Cut, Cap and Balance Act of 2011

Floor Speech

Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, I rise tonight to discuss the so-called cap, cut, and balance legislation that has come to us from the House of Representatives.

Congress is a coequal branch of the Federal Government. I have always believed it is a forum for informed, bipartisan debate of public policies that we all agree should help us achieve greater equality, opportunity, and treatment under the law, while nurturing and caring for our young and vulnerable, producing well-paying jobs, and investing in the future. That is why I have established good working relationships with my colleagues in both the Senate and the House and on both sides of the aisle. Unfortunately, this legislation abandons each of these principles.

The challenge facing Congress today is urgent. The stakes are extremely high. Congress must raise the debt ceiling to fulfill our commitments and take meaningful steps to reduce our deficits and debt. However, the policies needed to achieve these goals cannot be negotiated at the expense of the safety net that our seniors, children, working-class, long-term unemployed, and minority communities depend upon, nor should they come at the cost of good government.

The House legislation falls far short of what is needed. It makes no pretense to partisanship. On the contrary, it is a model of extreme bipartisanship. Moreover, it threatens to turn a recession into a depression. It will cut, cap, and kill Medicare, and it will leave millions of the Nation's sick, disabled, poor, long-term unemployed, and elderly to bear an unreasonable share of burden of deficit and debt reduction. These are our citizens who are already struggling. Meanwhile, the ``cut, cap, and kill'' bill would protect and defend the tax havens and shelters of the wealthiest.

The balanced budget amendment portion of this legislation would do even more long-term harm. It would make future periods of economic weakness worse and restrict our ability to respond. Even though we all know it is not a part of the regular Federal budget, it would use Social Security revenues and spending as part of the formula to determine whether the Federal budget is in balance and, if not, Social Security would be subjected to the same cuts as other Federal spending. We cannot forget that an important reason Americans expect us to fix our debt and deficit is to preserve and protect their Social Security and Medicare benefits.

I will continue to work to preserve our Nation's social safety net and seek a balance between raising revenues and cutting spending in which all Americans contribute to the solution.

That said, I will oppose the House bill because it will not do any of that. This legislation was quickly and poorly considered. It leaves the vulnerable exposed to harm and seeks to weaken Congress's power to govern. I cannot support it.

Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum.

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