FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act - Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. PAUL. Mr. President, everyone agrees that the FAA plays an important role in air safety. I don't think there is any real discussion or debate on either side in that regard. My amendment calls, though, for having spending levels at 2008. This is actually what is going to be produced out of the House. The House has already published their spending proposals, and most of their spending proposals will be at the 2008 level.

This is a small downpayment on the debt. Some say this is the wrong place to start, but you have to start somewhere. Everybody says they are going to be for balancing the budget or tackling the debt or doing this or that, but you don't get there unless you cut spending.

Now, you can't create a situation where you make it an either/or situation--either we have air safety or we don't have air safety--depending on a spending level. Perhaps you can spend money more wisely. Perhaps the job of a legislator is to find out how you spend money, how you find savings, and how you make do with less. If we don't, we are never going to get out of this problem.

The deficit is an enormous burden on all of us--on our kids and grandkids. The last election was about the deficit, about the mounting debt, but the other side doesn't seem to have listened. They also need to understand what the deficit does to jobs. Our national debt now is approaching our gross domestic product. That means our debt is about equal to what we produce as an economy for a year as a whole country. When it does, there are estimates that it kills the rate of growth of our economy by 1 percent and costs 1 million jobs a year. This is from the debt.

They are talking about what $2 billion will do within one agency. We are talking about what $14 trillion worth of debt does to an entire economy. Remember, 1 percent loss of growth and 1 million jobs a year. The national debt is killing us.

So we had an intervening election, and a message was sent. The message was, listen to the American people. They are upset about passing this debt on to our kids and our grandkids. So we got a response. The President laid out his budget this week. Do you know what his budget will do? The President's budget will spend $46 trillion--I am not making that up, $46 trillion over 10 years. That tells me the other side didn't get the message.

Now, $46 trillion over 10 years, what does this mean? When President Obama came into office, the debt was about $7 trillion, maybe $8 trillion. We are now going to triple that debt if he wins a second term. The President will have tripled the national debt in 8 years.

His 10-year proposal will double the debt in just 10 years. The deficit this year alone will be $1.65 trillion.

The President said he is going to freeze spending. He is going to freeze spending in this little, tiny percentage of the budget, about 12 percent of the budget. It is not enough. It doesn't do it.

Republicans want to go back to the 2008 level, which is what I am proposing. It is not enough either because you are only looking at one tiny sliver of the budget. Today we are looking at one small program.

The problem is that people are starting to recognize the problem of the debt, but they are unwilling to do what it takes to look at the entire budget. We are going to have to look at military spending, we are going to have to look at nonmilitary discretionary spending, and ultimately we are going to have to look at entitlements. But you have to say every program has something good about it. Everybody can stand and say we need NextGen. I am for NextGen. But the thing is, if you are a legislator and you have less money, let's figure out where we find the money in the existing budget.

I proposed some other alternatives. I proposed $500 million in savings by saying: When we build airports, let's not make it be the union wage or the prevailing wage, let's have the market wage. That would have saved $500 million. That goes a long way toward funding NextGen. Another $500 million, $400 to 500 million is in the unprofitable airports that we are going to subsidize in this bill. There are savings that can be found, but we never find them.

In Washington, what do we tend to do? If we want something, we just add more money to the bill. There are always arguments for these programs, but we also have to understand what are the consequences of a $14 trillion debt.

President Obama's 10-year plan that he released this week will change $14 trillion into nearly $27 trillion. The numbers are mind-boggling. If we do not do something about it, it is a threat to our country. The President's own Secretary of Defense has said the No. 1 threat to our national security is our debt. It is out of control. I don't think the problem is fully grasped by either side, but I know if we are here today and cannot come to an agreement to save $2 billion--think about it. I am asking to save $2 billion out of a budget of $3.7 trillion. It is such a small number.

They might argue it is such a small number, why even do it? If you don't start somewhere, how will we ever balance the budget? How will we ever get out of this mess if we are not willing to save $2 billion? It is a start. It is a downpayment. It is how we can say to the American people we heard you in November. We realize we cannot pass this debt on to our kids and our grandkids. Something has to be done.

Instead, what we get from the other side is that we make this into: The other side is not for progress. They are not for developing airports. They are not for GPS systems at the airport. It is not that simple. I am for all those things, but I am for saying let's step up as legislators and say: How do we find the savings in the existing budget? Because the alternative is: How are we going to pay for $14 trillion in debt? How are we going to pay for $26 trillion in debt that is going to be added if the President gets his 10-year plan?

You can pay for debt in a variety of ways. You can tax people. But as you can tell by the movement out there, most of us think we are taxed enough already. The average taxpayer is often paying 40 percent and 50 percent of his income. The average taxpayer is paying more in taxes than they do for food and clothing and transportation and all their expenses; they pay more in taxes. I don't think the general public wants to raise taxes.

The other way is, you stick your head in the sand and keep borrowing. That is what we keep doing, borrowing and borrowing, but it threatens our very economy and threatens the country.

How does the country also pay for debt? Are we going to default on our debt? No. Ultimately, we will print money to pay for it, but there is a downside to that too. Countries have ruined their currency. Germany in the 1920s destroyed their currency.

If you look at the curve of what happened to the currency in the 1920s, it happened over a period of about 6 months. You had bread that sold for 100 marks and then 1 million marks and then 100 million marks and then 1 billion marks. The money became so devalued it was of more value to actually burn as a fuel. People went around with wheelbarrows full of money. The workers demanded to be paid two and three times a day.

That is what happens to a country that has a massive debt. You cannot tax people enough. Greece just went through default recently. As Greece went through default, they tried to raises taxes, but everybody was paying too much already, so everything was forced into the underground economy. You can raise the taxes by 90 percent, you don't get more money. When you increase tax rates, you don't always get more money. The money went underground.

You can print the money, but if you just simply print the money, you destroy people's savings. You steal from those who have saved and take the value of their dollar.

This bill is the beginning of the debate. It is the first bill we have had to come forward with a new Congress that talks about money. It is a very small downpayment. I am asking for a little over $2 billion savings. It is 2008 levels. It is what the House is asking for. You have to realize also what happened between 2008 and 2011. Do you know how much spending went up? Spending went up by 24 percent. Spending is out of control in this city, and we have to realize the consequences. If we stood here and had an argument over whether NextGen is a good thing, there is no argument. It is a good thing. We should have GPS. We have it in our cars. For certain, we should have it in our airports. I am all for modernizing the airports. But what I am saying is, it is irresponsible as legislators to stand here and just say more, more, more. We are going to spend more money.

We cannot do it. The thing is, it is not just the program. We are not talking about whether the program is justified or whether we should spend money. We are talking about what are the consequences of a massive debt. I think that is where we are.

The American people know this. They instinctively know this. I think there is a great danger to not stepping up. I wish the other side would have come back and said: Why don't we split the difference and try to save $1.5 billion. That is what compromise would be in this city. If they don't want to save $2.5 billion, let's save $1.5 billion. But the thing is, we need to save money everywhere and it cannot be that every program you want to cut is somebody else's program and then when it gets to be your program that you are interested in, you can't cut it. Everybody has a self-interest in their program. Every special interest in this country has a special interest. They have an interest in their particular spending.

I would say this is a small downpayment. This is a way to say to the American people: We have heard you in the election. We know there is a problem. We are going to start cutting spending.

I urge my fellow Senators to vote for this amendment. It is something that has nothing to do with quality, has nothing to do with whether you believe in air safety. It has to do with whether you think the debt is a problem, whether you think the debt is a threat to us as a country, and whether we are going to step up and do the responsible thing.

I reserve my time.

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