the senator from alabama. mr. sessions: well, i don't think the 6% reduction in spending proposed by the house is going to cause the united states government to sink into the ocean. states are making far more serious reductions in spending than that. these -- the language the majority leader's using seemed like, to me, recalls the old language in 1994, reckless republican spending cuts and

poor people are thrown into the streets and that sort of thing. but what happened in 1994? in 1994 the american people, through their newly elected congress, balanced the budget in four years. they balanced the budget when people said it couldn't be done. they said that the spending reductions were going to destroy america and growth an prosperity and everyone -- and prosperity and everyone else that they could imagine. but it didn't happen. it helped create a period of outstanding growth. tuesday, we're told, we'll have a tea vote. it's a very important vote because it deals with the level of spending this country is going to participate in. it's going to make a national decisions that really important. we passed a two-week continuing resolution that reduced spending by $4 billion over that period keeping us on track to meet the

house passed goal of a $61 billion reduction in spending this fiscal year. it was a good, small first step. but the big step will be coming up, i suppose, a week from this friday when the c.r. that we just passed will expire and we have to pass another one. at what level will we pass it? perhaps the microphone would help. at what level would we pass this c.r.? that's the question that will be before us. will we continue to trend -- the trend of reduced spending that the house started us on that the american people people started us on by the election last november just four months ago or do we continue business as usual? continue to be in denial to say no more, no mass, we can't do anymore. we give up. well, a vote for the democratic

plan that will be presented tomorrow will be a vote to do something. that's the fact. it will be a vote to say we are still in denial. it will be a vote that says deficits don't matter. we can just continue to spend, just continue to invest. it will all get better in the end. it is a vote for more investments and more spending. indeed, we have the -- in a budget committee, which i'm the ranking republican last week, testimony from the department of education. they're asking for an 11% increase when the inflation rate is 2. the department of energy asked for a 9.5% increase. amazingly the department of education came in with a 62% increase in spending. is this the way to bring this

country under control? is this what the american people expected when they voted last election and sent a new house of representatives and new senators here? i don't think so. and what do we hear? there will be another vote for fear that we can't reduce spending because the nation will sink into the ocean. i don't think so and the american people don't think so and cities and counties and states are facing these same situations and make tough decisions and being successful at it. so the decision we make on spending could well determine the fate of our nation and our economy. it's that important. it really is. 40% of every dollar we spend today is borrowed. we will spend this fiscal yea year $3.5 trillion, but we only take in $2.2 trillion. did you know that?

congress knows that. they're in denial some, but that's the fact. it's indisputable. it's in the president's budget. over the next 10 years the budget -- pursuant to the budget, the plan that the president gave us, ton the debt will go -- on the debt will go from $200 billion last year t to $844 billion in one year. we will double the entire national debt, the gross debt from $13 trillion to $26 trillion. they claim they're saving $1 trillion. i guess it would have gone to $27 trillion. how can you save $1 billion - save $1 billion -- $1 trillion when -- when the deficit's going up every single year. the lowest single year of deficit is $600 billion. the highest single deficit year president bush had, which was too high, was $450. the lowest they'll have i

is $600 billion according to the president's own numbers he sent to us. this is not an acceptable pattern. we have -- we're on the wrong road. this is a road to decline. it's the road to dependence on foreign sources of money to finance our spending spree. it's not road to prosperity and growth. we simply have to make some tough choices. we have to make this government leaner and more productive. we need to create growth and prosperity. and the growth and prosperity has to be in the private sector. that's who pace the taxes that a -- pace the taxes that a -- pays the taxes that allows us to have a healthy government. a failure to act in this point in history, after all of the discussion that we had and the debt commission has all called for substantial reduction in spending. but congress doesn't get it. so this is a demoralizing thing,

really, for our people, for our -- our government, for investors in the united states, for businesses sitting on capital and thinking about what the future's going to be like. is this not going to be a sound economy any longer? is it -- is the government of the united states incapable of altering its projectry? -- trajectory? they thought perhaps this election was that way. the house has sent a clear message. some think it could have done further. it processed a $61 billion reduction in the discretionary spending accounts. that's a 6% reduction. we've already gotten four off that so it would be $57 billion. when you take these numbers, mr. president, and the american people, i hope, will think about this.

