Budget Negotiations

Floor Speech

Mr. LEE. Mr. President, I could not agree more that we should not have a government shutdown. I could not agree more that we need to take steps to protect and improve our economy. I could not agree more that we need to take steps to make sure our brave uniformed men and women are fairly compensated and otherwise treated. I must, however, express my profound, albeit respectful, disagreement with my colleague, the junior Senator from New Jersey.

This is not a possible shutdown that we are facing as a result of the Republican Party or as a result of the tea party. As a lifelong Republican and as a founding member of the Senate Tea Party Caucus, I can tell you unequivocally that there is not one member of this body, nor is there one member of the Senate Tea Party Caucus who wants a government shutdown, certainly no Republican. From the outset, Republicans have attempted to bring forward proposals to make sure we do not get into a shutdown.

The question we need to ask ourselves is, Why does the President of the United States, President Barack Obama, want a government shutdown? Let's ask a few questions.

Why was it that a few months ago, after the election but before the new Congress took over, when the President had both Houses of Congress under the control of his party, why did he opt not to pass a full budget for fiscal year 2011? That was the first seed he sowed in the direction of a government shutdown. I submit it was one that was either irresponsible on the one hand or deliberate and malicious on the other, intending to bring about a sequence of events that would culminate inevitably in a government shutdown.

No. 2. Even after the new Congress convened, after the balance of power shifted completely in the House of Representatives and after a number of seats in this body shifted and the new Congress convened in January of this year, the President did not bring forward something that could attract both Houses of Congress to approve and that he could fund the government with for the balance of the year. He instead chose to operate on a series of continuing resolutions. We are now moving up against what I believe will be our seventh continuing resolution if it is passed. What we have from the President is radio silence in the direction of what we need to do to move forward.

A number of us have suggested all along in this process that at a point in time in America when we have a national debt approaching $15 trillion, at a point in time when we are adding to that debt at a staggering rate approaching $1.7 trillion a year, it does not make sense and it is not responsible to continue, even in small increments, perpetuating that degree of reckless, perpetual deficit spending.

What we want to see more than anything isn't any specific set of social issue legislation. It is not any specific degree of spending cuts. It is instead a plan, some plan that will move us in the direction of a balanced budget, that will put us on track so we might once again enjoy the benefits of a balanced budget, so we might again enjoy theday and age when we don't have a debt-to-GDP ratio well in excess of 90 percent. We know when we have a debt-to-GDP ratio in excess of 90 percent, it slows economic growth by as much as half every year, costing our economy as many as a million jobs every single year. This ultimately is about jobs. Our sprawling debt kills jobs and kills economic growth necessary to create jobs.

So, no, this is not a quixotic quest for perfection. This is a quest for that which will suffice to get us back on track toward fiscal responsibility.

I mentioned two seeds the President has planted to lead to a shutdown, the first being his refusal to push through a budget for the entire year, fiscal 2011; the second being his reliance on continuing resolutions. The third seed he sowed, one I am not sure we will be able to get around this time, much as we wish to, is his threat in the last hour or two, his promise to veto the continuing resolution the House is expected to pass this afternoon. It may have passed moments ago. He is threatening to veto that before it even gets over here. One must wonder, why does the President want a shutdown.

We have to remember, these are not drastic changes that have been proposed. In fact, they are not even sufficient to get us back on track so we can say this heads us in the direction of an eventual balanced budget. These are minor cuts. Yet the President insists on moving us inevitably, inexorably in the direction of a shutdown.

While we are on the subject of addressing a false blame placed on the Republican Party and the tea party, I care to address the accusation made by various of my colleagues, an accusation I believe made in ignorance and that, in any event, is manifestly incorrect with regard to the tea party. This is a movement whose views are not extreme. What is extreme is a $15 trillion debt we are adding to at a staggering rate of $1.7 trillion a year. That is extreme, as is what has happened in the last few years, including the U.S. Government takeover of everything from our banking industry to auto manufacturing to our health care industry. Those things are extreme.

The tea party movement is something that is shared by many Americans, regardless of whether they appear at a rally of any kind. It is a spontaneous grassroots political phenomenon that simply recognizes our Federal Government has grown too big and has become too expensive.

We need to do something about that. Many of us who consider ourselves part of the tea party movement and believe the best solution, perhaps the only solution, is to return to that 223-year-old founding document we call the Constitution, look to those powers that are identified as something within the exclusive ability, the exclusive power and control of the Federal Government. The more we do that, the more we believe we can turn to constitutionally limited government of the sort that can operate on a balanced budget.

This is not necessarily even a politically conservative movement. It is neither conservative nor liberal. At the end of the day, it need not be Republican or Democratic. It is simply American. It recognizes this country was founded upon the principle that national governments, as they become large and powerful, have a certain tendency toward gaining an excess of power and spending an excess of money, and to prevent a form of tyranny. A national government can function best when it has limited enumerated powers of the sort we granted the Federal Government a couple of centuries ago, powers including things such as national defense, establishing a uniform system of weights and measures, regulating trademarks, copyrights, and patents, and so forth. Included in that list we won't find anything about a government takeover of health care or manufacturing industries or the banking industry.

This is neither liberal nor conservative, neither Republican nor Democratic, and it certainly isn't extreme. It is simply American. It is what makes us great. It is part of what has created the strongest economy and the greatest civilization the world has ever known. At the end of the day, as those who have planted quite deliberately the seeds for an inevitable shutdown seek to blame others, we have to remember the seeds they have sown, and we have to be willing to cast blame where blame is due.

The blame here cannot and, as long as I am standing, will not be placed at the feet of the Republicans or of the tea party. We do not want a shutdown. We will do everything we can to fight against it. If we have one, it will be because the President of the United States and members of the other party in this august body have refused to put forward a palatable, defensible budget.

I yield the floor.

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