Heidi Alexander: “I congratulate my colleague from Tennessee, Senator Corker, for his usual common sense, as well as the assistant…”

“I congratulate my colleague from Tennessee, Senator Corker, for his usual common sense, as well as the assistant Democratic leader, Senator Durbin, for his courage on the debt commission. I believe that the decision made tonight about the omnibus bill is best for the country, but there could have been a better result. It would have been along the lines of what the Senator from Illinois described. If we had been able earlier in the year to agree on a budget in the Senate, which is how much are we going to spend, and if we could have gone committee by committee--and there are 13 subcommittees, and we both serve on the Appropriations Committee--and we could have brought those to the floor by August, voted on them, and got on with it so the government could run, that would by far be a better result. There is no need to say why that didn't happen, whether it was a Democratic or Republican fault. It didn't happen. So that falls on all of us to look ahead and see if it can't happen in the future. I believe it can. In fact, I believe that it must. We have a time coming up next year when we will be asked to raise the debt ceiling. We will have before us a recommendation from the debt commission that five of the six Senators who served on it voted for. They stuck their necks way out to do that. The Senator from Illinois, the Senator from North Dakota, and three Republican Senators, as well.…”