vote on a plan. it is the wrong time. we should have been voting it back in march. that's what the house did. two years in a row now, the house has met its responsibility. they subjected themselves to be accountable to the american people. we refuse to do that here in the senate. senator warner mentioned the word "embarrassment." we should be embarrassed. the american people deserve far better. we need to provide some leadership in this country. americans hunger for leadership. and it's getting none. when the president proposes four budgets and is yet to propose anything to save social security, which, by the way, by the year 2035 will have a cash deficit of $6 trillion. no proposal to save medicare. we've heard last year's budget

lost 0-97 in the senate. not one member of the president's own party voted for it. now 0-414 in the house. the american people need to understand what an abdication of responsibility that. what an abdication of leadership that is. but how can they make a choice? they don't know what the other side is for. we know a few things the other side is for. they want to take over one-sixth of our economy. i guess they're okay with government outlays 24% of gdp. i fwesz they're okay with $5.3 trillion worth of deficits during the term of this president. i guess they're okay with 1.4, 1.3, 1.3 and another $1.3 trillion deficits over the last four years. during this present term, we

will spend $14.4 trillion. the total deficit during that period will be 5.3, about 37%. 30 cents of every dollar is what we are borrowing. the american people deserve far better. when you take a look at the president's budget that lost 0-414, he's going to add somewhere around 10 trillion tlrs or $11 trillion to our debt. that doesn't even fully state the problem. the only thing, mr. chairman, that we share is i enjoy charts. i just want to, in wrapping up here, talk about three i think very significant additional risks that could explode our deficit even further from what the president is proposing. first of all, growth. if we miss the president's growth targets by 1%, the cbo said we could add $3.1 trillion to our nation's tet over the next ten years. $3.1 trillion.

interest rates. my one chart i'll impose on you here. i took a look historically what the average borrowing cost of the united states has been. from 1970 through 1999, we've had an average borrowing cost of 5.3%. the last three years we've been borrowing at an unrealistically low 1.5%. now, during those 30 years at 5.3%, our debt to gdp ratio was about 60%. we were far more credit worthy. now it's above 100%. about a 4% gap. that's a significant risk. of course, a few weeks ago we debated the health care law in the supreme court. let's hope that's overturned.

because that represents a significant deficit risk that nobody's aknowledging. if you take a look at real spending, not -- not just the six years from the first ten-year budget window. but once obamacare actually kicks in starting in 2016, over the next ten years we'll spend $2.4 trillion on that program. that one's going to be paid for with roughly $500 billion worth of taxes, fees and penalties. and $500 billion worth of medicare cuts. now, we haven't enacted the sgr fix of $208 billion. we realize that will reduce access. what makes anybody believe will retus medicare by $520 billion? move it forward ten years. if you grow that $500 billion in fees and penalties, that might grow to $800 billion.

versus $2.4 trillion in spending. that represents about a $1.6 trillion deficit gap or $1.6 trillion you're going to have to cut from medicare. is that going to happen? and i'm not even mentioning -- i guess i am now -- the cost when tens of millions of employers it shall -- or employers drop tens of millions of individuals from their employer sponsored care. what's that going to cost. we've got some very significant problems in this country. mr. chairman, i certainly appreciate your opening presentation laying out the case. but it doesn't even scratch the surface. we have far even greater risks. again, we have one side in washington that refuses to take a vote, refuses to do the american people what their solution is. until that side does this, until

this president leads, or until we have a president that's willing to lead we're not fwoing to fix this problem. thank you, mr. chairman. >> i thank you the senator. senator kuhns is recognized for a statement. >> thank you, chairman conrad. thank you for your leadership of this commit and for putting this plan in front of us and for having this session today. i apologize for my late arrival. i was chairing a subcommittee hearing in the foreign relations committee. when i'm home in delaware, no matter where i go, people ask me about our deficits and debt. and it is something that matters deeply to the average american because they're used to in their families and their businesses having to balance their budgets. live within their means. they expect their government will do the same. i could give a long stem wipder of a speech recounting how we got here and who's responsible and assigning blame and essentially delivering a campaign speech. instead i'd rather focus if i can on what i think we all have

