senator coburn, crapo, senator greg. they supported not because they liked every part of it, but because they thought this comprehensive recommendation underscored how deep seated this problem is. this is an enormous problem. i think the message to us is let's see what we can do with the president. you cannot do entitlement reform for your viewers, entitlements mean long-term liabilities set by law. we don't even vote on them every year. so many of them very popular, social security, medicare and the like. you cannot do entitlement reform with just one party. you can only do entitlement reform on a bipartisan basis. the message to us, coming out of this deficit reduction report is that it's time for the president of the united states and people like john boehner and myself and others to sit down and see what we can do to make sure we have the same kind of country for our children and grandchildren that our parents left for us. >> politicians make these promises. the president said there has to be broad sacrifices. why ca

and i want to congratulate senator durbin and senator conrad and senator crapo and senator gregg for their efforts on that commission. you see, they think we need a plan. senator conrad had a wonderful statement about it. and he said this: "the only things that's worse than being for this plan is being against it." because what he was really addressing the fact is that we're not willing to make the hard choices. we won't come together and do what's best for america. what we'll do is just take another shot of morphine, drink another drink on the titanic and hope that somehow it gets better. the fact is we already have a debt commission. it's called the united states congress. that's why i voted initially against the debt commission. i spent eight months, had a full-time staffer working on that commission for the last eight months. we are the debt commission. we have to have a plan to avert the catastrophe that is in front of us. america needs to know it's you urgent. it is not segregation that -- it is not something that can wait a year. we are going to have a major liquidity crisis a

>> so i think it was a genuine enthusiasm by tom coburn and mike crapo, the idea scrubbing the deck, broadening the base, dramatically slowing the rates, and generating economic growth, that overtime would allow us to stave off future rate increases and maybe eventually cut taxes further. >> donald, is it your sense that we can sort of productively look at tax expenditures and address them in this same way? >> i think in general, yes. i think we need at some point to draw distinctions come as rudy was saying, people have different reactions. this is one of these topics were depending on the audience and the mood of the speaker, you can characterize it in different ways. when i want to be a little more risky about i call them tax breaks. and i want to be risky i called him loopholes and special interest positions. when i want to be honest i refer to them as the mortgage interest deduction come and charitable deduction and the state and local tax deduction. [laughter] >> then there are a set of issues about some of these things do look like spending programs run through the tax code. t

senator gregg, tom coburn, mike crapo, senator dick durbin of illinois. opposing the commission proposal will be paul ryan, and dave camp, democrat of missouri, and the stern, and another. we still do not know about some of the other congressmen. here is a treat. -- tweet. we are talking about the proposals to address the nation's debt and deficit. we have our next caller from montana. caller: i am in the extreme western end of the state. thanks for taking my call. i have a question. since america is no longer on the gold standard, why don't we take the gold and pay down the national debt in fort knox? we are sacrificing our economy. i hear this talk about the jobs. you sent them all overseas. all of our manufacturing base has gone overseas. we are not consumers but customers. when they realize that we are customers, maybe things will change. spendthrift, wasteful, but we are not consumers. i object to being called that. host: here is some of the reporting in today's papers about the commission. here is a front-page story from a boston newspaper. also in

crapo: mr. president, i also have honored to join this bipartisan group who is speaking to the nation tonight about the fact that we cannot any longer delay dealing with the most significant problem our nation faces -- our debt and our fiscal difficulties. i was one of the members of our president's commission on fiscal responsibility and reform and had the opportunity over the past year to work on a bipartisan basis with people on that commission who took testimony from experts, evaluated the issues, studied the economies of the world, studied the details of what was happening in the american economy and came forward with a plan. this plan got 11 of the 18 votes on that commission. it was required by the president's order to get 14 of the 18 votes in order to force that plan to congress for a vote. and i was disappointed that that didn't happen, but let me make a couple of points of clarification. 11 of the 18 votes represents over 60% of the votes of the commissioners on that commission. that'

