pass it. us. that's the question there will bee before us will we continue the trend of reduced spending at the house started its own thatrd the american people started us f on by the election last november just four months ago. continue to be in denial to say no more, we can't do anymore, wu give up. democtic well, a vote for the democraticd plan that will be presented tomorrow will be a vote to doite nothing.o that's the fact.ay we it will be a vote to say we aren still in denial it would be to say deficits don't c matter, we can just continue to spend, just inntinue to invest.ter

it will all get better in the end.ments and more is a vote for more investment and more spending and indeed we have in the budget committeeast which time the ranking republican last week before the department of education they are asking for an e 11% increasehe when inflation rate is to the is department of energy for 9.5% increase and amazingly theio department of transportation cayman with 62% increase inuntrr spending. is this the way to bring this te country under control? is this what the american people expected when they voted lastrer election and set a new house of representatives and senators here i don't think so and itthee will be another photosphere we spendi can't reduce spending because it the onation will sink into theat

ocean.statesre american people don't think soae and cities and counties and states are facing the same being situations and making tough decisions and being successful at it. so the decision we make on spending could well determine ar the fate of our nation and our economy it's that important. it really e is. spend 40% of every dollar we spend today is borrowed. we will spend this fiscal year $3.5 trillion, but we only take 2.2 trillion? did you know that? denial congress knows that, they are in denial some but that's the fact, it's indisputable, it's in the10 president's y budget. the work budget pursuant to the budget, the plan that the president t gave us interest on- the debt will go from 200 billion last year to 844 ind

one year we will double the debt imtire national debt, the ghosta debt from 13 trillion to 26 trillion they claim they aret saving a trillion dollars i guess it would have gone to 27 trillion how can you save aii trillion dollars when thee deficit is going up every singlr deficit is $600 billion. the highest single deficit heres president bush had which was too high, 450. l the lowest they will have hi 600 billion according to thepren president's own members he sent th is to us. this is not an acceptable tothis have. we are on the wrong road. this is a road to decline. it is the road to dependence ony foreign sources of money, to finance outstanding at. it's not the road to prosperitye

and growth. we simply have to make some gov tough traces. we have tole make this governmet leaner and more productive. we need to create growth and grh prosperity. prosper and the growth and prosperity has to be in the private sector. that is who pays the taxes that healthy government and a failure to act at this point in history, after all the discussion we'vehe had in the net commissions have bt met all have called for a substantial reductions in spding. spending but congress doesn't get so this is a demoralizing thing really for our people for our government, for investors ig the united states, for business is sitting on capitol andtheures thinking about what the future is going to be liked is this no? going to be a sound economy anys longer. is the government of the unitedo

states incapable of offering its trajectory?houghterhaps the thought perhaps this election was that way.ar well, the house sent a clear thk message, some think that itfurte could have gone further. they propose a 61 billion-dollar reduction in the. that is a 6% reduction. i've already gotten for so it would be 57 billion. when you take these numbers, i , mr. president, and the american people i hope would think aboutb this when you reduce the baseline by $61 billion by acc spending in discretionaryeople accounts that is far larger than some people think.us in one of the things that's gotten etcentralist the geometrical m groblem of increasing spending n when you increase spending its 7% a year for example for tenf

years you double the size of government just like your bank account doubles the 7% intereste compounded. reducing but when you're reducing s spending the sameam thie tng oct $61 billion the reduction in the baseline if there were no more s reductions over ten years builtw into the baseline would result in about $850 billion savings in ten years almost a trillion dollars. a 612 billion-dollar cut. a it does make a difference.nifica it does make is a difference and significant. but president obama's plan, the senate democratic plan who doesp almost nothing. f proposes as i understand it e 6%, 6 billion-dollar cut for the rest of the fiscal year. a 1 that is about one-half of 1%ducn reduction in spending this

fiscal year and the senate demot democrats' plan it appears to me to be a 4 billion-dollartion, reduction, less than one-half of 1% reduction in spending this year. not those are fake cuts, they are tl not real cuts. this is washington talk.. that is why the country is that virtually broke. the president said he proposed a budget to the united states congress as the law required him to do, and that budget would cause us to live within our means and to begin paying down e the debt and that is what the budget director said in testimony before the committee, what planet are they on.deficitd the lowest single annual deficis wants to dispute the side like to hear it. 1year it's over $600 billion in the ten year plan and they are going

