Congressional Budget for the United States Government for the Fiscal Year 2006
CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET FOR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2006 -- (Senate - March 16, 2005)
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I yield myself 5 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the Senator from Texas is recognized.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I want to speak briefly against this amendment. Really, what we are looking at is a tax increase unless this budget resolution passes. In other words, what they are saying is we are either going to have to find further cuts--and, of course, our friends on the other side of the aisle continue to oppose reductions in the rate of increase of entitlement spending like Medicaid or Medicare--but at the same time they say, in essence, you have to pay for these tax cuts. What they mean by that is you have to raise taxes to do so.
While I hate deficits as much as the next person, this budget actually works to reduce the Federal deficit by half, over the next 5 years.
We are taking a constructive approach to reduction of the deficit.
But let me point out that over the last 21 months since the last tax cut, we have seen 3 million new jobs in this country. Frankly, what our opponents are proposing is something that would raise taxes on the average American worker and kill the job creation engine that put America back to work.
Finally, in the short time we have, I want to speak briefly in support of an amendment that Senator Hutchison and Senator Gregg and others offered yesterday that would increase the number of Border Patrol agents to 1,000 per year for each of the next 5 years. Unlike some other amendments, this one is actually budget neutral because we find offsetting cuts to pay for it. Our security in this country ought to be and ought to remain our highest priority.
The fact is, our borders are uncontrolled and porous. While we know our Border Patrol agents do their job in a highly professional way with what they have, the fact is, they are underequipped and outmanned. The fact is, our 2,000-mile southwestern border is open game for anyone who wants to try to come across, notwithstanding the good work that is being done. We have a lot more to do, but we are not there yet. We need the Border Patrol agents and the equipment to get it done.
The fact is, these porous borders not only admit people who want to come to the United States and work, people for whom I have a great deal of compassion and sympathy, and we need to find a way to deal with that in a realistic way--and we will--but it also allows entry into this country of people who want to come here to kill us.
Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Admiral James Loy said it is no secret that al-Qaida and other enemies of this country are going to try to take advantage of our porous borders, our lack of personnel and equipment to protect our borders, to try to infiltrate this country and commit another heinous attack on civilians as we experienced on 9/11.
It is absolutely critical that the Federal Government live up to its responsibility and not foist upon State governments that happen to have large borders, such as Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California--it is absolutely essential that the Federal Government live up to its responsibility.
Only by adequately funding Border Patrol personnel, and only by continuing to deal with the porous nature of our borders can we be assured that we are doing everything humanly possible to protect America and to keep us safe.
I yield the remainder of my time to the manager.
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