nuclear energy to the finish line as part of the future of america's energy supply, along with mike crapo, jim risch, lamar alexander and others. i also recall the passage of the landmark pro-i.p. bill, a bill to protect our intellectual property. by the way, the last bastion of our competitive -- global competitiveness. it was a multiyear process that wouldn't have succeeded without the work of the business community and my friend evan bayh who i first met when we were governors of neighboring states. as many of you know, i have been an ardent champion for my brothers and sisters in eastern europe, the baltic states and the countries of the former yugoslavia. as such, i am proud to have led the effort to expand nato and increase membership in the visa waiver program. these two accomplishments would not have happened without the bipartisan leadership of dick lugar and joe biden on the senate foreign relations committee and the help of joe lieberman and susan collins on the homeland security and government affairs committee. i pray that the bipartisanship that i have witnessed and enjoyed

responsibility and reforc supported the recommendations of the chairman, and putting tom, coburn, mike crapo, judd gregg, kent conrad and dick durbin. as far as i'm concerned, they are true patriots. they are true patriots. as our colleague tom coburn said just before the commission voter the time for action is now. wai we cunan't afford to wait for te next election to begin this process. my before the skyrocketing cause our national debt to triple attacks or to double, our economy may collapse under this burden.we arer we are already near precipice. in the near future we could understand a collapse in value e per dollar, hyperinflation or dw other consequences that would force congress to face a setre t choices far more painful than those proposed in this plan, and the quote. so here we are in a situations where we are on an unsustainable fiscal quarters, caused byy explosive and unchecked growth in spending and entitlement obligations without funding. an we've got an outdated tax code that does not sufficiently encourage savings of economic growth. a skyrocketing national debt that puts ou

while we wait for the senate to return, republican senators mike crapo and tom coburn announced they will vote in favor of the report released wednesday by the national commission on fiscal responsibility and reform. the plan cuts the deficit by only 4 trillion over the coming decade. fourteen of the 18 commission members need to vote in favor of the report for it to be officially endorsed by the group. >> everybody ready? already. tom and i have put out a statement, which i think you all should have now and we are both going to make brief remarks. the purpose for being here is to announce that we are going to support the commission report and encourage its adoption by congress. as we state and our announcement, our debt crisis is a threat not just our way of life, but to our national survival. and the threat that we face is so real and so close that we do not have further time for gridlock or inaction. it is necessary that we take strong aggressive action now. in the near future if we take no action, we can see a collapse in the dollar, hyperinflation are there consequences that wou

get us back on sound economic footing, deal with debt, and to senator durbin, senator crapo, to senator coburn, hats off to your vote on the debt commission. you did some very hard thing, and that product is going to serve the country well. we're all in this together, and i wish everyone good holidays and maybe a time to reflect, that we do have more in common than we have in differences. thank you, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: who yields time? mr. baucus: madam president, i yield ten minutes to the senator from rhode island. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: thank you, madam president. i thank the distinguished chairman. madam president, as you know, our job market is still suffering from the fallout of the recession from the end of the bush years, and the unemployment rate nationally is near 10%. in my home state, it's well over 11%. chairman baucus' proposal would inject hundreds of billions of dollars into this faltering economy. helping struggling families make ends meet and creating jobs in the process. on behalf of the 65,000 rhode

earlier republican senators mike crapo and tom coburn announced they will vote in favor of the report released wednesday by the national commission on fiscal responsibility and reform. the plan cuts the deficit by almost 4 trillion over the coming decade. 14 of the 18 commission members need to vote in favor of the report for it to be officially endorsed by the group. >> everybody ready? all right. tom and i have put out a statement which i and you all should have now and we are both going to make brief remarks. the purpose for being here today is announce we are going to support the debt commission's report and encourage its adoption by congress. as we stayed in our announcement, our debt crisis is a threat not just to our way of life but our national survival, and the threat that we face is so real and so close that we do not have time for further grid lock or inaction. it's necessary that we take strong, aggressive action now. in the near future if we take no action, we could see a collapse in the value of the dollar, hyperinflation or other consequences that would force congress a

>> it was very important to have senator durbin, senator crapo, i really applaud their statements fromartisan feeling here. do you think it will spread over to the floor of the senate as well? >> well, i hope so. i think if you kind of back up, we got 60% of the commissioners to vote for something extremely controversial. 60% in the senate would prevail. so this is -- that's a good sign. [inaudible] >> can i say you got 17% of the house vote here and that 17% is retiring. you have none of the house republicans who are taking over. what kind of a problem is that going to be? >> it's a big problem. obviously i don't agree with that. in fact, rural parts of the country have as great an interest as any other part in us getting on to the more stable long-term course. i just don't agree with that. i think we've done a very good job of protecting the most vulnerable in society. if you look at the farm bill, the cuts are about 7%. other domestic discretionary cuts are 20%. so i think the rural areas actually came out quite well. i think one of the things he was talking about was a gas tax. but

