Senate Proceeding 03-31-09 on Mar 31st, 2009 :: 1:39:55 to 1:48:30
Total video length: 6 hours 23 minutes Stream Tools: Stream Overview | Edit Time

Note: MetaVid video transcripts may contain inaccuracies, help us build a more perfect archive

Views:24 Duration: 0:08:35 Discussion

Previous speech:

Next speech:

1:39:52 to 1:40:12( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: with that, i thank the chair, and i would yield back the remaing time that we've been allotted on this and s recognition, i would suggest the absence -- the presiding officer: the

1:39:55 to 1:48:30( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Lamar Alexander

1:40:13 to 1:40:33( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: senator from mr. alexander: thank you, mr. president. i was just making my entrance. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to set aside t pending amendment. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. alexander: mr. president, i call up amendment number 747 and ask

1:40:34 to 1:40:55( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: consideration. the pres clerk will report the a the clerk: the senator from tennessee, mr. a alexander -- mr. alexander: mr. preside, i ask unanimous consent to dispense with f the amendment. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: thank you, mr. president. i see the senator from new hampshire is here and the senator from arizona, the assistant republican leader,

1:40:56 to 1:41:17( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: will be here in a few minutes, i believe. senator gregg a little earlier offered an amendment which essentially would say that the debt under president obama's budget cou all the debt that has been accumulated by all the presidents since george washington. that's one way of american people and to the

1:41:18 to 1:41:39( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: senate that the debt that is proposed by these budgets is so staggeringly high that we need to find some way to put a limit on it. i'm offering, with this amendment, another way to put some limit on it. i call it a runaway debt point of order.

1:41:40 to 1:42:01( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: this is not a letting the horse get out of the barn. this recognizes that the horse is already out of the barn and we're trying to put a fence around him before he gets into the next county or even into the next country. what this amendment would dos create a new point of order against considering any budget

1:42:02 to 1:42:24( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: resolution that estimates gross federal debt, our total debt, total amount of obligations exceeding 90% of gross domestic product in any year covered by the budget. put that in a little plainer english, what it means is the senate would be forced to come up with 60 votes if the public

1:42:25 to 1:42:45( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: debt in any year grows beyond 90% of the estimated gross domestic product. the gross domestic product, of course, is what all of us produce in the united states every year. and despite the fact we're in an economic slowdown, we are a very privileged country. we'renly about 5% of the people, those of us who live in

1:42:46 to 1:43:07( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: the united states, but year in and year out we produce about $1 out of every $4 of wealth produced in the world, 22%, 23%, 24%, 26% of all the wealth produced each year in the world is produced in the united states for distribution among primarily

1:43:08 to 1:43:30( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: the 5% of us who live here. so we're a very privileged country. and this says that if we intend in any year to increase the debt above 90% of all of that in any year, that 60 of us have got to agree with that. now, when was the last time the united states, to try to put

1:43:31 to 1:43:51( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: 90% into some sort of -- in some sort of perspective, when was the last time that we had an annual national -- that we had a debt, a national debt that exceed 90% of the gross domestic product? it was when we had world war ii,

1:43:52 to 1:44:12( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: as we were coming out of world war ii. of course, during that time it didn't matter what we spent. didn't matter what we taxed. we were in a fight for our lives, and we did whatever we could think of to do, spent whatever we could think of to spend, ran up any debt we needed to to win the war. and we did win that war.

1:44:13 to 1:44:37( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: and so right after world war ii, our debt, are our national debt, was about 90% of the annual gross domestic product of the united states. more recently, it's been about 40%. about 40%. but here is what happens now. the senator from new hampshire

1:44:38 to 1:44:59( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: went into this to some degree. we talked about deficits. let me make a little distinction between deficits and debt. deficits are each yea addition to the debt. and we talked about the fact that that's growing up this year and next year during the recession. we understand that that is necessary to some degree.

1:45:00 to 1:45:20( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: but then it comes back down to out 4% of gross domestic product, and it stays at about 4% of gross domestic product. that's the obama budget. that's the conrad budget, which as the budget director for president obama says is about

1:45:21 to 1:45:42( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: 90%, 98% of the obama budget. but it's a level of deficit as compared with g.d.p. that is worse than the following countries: guatamala, the philippines, aruba, cuba, nigeria. that's the level of annual deficit. but this amendment seeks to talk about the debt.

1:45:43 to 1:46:03( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: for example, the president's proposal is to double the debt almost in five years and to triple it in almost ten years. so we start out with about 40% of gross domestic product, but by 2014 we're at 66.5% of

1:46:04 to 1:46:24( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: domestic product under senator conrad's budget. t president obama's ten-year budget, which is a picture of america's future in the same way grade class would be a picture of a community's future ten years the president actually presented a very honest picture of our

1:46:25 to 1:46:46( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: future as he sees and i respect him greatly for that. i just don't like the picture that he's presented, because that picture, as i mentioned, doubles the debt in five years and nearly triples it in ten years. so we go from about 40% of gross domestic product to 71% of gross

1:46:47 to 1:47:09( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: domestic product. under president bush -- and we hear a lot of talking about president bush. i was listening to the radio yesterday morning. they said how can you republicans -- how can you republicans be talking about debt when under president bush you ran up the debt? true. true. gives us a chance to deal with that, because he points out that

1:47:10 to 1:47:31( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: president obama would increase the debt more not just than president bush, but than all the presidents put together going back to george washington. that's a very sobering so president bush was -- may have made some mistakes, but he was not judged on whether he caused hurricane

1:47:32 to 1:47:52( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: he was judged on how he reacted to it. president obama certainly didn't create the economic mess we're in. he won't be judged by that. but he will be judged and the majority parity will be kwrupblg -- majority party will be judged by how well they react to that. we don't believe that doubling the debt and tripling theebt is a way to grow the economy and

1:47:53 to 1:48:14( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: restore good jobs. i see the senator from new hampshire here, and i would like to 90% of this and 20% of that and $1 trillion of this, all of that makes the case, but it's hard to fathom.

1:48:15 to 1:48:31( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: i would ask through the chair to the senator from new hampshire, how would you put in, in terms that the average family can deal with what it means to double the debt in five years and nearly triple it in ten years as the