up in the out years to almost 900 trillion in the tenth year of the ten year plan. that's why experts tell us this. is an unsustainable course. i wish we were not in this fix.e i guess i have to take some of f the blame, too. i voted against a lot of programs but i supported them and we've gotten ourselves in some and we've gotten ourselves it's goiting to be hard to get t of it, not impossible but we are going to have to take action. a. it cannot be business as usual.c of course not. but that's what the majority nothing, to do nothing. with the interest on our debt to go from 200 billion a year tofr? 844. where is that money going toedut come from? the education budget from 60 billion, highway budget,

40 billion, 844 on interest what is it going to crowd out that wt would like m to spend governmene money on? and what if we have a debt ratee crisis? this is the interest rate atnkhs 3.5%. but a lot of people think thata the interest rate isn't sustainable. a a lot of people are afraid we a could have a national or evenoud international debt crisis, i interest rates could surge.erest i remember when i bought my doue first house the interest rate was double digits. to think we can't have that happen and then against the $844 billion of interest, do we have 1.5 trillion of interest in ten years? crowding out all kinds of othero spending? an this is irresponsible. cours everyone knows it. you can't borrow your way out of

debt. so what is going to happen?he let's pull back the curtain. tat let's talk about what the plansa are here. it's pretty clear if you look at it. i've been around this town. so a democratic leader accepted very short accepted the 4 billion-dollar reduction over the two week period last week. that was done. nobody much talked about it. the american people assumelong things were moving along pretty well. pretty well.e so now we have another quick vote tomorrow. that just decide today on two p, different plans. and then we will vote neither one will pass. and two weeks from, a week frome this friday, the two week cr

well as by year and we will bem. heading towards a government n shuteg down they will begin and they will start talking. and maybe the vice president will get in there and talk a little bit and move around and the special-interest will beon the involved.ns the american people w.ould be in on the discussion.e they won't invite me in on the ion't k discussion. i don't know who all will be to there but the have to get to thl ssgotiate and talk and they wile be seeking some toothless compromise. a crocodile tears and warnings will be shed all weekend and have a government shutdown. d we've had a half a dozen and we certainly don't want one. that is the way they will talk t aout it. so we can't cut any more.o it's going to end. g to schools are going to close. health care programs are goingaf

to close you heard it before.it, every state, every city, every county that goes through this has the same political rhetoric, you can't do it. it just won't happen. then they are going to expect i guess the republicans to cave, and the plan of course as it has been from the beginning the business as usual, business as usual. politics win again. people lose. elections malae, business as business as usual has put us ono the road to bankruptcy.id and the voters did speak and reo there is a moral responsibility of this congress to respond to f the legitimate cries of the

american people. don't we have that one responsibility? i know one senator told me that during that election they ran every single ad they talked about reducing spending and wona by a margin far more thanredict. anybody predicted.hat there's no doubt the american people and expect us to reduce spending. they know there will be some muh people who won't get as much gtg money as they were getting they before but they know that we are spending too much.uch. that is so commonsensical. and the vote for the democratic proposal truly would be a vote for the status quo. for it would be a victory for the status quo. it would be seen clearly as a victory for the big big contiat spenders. it would be a continuation for the unsustainable fiscal path that we are on.

the path to decline and tobt dep dependence, the debt dependence. the whole world is watching. the just like we watch the british the step up to the plate and make cuts and the germans haveus criticized the united states for excess of spending and theas european union criticized the united states for the excessivee spending. canada has done better than the united states and containingd sg spending. what is i the united states andi do? is it going to get its hon order like the other developed t have they made a national decision to reform their on bstainable actions or not? $61 some say the $61 billion of cuts would hurt growth. i contend that absolutely is not

