Concurrent Resolution On The Budget, Fiscal Year 2016 -- Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, at the present time, Social Security has an unfunded liability of $25 trillion over the infinite horizon. There is a problem. It is not to scare seniors, it is to preserve and make the program sustainable.

When President Clinton was in office, he and Rick Santorum held a day's seminar on Social Security reform. We broke into Republican-Democratic House and Senate groups the next day. We came up with a blueprint for saving Social Security and to fix it. We recognized it took many different options, just not one option. One option will not solve the problem, and no one party can address the issue alone.

We are prohibited by statute from making changes to Social Security in a budget resolution, and that is probably a good thing. So I urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment.

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Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I am going to have to recommend a ``no'' vote because of States' rights concerns. There are 48 States and the District of Columbia that prohibit voting while incarcerated for a felony offense. I was fascinated to find that only two States--Maine and Vermont--permit persons in prison to vote.

An estimated 5.85 million Americans--one in 40 adults--has currently or permanently lost their voting rights as a result of a felony conviction. But each State has its own process for restoring the voting rights to ex-offenders now. States are best suited to make the judgment call, as they are closest to their citizens.

So I ask for a States' rights vote of ``no.''

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Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, one of the things the Republicans on the Budget Committee have suggested was that as soon as we finish the budget, which we hope to finish by April 15, that we could begin to look at the Budget Control Act itself. The budget resolution already provides for sequester replacement. There is a reserve fund in place for the sequester to use if the circumstances permit. Additionally this amendment would increase taxes, not to reduce the deficit but to increase spending. At a time when our national debt exceeds $18 trillion when our debt is bigger than our economy, we need to talk about cutting spending and taxes, not increasing them.

On the last recorded vote for the fiscal year 2016 budget resolution, I urge my colleagues to vote no.

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