Senate Democrats Hold Up Obama Jobs Bill -- Day Lee Briefing 10/5/2011

Press Release

Senator Lee has a Judiciary Hearing featuring testimony from Supreme Court Justices Scalia and Breyer, and his weekly constituent social event is scheduled for the afternoon. No votes are expected today as the Senate considers the China currency bill, S. 1619.

From the Senator's Desk

Partial transcript of the Joint Economic Hearing between Sen. Lee and the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke:

Senator Lee: Thank you. Mr. Bernanke, I want to refer back to something that I understood you to have said earlier, which is roughly to the effect that Congress not engage in any deep spending cutting activities until such time as the economy recovers. If I understood you correctly, I think you were saying that if we engaged in too much deep cutting, in the near-term future, that might thwart any recovery. First of all, did I understand you correctly in saying that?

Chairman Bernanke: I didn't say that quite precisely. What I said was that you can do both. You can take policy actions, which are supportive of recovery. And that would involve perhaps not doing sharp, near-term cuts but might involve other things; other things that might be helpful, like in the housing market, for example. At the same time that you provide clarity and a strong and credible plan for achieving fiscal sustainability. Those two things are not incompatible.

Lee: Okay. So a strong and credible plan? Does that imply both spending cuts and tax reform?

Bernanke: Well, that's up to Congress. You can do -- you know, as i have said often before, I'm in favor of the law of arithmetic. I don't care. Spending cuts, tax increases, as long it adds up and as long as the policies themselves make sense, I think that's what counts.

Lee: But do you have an opinion as to the rate at which that cutting might occur? I mean, are you suggesting that not -- not to cut more than $1 trillion over the first three years, or --

Bernanke: No, I don't have specific numbers, except to say that I think, as you look at the -- the amount of cuts, and somebody mentioned -- I think Senator Casey mentioned $4 trillion over the next decade or so to get stability and the debt to GDP ratio, clearly that's something that can be done, you know, with an increasing effect over the decade.

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