Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday regarding the necessity to reduce the nation’s ruinous federal debt:
“Though lawmakers returned to Washington this week amidst news of a signal achievement in the war on terror, we also return to many critical debates about the situation here at home.
“Gas prices are straining budgets and threatening to stall the economic rebound we’ve all been waiting for. Millions of men and women across the country still can’t find a job.
“And the two major parties have now presented competing visions of our economic future.
“Republicans have shown that we are committed to creating an environment in which the private-sector can flourish and create the jobs Americans need. As part of that effort, we outlined a comprehensive jobs agenda yesterday.
“And today we’ll oppose prematurely ending debate on the Small Business bill. The other side has refused to allow votes on some of the best ideas Republicans have offered for creating jobs as a part of this legislation, including an important amendment by the ranking member of the Small Business Committee, Senator Snowe. And we intend to oppose their efforts to short circuit this debate until they do.
“Republicans are also committed to stopping the administration’s inexcusable war on American energy at a time of near-record gas prices. And we’re committed to repealing the Democrat health care bill that is already raising costs and destroying jobs.
“But hovering above all of this is a growing fear about our nation’s debt.
“The administration knows this. That’s the reason for tomorrow’s debt meeting at the White House.
“So this morning I’d like to start there — because anyone who’s felt even the slightest twinge of pain from the recession has a vested interest in this debate.
“Here’s why: if we don’t act to reduce our debt, this country could very well experience a crisis that makes the economic meltdown of 2008 look like a slow day on Wall Street.
“That’s not my conclusion.
“That’s the conclusion of the Democrat co-chair of President Obama’s own debt commission, a man who has spent the last year looking at this issue from every conceivable angle and who’s now telling anybody who’ll listen that America faces, in his words, `the most predictable economic crisis in history.’
“Few of us saw the last crisis materialize. This one we can see. And a growing number of people now recognize that the upcoming vote on the debt limit provides us with the single best opportunity we have to avoid this crisis before it strikes.
“This is the moment to get serious about preventing this approaching crisis, and to show the world that we can come together and not for the sake of party, but for all Americans.
“The world is waiting for America to get its fiscal house in order. The fact that members of both major parties are now showing a willingness to do it is an encouraging sign.
“But if we’re actually going to do this, more Democrats in Washington have to acknowledge the problem — and the urgency of addressing it now, in a serious way.
“Now, I realize that for some people that’s a difficult thing to do. We are all grateful to the President’s decisiveness over the weekend in going after Osama bin Laden. He’s to be congratulated for it. Yet over the past two years, we’ve had many crises. And all too often, it seemed the hardest decision for the President wasn’t whether to solve these crises, but whether or not to give a speech about them.
“Last year, we waited for weeks to hear the President’s position on one of the biggest ecological disasters in history. And throughout this past winter and spring, we waited to hear what he thought about a debt that had spiraled so out of control that America’s economic outlook has been downgraded to `negative’ for the first time ever.
“We can’t wait for the President on this one.
“The consequences of sweeping our problems under the rug again are just too great.
“So let me clear: As even some Democrats have conceded, a failure to do anything meaningful about the debt would be far more harmful to our economic future than a failure to raise the debt limit.
“The warnings are simply too loud to ignore.
“In early 2008 most of us had no idea we were headed for a financial crisis. Only a few prophetic voices were saying anything about the dangers in the housing market.
“Over the past few years, we’ve seen the painful consequences of that crisis: unemployment lines; lost savings; millions of homes foreclosed.
“And despite this largely unforeseen economic catastrophe, the American people have dug in. They’ve worked harder. They’ve tried to drag the country back to fiscal health.
“It hasn’t been easy, but they’ve struggled every day to get us back on our feet.
“What I’m saying this morning is that the danger posed by the debt is not uncertain.
“It’s coming right at us.
“It is, as the co-chair of the President’s Debt Commission put it, the most predictable crisis in history. And anyone who is more concerned about raising the debt ceiling than in using this debate as an opportunity to prevent this most predictable crisis will answer for it. The American people will make sure of it.
"Some may continue to deny that we need to do something about the debt — that the only thing we need to do is raise the debt limit and leave it at that. They want people to think this is all just some political exercise, and that we all just vote according to the President’s political affiliation anyway.
“Those days are over.
“Anyone who continues to pretend otherwise isn’t just deluding themselves.
“They’re deluding the American people.
“There isn’t a single one of us who hasn’t vowed to do everything in our power to prevent the next crisis from happening. Now we know for certain that it’s on the way — unless we act to prevent it. Raising the debt limit alone won’t prevent this crisis. It avoids it.
“And that’s why the only way we can claim we’ve actually done something meaningful in this debate is to insist on meaningful reforms as the price of our vote.
“Yes, we’ve had clean debt limit votes before.
“That was before S&P gave us a negative outlook for the first time ever and told us we risked a downgrade unless we get our fiscal house in order. That was before the world’s largest private holder of U.S. treasuries dumped its share of U.S. debt.
“That was before a commission that has spent a year studying this issue told us we’re headed for ruin, unless we act to prevent it. That was before this administration added trillions to the debt and submitted a budget plan this year that called for another $13 trillion in debt over the next 10 years alone. The crisis is here. The time to act is now.
“Mr. President, we hear a lot from Administration officials about what a catastrophe it would be if we didn’t raise the debt limit. And there may very well be some merit to that argument. But what good would it do to just raise the limit and wait for disaster to strike? We might as well tell people to move to the second floor in case of a fire on the first.
“My constituents don’t have the jobs to lose, Mr. President. Kentucky doesn’t have the wealth to give away. We’ve seen the consequences of a recession we didn’t predict. There is no excuse not to do everything in our power to prevent one we know is coming.
“So let me suggest a way forward in this debate.
“Number one: Pitting one group of Americans against another isn’t going to solve the problem. In fact, it’s part of the problem. We all know it’s going to take all of us working together to get out of this crisis. Let’s act like it.
“Number two: There aren’t enough taxes that Americans, rich or poor, can pay to sustain the kind of spending Democrats in Washington want. The President may say he wants to tax the rich. But sooner or later he’s going to have to tax everybody else to pay for his plans. What’s more, we all know that raising taxes would stall the rebound we all claim to want. So let’s just admit we don’t have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem.
“Three: We all know entitlements need to be a part of this discussion. It’s about time everyone starts acknowledging it. I’ve seen the ads about lawmakers voting to end Medicare. Let’s be honest and admit that nobody’s talking about taking anybody’s Medicare. Frankly, it’s pathetic to claim otherwise. It only makes the problems harder to solve.
“Four: Let’s discuss the art of the possible. We all know tax increases won’t pass the House because of the damage they’d do to family budgets and businesses — and a bipartisan majority here in the Senate opposes raising taxes on families, energy production and small businesses across America. So let’s set that aside and find common ground.
“Everyone has a stake in this debate. If we face up to it like adults, we’ll not only prevent a crisis, we’ll preserve our common way of life. And we’ll show the world the United States can solve its problems head on.
“Millions of Americans are looking for work and struggling everyday to rebuild their lives. Families and small businesses are being squeezed by gas prices, and an administration that refuses do anything about it.
“We’ll have debates about this in the days ahead — and Republicans will continue to make the case for tapping our own energy resources. We’ll make the case against new taxes and regulations and a health care law that’s stifling jobs and creating new burdens.
“But all these efforts rise and fall on whether we do something about our debt.
“It’s time to show we can tackle the big stuff. The stakes are too high to let this debate come and go without acting. Denying the problem won’t solve it. Avoiding the problem until the next election won’t solve it. Giving speeches about the problem won’t solve it. The time has come to act.”
