Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2008--Conference Report

Floor Speech

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008--CONFERENCE REPORT -- (Senate - May 17, 2007)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. HATCH. Madam President, I wish to express my deep disappointment in the budget resolution conference report. It is a deceptive and defective declaration of flawed priorities that ignores this country's biggest challenges. If we follow this budget through to its natural conclusion, it will lead us from our current path of economic growth and prosperity onto a treacherous road to tax increases, economic recession, and needless pain for millions.

While there are many things to lament about this budget, I will concentrate my remarks on just three aspects of it--three features that I believe will hurt the families of my home State of Utah.

First, this budget opens the door to large increases in spending in both discretionary and in mandatory programs. On the discretionary side--these are the funds that must be appropriated each year--the budget resolution calls for an increase of $205 billion over what the President has requested over the next 5 years. And keep in mind, the President's budget represents an increase over spending in the current year. In fact, President Bush requested a 2-percent increase in discretionary spending for fiscal year 2008, but resolution before us represents an increase of 8 percent. This type of large spending increase hurts Utahns for years to come.

Mr. President, the national debt of the United States of America now exceeds $8,500 billion. Each U.S. citizen's share of this debt exceeds $29,000. Every cent that the U.S. Government borrows and adds to this debt is money stolen from future generations of Americans and from important programs, including Social Security and Medicare on which our senior citizens depend for their retirement security. Large increases in discretionary spending only add to this growing multigenerational problem and I am disappointed to see such a large increase in this budget.

Second, the budget resolution before us is woefully inadequate in the area of dealing with the tax problems facing America. Of most immediate concern, the alternative minimum tax, AMT, hangs over middle-income earners like a giant sword. Unless we, at the very least, continue to temporarily increase the AMT thresholds, we will see about a five-fold increase in the number of taxpayers subjected this unfair and complex tax. However, the budget resolution, as it does with almost every problem, punts this issue into the future instead of making the tough decision to fix this problem.

It is common speculation that the only way Congress can deal with this problem is to waive the pay-as-you-go rules that also feature so prominently in this budget. The speculation that Congress will easily waive pay-as-you-go rules is a joke, and we all know it. But millions of American taxpayers will not be laughing when this budget kicks in and leaves them paying the enormous price associated with the AMT tax, I am afraid.

This budget resolution also falls far short when it comes to dealing with the tax cuts that are due to expire over the next few years, including the so-called ``extenders'' that come to an end this December. The proponents of this resolution glibly state that the budget provides for the tax cuts to be extended. But it does so only if they are paid for with revenue from another source.

I cannot understand why some in this body do not see that the surges in revenue we have enjoyed over the past few years have come as a direct result of the tax cuts we passed in the early part of this decade. These have also kept the economy and job growth humming along. Does it not make sense to my colleagues that if we reverse these policies, this economic growth and job growth and revenue growth will all come to a screeching halt?

This budget actually contains the Cliff Notes version of Democratic economic policy--tax, spend, deny reality, and repeat. When the economy tanks, blame the Republicans and tax some more.

The third and ultimately fatal flaw of the budget resolution before us is also its most serious flaw. It totally ignores the entitlement crisis we have waiting for us just around the corner. Practically all Members of this body know and regularly acknowledge the profound challenges presented to this Nation as a result of the retiring baby boom generation, along with the corresponding growth in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. We regularly reference it here on the Senate Chamber, as well in outside speeches and in letters to our constituents. We all know it is a colossal problem that is not going to go away by itself. Yet, instead of even the slightest recognition of this problem or even the tiniest movement toward a solution, both of which would be a start, this budget completely ignores it.

This is a travesty. I hear regularly from my Utahns that they want us to deal with these problems, and right away. Utahns are a thrifty and careful people who like to face problems head-on and solve them, rather than pawning them off on the next generation. I believe that it is simply inexcusable that Congress would shun this opportunity to deal with entitlement challenges at this time and I know my fellow Utahns agree.

Do my colleagues think that it is going to be easier in the future to begin to resolve our Social Security or health care system problems? We all know the answer to that. We all know that we should have started solving these problems already and that it would have been far less painful to deal with them a few years ago than it would be now. We also know that this pain will be greatly compounded as we wait to deal with these issues in the future.

When President Bush tried to get Congress to work on Social Security 2 years ago, my friends and colleagues on the other side of the aisle, pretty much to a person, decided that they would rather turn it into a partisan political issue than join hands in trying to find a solution. I recognize that not everyone liked the concepts the President put forth. I didn't like all of them myself. But, instead of meeting him even a tenth of the way, the other side saw a huge potential advantage by shunning his overtures. Some say it paid off for them, but at what price the next generation of Americans will have to pay because of this decision.

Yes, we can keep passing budgets like this every year and keep burying our heads in the sand about the need to confront our impending entitlement problems. But we are rapidly approaching the time when we can no longer solve these challenges without a huge amount of pain and suffering and perhaps without losing our preeminent place on the world economic scale.

Mr. President, there are many more things I could say about the shortcomings of this resolution, but I will withhold and simply urge my colleagues to defeat this resolution. We deserve better, and our children and grandchildren certainly deserve better.

Source