posted March 14, 2008
Sen. Bob Corker went on the Senate floor on Thursday and said the Senate budget process is seriously flawed.
He said Congress continues to add to the overspending, though the nation is also facing trillions in debt.
Later he voted against the fiscal year 2009 budget resolution. The budget resolution passed by a vote of 51 to 44.
Sen. Corker said, “I was disappointed that the Senate did not take this opportunity to look seriously at our country’s true fiscal situation and set ourselves on a path toward better fiscal discipline. The use of budget gimmickry and false choices is beneath this institution and I hope that before long, we can work together in a bipartisan manner to bring needed budgetary reforms and discipline to Congress.
“One step we can take in this direction is to implement a two-year budget cycle that would give us ample time to review federal programs and fund them at appropriate levels. Our current system leads to breakdowns that force folks to abuse functions like earmarking. I supported the DeMint amendment which would have implemented a one-year moratorium on Congressional earmarks and given us time to work toward long-term reforms.
"We must also not be afraid to take a hard look at the future of our entitlement programs – Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare – which are the real elephants in the room that nobody seems to want to acknowledge and deal with.”
Sen. Lamar Alexander, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, released the following statement after voting against a 2009 fiscal year budget resolution that he said would lead to higher taxes for millions of Americans, dramatically increase spending, and result in more federal debt:
“What Congress does with the federal budget in Washington makes a big difference to the family budgets of millions of Americans. Republicans support a pro-growth plan to keep taxes low and lower health care and insurance costs without adding burdensome government regulations. Unfortunately, a majority in the Senate chose to adopt a Democratic budget that will wreck the federal budget and hit 43 million families with tax hikes of $2,300 apiece.”
Sen. Alexander said his objections to the budget include the following provisions:
$1.2 trillion tax hike – the largest ever. It will hit family budgets hard – 43 million families will owe $2,300 more.
$210 billion spending increase. In fiscal year 2009, that will mean a 9 percent increase over what we spent for fiscal year 2008.
$2 trillion increase in the national debt by 2013. That’s more than $6,000 in extra debt for every American.
Sen. Alexander said, “We’ve heard a lot of talk about change. A real change would have been to stop more taxes, stop excessive spending, and focus more attention on the family budget. Republicans will continue to focus our efforts on balancing the family budget and creating jobs and opportunities for all Americans.”
Sen. Corker said on the Senate floor:
"I rise today to talk about the budget that is getting ready to be put forth. I do not wish to talk specifically about this budget. But having gone through this process once before, it is obviously a very undignified process we are getting ready to enter into tomorrow, where we will have 30, 40, 50, maybe 60 amendments to a budget, many of which are set up solely to send messages, cause people to vote on things that might make them look good in the next election so that 30-second ads might be generated. I do wish to say I have tremendous respect for our budget chairman and ranking member. I think they are outstanding leaders in the Senate. I realize they are dealing, if you will, with the process that has been set forth in the Senate. I think they both exercise their duties very diligently.
"I know there are differing points of view as to how we might deal with this next year's budget. Let me say in general I think this entire process is not what it ought to be. It is, to me, a great disservice to our country the way we handle our budgeting and appropriations processes that follow. I wish to talk about a couple things as it relates to this issue.
"First of all, I know one of the amendments that will come up tomorrow will be the DeMint amendment relating to earmarks. It is an amendment I will support because I do believe earmarks have gotten way out of control in the Senate. I do not believe people who earmark necessarily in any way are doing bad things. I think it is actually an outcome that has been generated due to processes breaking down in the Senate.
"When various senators want to see road projects go forward or other things that are needed, they have now sort of sidelined the processes we ought to be going through, which requires planning and responsibility on our part--a little bit of discipline. Instead, now we have moved to this very cumbersome and, I will say, most inefficient earmarking process. I think that is not a good thing.
"I realize, in essence, in the Appropriations Committees earmarking pots are set up and allocated based on numbers of things, in most cases having nothing to do with the priorities of our country. I do wish to say that while I support this amendment in the hopes that together somehow or another through a moratorium this year on earmarks we will begin to look responsibly at ways of funding--funding infrastructure, funding projects that are very needed in our country--that is done so on merit and with oversight, I do not believe that solving the earmark problem in any way is going to deal with our overall budgetary process, nor with the appropriations process that follows that.
"As a matter of fact, I worry sometimes that we talk so much about earmarks that we feel like if we were to solve this earmark issue--and the American public, I think, is beginning to buy into this--we would solve all the financial woes this country has. Earmarks--as bad as I think they have gotten out of control and need to stop--do nothing of that sort. It is a small piece, very small piece, in a bigger picture that needs to be solved. As a matter of fact, I hope at some point all of us in this body will realize how ridiculous the processes are that we go through and realize we are not in any way dealing with the longer term issues our country faces. One of those things I would like to see us do--I know there is an amendment that has been brought forth before: the biennial budgeting process, where we would actually look at the budget in a 2-year process.
"I know Ranking Member Judd Gregg has brought forth such a bill--I am a cosponsor of that legislation--so that in the odd years we are actually allocating resources and in the even years--election years--we are actually doing oversight and making sure we are spending money wisely.
"One of the things in the process we go through right now that I think we are totally blind to is the tremendous entitlement tsunami that is getting ready to face our country. I think most people realize we as a body are not dealing with that issue. For us to even be down here passionately debating amendments over a budget and not dealing with that, again, does not serve the country well. I think everybody knows we have huge problems that are coming up in the future. Let me give a little bit of a picture of that.
"Today, if you took in all the money we have set to come in over the next 75 years and then looked at the liabilities we have toward Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, we have $66 trillion in unfunded liabilities. Yet tomorrow you are going to see us on the floor haggling over amendments that, at the end of the day, will have no effect whatsoever on this huge problem we have to deal with in the very near future.
"To put that in perspective, today if you looked at the entire net worth of our country, it is only $57 trillion. So because of the Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid entitlement issues, we have a greater unfunded liability than the entire net worth of our country. I think that is a pretty big issue.
"To put that in perspective, since our government was formed a couple hundred years ago, we have taken in during that entire time only $42.7 trillion in revenues.
"So, Madam President, I look forward to coming tomorrow and going through an exercise--an exercise that I realize will have some impact, if you will, on the amount of money we spend on various programs. Then I realize at the end of the year we will have an appropriations process. Then, during that period, unless we are able to have a moratorium on earmarks, we will have another 10,000 or 15,000 earmarks that direct money out in various places. But I know in the process of all that occurring, we still will not have dealt with the major issues this country has to deal with. I hope somehow this body will have the courage, in a bipartisan way, to come together and deal with this issue.
"I strongly support the Gregg-Conrad bill that would cause this body, in a bipartisan way, to bring forth solutions to this problem--to this entitlement problem--in a manner that can only be voted on up and down, with no amendments, so we as a body, hopefully, will have the courage to deal with the real issues our country has to face as it relates to fiscal issues."
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