On the recordApril 12, 2011
there is one point on which every Senator agrees, Democrats and Republicans alike: The economic recovery is starting to gain strength, and it is time to focus our attention on reducing deficits and restoring fiscal discipline. The current deficits are unsustainable and present a very real danger to our Nation's future economic prosperity; however, there is sharp disagreement as to how best to achieve that shared goal. Along with other Democratic Senators, I advocate a balanced approach that includes spending cuts and necessary revenue increases while continuing to make crucial investments in education, infrastructure, and research, the investments that are absolutely essential if we are going to stay competitive in a global economy. We know this approach can work because it is what we did under President Clinton's leadership in the 1990s. That budget at that time created large surpluses and put us on the track to completely eliminating the national debt within a decade. It also created a brief era of shared prosperity with 22 million new jobs and 116 consecutive months of economic expansion. By contrast most Republican Senators favor an approach that I consider to be unbalanced, unfair, and highly unlikely to succeed. We have now had nearly a week to evaluate the House Republicans' budget proposal for 2012 and beyond--the so-called Ryan budget. Let's look at what this truly radical budget plan would do. It completely dismantles Medicare and Medicaid.…
