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Floor Speech

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Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I speak in opposition today to the budget resolution put forward by my colleague from Kentucky.

Last year, President Biden and then-Speaker McCarthy came to an agreement on top-line appropriations levels for the current fiscal year as well as the fiscal year beginning on October 1. This bipartisan agreement, which included a 2-year budget deal, was passed by bipartisan votes in both Houses and was signed into law by the President. So, as of June 3, 2023, we have had a bipartisan budget deal that is good for 2 years--until September 30, 2025.

Just days before a government shutdown, House Republicans have spent most of this month trying to figure out how much of the deal they could renege on to get votes from their fractured caucus. Here in the Senate, this proposal also breaks the agreement, proposing $20 trillion in Federal spending cuts over 10 years but not a single detail about where it would cut.

Republicans are not happy to disclose where cuts would be because the American people would not be happy about the likely results--cuts, for instance, to Medicare, veterans programs, border security, national parks, law enforcement, transportation safety, affordable housing, education, and Medicaid. And, of course, the ``drill, baby, drill'' climate deniers would cut climate and clean air and water programs. If adopted, in its final year, this budget would cut all of those programs by 35 percent.

While this budget attacks basic Federal programs in the name of fiscal responsibility, Republicans simultaneously plan to blow up the deficit by cutting taxes for their billionaire mega-donors and big corporations. Under one hat, Republicans act fiscally conservatively and seek to cut programs to reduce the national debt. Under their other hat, they pursue more Trump tax cuts for the wealthy, increasing the debt by $4.6 trillion.

Last year, I asked CBO if it were mathematically possible to balance the budget within 10 years, extend the Trump tax cuts, and fully fund Social Security and Medicare, defense, and veterans programs. The answer from CBO: No. The math simply doesn't add up. So that budget exists in fiscal fantasy land.

My Republican colleagues don't want to hear it, but more than a third of our national debt stems not from deficits but from economic shocks-- the 2008 financial crisis and COVID. As we have heard over and over again in the Budget Committee, the economic shocks from climate change will likely dwarf those we experienced during the financial crisis--for instance, one caused by a climate-driven insurance crisis that crashes mortgage markets and property values nationwide. We have heard those warnings from everywhere from the chief economist of Freddie Mac to the front page of The Economist magazine.

What we should do, in bipartisan fashion, is decorrupt the Tax Code so that big corporations and billionaires are no longer a favored, free-riding elite. The Bush and Trump tax cuts skewed to the wealthy and big corporations are another third--$10 trillion of the national debt. Without those tax cuts, the debt-to-GDP ratio, which is our best fiscal safety metric, would be declining in perpetuity.

Helping the wealthy avoid taxes is such an infatuation that House Republicans brought the United States to the brink of default in trying to prevent the IRS from cracking down on wealthy tax cheats.

If we want to address the national debt, preventing massive economic shocks, decorrupting the Tax Code and getting serious about healthcare reform are the ways to go about it. This is not.

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