Authorizing the Limited Use of the U.S. Armed Forces in Support of the NATO Mission in Libya-Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Mississippi for his comments.

As I mentioned, I rise to speak about S.J. Res. 20. I think there has been some misinformation about what we are doing this afternoon. I know the Acting President pro tempore and I were in a Foreign Relations Committee meeting last week and offered several amendments that were not passed. But many people have said what we are going to be debating, possibly this evening--I hope we do not--is something the President has asked for. The Acting President pro tempore, I know, knows differently.

The President did not ask for what it is we are going to be debating this evening. The President earlier asked for a resolution of support but not an authorization for this third war we are undertaking right now in Libya. That is not what the President asked for.

As a matter of fact, the President, in a very cutely worded letter to Congress, tried to state that we were not involved in hostilities in Libya, and he did so in order to circumvent a law that has been on the books now for many years called the War Powers Act. So the President is not seeking what the Senate is getting ready to debate on the floor at all. As a matter of fact, the President is trying to circumvent the War Powers Act. So there is no question, in my opinion, the President should be made to seek authorization.

But then that brings us to the issue at hand. There is no way anything we do on the Senate floor--other than possibly pulling our troops out of Libya, which is not what the resolution is about--is going to affect anything we are doing in Libya one iota. Let me say that one more time. If the resolution we are debating, possibly this evening, were to actually be debated and passed, it would not affect one iota of what we are doing in Libya. The fact is the House has already turned down the same resolution. So, basically, we are burning a week's time on something that is totally irrelevant to what is happening in Libya and certainly irrelevant as it relates to what is before us as a country.

As the Senator from Mississippi mentioned, the biggest issue facing our country today is this issue of the debt ceiling and our debt, the fact that we have $14.2 or $14.3 trillion in indebtedness, and we are moving beyond that, the fact that we have $1.5 trillion in deficits this year, the fact that we are spending $3.7 trillion and only have $2.2 trillion, the fact that we are borrowing 40 cents of every dollar we spend every day we are here, and that 47 percent of that is coming from people overseas. That is the most important issue before us. That is the reason we are back here this week during the July recess. I am glad we are here. But we need to focus on the issue at hand.

To speak to how dysfunctional the Senate is, we are here over the debt ceiling, we are here over the fact that we have huge deficits, and we do not have an agreement to deal with that. But instead of focusing on the issue at hand, which is what most people back in Tennessee or Virginia or some other place would do if they had a problem, we are going to focus on something possibly that is irrelevant and has nothing whatsoever to do with the issue at hand, just to make the American people think we are doing something.

I also will vote against cloture this evening, and I am here on the floor to urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle--I have gotten calls since I landed this morning from Tennessee, from Democratic Senators who want to figure out a way to resolve this issue, from people who understand that our country is heading for a train wreck as it relates to our debt ceiling because there have not been serious negotiations that have taken place.

So the Senator from Mississippi is right. Believe it or not, in a body that spends $3.7 trillion a year, we have not had a budget in 797 days. I cannot believe that as a citizen. I certainly cannot believe that as a Senator. I do not think most citizens in our country realize we are spending, right now, $3.7 trillion of their money this year and we do not even have a budget that is passed. One has not come out of committee, a committee that, by the way--not to be pejorative here--has a majority of people on the other side of the aisle who could easily, if they wanted to, pass a budget out to the Senate floor to be debated.

I know sometimes things are difficult to get done around here. But certainly it is difficult to address the No. 1 issue we have before us in our country: these huge deficits which are creating this issue of the debt ceiling that ``has to be raised.'' The fact is, again, we are possibly, this evening, getting ready to move to an issue that is totally irrelevant--very important and certainly something that has been mishandled tremendously--but certainly something that, whatever action we take this week in the Senate, is going to be unaffected. It is not going to have any effect on it whatsoever other than Senators feeling good about the fact that they did something that actually ends up bearing no fruit.

I urge people on both sides of the aisle to vote against cloture to take up this issue--that we are in a third war, a war the President does not want to call a war by saying we are not involved in hostilities. Obviously we are. We have Predators doing what Predators do. We have aircraft bombing military installations. If North Korea were in our country bombing military installations and using Predators to do what Predators do, I think we would say that is hostilities. No doubt we are involved in hostilities, and that issue should not be left aside and undealt with. But, again, today, the big issue--the issue of the day--is our debt ceiling. The issue is our debt. The issue is we do not have a balanced budget. The issue is we do not have a fiscal straitjacket to cause us to act responsibly. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote ``no'' this evening for cloture. Let's not take up an issue we will have no effect on, that has nothing to do with the debt ceiling, and let's move to those kinds of issues that will.

I know there is not a budget, unfortunately, to debate at present. It is my understanding the chairman of the Budget Committee is going to unveil some plans. That would be wonderful. There are some budget process issues that are at least relevant to the topic at hand. So I urge people to vote ``no'' this evening.

Mr. President, I thank you for the courtesy of time and yield the floor.

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