mr. portman pose a discussion with a discussion of our own -- mr. rtman's discussion with a discussion of our own. we kick it off with the only analyst who knows any jokes. >> i intended to start with a story i have used in this room before but is a story that is even more fitting now, which takes place in medical school. the professor, using the socratic method says, cassette and the question of the day is what human organ, with appropriately stimulated, grows to eight times its normal size?" he calls on ms. simpson, who says she will not answer the question. he looks over to the other side of the question and ask mr. bowles, who says the people of a human eye when it enters a room. the professor says that is right. and he has three things to say mr. sent -- you did not do your homework. you have a dirty mind. you are doomed to live a life of unfulfilled expectations. to anyone who deals with these kinds of issues, we are doomed to live lifetimes of unfulfilled expectations. in this case, i was not quite where alex was, but i was cautiously optimist

mr. portman, acknowledged just a few minutes ago that this chills job growth when we have this much debt. it's also true that this chills, this impairs our ability to fund every conceivable government program, from defense to entitlements, such that if we wait in order to make the necessary changes to the way we spend money in washington, we will wait at our own peril, we will wait at the peril of those who have become dependent on those very government programs that will have to have their budgets slashed immediately, abruptly, severely. we can't afford to do that. those who have become dependent on social security, on medicare, on medicaid, on other entitlement programs, on supplemental nutritional assistance, would be devastated if all of a sudden we cut off funding for those programs or we had to slash those budgets by 30%, 40%, 50% overnight. it's these abrupt changes that prove more difficult for our economy to absorb. i've often said that it's something that we can analogize to being on top of a large building. let's say our $15 trillion debt can be compared to a 15-story building.

portman, ayotte, collins, graham, cornyn and vitter. the presiding officer: under the previous order, there are two minutes equally divided prior to a vote on the motion to proceed to s. 1917. mr. casey: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: mr. president, could we have order of th order. the presiding officer: the senate will be in orderment mr. casey: mr. president, this middle class tax cut act is very simple. it does two things for employers and also helps employees. last year the senate came together on a bipartisan bill. we passed a tax bill that, among other things, reduced payroll taxes for employees. this legislation expands that. instead of just saying we're going to have a reduction of 2% of the payroll tax, it was going to be -- this legislation has it as a -- a cut in half. so you're cutting the payroll tax in half. that's take-home pay, 1,500 bucks in the pockets of the average working family in america. secondly, it allows us to provide a -- a cut as well, cutting in half the payroll tax for businesses. it's good public policy. it will create lots of jobs at a time when the american people are telling us with one voice t