Senate Proceeding on Apr 29th, 2009 :: 6:50:35 to 7:02:55
Total video length: 10 hours 21 minutes Stream Tools: Stream Overview | Edit Time

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

Download OptionsEmbed Video

Views:51 Duration: 0:12:20 Discussion

Previous speech:

Next speech:

6:45:30 to 6:53:35( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Mark Udall

6:50:32 to 6:50:52( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Udall: i think that kind of line-item veto would undermine and balances between the executive and legislative branches of the government. but the slice act that i introduced in 2006 and the bills that senator carper and senator feingold have introduced in this congress are different. they're practical, effective,

6:50:53 to 6:51:13( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Udall: and best of all, constitutional versions of a line-item veto. mr. president, current law says that the president can ask congress to rescind, that is canceling, spending items. but the congress can ignore those requests and often has done so. these bills w under the carper and feingold

6:51:14 to 6:51:34( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Udall: bills, the president could identify specific spending items he thinks should be cut, and congress would have to vote up or down on whether to cut each of them. this legislation -- don't get me wrong -- would give the president a powerful tool but it would also retain the balance between the executive and legislative branches.

6:51:35 to 6:51:57( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Udall: presidents are elected to lead and only they represent the entire nation. these bills recognize that by giving the president the leadership role of identifying specific spending items he thinks should be but under the constitution, it is the congress that's primarily accountable to the american people f how their tax dollars

6:51:58 to 6:52:18( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Udall: will be spent. the legislation respects and emphasizes that congressional role by requiring a vote on each spending cut proposed by the president. of course, without knowing, and i think the presiding officer would join me in this sen without knowing what the president might propose to rescind i don't know in

6:52:19 to 6:52:39( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Udall: speculative fashion if i could support those proposals. but i do know that people in colorado and across the country believe there must be greater transparency in our decisions on taxing and spending. and i know that they are also demanding that we take responsibility for those decisions. that's the purpose of the carper and the feingold bill. mr. president, if there's ever

6:52:40 to 6:53:00( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Udall: time in our history where we need to reassure the american people that congress understands the need for reform and integrity in the process of spending taxpayer dollars, it's now. along with reform of the earmark process and other reform measures, i believe the legislative line-item veto is an essential tool in restoring

6:53:01 to 6:53:22( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Udall: public confidence. the american people expect the federal spending will reflect critical national priorities and broader public purpose. most of all, they expect congress to pass funding bills in ways that assure wise use of taxpayer dollars. mr. president, these are the purposes of this legislation. we must reassure the american

6:53:23 to 6:53:36( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Udall: people that their dollars and the debt future generations incur as a result of our spending will be debated in t sunshine of public mr. president, i'd ask that my statement be printed in the record in the appropriate place

6:53:37 to 6:53:58( Edit History Discussion )

Kent Conrad: following the text of this bill. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. udall: mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. conrad: mr. president? the senator from north mr. conrad: i want to thank the senator from colorado. he's been such a great addition to this chamber, and we're just delighted he's here. he comes very well respected

6:53:40 to 6:54:35( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Kent Conrad

6:53:59 to 6:54:19( Edit History Discussion )

Kent Conrad: from the house of representatives, and we count ourselves fortunate to have him participating in this budget discussion, and look forward to working with him in the future. mr. udall: i thank the senator from north dakota for those sentiments. i look forward to working with him in this very important work to balance the needs of the country when it comes to spending but also making sure we

6:54:20 to 6:54:41( Edit History Discussion )

Kent Conrad: don't pass on unsustainab debt to our children. he's been a leader in this effort, and i look forward to working at his side days and months and years to come. mr. conrad: i thank the senator a the presiding officer: the

6:54:42 to 6:54:47( Edit History Discussion )

clerk will call the roll.

