Senate Proceeding on Apr 29th, 2009 :: 5:27:50 to 5:46:55
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5:20:35 to 5:30:55( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Sheldon Whitehouse

5:27:31 to 5:27:51( Edit History Discussion )

Sheldon Whitehouse: never know that during the bush administration the between the budget that president bush inherited and the budget projections that he was given the day he took office and the actual budget outcomes the bush administration produced, the difference nearly $9 trillion -- $9

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Sheldon Whitehouse: trillion of debt. and during that time, not a peep from our republican friends about this carnival of debt, this orgy of fair-weatr debt that george bush and the republican party engaged in.

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Sheldon Whitehouse: now something has changed. and suddenly we're hearing a whole different message republicans. now that we have a serious recession, now in the one time when families are contracting their budge, businesses are and local governments are contracting their budgets, and the federal government has an

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Sheldon Whitehouse: economic obligation to spe countersicklyically to keep the budget from melting down, now at this one time suddenly we hear the most intense caterwalling about debt and deficit. i ask my colleagues, where were you when the bush administration was running up nearly $9 trillion to put a war in iraq on

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Sheldon Whitehouse: the credit card and to relief to america's billionaires? where was the of putting those things on the americ debt this is the one time when it makes sense to countercy clickly spend, to deficit-spend through a recession. and yet, we hear these complaints.

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Sheldon Whitehouse: i'm a lawyer, as is the presiding officer, formerly the distinguished attorney general of new mexico. we both know that when you're arguing in a court of law, if you intend to make a point, it's usually helpful if the point you're making is consistent with what you've done in the past. it's called the clean-han doctrine.

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Sheldon Whitehouse: you can't come in to court a argue for a position when you've acted counter to it in the past. you don't have clean hands, and the court will take that into account. well, i submit that our friends on the other side, the party of "no," are now the party of "no

5:30:06 to 5:30:27( Edit History Discussion )

Sheldon Whitehouse: consistency" and the party of "no clean hands" on this subject. it is impossible to ignore the bush debt of nearly $9 trillion and come to the floor and claim that this president in this emergency that he inherited from the shouldn't do the one thing the economists say make sense in this time frame, which is in a

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Sheldon Whitehouse: recession to have the federal government spend countercyclically. it makes no sense. i think we need to do what president obama does. look to the future. look to the pressing priorities look to the urgent demands like health care and support this budget. i'llonclude again with my very great appreciation for the

5:30:49 to 5:30:55( Edit History Discussion )

Sheldon Whitehouse: extraordinary work my chairman on the budget committee has done to bring us to this day. i think we can look forward to this budget passing, although

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Kent Conrad: there of back and forth until we get there. and i think we are doing the american people a service by passing this and it's thanks to the chairman leadership. i yield the floor. mr. conrad: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota. mr. conrad: i want to thank

5:31:00 to 5:35:00( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Kent Conrad

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Kent Conrad: the senator from rhode island, senator whitehouse, such a valuable member of the sen budget committee, as is pant of the chairperson -- as is the occupant of the chair who has newly joined us and is already making contributions to our work. we're delighted to have senator merkley, the occupant of the chair and a member of the senate budget

5:31:41 to 5:32:01( Edit History Discussion )

Kent Conrad: appreciate so much the efforts senator whitehouse, senator rkley in developing a budget resolution, that, by the way, in the conference committee our outline was largely followed in it is very close to what passed the senate and i think the reasons for that success are, number one, we did

5:32:02 to 5:32:24( Edit History Discussion )

Kent Conrad: capture the president's priorities of reducing dependence on foreign energy, a focus on excellence in education, providing for major health care reform that's absolutely critical to the country's future and at the same time cutting the deficit by two-thirds over the next five years, by three-quarters as measured by

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Kent Conrad: product, and also providing very substantial middle-class tax relief. hundreds of billions of dollars, in fact over $700 billion of middle-class tax relief that is in this bget. i think we can be proud of that. and we have already budget earlier today pass in the house of representatives by a

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Kent Conrad: very wide margin. i anticipate when we have our vote here that we will also p with a healthy margin. and i want to again thank senator whitehouse and senator merkley who are key members of the senate budget committee and did so much to help us fashion a document that can command the respect of our colleagues.