so. we spend $3,500,000,000,000. to 60 billion reduction in that spending total is not going to throw this economy into a do wod recession. messa indeed what it wouldge do is tol send the message to the gotten financial world that thethat ths american people have gotten aret that, the congress hasn't and t the last game to end the unsustainable trajectory that this government is on. the idea that we can borrown it money, pay interest on it and hs create jobs has not worked.t if it were such a good idea whay don't we borrow three times asmd much and spread around three times as much money. it's not an economically sustainable pherae.worked. it would not work and has not a worked. huge we are facing a huge national dc

decision and i believe many oftl my democratic colleagues get its they tell me they do. they said so publicly.s many have. but talk is not enough. actions will be needed and willo begin to take action tomorrow ten we cast this vote. to party loyalty is fine.our we all have to try to work with our leadership and nobody complains about that to a degree but we are not to be -- we havey a duty to our constituents and e our future to make some tough decisions.e for example to share one more u. thought and to wrap up i see my colleague from kansas here, don't think that we are cuttingn

spending this 6% reduction from some baseline of spending like may be so in your state, your c, city or york county, and theastt last two years the non-defense discretionary spending has, increased 23% and that doesn't count the stimulus package money, the $850 billion, thethe largest expenditure ever in the history of this republic or any other nation in the history of,n the world. that's on top of the 23% of topo spending. for example, the epa in two years got a 36% increase inears. baseline spending. in two years the can't take a 6t reduction, plus they got ant almost -- they got a 70%

increase from the stimulus package, 7 billion-dollar of infusion on the 10 billion-dollar budget.they gt what about the state department? the got 132% increase in spending in the last two years plus a billion dollars for the stimulus package and education department for an 11% increasen this year bought an 11% increas, previously and hold your hat the budget is about 63 billion now. imulus they got $97 billion out of the stimulus package. more than the whole budget so, mr. president, we borrow 40 en spend.t o economy. interest on the d debt under the president's budget will rise toy $844 billion a year.

the question isn't whether we bt are headed for the crisis orent whether we have time to act toow prevent eight. res our character is tested by how we respond in times of great challenge. this week the senate faces such a test how do we respond to thes growing fiscal crisis facing the nation that every expert including the debt commission has told us israel? this is a defining vote in theee career of every senator and thea defining vote for the senate. by the spending by this administration is not anything,g it's basically doing nothing, we need every citizen to reach outo to congress to tell congress tot get offhi this road to the fisco calamity and every fellowd senator now's the time to stand and be counted are you going to

be devoted that helped us turnhd backed vote or that pushed the >> i thank the chair and yield the floor. >> we engage in the ongoingoing debate over the government spending this week. it's worth noting some of thehe other side appear to have alrdy already decided to fold the tent.he sta last week we should wetus couldh change the status quo in a washington by cutting s governmp spending. it was a small step.ome o but a step in the right hopef direction. and some of us were hopeful they were building for the kind of bipartisan consensus that would enable us to cut even more gover government red ink this week.y, unfortunately the assistant had enough.s cutting $6 billion pushes the limits of what is needed to livs within our means. ludicrous. mr. president, this is ludicrous. year,

ludicrous.gton has so far this fiscal year washington has spent nearly $650 billion more than it has'sa taken in, this year. that's a little more than that $4 billionwa a day that washingn is spending over and above what it has to spend.ave and senator durbin thinks limits democrats in congress havesibila pushed thegr limits of responsibility by agreeing to cut $6 billion more this year. h imagine if every american had the same approach to their credit b card bills. ompany imagine calling your credit card company andskin asking first ifu would just freeze your out of control spending habits in place, then when they say no, imagine telling them you don'tbs want toe cut down your monthly spending because you prefer living outside of your log mean. this is the logic of our friends on the other side. a lin according to this logic they

would rather draw a line in theg sand and agree to cut another we diamond spending at a time when washington is spending about- $4 billion mark every day everyg single day than it is taking ins republicans have been hopeful w can msoake progress and reach a bipartisan solution on thisope t issue. so it's my hope the assistants majority leader is speaking for for his entire of coue is conference.e this of course is the debate fos most people iedn washington will continue to be focused on this year and it's an importantcure n debate. but focusing threatens to ensure an even larger threat and here t am talking of course about entitlement programs socia security, medicare and medicaid. anyone who's looked at these unl programs closely knows that they're becoming unaffordable te