when you reduce the baseline b by $61 billion for spending in the discretionary accounts, that is far larger than some people think. one of the things that's gotten us in trouble is the geo metric problem of increasing spending. when you increase spending for 7% a year for 10 years, double the size of government just like your bank account doubles at 7% interest compounded. but when you're reducing spending, the same thing occurs, $61 billion, a reduction in the baseline. if there were no more reductions over 10 years built into the baseline, it would result in about $850 billion in savings in 10 years, almost $1 trillion. just a $61 billion cut. it does make a difference. it does make a difference and it's significant. but president obama's plan, the

senate democratic plan do almost nothing. he proposes, as i understand it, a 6%, $6 billion cut for the rest of the fiscal year. that's just about a 1 half of 1% reduction in -- one half of 1% reduction in spending. and the senate democrat plan it appears to be me to be a $4 billion reduction, less than 1 half of 1% reduction in spending this year. those are fake cuts. they're not real cuts. this is washington talk. this is why this country's virtually broke. the president says that we -- he proposed a budget to the united states congress, as law requires him to do, and that budget would cause us to live within our means and to begin paying down the debt. that's what he said.

that's what his budget director said in testimony before the committee. what planet are they on? the lowest single annual deficit -- and if anybody on this floor wants to dispute this, i'd like to hear it -- the lowest single annual deficit is over $600 billion in its 10-year plan. and they're going up in the out years to almost $900 trillion in the tenth year of his 10-year plan. that's why experts tell us this is an unsustainable course. i -- i wish we weren't in this fix. i guess i'll have to take some of the blame too. i voted against a lot of these spending programs, but i supported them. and we've gotten ourselves in some -- and we've gotten ourselves in a fix. it's going to be hard to get out of it. not impossible. but we're going to have to take some action. it cannot be business as usual. of course not. but that's what the majority leader is proposing to do,

nothing. do nothing. let the interest on our debt go from $200 billion a year t to $844 billion. where's that money going to come from? education budget is $60 billion, highway budget $40 billion, $844 on interest. what is it going to crowd out that we'd like to spend government money on? and what if we have a debt crisis? this assumes interest rates are at 3.5%. well, a lot of people think this interest rate is not so stable. a lot of people are afraid that we could have a national or even international debt crisis, interest rates could surge. i remember when i bought my first house, the interest rate was double digits. i think it was 11.5%. you think that we can't have that happen? and then instead of $844 billion

in interest, we have a trillion and a half in interest in 10 years? crowding out all other kinds of spending. this is irresponsible. this is an irresponsible course. everyone knows it. you can't borrow your way out of debt. so what is going to snap -- going to happen? let's just pull back the curtain. let's just talk about what the plans are here. it's pretty clear if you look at it and been around this town a little bit. so the democratic leader accepted, he didn't want to have a debate, in very sort order -- short order accepted the reduction in two weeks. the american public thinks things are rolling along pretty well. at least we avoided a government shutdown and things are moving along pretty well. now we're going to have another

quick vote tomorrow. that was just decided apparently today on two different plans, the house plan, a 6% reduction, a democratic plan, basically no reduction. and then we'll vote. neither one will pass. and two weeks from this -- a week from this friday, the c.r., the two-week c.r. will expire and we'll be heading toward a government shutdown. so secret negotiations will begin and they'll all start talking. maybe the vice president will get in there and talk a little bit and they'll -- they'll move around and the special interest will be involved. the american people won't be in on the discussions. they probably won't invite me in on the discussions. i don't know who all will be there. but they'll begin to negotiate and talk and they'll seeking some toothless compromise. crocodile tears and warnings will be shed. oh, we can't have a government

shutdown. we've had a half a dozen for short periods of time and we certainly don't want one. but that's the way they'll talk about it. so we just can't cut anymore. it's going to end -- schools are going to close. health care programs are going to close. all of that -- you heard it before. every state, every city, every county that goes through this has the same political rhetoric out there. you can't do it. it just won't happen. then they're going to expect, i guess, the republicans to cave and the plan, of course, as it's been from the beginning is business as usual. business as usual. politicians win again. people lose.