5:33:08 to 5:33:30( Edit History Discussion )

Kent Conrad: mr. president, for just one moment i'd like to, as we're waiting for senator grassley to arrive, indicate that there were a made that i want to respond to. first of all, that reconciliation could still be used for global climate change legislation. technically that's true, but

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Kent Conrad: it's not going to happen. we have the absolute assurance of all of those who are in leadership positions in the house and the senate, the president of the united states -- in fact, the president has assured me directly -- directly -- that he would not allow that. so let's take that off the table. second, we have heard concern from our republican colleagues

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Kent Conrad: about the use of i sharehose i've opposed the use of reconciliation for these purposes. but my own belief is health care will not use the reconciliation process. i believe health care will move in the regular order. they have until the committees of jurisdiction -- the committees

5:34:15 to 5:34:35( Edit History Discussion )

Kent Conrad: until october 15 to do so. i see now that senator durbin, who a member of our leadership, is here. and if he's ready to g request? i'd yield 15 minutes senator from illinois, senator durbin. mr. durbin: i want to thank

5:34:36 to 5:34:59( Edit History Discussion )

Kent Conrad: the chairman of the senate budget committee, senator conrad of north dakota, for only for yielding but also for his leadership in preparation of this important document. the budget resolution is kind of the blueprint. we pass this and then we go to work with the individual parts of it, but we have to get this done first, because the budget resolution t can spend in total.

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Kent Conrad: and once we have that guidance,

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it is turned over to my appropriations committee which i serve on, we then parcel it out among the different appropriations subcommittees and go to work looking at the individual budgets. i have one subcommittees i'm r for. we can't start working until this budget resolution is agreed on. it's not an easy political task. first, it's document which very few members

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really understandn detail. the chairman and the ranking member being notable exceptions. and secondly, it's highly political, because when you start describing what your budget is going to look like not only next year but several years down the road, you're doing more than putting physical on paper. you're spelling -- putting figures on paper. you're spelling out your values.

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what do you want to do? the budget submitted to us by president obama is significantly different than the budgets we've seen in years gone by. his priorities differ from the budgets administrations, particularly president george bush. and we have to realize that in the last eight been a significant change in government spending. in the entire history of the

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united states of america, through all the presidents, including president clinton, we had accumulated trillion in debt. that's all of the debt of america. that was our mortgage when president george w. office. when he left office -- let me go back. when he assumed office, he assumed a surplus.

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in other words, the last budget left to him generated more money than we were spending. what do we do with the surplus? we reduced the debt of the social security trust fund, which meant that social security coul last a few years so president bush inherited a surplus in the budget and a $5 trillion the previous presidents

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accumulated. when h leave behind? eight years after he was elected president, he left a national mortgage of over $10 trillion. it had doubled in an eight year period of time. and he left to the new president -- president obama -- the largest deficit in the history of the united states. i believe it was in the neighborhood or range of

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trillion. a huge amount of money were in red ink facing. soresident obama faced a tough task dealing with an economy that was flat on its back, in a recession, how to revive it, how to make sure we jobs, how to get businesses back on their feet, how to get some

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tax incentives and help particularly to working families, how to fund the things in government which are essential. recession, people need more things. i just twoepbt a plant in chicago with vice president biden on monday, a plant last december laid off 240 employees and now was reopening.

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we were, of course couldn't be happier that that was occurring. coming back how did you gety for the last four or five months? he said, senator, unemployment. that's how i unemployment compensation is one of the things the government pays out in the midst of recession. with more americans out of work we've been paying out more for unemployment insurance, for food

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stamps, the basic people need just to survive until the economy turns around and their lives turn around. so faced with that, this budget committee had to sit down and try to write a budget that moved us toward reducing the deficit in america and also revitalizing the economy. that's a tough job. if your goais just to reduce

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spending, that's prett we know how to do that. but if your goal is to still spend enough to get the economy moving that mov closer to a balanced budget, then you've got a tough assignment. now add in two other elements that make this even more complicated. president obama said if we are

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going to spend money in this economy, we need to invest it in things that have meaning: long-term investments in america. there is this caricature of w.p.a. under franklin roosevelt of people leaning on shovels and folks sitting at desks where phones never ring.

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i'm not sure that is anymore than a caricature. but today president oba said use to invest in our future. let's build things that will have value to us in the out years. and he looked at two and three areas in specific terms. one is health care. the president is right. if you look at the curve line on the increase in costs in health care in america, it just

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continues to rise. it will continue to unabated to the point where there is no hope balance this budget. we will start spending more and more and more on health care for the elderly, for the poor, for those who are disabled to the point where we can't even consider any kind of balanced budget. and so the president

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part of this next budget let us move toward the day when we have a new h america, one that serves everyone and is reasonably priced. that's a tough assignment, no but in this budget we address that issue. now, senator conrad has talked about reconciliation. that's a term which beyond divorce

