The Budget

Floor Speech

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, we have had a little more time now to look at the President's budget, and I have to say the more one looks at it, the harder it is to believe this is the President's considered response to the crisis we face.

President Obama knows better than anyone in this country that government spending and debt is completely out of control and that America is headed down the same road as Europe. This budget was his chance to show it. Instead, he decided to basically pretend these problems don't even exist, and to the extent he does acknowledge them, to propose solutions that are either gimmicks or that he knows will never come to pass.

Just to take two examples, he says he will bank savings by not fighting a war he already declared we wouldn't be fighting. He will take credit for saving money on a war that he has already declared we are not going to be fighting--a gimmick--and he would raise money with tax hikes that have been rejected eight times by both parties. And, by the way, forget the fact that government spends $1 trillion a year more than it takes in. The President says government spending should be even higher. He significantly increases government spending at a time when we have a $15 trillion debt, a debt that is as big as our economy.

This is what passes for leadership down at the White House. The President looks at our fiscal crisis, throws together a plan he knows is completely deceptive, and then goes on the road to sell it to captive audiences at high schools and colleges across the country. The failure of leadership is truly breathtaking. The President knows how grave our Nation's fiscal condition is. When he thinks it helps him, he admits it.

A year ago tomorrow, when debt and spending were in the news, he used his budget announcement to reiterate a pledge to cut the deficit in half. Here is what he said just a year ago tomorrow:

The only way we can make these investments in our future is if our government starts living within its means, if we start taking responsibility for our deficits. That's why, when I was sworn in as President, I pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term. The budget I'm proposing today meets that pledge.

That was the President 1 year ago tomorrow. Here we are 1 year later and he hasn't even come close--not even close.

Last month, the President said he wanted an economy ``that is built to last.'' What he has given us instead is a blueprint for deficits that are built to last, and he hasn't done a thing to live up to his pledge to get our Nation's fiscal house in order. In fact, he has made it worse. Last year's budget wasn't worth the paper it was printed on and neither is this one. It is not worth the paper it was printed on.

The President's job isn't to tell people what he thinks they want to hear. It is to explain the problems we have, unite people around a solution, and get the job done. This President is truly failing the American people. The only question is how long it will take for that failure to catch up with us.

I yield the floor.

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