putative and doing nothing risks utt only the future themselveseb but the nation's future as all. and anyone that looks at history as the best time to address the crisis like this is a time like right now went to parties share, the power in washington this ist the time, mr. president.n i made the case i can publicly and in private conversations with the white house. front and as a republican leader of this issue front and center the first day of my job. four years ago i came to thegrap floor and said the demographicae changes taking place in america made it incumbent upon us at the body to inform social security. when the american people put a democrat in the white house i renewed my call for action.epubs to work with the president on entitlement reform and ihs ago n repeated the call again fordecio months ago when the voters decided to put republicans in charge off the house of

representatives.riends o the throughout this time of all the hope my friends on the other side would rise to the occasion. if not, when the republicans control the white house when was they did. when i was encouraged further when inh 2009 they worked with us ona serious economic reform that preserves a safety net for ourts seniors, opeople with disabilities and which also puts on a firm stable footing generations to come. so the president has probl acknowledged the seriousness ofe the problem.sc his noted himself the cost forpi escalating even as the older, population is getting older, peo creating the perfect storm fort the fiscal crisis that dwarfs even today's budget crisis as urgent as it is. as both parties agree with it ie thought there's no reason we c can't do this forou the good ofy the country. is the urgency for action is only i intensified in recent months as e s

we've seen the uproar in ther number of state capitals.ut every state is different.ne of but the problems and every one of them can be summed up prettyt easily. ben in california and just aboutheyt everywhere in between they made promises to couldn't keep. but promises the lawmakers in washington have made putsat the state's to shame. if you add up the unfundedet liabilities and all 50 states you get by one estimate aboutadp $3 trillion total. at washington's promises of social security and medicare alone and it's over $50 trillion.hat $50 trillion that we've promisee to the ame grican people ifoi we pay for something must be donebc and now it's time to do it republicans are willing and wwe ready. where is the president?

suddenly the moment we can actually do something about this he's silent. it, for as one columnist in "the washington post" put it, a mange talking about change we can believe then the president can be a strangely passive ssive president. e of one of the greatest fiscal challenges -- excuse me, the greatest fiscal challenge of tha day he appears at least so far to have taken a pass.e this is obviously deeplyven my disappointing to me personally given my repeatedly raising of l this issue. ert more importantly should beam deeply disicappointed to every c american who had reason to hope we could tackle these issues in a moment of divided government. and it should be disappointing to all of those who believe this president when he pledged he quo washingtonfo. past presidents had the foresight to seize the moment to reach across party lines to pro solve an earlier funding problem

with social security in the case of president reagan and welfares reform in the case of presidenta clinton.es so it isn't a question ofpr whether it is possible but whether the president has the courage to step up to the challenges that we face. in this case, one can't help but wonder if the president who came into office promising change has been changed by the office. i hope i'm wrong about all of this but all of the signs point w,wards inaction on the part ofe the white house, and in my view this would be a tragic failure of leadership. ,> mr. president? mr. pdent >> the senator from illinois. rning >> i ask consent to speak as if in morning business.to the t there was an interesting letter to the two letter to theo editor sent by tomb minnesotaes state representatives and i apologize for not having theirpt names i immediately at myhen

fingertips but i'm going tonsere include the men the record when i have a chance to insert themna here but democrats and the republicans in the minnesotaesps state representatives wrote a letter toe the editor in respone to an article written by david brooks it's a conservative andas thoughtful man with a lot ofwith interest and he had writtentate about what to do with the statet and federal challenges when it came to the budget deficits, and with the minnesota state repubcs representatives said, democrat nation what we face. wk we face a situation where wehere have a weak economy and we face a situation where those incurred by the levels of government ared going up too fast. t so having acknowledged that we . have to find a solution and i'm, going to probably not see this as accurately but i thought thee said it so well. jus they said we've come to the waye conclusion we just can't cut oux way out of the problem and we'vt

can't tax your way of the. problem. we've got to't think our way out of the problem. t we can't move from one budget battle to one of the budget battle without looking at the fact that our challenge is a structural long-term challenge.t it doesn't relate to the immediate budget but to a lot of things happening over a long period of time. a and i reflect on that for a minute and i thought i think the wisdom what they say because if yo l