in common today around this table. in my previous role as a county executive my job was in large part to find ways to balance a budget every year. to deal with record deficits. to rein in spending. make unpopular and difficult decisions and ultimately deliver a surplus. i know things are a lot more complicated here at the federal level as we have learned very quickly and that our national debt at over $15 trillion which took us a decade to earn our way into. presidents of both par tis. congress controlled by both parties. will take us a while to work our way out of. i think we all agree, what i've gotten from the summary of the comments from many of you, record deficits hurt our competitive, hurt our economies, hurt our families with hurt our country. i think we all agree this is a ticking the time bomb that needs to be detached.

i am pleased you put forward a tough, balanced, broad plan that gets us down the road towards the very real decisions we have to make. debts and deficits are not a new development, mr. chairman. the whole time that you've served in the senate it has been a real challenge for both parties. in the last 40 years i think only four federal budgets have been balanced. the past of least resistance for a generation has been to keep revenues low and services high and not deal with the gap. but i think we're at a day of reckoning where we have to. and it is my very real hope that this committee and its members will be serious. maybe off camera. maybe individually. maybe collectively. about working hard towards finding the very real solutions we need. as i think noor warner previously commented, whatever bipartisan compromise is ultimately reached to solve this problem, it will be difficult. it will be painful. and it will need a real enforcement mechanism. one i tried to advance months ago is save-go.

an updated budget enforcement mechanism that would have been part of saving $4 trillion over ten years. i think a widely agreed upon target. save go is something the bipartisan policy center advocated that i endorsed and i saw it repeatedly. asked folks to join me in moving forward. regardless of which party, regardless of which f of you, i think all of us can agree we have to find a way forward that doesn't e vis rate our safety net, asks for broadly shared sacrifice, doesn't jeopardize our garafragile recovery, and t retains highly effective long supported programs. i believe we can do that with a balanced approach. so, mr. chairman, i'm pleased that you put on the table today a tough long-term plan that takes from all the different areas where we need to make changes. that achieves revenue growth through tax reform. that reduces both discretionary domestic spending and pentagon spend ing. and that begins to deal with our

most difficult long-term deficit and debt drivers. i was pleased that this commission presented their tough plan. that the gang of six worked hard on trying to turn it into legislative language. and was happy to join the 45 senators who publicly support a long-term deficit reduction plan that is balanced in its approach. let me be clear. there are things in this plan that i really dislike. that i oppose. that i think are not only not perfect, i think are bad policy. and i think would cause needless harm to programs, people and sectors of our society that i advocate for and i care strongly about. i would like to see a final plan that prioritizes infrastructure, innovation, educational, energy, many of the things senator merkley spoke powerful about just before me. rather than repeating those comments i'll simply close by saying thank you for putting this plan out. i hope we will take the time as a group diligently to wrestle wits values' choices and to

together reach a tough plan that will allow us before the end of this calendar year to cast the votes we need to cast, to change the path for this country. thank you. >> i thank the senator. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i'm very sympathetic to the plight of the chairman, know that he's very serious about these issues, appreciate that he worked with my predecessor who i know is very serious about the fiscal state of the country. but i feel like the chairman is in a position where he's like charlie brown. and lucy. meaning his sleedership, the majority leader harr reid has pulled the football from him for what we need to do on this committee. which is is not just presenting a plan out there for us to all be here today and give very eloquent opening statements about on both sides of the aisle, but to really roll up our sleeves and take the hard votes on the plan and the amendments

and the things we like and we don't like about it. and be willing to go home and tell our constituents why we took those votes to put together a fiscal broou print for this country. and i can't tell you how excited i was to be put on the budget committee. because of the important work that my predecessor did on this committee. much of it with you, chairman, and others on this committee. but i've been incredibly, incredibly disappointed. and it's very difficult for me to go home to the people of new hampshire who i think, like all of our constituents, have great common sense. because they're dealing with a tough fiscal environment at home. they understand that they've got money coming in. it's less money than they had before in many instances. and sometimes it's more bills. but they sit down and they figure it out and they balance their budget. and we know that not only they do it, but everybody business in this country does it.

