The Economy

Floor Speech

Mr. SESSIONS. Madam President, I understand the President made another speech today, and the speeches he has been giving lately are clever political documents. It is pretty clear his focus has shifted from governing to campaigning, with about a year from now until election day. But our Nation is in a serious financial condition. Our debt is larger than we like to acknowledge it is. Our European friends on the other side of the Atlantic are wrestling with their debt problems, and many of those nations--most of those nations--have debt less than we do as a percentage of GDP. We know, from every expert we have heard testify before the Budget Committee, on which I serve as ranking member, that we must change our path. We are on an unsustainable path, and we cannot continue on it.

Time after time we have had hearings and have heard from experts telling us we have to alter our debt trajectory. We have to get on a sound path. Perhaps it will be a tougher path for a few years, a harder road, but it is the right road, and the road that will lead to soundness in our economy. Prosperity and growth is what we need.

The debt commission President Obama appointed, headed by Mr. Erskine Bowles and Senator Alan Simpson, told us we are on a path to the most predictable financial crisis the Nation has ever been on. They were saying that the unsustainable trajectory of the this country's debt will lead us to some sort of economic catastrophe. It will knock us back into a recession, put us back to where we were in 2007 or 2008, or like what Europe is facing right now. They pleaded with us to do something about it.

The debt commission laid out a plan. I don't agree with everything in the plan, but it said, at a minimum--and there was bipartisan agreement on this--the debt should be reduced. The added debt we incur over the next 10 years should be reduced by at least $4 trillion. They said we should reduce the growth of our debt by at least $4 trillion.

So in the last two meetings in the Budget Control Act, it looks as if we achieved about $2.1 trillion, not $4 trillion, but they all said we needed more than that, because the increase in our debt over the next 10 years would be about $8 trillion to $10 trillion. That is the increase on top of the $15 trillion we have already incurred. This past fiscal year, which ended on September 30, we will have added $1.23 trillion to our debt; the year before that, $1.3 trillion, the year before that, $1.2 trillion--the only three times in history we have had deficits over $1 trillion. It is a very serious situation.

So we have a speech. I just have to say, we tried to look at the speech to see what it is that the President has proposed. He is our leader, our Commander in Chief. We only have one Chief Executive, one Governor, one mayor. I see Senator Manchin here. He was a Governor. He had to manage the State and exercise leadership.

So what is it this Executive, our President, is proposing that we do? Well, it is pretty clear. It appears that he is proposing that we spend next year $324 billion more than we planned to spend. He calls it a tax cut or maintaining a tax cut. In truth, it is a holiday from paying into our Social Security pension that all Americans pay into as they work. It is a holiday from that.
Well, where does the money come from? We have a trust fund, Social Security, that we pay into, and we have a promised benefit when we retire. We want to honor that and make sure the Social Security trust fund is able to honor that. How do we not pay into it without hurting or damaging the Social Security trust fund?

They say: Well, don't worry. We will put the money in. Who is ``we''? Well, ``we'' is the United States Treasury. The United States Treasury will put the money in. But the Treasury is projected by the Congressional Budget Office to run a $1 trillion deficit this year, a little bit better than the $1.23 trillion deficit that we ran last year.

So we are running a $1 trillion deficit. We don't have any money in the Treasury to pay to Social Security. So how do we honor the Social Security trust fund? How do we put the money in? Well, we give bonds. Just an IOU. The United States Treasury, as easy as pie, signs a document, an IOU, gives it to Social Security, and says: You are made whole. Don't worry; no problem. What? Me worry? We have it under control. Where does this come from?

Social Security is on a trajectory that is going to call this debt. The trustees are going to need this money to pay our beneficiaries, and they are going to call the debt to the United States Treasury and the United States Treasury is going to have to pay it, in my opinion, unless we totally abandon our responsibility to the seniors in America. I don't think we will. So we are going to pay that money, and it is added to the debt. This year, under the President's plan, beginning in January, he will add $324 billion in debt.

What the Bowles-Simpson Commission was all about was laying out a plan to reduce our debt, not increase the debt. The first thing we have to do to confront a surging debt in America is to quit digging the hole deeper, quit asserting new programs to spend larger and larger amounts of money. It would also add $155 billion the second year. So it would total $479 billion over the first two years.

So they say: Well, we have the Treasury figured out. We will have a tax increase. We will raise taxes, and over 10 years that will pay for the $479 billion that is added to our debt right now. There will be enough money coming in--don't worry--over 10 years from this new tax.

Well, I will just say a couple things about that. If we are going to raise taxes, what the bipartisan Debt Commission told us was, use it to pay down debt. Don't use it to fund a new spending program of $479 billion. If we are going to cut spending somewhere in the program to save money, let's begin to reduce our debt. Don't just cut spending so we can create a new spending program.

We have to watch what we are doing. I don't believe it has been thought through carefully where we are headed, and I don't see anything in this speech today that will lay out a 2-year, 5-year, 10-year plan for making America a stronger and better place.

