Cloture Motion

Floor Speech

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Mr. PETERS. Mr. President, before we broke for the August recess, I came to the Senate floor to sound the alarm on our rising national debt and unsustainable fiscal trajectory. Today, I am here to continue this discussion and remind this body of the dangers we face if we do not change course.

In fact, just last week, the Congressional Budget Office announced that our Federal deficit this year alone has already surpassed $2 trillion. If that holds, it will be the third largest deficit accrued in a single fiscal year in U.S. history, behind only the first 2 years of the COVID pandemic. To further put it into perspective, this debt has grown by $700 billion in just the 6 weeks since I spoke about this issue on the floor. That trajectory is incredibly alarming.

So, in this case, time is money, and time is running out. And as we approach our next government funding deadline, it is important that we look back on how we got to this point and what we can do about it. Let's look back. On September 30, 1996, Congress did something that no Congress had done in 30 years: It passed all 12 appropriations bills before the start of the next fiscal year. One year later, Congress built on that success by working with then-President Clinton to enact the Balanced Budget Act and set enforceable budget caps.

And what occurred after this series of bipartisan, commonsense cooperation: a 4-year period of budget surpluses. During that time, our economy grew, unemployment and inflation rates reached their lowest levels since the 1960s. Unfortunately, that was the first time since 1969 that our country had experienced a budget surplus, and unfortunately we have not achieved it since.

But the moral of the story is that progress is possible when we set politics aside, work in a bipartisan way, and enact commonsense solutions that benefit all of us.

Unfortunately, we did not stay on that bipartisan, fiscally responsible path for very long. So let's take a look at what happened next. In 2001, Congress and President George W. Bush enacted a series of tax bills. I certainly believe that a good tax bill is one that provides relief to middle-class families, which are the backbone of our economy, and ensures that everyone pays their fair share.

But the tax cuts passed during the Bush era did just the opposite, largely benefiting the highest income earners in our country, and in the process increased the Federal debt by trillions--trillions--of dollars. In fact, in just 3 years, these tax laws caused our country to double the amount of debt that it had accumulated since our Nation was founded, putting us on a worse financial footing when we later faced two major wars and a global financial crisis.

After the 2008 financial crisis, many, including myself, knew that we had to take action to restore fiscal stability, and in the following years, Congress pursued well-intentioned efforts to put us on a better financial path, from attempts to limit deficit spending to identifying fraud, waste, and abuse. But unfortunately, once again, politics got in the way.

Republicans threatened to default on our debt rather than come to the table, and this reckless approach led to a permanent extension of the Bush tax cuts and the first of what would be three downgrades--three downgrades--to our country's Federal credit rating.

Fast-forward to 2017 when, instead of working with Democrats to enact responsible tax reform, Republicans followed the same old, tired script. They pushed through a partisan law that benefitted the wealthiest Americans and--you guessed it--added $2 trillion to the national debt. And like the Bush tax cuts, it left us unprepared as a country when we faced a generational public health crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic left our country in shambles, with millions of people losing their jobs and shuttering hundreds of thousands of businesses all across our country.

Congress appropriately stepped up, passed several pieces of legislation to support American small businesses and workers, and helped the country to get back on track.

But instead of having the means to pay for this essential support, we had to incur additional debt. So fast forward now to 2023. Democrats tried to right the ship by passing the Inflation Reduction Act, which made a nearly $250 billion downpayment on our national debt while improving energy security, lowering prescription drug costs, and creating a more equitable tax code.

This was the first legitimate effort to reduce the deficit since the Budget Control Act passed 11 years earlier. But, unfortunately, my Republican colleagues reversed course again by passing the ``Big Beautiful Mess'' earlier this summer.

Not only did this bill that was passed here this past summer kick millions of people off their healthcare and make it harder for families to put food on the table by cutting food assistance, it also added-- let's hear this--it also added $3.5 trillion to the Federal deficit.

For those doing the math at home, after our 4-year run of surpluses in 2001, the national debt stood at $5.8 trillion. Today, we stand at more than $37 trillion, all because my Republican colleagues are seemingly convinced that giving tax cuts to the ultrawealthy will, somehow, magically help the Nation.

But time and time again, we have seen the same script yield the same results. This approach simply does not work. Since 2001, $31.6 trillion has been added to our total debt, and thanks to the ``Big Bad Bill,'' that total is about to get supercharged.

It won't stop there.

Later this month, this body will once again be faced with an impending fiscal challenge funding the Federal Government. In doing so, it used to be the bare minimum requirement of Congress. The expectation of most Americans is we just pass the bare minimum and do that and fund the government. It has now become an annual struggle.

I stand ready to work with Republicans to pass a true bipartisan-- true bipartisan government funding bill, one that ensures vital programs remain funded and that our government remains open. Failure to do so will mean economic catastrophe and a continuation of the trends of the past 30 years that we have just walked through.

We can't let that happen, and we must work to end these harmful patterns before it is too late. Working together on the upcoming fiscal package can be that start.

If the past three decades have shown us anything, it is that there is precedent for how to put our country on a more sustainable financial path. We did it in the late 90s, and we even did it in the early 2010s when we came to several bipartisan compromises. But if we are going to solve this, it is going to take real political courage.

The roadmap is certainly there. Now it is just up to each and every one of us to follow that map.

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