August 8, 2011
The debt-ceiling debate changed Washington’s behavior from ‘Spend, spend, spend’ to ‘Cut, cut, cut’
On August 2nd, the Senate passed a House-passed bill to raise the debt ceiling and reduce spending dollar-for-dollar with the amount the ceiling is raised. I made the following speech on the Senate floor explaining why I voted for this first step toward stopping Washington from spending money we don’t have:
“Finally, Washington is taking some responsibility for years of spending money we don’t have. At a time when the federal government is borrowing 40 cents of every dollar it spends, this is a welcome change in behavior that I am glad to support.
“Make no mistake. This is a change in behavior from ‘Spend, spend, spend to ‘Cut, cut, cut.’ Let me give you one example: On Christmas Eve, 2010, Congress raised the debt ceiling and attached to it a trillion new dollars in spending over ten years through the new health care law. This time, for every dollar we are raising the debt ceiling, we are reducing spending by a dollar—not adding to it. This reduction in spending is about $2.4 trillion over ten years.
“Here is another example: According to Sen. Portman, who used to be the nation’s budget director, the Congressional Budget Office would say that if Congress did this kind of dollar-for-dollar reduction in spending every time a president asked Congress to raise the debt ceiling, we’d balance the budget in ten years.
"And one more. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that because of these spending cuts, the discretionary part of the budget, which is 39 percent of the entire budget, will grow over the next ten years at a little less than the rate of inflation. If we could control the rest of the budget so that it would grow at anything close to the rate of inflation, we’d balance the budget in no time.
“And balancing the budget is exactly what our goal should be. That’s what I did every year as governor of Tennessee. Families in America do it every day. It is time to balance the government’s books and live within our means. These spending reductions are an important step—but they are just one step—and no one should underestimate how difficult the next steps will be.
“These spending cuts do almost nothing to restructure Medicare and Social Security so that seniors can count on them and taxpayers can afford them. The President’s budget projections still double and triple the federal debt. Under the President’s budgets, according to the Congressional Budget Office, in ten years we’ll be spending more in interest on the debt than we now spend on national defense. And, in January, 2013, the first thing the next president will have to do is to ask Congress to increase the debt ceiling.
“This problem wasn’t created overnight, and it won’t be solved overnight. But if I were sitting at Union Station trying to catch a train to New York City and someone offered me a ticket to Baltimore or Philadelphia, I’d take it, and then find a way to get to New York from there.
“Today’s vote was an opportunity to take an important step in the right direction—toward stopping Washington from spending money it doesn’t have. We should take it, and then get ready to find ways to take the next step and the next step and the next.”
Click here to watch my speech.
The Senate Should Have Passed the “Cut, Cap, and Balance Act”
During the long debate over how to reduce spending and raise the debt ceiling, I cosponsored the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act—a bill introduced by Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) to reduce federal spending, cap spending over the next decade, and to require the passage of a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution to raise the debt ceiling. The legislation passed the House of Representatives with 234 votes and had 37 cosponsors in the Senate—it was a good way to meet our two urgent goals of reducing spending and honoring our financial obligations. Unfortunately, the Democratic majority in the Senate voted to shelve the plan, so it was never properly debated and voted on in the Senate.
Click here for more on this legislation.
All 47 Senate Republicans Supported a Balanced Budget Amendment
I became governor 30 years ago, in the early 1980s. Inflation was 20 percent, and in the early days of the Reagan administration, they drove up interest rates to 12 percent to try to bring inflation down. We had terrible times. Of course, we still had to balance our budget. We had to live within our means. On July 19th, I joined with my Republican Senate colleagues who have also served as governors to speak on the Senate floor in support of the federal government balancing its budget the way nearly all state governments are required to.
Click here for more on the balanced budget amendment.
Challenging the Administration on the National Labor Relations Board’s action against Boeing
At a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, I told U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis that I am deeply concerned by the administration’s seeming undermining of Right to Work laws and particularly over the National Labor Relations Board’s complaint against Boeing. I asked her if she believes that telling U.S. companies where they can and can’t create jobs in America is the kind of policy that will create an environment where we can create the largest number of good new jobs for middle-income families.
Click here to watch the hearing.
Education policy should support states’ rights and state innovation
At a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, I asked U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for his thoughts on how the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (commonly referred to as No Child Left Behind) can support states’ rights and state innovation.
Click here to read my questions and Secretary Duncan’s responses.
Support of Tennessee’s Waiver Request under No Child Left Behind
On July 27, the entire Tennessee congressional delegation wrote to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in support of Tennessee’s request for a waiver of provisions of the outmoded No Child Left Behind law. We asked the Secretary to expedite his review of Tennessee’s request to replace the Adequate Yearly Progress requirements in favor of a Tennessee-based approach.
You can see a copy of our letter here.
Promoting research into causes and prevention of premature deaths
I joined Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado and House Representatives Anna G. Eshoo and Leonard Lance to introduce the PREEMIE Reauthorization Act, to expand research, education, and intervention activities related to premature births. This bill will allow the scientists and doctors researching premature births to continue working to determine what causes this serious problem and how it can be prevented. With an average of 236 premature babies a week born in Tennessee, there’s still more progress to be made.
Click here for more details on the legislation.
The next step in clean electricity: small modular nuclear reactors
At a hearing in July, I said that the U.S. should move ahead in building small modular nuclear reactors, as electricity demand is expected to increase more than 30 percent in 20 years, and nuclear power provides most of the nation’s clean electricity. Other countries are moving forward in developing small reactors, but we have the best system in the world for making nuclear reactors safe and I would argue that the world needs our technology and our safety standards just as much as we do.
Click here for more information about the reactors.
Applauding the great musical talent in Tennessee youth
On July 12 at Tennessee Tuesday, the weekly Tuesday breakfast Senator Corker and I host for Tennesseans visiting Washington, all in attendance were treated to a performance by Susanna Johnson of Murfreesboro, on viola, and Kameron Myers of Franklin, on violin, both musicians participating in this year’s National Symphony Orchestra National Trustees’ Summer Music Institute 2011. I told Susanna and Kameron that I wish the United States Senate could operate with even a small bit of the harmony they shared with us that morning. I applaud these two musicians for their talent and commitment to music, which has been a great source of joy in my life since my mother took me to my first piano lesson as a child.
Click here for more details on the symphony’s Summer Music Institute.
I thought you might be interested in the following news articles:
Chattanooga Times Free Press
The Hill
Daily News Journal
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