6:56:52 to 6:57:14( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Udall: quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from mr. coburn: i'd ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coburn: thank you. i wanted to spend a few minutes talking about the budget that's

6:57:00 to 7:09:50( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Tom Udall

6:57:15 to 6:57:35( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Udall: before us. and make a simple notes. in $3.5 trillion in

6:57:36 to 6:57:59( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Udall: that's an astounding amount of money. and it spends $17.9 trillion, at a minimum, over the next five years. this budget is more than just a document full of numbers. it's a statement of priorities.

6:58:00 to 6:58:20( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Udall: my feeling is, that it does not address some of the key fundamental challenges we face as a nation. and in fact it's going to make some of the challenges that we have worse because we're going to be spending money that we don't have on things that we don't need.

6:58:21 to 6:58:42( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Udall: every family in this country today, as we can note by t decreased consumer spending, is making hard choices. they're making priorities. and their priorities are how do we do the absolute minimum things necessary and also how we save if we're going to have the largest savings rate we've

6:58:43 to 6:59:04( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Udall: had in 40 or 50 years in this country, so we can save for and most of the time those families areust thinking about the adult members of those families. most of the time those families are making because they're thinking into the future with their children. we're not doing that in this budget. as a matter of fact, the only th

6:59:05 to 6:59:26( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Udall: this budget for our children is w much we're going to put on the back of them, becausee refuse to face the realities of living within our meansike every family is trying to do out there today, and we're going to transfer a doubling of the publicly hel five years, it's going to double. and over the next ten years it's

6:59:27 to 6:59:47( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Udall: going to triple. and that is going serious impact on us as a nation, but it's going to have personal impact on every young child out there today. and let me tell you what the impact's going to be. is we're going to steal opportunity from them because we refuse to make the hard choices toda the impact is going to be -- a

6:59:48 to 7:00:10( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Udall: large portion of them aren't going to be able to afford to go to college. we know that education is one of the areas that advanced our society, that create opportunities for american exceptionalism. that create opportunities for advancement of all through education. today by stealing the money from

7:00:11 to 7:00:33( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Udall: them in the future them with an interest that most of them won't earn the amount that we're going to have to pay every year seems, to me, to be penny wise and pound foolish. the other thing this document does is it doesn't have pay-go in it. what it says is we're not going

7:00:34 to 7:00:54( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Udall: to be responsible so you, as the next two generations, you go and pay for it. we have seen payo. but we have seen there is no pay-go to the biggest expenditure in the bill. we take it off line and we allow us to create all of newt

7:00:55 to 7:01:17( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Udall: programs an items and yet we don't have to be responsible to make the hard choices about what's important, what's a priority and what's not a priority. families across this country last year saw less increase in their incomes. and after a 9% across the board -- not counting the stimulus,

7:01:18 to 7:01:39( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Udall: just the omnibus bill, we're going tohen bump up another 7.2%. we're going to grow the government four times faster than the income increase was last year and now we're going to grow it 3 1/2 times more than what personal income has risen. and 70 times greater than what the net inflation is going to be.

7:01:40 to 7:02:01( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Udall: that's called real spending, real growing the federal government, not making the hard choices. and what it results in in spite of what we call it, whether it is my favorite pet program or somebody else's, what it results in is less liberty. less freedom for the generations that are following us.

7:02:02 to 7:02:23( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Udall: you tell me a country where you can have real freedom when you have no economic freedom. there isn't freedom when there's no economic freedom. and when economic liberties of the children and grandchildren that follow us.

7:02:24 to 7:02:44( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Udall: during the sen i offered numerous amendments that were designed to make us make hard choices. allo withdrawals from retirement accounts, to make some of the mortgage payments that people are having trouble today. to allow us to help the mortgage. it was accepted unanimous. not

7:02:45 to 7:03:06( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Udall: it is not in this final document. ending bogus by government contractors an executives. not one person expressed an objective to that. it is not in the final budget. reviewing the budget line by line for waste, fraud, inappropriateness, and metrics was