when you served at the county government, you had to put forward a budget, and you did it, and you made the hard choices. and, yet, here in congress, i think, they look at us and they look at the senate as a place where unfortunately there's been a complete failure of leadership. because you can have the best laid plan, but if you look at the time this committee has not been doing what we should be doing -- and i know it's not because of the chairman, but because it's really a failure, i think, from the overall leadership of the majority in the senate to say, go do what you were set out to do in the budget committee. to put forward the blueprint, the budget work. because i've been here on this budget committee for over 700 days, you know. never done a mark-up. i don't know what it's like. i'd love to do a mark-up. i'm willing to make the tough calls. i'm willing to vote on amendments.

i'm willing to take tough votes and go defend them to my constituents. but that just doesn't happen around here. it just makes too much sense. and with no other plan, if you aren't willing to back up what you have to put forward around here by your actions and willing to take the votes, then there's no point in just having a plan floating out there without the courage of your convictions to be able to back it up with a hard vote. that's what we were sent here to do for the american people, and rightly so, that's what they expect of us. so i would share the sentiment of my colleagues i think on both sides of the aisle. this is incredibly disappointing given the fiscal crisis that this country faces. because i got off my couch and decided to run for the united states senate because i've got two children. i have a 4-year-old and a 7-year-old. and i know that if we don't get this right now, it's not just about everyone else in this room. but we are passing on massive

amounts of debt and diminished opportunity to the next generation. and i don't ever want to look at my children, because i know they're going to say, mom, what did you do about it? so i want this committee to actually take votes and to do what is right for this country. and i hope -- i appreciate that the chairman wants to do it. and i don't want you to be charlie brown. i do not want the football to be taken away from you anymore. because we can't afford to continue where we are in this country. and you know what? we better put it on the line and make some decisions and make the tough calls to get our fiscal house in order. because you think about it, if every hearing we had that was sort of a political hearing around here? i call them these political sham hearings where we're trying to prove a political point instead of solving a problem around here, if we were able to take every single one of those hearings and we were actually working on the real problems

facing this country, we'd have a balanced budget right now if we spent our time doing that. and that's what the american people deserve. and we need to be accountable to them. and i think at the end of the day right now, we should be ashamed that we aren't marking up a budget to take the votes here. and i think it's a failure of leadership. thank you. >> i thank the senator. senator sessions? final thoughts for today? >> well, yes, mr. chairman. i think you can tell that the members on our side like you. we appreciate you. we like all of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle on this committee. and, really, i think it's a misperception among a lot of people in america we don't get along personally throughout the whole senate. but we do have some sincere, deep, disagreements about what we're going to do. and i think we believe that you would have preferred a real

mark-up today, not a faux mark-up. the fact is, it's now three years, three years into the execution of a slideliberate an determined policy by the democratic leadership and united states senate to avoid responsibility for the financial future of america. it's not acceptable of a senate leadership to not face up to the challenge of our time. the debt crisis facing america. we have a long-term systemic debt crisis. it's not going away any time soon. we have got to make changes. it dwarfs all other issues facing our country. it is, as admiral mullen, the chairman of joint chiefs said, the greatest threat to our national security. some may think it's smart when senator reid says it's foolish to have a budget. and then to spend three years avoiding votes necessary to have a budget or lay out a financial

plan for the future. but is it really okay to wait until after the election to vote? is that what the american people expect of us? are they satisfied that we say, oh, we can't take votes close to an election. that might be tough. oh, we don't want to do that, do we. i don't think so. i don't think that's where the american people's heads are. i think it's a big deal to fail the responsibility that we've been given as an honor to be senators. i think it's particularly wrong for the president to propose nothing serious or the democratic leadership and the senate to pose no plan, try to block plans from coming up, and then to criticize those who lay out plans that could change america and put us on the right path. i don't think it's acceptable.