But, we are told, the President cares about the middle class; and if we question any of these schemes, then we don't care about working Americans. I reject that. That is offensive to me. I totally believe that I represent the cross-section of people in my State and America. I love and respect the working people of this country, and they are entitled to better. They are entitled to leadership that tells them the truth. The truth is that we are endangering their future and their children's future by allowing the most incredible debt increases that the Nation has ever seen, and that has to be brought under control.

It is offensive to suggest that if someone has a different view about how to create jobs and wealth in America, they don't care about the people who make America great, people who go to work every day, people who send their children to defend this country and pay their taxes and obey the law and do things right and support those who are in trouble and need help.

I would propose this, more specifically--and I think the Republican plan touches these very issues in an effective way that would, in fact, increase and enhance job creation and economic growth in America.

First, we need policies that reduce the cost of energy for Americans. We have an Energy Department and an Interior Department that seem to believe their goal in life should be to drive up the cost of energy: to make coal and natural gas harder to produce, make oil more hard to produce, make us have to buy it from abroad when we could produce more at home, creating jobs in this country, creating wealth in this country, creating taxpayers in this country.

We need more American energy. We need more energy at lower prices. The idea that somehow we are going to be better off because of carbon or other issues to have higher energy prices so we use less of it is totally unjustified, and it is creating an incredible burden on working Americans.

We need to end the health care proposal that is clearly driving up health care costs. It is causing businesses not to hire. I have talked to small businesses in my State. They assure me with absolute confidence that the health care bill that will be taking effect, and is beginning to take effect, will cause them to hire fewer people. We need more people hired. We need more people working. We need to eliminate unnecessary, counterproductive governmental regulations that drive up the costs of our products, making them less competitive in the world marketplace. We need to do that. It will not cost the Treasury any money, but it will make America more productive and create jobs.

I supported and worked with my Democratic colleagues, and we passed in this Senate--but the President didn't support it--legislation to demand that China treat its currency in a fair way to eliminate the currency manipulation they have been participating in and to eliminate the unfair hammering, savaging of American industry that is occurring in this country as a result of unfair trade. That is very real. It has to end, and the President needs to be leading on that. It would create jobs in our country without adding to our debt.

Finally, the greatest threat to our economic growth and to our job creation in America is the debt itself. It is the cloud over our economy. We have to do more about it.

There is one more thing I would mention; that is, tax simplification and tax alteration. Not to necessarily get less taxes but to create the tax revenue that the government takes in in a way that does not damage the economy. Create a tax simplification plan that would encourage economic growth and prosperity and not pull down economic growth and prosperity. So once we have done those things, we begin to focus on reducing our surging debt. If we do it steadfastly, like Governors all over America--Governor Bentley in Alabama is having to face challenges and is making tough decisions. But the State is still operating. It hasn't sunk into the ocean. Neither has New Jersey. Neither have other States. Even New York and others are beginning to confront their debt situation and make tough choices.

We are not doing it here. Our President is proposing more spending--not just this $324 billion plan for this year, he is proposing to spend 10 percent more on the Education Department next year, 10 percent more on the Department of ``anti-Energy,'' 10 percent more for the State Department at a time when the country is in its most severe

debt crisis in its history. That is not responsible. This debt is a threat to us.

If we talk to the financial experts and the wizards who move money around the world, they are worried about it. If we talk to government experts such as the Secretary of the Treasury or the Federal Reserve Chairman or the head of the Congressional Budget Office, they tell us what we are doing is dangerous, that we are on an unsustainable path. I do not see in this speech today any commitment, any leadership from the President on this fundamental issue. The most fundamental failure of his leadership is not to look the American people in the eye and to tell them honestly and truthfully that we are spending too much.

Back in Marion, AL, I was at a town meeting at somebody's house with 30 or 40 people there. The oldest gentleman there spoke last. He had fought in World War II. He grew up during the Depression. He told us, in his view, it was not the high cost of living that was getting us in trouble but the cost of living too high.
I do believe we have been living too high, and we have been spending too much. The President--our leader--should be talking directly and honestly to us and laying out a 2-year, 5-year, 10-year plan that will bring this deficit down. He should be explaining to the American people why we are all going to have to tighten our belts; why there is nothing--defense or anything else--that is going to avoid having to tighten its belt. We can do this and put our country on a sound path without having a debt crisis that would be a tragedy of monumental proportions.

Madam President, I just wanted to share those thoughts today. This Congress is going to have to do more than tread water for the next year. We are going to have to do more than just play clever political games. We are going to have to deal with the threat we face directly and honestly.

The proposal I see that was floated again today from the White House may sound good politically. But for me, as one who has been looking at the numbers, it does one thing: it increases the debt over the 2 years by $479 billion. That means probably this year's deficit will not be $1 trillion but probably $1.35 trillion--1,350 billion dollars--this year's deficit. We are promised that there will be a tax increase that, after 10 years, will somehow pay for this.

That is the kind of thinking and action that has allowed this country to get out of control financially, and I hope we can do better.

I yield the floor.

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