. >> mike crapo and tom coburn announced they will vote in favor of the report released wednesday by the national commission on fiscal responsibility and reform. the plan cuts the deficit by almost $4 trillion over the next decade. 14 of the 18 commission members need to vote in favor of the vote for it to be especially -- officially endorsed by the group. >> everybody ready? all right. tom and i have put out a statement which i think you all should have now, and we are both going make brief remarks. our purpose are being had to do is to announce that we are going to support the debt commission report and encourage its adoption by congress. as we stayed in our announcement, our debt crisis is a threat not to our way of life, but to our national survival. and the threat we face is so real and so close that we do not have further time for gridlock or inaction. if necessary that we take strong, aggressive action now. in the near future if we take no action we can see it collapse and the value of the dollar, hyperinflation or other consequences that would force congress in this country t

political backgrounds, like dick durbin, and people on the other side, like senator coburn and senator crapo, say that we need to advance these ideas and move forward. along the lines of what we're talking about, the bush tax cuts -- of course the middle class needs to have these cuts continued given the difficulties we are facing. but when we go to the upper end, to the million-dollar level, millionaires, people making a million dollars a year, they've been getting an average of $1,000 back from the tax cuts. if we look at some of the recommendations from the deficit commission, we would be binding ourselves if we did not at least the choice of someone making over 200 to $2,000 -- over to $50,000 -- $250,000 a year or $1 million a year. it is a type of change, and as we look at getting our country out of the economic rot, reducing the deficit will be key to give confidence to the markets, and will be better for those -- for the children in harding did that. -- for the children in her team that get -- inheriting the debt. millionaires would still get the bush tax cuts, then it would certainl

they may only like half of its period i think, like senator crapo said, they feel like this is an important first step. >> as far as it moving along, take a look at three bright young republicans on this commission -- hensarling, ryan, and camp were not present today, but these people are the chairman of the ways and means committee, chairman of the budget committee, third in the leadership of the house -- the cards just played out in an interesting way. they will take 85% of this package and roll it through the budget. that was their statement today. i think chairman spratt and the durbin, t leader, and durb all saidan-sha becerra positive things about it. i do not have any inside information about where people will vote in the final analysis, but all of them will continue to insist that we do something about this cancer that will destroy our country from within. >> some said they will keep voting until they get to a plan. you will not be open to any changes from what you released today. this is the final plan. >> this is the plan. what we would strongly suggest is that any part of the pla

political backgrounds, like dick durbin, and people on the other side, like senator coburn and senator crapoe lines of what we're talking about, the bush tax cuts -- of course the middle class needs to have these cuts continued given the difficulties we are facing. but when we go to the upper end, to the million-dollar level, millionaires, people making a million dollars a year, they've been getting an average of $1,000 back from the tax cuts. if we look at some of the recommendations from the deficit commission, we would be binding ourselves if we did not at least the choice of someone making over 200 to $2,000 -- over to $50,000 -- $250,000 a year or $1 million a year. it is a type of change, and as we look at getting our country out of the economic rot, reducing the deficit will be key to give confidence to the markets, and will be better for those -- for the children in harding did that. -- for the children in her team that get -- inheriting the debt. millionaires would still get the bush tax cuts, then it would certainly reverse the clinton white read that you very much. -- reverse the

let us go on to this comment from senator crapo about his concerns. >> it struck me as i was thinking about it that in most -- in most of those areas, my concerns are what is not in the plan as opposed to what is in the plan. not all of them, but some of them. in fact, most of them. i think it was david anstead -- who said he thought the plan of to go further. and frankly, on the spending side, i think it should. it doesn't go far enough to get us where we need to get. and we need to have a more robust effort to address the spending issues. ronaldow let's hear from from california. hi. do you think of that commission is off to a good start? caller: say again? host: do you think the deficit commission is off to a good start? caller: no. host: why not? caller: the basic premise is goes back to adam-and-eve -- we separate church and state and we'd take prayer out of schools and school becomes more like juvenile delinquents and crime. god had to destroy all of them through the flood. man today ignores got a's warning. host: all right. let us look at some other news. from "the washington p