i think a price will be paid for this failure. and i will just say one more thing. if the lord allows this republican party to have a majority in the senate, we're going to do our best to be worthy of the responsibility given us. we're going to be -- do everything within our power to produce a budget. one that can be reconciled with the house. a budget that will change the debt course of america, place this country on a path to progress and prosperity and not to decline. thank you for all the things that you've done, mr. chairman. the hard work you've put in to understanding the challenges of america. the problem we've got is, we're not willing to act on it. it's time for some action. thank you very much. >> i thank the senator. i thank all of my colleagues today. let me indicate my own view,

because everyone else has expressed themselves on this question. when i hear colleagues say there has been no budget put in place for 1,000 days, i just don't think that's that's correct. i really don't. we passed last year the budget control act. the budget control act is not a resolution. budget control act is a law. a resolution is purely a congressional document. it never goes to the president for his signature. the budget control act passed both houses of congress and went to the president for his signature. the budget control act not only set the budget for this year and next and i just read the language from the budget control act. the allocations, aggregates and

levels shall apply in the senate in the same manner as for a concurrent resolution on the budgett for fiscal year 2012. that exact same language is repeated in the next paragraph for 2013. the budget control act law shall apply in the senate in the same manner as for a concurrent resolution on the budget. to suggest we have not put in place spending limits or spending restraints i think is misleading for people who are listening. i believe it is very clear in the budget control act that we passed a law that put in place spending limits not only for two years but quite extraordinarily spending caps for ten years.

i have been here for 26 years. i have never seen a budget resolution put in place spending caps for more than three years. the budgett control act put in place spending caps for ten years. in addition the budget control act created a special committee with the obligation to come up with a plan for reforming social security, medicare and the tax system and told them if you are able to agree you will be able to bring that proposal to the floor of the senate and not face a filibuster, be able to pass reforms to those programs on a simple majority vote. and it further said if you can't agree there will have to be an additional $1.2 trillion of cuts put in place in the so-called sequester. because the special committee

did not agree the $900 billion of savings under the budget control act are law as are the additional $1.2 trillion of spending cuts created by the fact that the special committee could not agree on reforming medicare social security and our tax system. that's the total package of over $2 trillion of spending cuts. that is more than any package of spending cuts or spending restraint in the history of our country. where i do agree is what we don't have a long term plan, a ten year plan. we do have a budget for this year and next, spending restrictions in place for those two years. what we don't have is a long-term plan.

that's why i spent a lot of time trying to figure out what i would take before this committee. at the end of the day i decided to do what i deeply believe and i deeply believe bowles-simpson. i told my staff i will never forget the morning of the vote for bowles-simpson. the only thing worse than being for this is being against it. because at least it gets our debt under control and begins to bring it down. and it does it in some kind of balanced way. i'd be the first to acknowledge we've got to make adjustments to it because things have happened

in the interval. i would say this also to you and i say this with sincerity. i don't believe that this is going to get resolved. i don't believe that all parties are going to get out of their fixed positions before an election. i wish we could. i wish we would. i don't see evidence in my 26 years that that is going to happen. in fact, budget resolutions have not been done for a decade no matter who is in charge of the senate in an election year. the only time it has happened is the last time i became chairman in 2008 i was able to get in an election year a budget resolution. that's one reason i insisted that in the budget control act we did put in place spending limitations for the next two years and the enforcement mechanisms and spending caps for

the next ten. i tell you i believe as deeply as anybody on this committee that we have got an obligation and a responsibility, a deep responsibility to get this country back on track. i am willing to work with anyone in these coming months to figure out what adjustments would need to be made to the mark i've laid down. i will dedicate myself to trying to find a way to come together so at the end of this year before we face the expiration of all the tax cuts that are in place and before we face a sequester that i do believe would cut too much on national defense that we find an alternative. i am absolutely committed to

trying. with that the committee will stand in recess. we'll distribute the mark. i thank all members for participating.

the senate budget committee is ramping up after debating chairman conrad's budget plan. the top is going to talk about what happened in the committee today.

>> well, you think if you're ready. well, we finished what i would call a faux markup, a sound dignifying nothing on talk about no action, no steps taken to lead this country out of the debt crisis we are in, a further step in the execution of a sustained and determined policy of senate democratic leader harry reid to avoid the responsibility of any of his members to actually cast a vote on a future financial course america should undertake. it's a deeply disappointing event. it cannot continue. this nation has ever faced a more predictable debt crises as we have been