elections nullified. business as usual. well, i don't think so. business as usual has put us on the road to bankruptcy. and the voters did speak, and there's a moral responsibility of this congress to respond to the legitimate cries of the american people. don't we have that responsibility? i know one senator told me that during that election, they ran every single ad that talked about reducing spending and won by a margin far more than anybody predicted. there's no doubt that the american people expect us to reduce spending. they know that there will be some people won't get as much money as they were getting before, but they know we're spending too much. that's common sensical. and a vote for the democratic

proposal truly would be a vote for the status quo. it would be a victory for the status quo. it would be seen clearly as a victory for the big spenders. it would be a continuation of the unsustainable fiscal path that we are on, the path to decline, the path to dependence, debt dependence. the whole world is watching, really, just like we watched the british, they stepped up to the plate and made cuts. the germans have criticized the united states for our excessive spending. the european union has criticized the united states for our excessive spending. canada has done a lot better than the united states has in containing spending. the world is watching. what is the united states going to do? is it going to get its house in order like the other developed nations are working to do? have they made a national

decision to reform their unsustainable actions or not? some say these $61 billion in cuts would hurt growth. i contend that absolutely is not so. in terms of the total government spending, we spend spend $3,500,000,000,000, $60 bi llion reduction in that spending total is not going to throw this economy into a -- a recession. indeed, what it would do would be send a message to the financial world that the american people have gotten it, that the congress has gotten it, and they are at last beginning to end the unsustainable trajectory that they -- this government is on. the idea that we can borrow money, pay interest on it and create jobs has not worked.

if it were such a good idea, why don't we borrow three times as much and spread around three times as much money? it's not an economically sustainable theory. it won't work, and it has not worked. so we're facing a huge national decision, and i believe many of my democratic colleagues get it. they tell me they do. they've said so publicly, many have, but talk is not enough. action will be needed. we'll begin to take action tomorrow when we cast this vote. party loyalty is fine. we all have to try to work with our leadership, and nobody complains about that to a degree, but we're not to be lemming. we do have a duty to our constituency, our country and our future to make some tough decisions.

for example, just share one more thought, and i'll wrap up. i see my colleague, senator roberts, our able senator from kansas, here. don't think that we are cutting spending, this 6% reduction from some tight base line of spending like may be so in your state, your city or your county, and the -- county. in the last two years, the nondefense discretionary spending has increased 23%, and that does not count the stimulus package money, the $850 billion, the largest expenditure ever in the history of this republic, in the history of any other nation, in the history of the world.

that's on top of the 23% spending. for example, the e.p.a. in two years got a 36% increase in base line spending in two years. they can't take a 6% reduction, plus they got an almost -- they got a 70% increase from the stimulus package, a $7 billion infusion on top of their their $10 billion budget. what about the state department? they got 1 2% increase in spending in the last two years, plus $1 billion for the stimulus package. and the education department asked for an 11% increase this year, got an 11% increase previously, and hold your hat, their budget is about about $63 billion now, they got got $97 billion out of the

stimulus package, more than the whole budget. so, mr. president, we borrow 40 cents out of every dollar we spend. our debt will soon outgrow our economy. interest on the debt under the president's budget will rise to to $844 billion a year. the question is not whether we are headed for a crisis, but whether we have time to act to prevent it. 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 the growing fiscal crisis facing our nation that every expert, including the debt commission, has told us is real? this is a defining vote in the career of every senator and a defining vote for the senate. a .5% proposed reduction in spending by this administration

is -- is not anything, is basically doing nothing. we need every group, every concerned citizen to reach out to congress to tell congress to get off this road to fiscal calamity and to every fellow senator i say now is the time to stand and be counted. are you going to be the vote that was -- that helped us turn back from the fiscal cliff or the vote that pushed the economy that much further toward the edge? with. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. mcconnell: as we reengage in the ongoing debate over government spending, it's worth noting that some on the other side have already decided to fold up their tents. last week republicans showed we could change the status quo in washington by cutting government spending. it was a small step, but a step in the right direction. and some of us were hopeful momentum was finally building

for the kind of bipartisan consensus that would enable us to cut even more government red ink this week. unfortunately, the assistant majority leader seems to have have enough. yesterday he said that cutting $6 billion pushes limits of what's needed to live within our means. plp, this is ludicrous. ludicrous. so far this fiscal year, washington has spent nearly $650 billion more than it's taken in. this year. that's a little more than $4 billion a day that washington is spending over and above what it has to spend. and senator durbin thinks democrats in congress have pushed the limits of responsibility by agreeing to cut $6 billion more this year. imagine, if every american had the same approach to their credit card bills. imagine calling up your credit card company