Concurrent Resolution On The Budget, Fiscal Year 2016 -- Continued

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, last month President Obama released his fiscal year 2016 budget proposal. Americans could be forgiven for thinking it was created in a vacuum, since the proposal completely ignores our current fiscal reality. Six years ago, when the President took office, our massive debt was already a massive $10.6 trillion. For the past 6 years of the President's administration, our national debt has increased by more than $7.5 trillion, to a dangerously high $18.2 trillion. That kind of debt slows economic growth, threatens government programs such as Social Security and Medicare, and jeopardizes America's future. But apparently the President is not concerned because the President's budget proposal would increase our national debt to a staggering $25 trillion-plus over the next 10 years.

Let me repeat that. Over the next 10 years, the President's budget would increase our national debt to more than $25 trillion. Now, I don't need to tell the American people that kind of debt is unsustainable. American families know you can't keep racking up debt indefinitely, and they know the solution to being in debt is not increasing spending.

It is too bad nobody in the White House has that same kind of common sense. The President's budget would increase spending by 65 percent over the next 10 years. If a family already in debt tried increasing spending that way, they would very quickly end up bankrupt. They would lose their home, their cars, their credit. Well, the government works the same way. The government may be able to keep up appearances a little longer, but sooner or later unchecked government spending results in financial ruin. It has happened in other countries, and it will happen here if we don't take action.

If we keep racking up debt the way we have been going, we are not going to be able to pay for our priorities. Social Security, Medicare, national defense, national security, infrastructure--all these priorities could face huge cuts if we don't get our Nation on a sound fiscal footing.

Last week, Senate Republicans introduced a budget blueprint for fiscal year 2016 that would balance the budget in 10 years and put our Nation on a path to fiscal health. Instead of ignoring our Nation's fiscal problems, it promotes spending restraint, it creates a framework for Congress and the President to come together on long-term solutions. While it is not a perfect plan--it doesn't solve every one of our Nation's problems--it gets things moving in the right direction.

First, the Senate Republican budget balances. The President's budget never balances--not in 10 years, not in 75 years, not ever. The President may think we can keep spending more than we take in indefinitely, but the fact is we can't. We need to get to a place where balanced budgets--not deficits--are the new normal. Under the Senate Republicans' budget, our Nation would achieve a $3 billion surplus by the year 2025, and our budget encourages honest accounting.

For example, our budget would provide for the Congressional Budget Office to score legislation increasing the deficit by $5 billion or more not just over 10 years but over 40 years. Typically, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the cost of legislation over a 10-year period. These estimates can be misleading because many pieces of legislation start out by costing relatively little but end up costing huge amounts in the long-term. By looking at the 40-year cost of legislation instead of the 10-year cost, we can get a much clearer view of a bill's true cost and the effect it will have on the debt.

Our budget also makes economic growth a priority. Almost 6 years after the recession ended, millions of Americans are still struggling and opportunities for advancement are still few and far between. A big reason for that is the oppressive, big government policies and deficit spending of the Obama administration. Our budget would help get the government off the back of the economy by limiting the growth of spending and reducing the debt.

On the jobs front, the Senate Republicans' budget would pave the way for the removal of inefficient and ineffective government regulations that are making it difficult and expensive for many businesses to hire new workers and create new opportunities. Our budget also lays the groundwork for an overhaul of our outdated Tax Code, which needs to be reformed to lessen the tax burden facing families and to encourage businesses to create American jobs.

Yesterday, we celebrated the fifth anniversary of the President's budget-busting health care law. Five years on, the President's health care law has resulted in higher costs, lost health care plans, reduced access to doctors, and new burdens on businesses, large and small. The health care law's latest disasters include incorrect tax forms dispatched to nearly 1 million Americans and surprise tax bills for tens of thousands of households in this country. It is no surprise that according to a recent poll, over 60 percent of voters have an unfavorable view of the Democrats' signature law. Senate Republicans promised the American people we would do our best to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with real health care reform, and our budget provides the framework for that process to move forward.

ObamaCare has failed to provide the health care solutions the President promised. It is time to replace this law with reforms that will actually make health care more affordable and accessible and that will not put government between patients and doctors.

Finally, our budget would start the process of putting major entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare on a sounder footing going forward. Right now the Social Security trust fund is headed toward bankruptcy. If we do not take action, Social Security recipients could be facing a 25-percent cut in benefits in 2033.

Medicare faces similar challenges to those faced by the Social Security Program. Under the worst-case scenario, the Medicare trust fund could become insolvent as early as in 2021. That is just 6 short years away. The Senate Republican budget would help preserve Medicare by extending the trust fund solvency by an additional 5 years, which would protect retiree benefits while giving policymakers additional time to ensure that this program provides support to seniors for decades to come.

Our country is not in the best fiscal shape, but it is not too late to do something about it. Senate Republicans have proposed and produced a responsible budget that will fund our Nation's priorities while restraining spending growth and driving down our Nation's deficit. This budget will give the American people a more efficient, a more effective, and a more accountable government. I look forward to passing it this week and to getting our Nation back on the path to fiscal health, which starts with a balanced budget.

We cannot continue down the path we are on. The American people deserve better. We should give them better. For the first time in most of the years I have been here, we are actually going to have a budget on the floor of the Senate that balances in 10 years. That is something I think the American people who sit around their household and sit around their kitchen tables trying to make these hard decisions for themselves and their families--that is what they deserve and that is what they expect. That is what we are going to deliver.

I yield the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source