when you have a strong conservative like tom coburn and mike crapo and others joining with dick durbin to sign on to a proposal that you just read some have aelementals of, you new kind of conversation. >> democrats have to appear tough on defense in political season. is it conceivable that you have republicans who go along with your kind of proposal? >> a lot would say is, because i think alice and bob framed it well, the specifics matter. you need to ask, if defense is part of the plan is to do something like i have tried to outline, are those risks acceptable? are the ones we should be willing to run or not? another example would be, can we keep the national security industrial base, the defense sector, healthy with a 10% at smaller budget? people have to wrestle with those issues and see the implications of these kinds of alternative plans. if they feel comfortable with them, then i think it is possible. maybe this is a naive thought, but i think the substance matters. people have to digest a bit of the detail, not at the nitty gritty defense planning level but at a strategic level

get us back on sound economic footing, deal with debt, and to senator durbin, senator crapo, to senator coburn, hats off to your vote on the debt commission. you did some very hard thing, and that product is going to serve the country well. we're all in this together, and i wish everyone good holidays and maybe a time to reflect, that we do have more in comomomm the presidingfficer: the senator from montana. mr. baucus: madam president, i think it's important just to lay a few facts on the table. the senator from oregon did a good job of making this point clear, but i think, frankly, very few people in the country understand ts point, this debate. to be honest, i think there are a gd number of members of the senate who do not understand this point. the point being that under my amendment, which makes the -- those who receive $200,000 and less in income, their tax is permanent. under that amendment, it's important to remind all of us that every individual will get a tax break. every, regardless of his incom that is every individual who has more than $200,000 of taxable income would recei

in this case it would be senator conrad, senator gregg is leaving, obviously, senator crapo, senator coburn, and myself, if we could reach the point where we come together in a bipartisan budget resolution based on that deficit commission, if we have a senate budget resolution, take the word bipartisan out of it, but a senate budget resolution that reflects the feelings of that deficit commission, then that commission will have been a success, will have put us on the right track and we can stand strong together. and i hope that you agree that would be the best thing for this country. i hope we can reach that point and i thank you for your kind word earlier. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: i want to congratulate my colleague from tennessee, senator corker, for his usual common sense as well as the assistant democratic leader, senator durbin, for his courage on the debt commission. i -- i believe that the decision made tonight about the omnibus bill is the best for the country but there could have been a bet

the package also ends a provision that senators crapo and grassley and i fought to include in the recovery act which raises the bank qualified limit, which was last adjusted in 1986, for small municipalities that sell debt to community banks. this has significantly reduced rural governments' borrowing governments and created jobs and needed infrastructure improvements in thousands of communities. i'm disappointed that tha has nt been continued. there was a reflectionive antirecovery act position that republican leaders have taken, and i believe that has been reflected also in the provisions dealing with energy. i will -- in my full remarks, i will elaborate on that. mr. president, in spite of the positive provisions in this legislation to strengthen the economic recovery -- and there are some which i strongly support -- the bill, in my view, moves us in the wrong direction with regard to our other major problem, which is deficit reduction. on that issue, it will start the 112th congress off on the wrong track, and for that reason, i will oppose the legislation tomorrow when the vote is cal

when you have a strong conservative like tom coburn and mike crapo and others joining with dick durbinposal that you just read some have aelementals of, you new kind of conversation. >> democrats have to appear tough on defense in political season. is it nceivabl that you have republicans who go along with your kind of proposal? >> a lot would say is, because i think alice and bob framed it well, the specifics matter. you need to ask, if defense is part of the plan is to do something like i have tried to outline, are those risks acceptable? are the ones we ould be willing to run or not? another example would be, can we keep the national security industrial base, the defense sector, healthy with a 10% at smaller budget? people have to wrestle with those issues and see the implications of these kinds of alternative plans. if they feel comfortable with them, then i think it is possible. maybe this is a naive thought, but i think the substance matters. people have to digest a bit of the detai not at the nitty itty defense planning level but at a strategic level of what the implications are

when you have a strong conservative like tom coburn and mike crapo and others joining with dick durbin to sign on to a proposal that you just read some have aelementals of, you new kind of conversation. >> democrats have to appear tough on defense in political season. is it conceivable that you have republicans who go along with your kind of proposal? >> a lot would say is, because i think alice and bob framed it well, the specifics matter. you need to ask, if defense is part of the plan is to do something like i have tried to outline, are those risks acceptable? are the ones we should be willing to run or not? another example would be, can we keep the national security industrial base, the defense sector, healthy with a 10% at smaller budget? people have to wrestle with those issues and see the implications of these kinds of alternative plans. if they feel comfortable with them, then i think it is possible. maybe this is a naive thought, but i think the substance matters. people have to digest a bit of the detail, not at the nitty gritty defense planning level but at a strategic level