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know what you're talking for most americans, it's a term of mystery. for us, it's a procedure on the senate floor that changes the vote necessary to pass a bill. this is, after all, the senate, and a majority doesn't get the job done on a given day. in the senate, you really need 60 votes out of 100 to do anything that's controversial or

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important. reconciliation says, well, any givenssue and under reconciliation, a majority is sufficient. but strict rules on what you can put in there, strict rul what you can consider. and so, senator conrad had to deal with this whole question:

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what procedure would we use to move toward health care? i think he came up with a reasonable conclusion and it's one i support. if by october 15 we have not made progress toward health care reform, we can consider it under the reconciliation rules. my friends on the other the aisle, the republican side of the aisle, have protested this saying it's fundamentally unfair and unconstitutional and ungodly.

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Christopher S. Bond: but the fact is it's been used repeatedly 18 or 19 times in the last few used as frequently if not pho so by the republican side of the aisle as the democratic side. so i don't think anything inherently haoefl in it -- evil in it. senator conrad, i think, struck the right balance. he gives us our chance to deal

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Speech By: Christopher S. Bond

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Christopher S. Bond: with fashion, but says at the end of the day if by october 15 we're not going to have anything to show for our effort, we can at least consider reconciliation. i think that's a reasonable approach. this budget resolution also offers a promising vision when it comes to education. the budget dramatically expands access to quality early

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Christopher S. Bond: childhood education programs including head start, invests in teachers and innovative programs. this budget will help us build the education system we need to compete in a global economy. it's almost a cliche in politics for us to talk about education. every p candidate does. but american people intuitively that there was their ladder to success.

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unless you were born on some crystal staircase, you wer lucky enough to get a good education and make your way in life. and we want to make sure that more kids are reach their school years or their learning years and given that khabs. this budget does it. it also takes into account the fact that tuition costs are increasing dramatically.

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i just other building here of a person who is seeking aederal circuit judge. that's a pretty high-level appointment. and i know that this man who is roughly 51 years old and has been a lawyer and a judge, now at the

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$40,000 in student loans to pay off. 51 years old, it's no surprise if you're putting and they're fortunate enough to be accepted at a great school, they could end up with a great debt. we want to make sure, particularly for those in lower-income groups there is more federal money available to help them. since the year 2000, the average

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cost of tuition increased by at public four-year colleges and financial aid this bill moves us toward more financial aid for students. energy is another the president focused on. because if we don't find ourselves more independent when it comes to energy sources, we're not only the mercy of other countries

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with these energy resources, our economy cannot thrive the want and if we are not sensitive to the fact that responsible use of energy would make certain that we don't increase global and climate change and jeopardize future generations, we'll pay an even heavier price. this budget lays the groundwork for cutting back on energy sources

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gases. the brigitte -- the budget proposes that wepend more money on clean energy sources and it jobs. us out of recession relate to new visions on energy. i tell the story

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tower in chicago, now called the willis tower, this magnificent building built 35 years 16,000 single-pane windows. a total energy and they will be replaced with hopefully energy-efficient windows and i hope it will be from a plant i we have a plant there that can

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do it. in the -- the point is that sears tower can recapture the cost of those windows an energy cost savings and in the mean time we can have this creating new jobs. it reduces the carbon footprint of this building.

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buildings are one of the major sources of pollution in america. this conference report provides tax relief for american families when they need it the most, and i hope that we can continue on that. i would just say that it's sad to me, disappointing that the budget offered in the house of representatives, the one we're going to vote on a little later didn't receive a single republican vote, not one.

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not a single vote. the stimulus bill that the president brought forward to try to turn the recession around, the recovery and reinvestment act didn't receive a single republican vote in the house of representatives. fortunately three republican senators stepped up and said they would join us in passing it over here otherwise it wouldn't have happened. well, in comes the president's

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budget an effort to reduc deficit by half over four or five years, the effort to make the right investments and not a single republican in the house of representatives would support it. they have become the party of no when it comes to this ama administration. he continues to open the door and invite them in and too many of them say, no, we're not interested. the american people are interested.

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Kent Conrad: the american people voted for change. they voted for new direction and new leadership. i commend the senator from north dakota for bringing it to the floor and i hope that we pass it with a convincing vote. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota. mr. conrad: i want to thank the whip, senator durbin, for all of the leader sthaip he has

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Speech By: Kent Conrad

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Kent Conrad: provided that has helped us to get to some pretty direct meetings with some of our colleagues. sometimes voices were raised and there was a lot of energy in the room. but it is that kind of that's essential to getting agreement. and i think that we have done that and we've achieved in a way that is responsible and fair, and i thank him very much for his leadership and his