Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2013
Floor Speech
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Mr. RUBIO. Madam President, reserving the right to object, I would ask the Senator from Virginia if he would consider adding--I would ask consent that the Senator modify his request that it not be in order for the Senate to consider a conference report that includes reconciliation instructions to raise the debt limit.
The reason I make that is as follows: First of all, I do respect regular order tremendously. In fact, I want to take this brief opportunity to congratulate the Judiciary Committee on the lengthy process with regard to the immigration bill, which I think will help us in the process of having a better product.
Obviously, also, although we disagree with the outcome because of the way it was constructed, I also disagree with the way this budget is constructed. This issue of the debt limit is an extraordinary measure. That is why I would ask the Senator from Virginia to modify his request.
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Mr. RUBIO. Madam President, thank you. To the Senator from Arizona, for whom I have great respect, I would point out two things: The first is in his argument when stating the issue of the debt limit is a nonissue. Hence, I don't understand the objection to having language in this motion that says there will not be a raising of the debt limit. There should be a discussion of the debt limit in the context of the broader issues this country is facing. As a result, I don't understand why we can't just put it in that we are not going to raise the debt limit.
I would also further say that I do respect this institution tremendously, and I do believe in regular order to the extent that we are talking about procedure. The problem is that the regular order of Washington has given us a $17 trillion debt. In fact, that is one of the reasons I ran for the Senate. I would submit to you, with all due respect to all of my colleagues who serve here, I don't think we can run up a $17 trillion debt without some bipartisan cooperation.
To some extent what I am concerned about is the regular order of doing things in this city, where the debt limit has been raised consistently without any conversation about the fact that this government borrows 40 cents out of every dollar it spends. Never in the history of this country and of this Republic has a generation of leadership robbed a future generation like this generation of leadership has done.
That is my concern. My concern is that I do not have trust in Washington, DC. I do not have trust--I don't care who is in charge--that we will not recklessly, once again, raise the debt limit of the greatest country on Earth without any consideration for limiting the way we spend money in the future so that we do not bankrupt this extraordinary Nation, and the implications that could have on our children.
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Mr. RUBIO. Madam President, since I raised the objection today, I wanted to close my comments by accurately describing to the people at home or in the gallery or elsewhere what is happening here. Maybe some folks are wondering what this is all about. It is pretty straightforward. In fact, for over 1,000 days the Senate did not pass a budget under the leadership of the current majority, and we did complain about that because that was problematic. Ultimately, this year, they finally passed a budget--one which, quite frankly, doesn't deal with our debt and doesn't help grow our economy, but they passed a budget.
The House has passed its budget. The Senate has passed a budget. The way it works is that now both sides are supposed to sit down and negotiate. What is happening is that a motion is being made to start these negotiations. Nobody here is objecting to these negotiations. That can begin today. This process they want can happen right this very moment. The only thing we are asking is that it be clear that as part of that negotiation--an increase in the debt limit not be part of it. Here is why it is so important that it not be part of it: because we have not discussed it. As the Senator from Texas pointed out, when we debated the budget we did not debate the debt limit.
Let me tell you what the debt limit is. It is the credit line of the United States. It is how much money the government is allowed to borrow. This is not a trivial matter. I heard people stand here today, my fellow Senators, and say: You can raise any objection to any issue you want to stop the whole process. This is not a trivial objection. I am not asking that key lime pie be made the official pie of the United States or some ridiculous thing. This is the debt limit, something that has been called the single greatest national security problem facing the United States of America by a national security official.
All we are saying is that you cannot come back from that conference with an increase in the debt limit because if that happens, it will be a 51-vote majority here to do it as a matter of routine.
Frankly, the problem is that the debt limit increases have become a matter of routine, and that is how we get from $10 trillion to $16.5 trillion in such a short period of time.
Ultimately, you are right. We should not treat the debt limit casually. That means we should not just casually and cavalierly say we will never raise it no matter what, no matter you do, but we also should not just casually raise it as a matter of routine, and that is the fundamental problem. The impact this is having on our economy is serious.
I deeply respect this institution. One of the reasons I ran for the Senate is I thought I could make a difference because in this Senate even a minority within the minority can make a difference.
Let me tell you, one day in the future I will not serve here anymore, and someday in the future my children, who today are very young, will have to deal with the consequences of the decisions we make or fail to make in my time in the Senate. If what they inherit is an economy crippled by the horrifying decisions that have been made here now and in the past, I am going to have to answer for that. I am going to have to explain to them.
What did you do or what did you not do when you were in the Senate? How could you have allowed this debt to go forward? What did you do to do something about this debt issue?
My answer to them cannot be, well, I followed the regular order. I played along to get along. I went ahead and acquiesced to what my colleagues wanted.
That cannot be my answer. That will not be my answer.
The bottom line is that we can move to conference right now, we can begin negotiating with the House this very day. All we are asking--all we are asking is that as part of that negotiation, they cannot come back here with a debt limit as part of it. The debt limit is an important issue. It should be discussed on its own as it relates to the entire economy, not simply the 1-year budget of the United States of America. That is the basis of our objection.
If the majority would reconsider their position and come to the floor and offer the same motion but with language that clearly says it cannot include reconciliation instructions to raise the debt limit, we will be in conference with the House this very day. But if they fail to do that, we cannot move forward because what we cannot do is continue to routinely raise the debt limit of this country without any serious conversation about how we are going to begin to put our fiscal House in order because the impact it is having on our economy is disastrous.
Our economy is not growing. There are people in America right now who are unemployed or underemployed because the debt is scaring people away from investing in our economy and in our future. If we do nothing about that, then, my colleagues, we will be the first generation of Americans to leave the next generation worse off. That has never happened in our history.
I hope we can come together to prevent that from happening because I think that if we do some simple but important things for our country, including bringing our debt under control, I believe that if we do that, this new century, this 21st century, can also be an American century.
My hope is that at some point today or tomorrow or the next few days we come to this floor and make a motion to go to conference with very simple and straightforward language that says the conference report cannot include reconciliation instructions to raise the debt limit.
I yield the floor.
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