political backgrounds, like dick durbin, and people on the other side, like senator coburn and senator crapoe lines of what we're talking about, the bush tax cuts -- of course the middle class needs to have these cuts continued given the difficulties we are facing. but when we go to the upper end, to the million-dollar level, millionaires, people making a million dollars a year, they've been getting an average of $1,000 back from the tax cuts. if we look at some of the recommendations from the deficit commission, we would be binding ourselves if we did not at least the choice of someone making over 200 to $2,000 -- over to $50,000 -- $250,000 a year or $1 million a year. it is a type of change, and as we look at getting our country out of the economic rot, reducing the deficit will be key to give confidence to the markets, and will be better for those -- for the children in harding did that. -- for the children in her team that get -- inheriting the debt. millionaires would still get the bush tax cuts, then it would certainly reverse the clinton white read that you very much. -- reverse the

get us back on sound economic footing, deal with debt, and to senator durbin, senator crapo, to senator coburn, hats off to your vote on the debt commission. you did some very hard thing, and that product is going to serve the country well. we're all in this together, and i wish everyone good holidays and maybe a time to reflect, that we do have more in comomomm the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. baucus: madam predent, i think it's important just to lay a few facts on the table. the senator from oregon did a good job of making this point clear, but i think, frankly, very few people in the country understand this point, this debate. to be honest, i think there are a good number of members of the senate who do not understand this point. the point being that under my amendment, which makes the -- those who receive $200,000 and less in income, their tax is permanent. under that amendment, it's important to remind all of us that every individual will get a tax break. every, regardless of his income. that is every individual who has more than $200,000 of taxable income would

earlier today republican senators tom coburn and mike crapo talk to reporters about the recommendation. this is about 25 minutes. >> everybody ready? alright, tom and i have put out a statement which i think you all should have now and we are both going to make reef remarks. our purpose for being here today to announce that we are going to support the debt commission report and encourage its adoption by congress. as we stated in our announcement, our debt crisis is a threat not just to our way of life but to our national survival. and the threat that we face is so real and so close that we do not have further time for gridlock or an action. it is necessary that we take strong, aggressive action now. in the near future if we take no action we could see a collapse in the value of the dollar, hyperinflation or other consequences that would force congress and this country to incur consequences and to take actions that are far more serious and far more painful than anything in this proposal. as painful as some of the provisions in this proposal are. i want to talk for just a moment about wh

that report as well as senator conrad on the democratic side now joined by senator coburn and senator crapo. along the lines of what we talk about now with the bush tax cuts, of course the middle class needs the tax cuts continued with the economic difficulties, but when you go up to the million dollar level, people making a million a year, they are given back 100,000 in response to the tax cuts. i think we are blinding ourselves if we didn't at least look at the choice of looking at someone making over 250,000 or a million a year where you can bring in depending on why you set it, $4,000 billion over -- 400 billion if you look at the deficit. that is a chunk of change, and so as we look at how we get our country out of the economic rut, reducing our deficit is key. it's going to add confidence to the markets if we show we do something in the long term and it's going to be better for those, our children, who are inheriting this debt, so i don't think it's just a band-aid to look at where we revert to the clinton levels, where, by the way, things were much more prosperous in the country. kee

crapo: mr. president, i also have honored to join this bipartisan group who is speaking to the nation tonight about the fact that we cannot any longer delay dealing with the most significant problem our nation faces -- our debt and our fiscal difficulties. i was one of the members of our president's commission on fiscal responsibility and reform and had the opportunity over the past year to work on a bipartisan basis with people on that commission who took testimony from experts, evaluated the issues, studied the economies of the world, studied the details of what was happening in the american economy and came forward with a plan. this plan got 11 of the 18 votes on that commission. it was required by the president's order to get 14 of the 18 votes in order to force that plan to congress for a vote. and i was disappointed that that didn't happen, but let me make a couple of points of clarification. 11 of the 18 votes represents over 60% of the votes of the commissioners on that commission. that'