Budget Resolution Votes

Floor Speech

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Today I wish to discuss a series of votes we took yesterday on five different budget resolutions offered by my colleagues.

I ultimately voted against the budget resolutions offered by my colleagues because they were simply not in line with what I believe our priorities for this country should be.

Like my colleagues, I am very concerned about our long-term fiscal situation. That is why last year I helped pass the Budget Control Act of 2011. This legislation caps spending levels for 2012 and will reduce our deficit by at least $2.1 trillion over the next 10 years.

In many ways, the Budget Control Act is even more extensive than a traditional congressional budget resolution. Unlike a budget resolution that is not signed by the President, the Budget Control Act has the force of law. It also set discretionary caps for 10 years, instead of the 1 year normally set in a budget resolution.

Believing we should go further, I also voted for a constitutional balanced budget amendment offered by Senator Udall of Colorado and cosponsored bipartisan legislation to give the President line-item veto authority to go after wasteful spending.

The key difference between the Budget Control Act and the budget resolutions that were offered yesterday is that the Budget Control Act did not achieve its savings on the backs of the middle class while at the same time giving more tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans.

In 2010, I worked with 14 Senators to block a statutory increase of our national debt limit until the Senate agreed to set up the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility. While I do not agree with every single recommendation included in the final report, I have made clear through my support for the bipartisan efforts in the Senate to advance this framework and I believe it provides a good starting point for the work we must do to reduce our debt.

This framework would put in place a long-term plan to responsibly reduce the deficit by achieving at least $4 trillion in debt reduction through a balance of revenue and spending cuts. This is the balanced approach I hear Minnesotans asking for every day, and it is the approach I will continue to insist we take.

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