pay for a college education. Medical research will likely be cut. And the list goes on. So from where I stand, it is not the clearest moral choice.

I spoke to our Chaplain before we started the session about a line in Shakespeare I have always struggled to understand. It is from Hamlet, and it is the line in his famous soliloquy, when he said: ``Conscience makes cowards of us all.''

This morning, I still cannot clearly articulate what it means, but I feel it--struggling with this conscience question of defaulting on our debt, with all of the consequences on innocent people across America, and passing this bill with all of the consequences on innocent people in America. I have spent the last year and a half focused on this debt situation as I have never been focused before. I understand it a little better today than I did when I started.

I have come to the conclusion that if we are going to be honest about our debt and about reducing it, we have to be honest about how it will happen. Sure, we must cut spending; that is where we have to start. But we also have to understand it goes beyond that.

We have to be prepared to raise revenue. In the Bowles-Simpson Commission and the Gang of 6, I thought we came up with an honest answer to that question. It was a balanced approach and put everything on the table. Well, this bill makes a serious and significant downpayment in spending cuts. Now a joint committee is created to take the next step.

I will say this: If the next step is to be fair, if the next step is to be serious, it has to go beyond spending cuts. It has to look at serious questions about how we can save money in entitlement programs without compromising our commitment, and how we can ask those who have profited so well in America, who live so comfortably, to join us in this effort by paying more in taxes. That is the stark reality.

If we continue to move toward more and more spending cuts, we will literally disadvantage the poor and working families of America to the advantage of those who are well off. That is not fair, and it is not right. Many people have criticized this, saying we don't even read these bills we vote on.

Yesterday, I sat down to read this bill--it is not that long. I have to say, the front end of the bill is almost unintelligible. A person needs someone from the Budget Committee sitting next to them to explain each paragraph. I basically understand that portion of it. I also understand the portion that Senator McConnell proposed on how we will sequence requests for increases in the national debt. I certainly understand, and am puzzled in some ways, by the joint committee's basic charge to find in 10 weeks anywhere from $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion in savings over the next 10 years--in 10 weeks, these 12 members of the House and Senate are to reach an agreement. It is a daunting task.

There is one provision I want to call to the attention of the Senate. It troubles me greatly. It is a provision that requires that the Senate and House of Representatives, before December 31 of this year vote on a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. I searched this bill long and hard to find the language of that constitutional amendment because I thought, if we are going to have to face the prospect of amending the Constitution, I want to know what the language is. This is an awesome responsibility.

One can read this bill from top to bottom, and there is not one word of substance about that amendment. All it says is, the House and Senate shall consider a bill that is a ``joint resolution to amend the Constitution of the United States to balance the budget.'' End of sentence, end of reference in this bill.

It gets better. Not only do they require us to take a balanced budget amendment and fail to include the language of that amendment--listen closely--this bill says there shall be no amendments to the proposed resolution in committee in the House or on the floor of the House, in the committees of the Senate nor on the floor of the Senate--take it or leave it.

As I say these words, I can imagine Robert C. Byrd descending from heaven, standing at that desk and waving this Constitution and reminding Members of the Senate that one of the few times in our lives when we have taken a solemn oath, Members of the Senate swore to uphold and defend this document, this writing. He would find it nothing short of outrageous that we are mandating a vote on a constitutional amendment that is not even written, that we are prohibiting the House and the Senate from even considering the change of one word in that proposed constitutional amendment.

Madam President, I think the language of this bill entirely discredits this effort toward a constitutional amendment. We cannot take it seriously if we take our oath seriously to uphold and defend this document.

At the end of the day, I will vote for this measure, obviously with a heavy heart. There are parts of it I will struggle to explain and defend, but I can't let this American economy descend into chaos if we fail to extend the debt ceiling. The job ahead will be hard, but let's hope we will, in reducing this deficit further, do it in a balanced and fair way, with everything on the table.

At the end of the day, Members of Congress and people in higher income categories should feel they too are called to sacrifice. If we ask that of the poorest in America and of working families, we can ask no less of Members of Congress and those who are well off in this great Nation.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

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