mr. toomey: thank you. i think we all agree that the last thing we should ever tolerate would be a situation in which the united states government would default on our debt, the chaos that would result from that would be devastating. and so this is an amendment that says, in the event that the debt limit is not raised, when we reach it, and, by the way, we've been there before so it's not unconceivable, that we'd make sure that we under no circumstances would default on the debt. and because senator vitter offered a -- an amendment to this amendment essentially, the merger of these amendments ensures that social security payments would also go out. by the way, there is more than sufficient revenue from ongoing taxes to ensure that that could be done. and so in the interest of avoiding the chaos of an actual default, i think this absolutely should occur. and by the way, i think it's also important to note that a majority of all the debt issued by this government is held by americans. they're held by senior c

mrs. boxer: madam president, i just want to say that i object to the vitter-toomey bill. i'm not going to pay china -- the presiding officer: the senator has no time. the senator's time has expired. mrs. boxer: i ask unanimous consent that the homeland security and governmental affairs committee be discharged. i ask unanimous consent to speak to make a unanimous consent -- mr. vitter: madam president, i think i control the floor and i yield to the senator from pennsylvania. the presiding officer: is there objection to the senator's request for unanimous consent? mr. vitter: i object. mrs. boxer: parliamentary inquiry. the presiding officer: the objection is heard. mrs. boxer: par parliamentary question, can people object to a unanimous consent request without saying who they are, number one, and number two, what is the parliamentary procedure here? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana objected to the unanimous consent request on behalf of the senator from oklahoma, senator coburn. the senator from louisiana objected to the extension of the unanimous consent re

mr. toomey: thank you, mr. president. i wanted to share a couple of thoughts with the budget process that's underway, where we are on the continuing resolution that we voted on this afternoon. first, with respect to that measure, that was a tough vote for me. it was a tough vote because this is no way to run the government. we're here now dealing with business that should have been done last year. unfortunately, the senate last year didn't get its work done, didn't even do a budget, didn't do the normal appropriations process. it started kicking the spending can down the road last year, and we're still in the midst of that. i'm not sure how many continuing resolutions we've had at this point; three, four, five, six. i'm losing track. but this last one for these next three weeks, frankly, it's the last one that i'm going to support. this i could support because it does sustain the lower level of spending that was passed by the house. there are some tough cuts in that bill, but it's very necessary that we get serious about

by both myself and senator sessions, rube bow -- rubio, demint, paul, lee, toomey and ensign, to the majority leader. again, mr. president, the statement is clear. this is a crisis. we need to act certainly before we reach the statutory debt limit. so what are we waiting for? let's act now. let's not move to other cats and dogs bills that may be positive legislation but can certainly wait. let's move to the people's business. let's move to the absolute top challenge we face domestically as a country. let's come together and debate, vote on and hopefully begin to solve this problem of unsustainable spending and debt. now, mr. president, to do that, we also need leadership, ideas, suggestions, and i believe, we have

is signinged by bone myself, senator sessions, rubio, demint, paul, lee, toomey, and ensign to the majority leader. and, again, mr. president, the statement is clear: this is a crisis. we need to act certainly before we reach the statutory debt limit. so what are we waiting for? let's act now. let's not move to other cats and dogs bills that may be positive legislation but can certainly wait. let's move to the people's business. let's move to the absolute top challenge we face domestically as a cufnlt let's come together and debate, vote on, an hopefuly begin to solve this problem of unsustainable spending and debt. now, mr. president, to do that, we also need leadership, ideas, suggestions, and i believe we have provided that on this side of the aisle and we would welcome ideas, suggestions, concrete proposals from all members. let me just list the more than two dozen pieces of legislation that go directly to this issue. let me just list some of them. senate bill 14 by senator ensign to establish the commission on congressional budgetary accountability and review of federal agencies. senate bill 81, an isakson b

is signinged by bone myself, senator sessions, rubio, demint, paul, lee, toomey, and ensign to the majority leader. and, again, mr. president, the statement is clear: this is a crisis. we need to act certainly before we reach the statutory debt limit. so what are we waiting for? let's act now. let's not move to other cats and dogs bills that may be positive legislation but can certainly wait. let's move to the people's business. let's move to the absolute top challenge we face domestically as a cufnlt let's come together and debate, vote on, an hopefuly begin to solve this problem of unsustainable spending and debt. now, mr. president, to do that, we also need leadership, ideas, suggestions, and i believe we have provided that on this side of the aisle and we would welcome ideas, suggestions, concrete proposals from all members. let me just list the more than two dozen pieces of legislation that go directly to this issue. let me just list some of them. senate bill 14 by senator ensign to establish the commission on congressional budgetary accountability and review of federal agencies. senate bill 81, an isakson b

mr. toomey: you know, i feel a tremendous sense of urgency. don't think we have time to waste, time to wait, time to kick this can down the road anymore. we've done that too long. the fact is a balanced budget amendment to our constitution would provide the kind of fiscal straitjacket that this government clearly needs. you know, if we operated the way that many states did, if we operated the way that all businesses did, if we operated the way most families did and lived within our means, maybe this wouldn't be necessary. it's just become obvious to everybody that we're not living within our means. not even close. we're running a budget deficit this year of $1.6 trillion, that's 10% of the size of our entire economy. just this year alone. last year was $1.5 trillion. if we don't do something very serious about this now, not soon, not in the next few years, but now, if we don't do something about this now, this is already at unsustainable levels. you know in -- in 1988, the total debt as a percentage of our economy was about 40%. in 2008, the t