On the recordApril 5, 2011
I rise today to urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join together to prevent an irresponsible government shutdown. The American people did not elect us to shut down the government. Democrats and Republicans in both the House and the Senate must tighten the Federal Government's belt, just like Americans are doing every day at their kitchen tables. As we all know, our escalating national debt is our country's most pressing problem. Our country's current fiscal course is simply unsustainable. In just the last 10 years, our Federal debt has risen from roughly a third of our gross domestic product to nearly two-thirds of GDP in 2010. Based on the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates, without proactive action by Congress, that percentage will continue to increase over the next 10 years, with public debt expected to reach 90 percent of GDP in 2020. Meanwhile, nearly half of our current debt is owned by China and other foreign creditors. It is time for Congress to work together to chart a new bipartisan course that puts our fiscal house in order. Before coming to the United States Senate I served for 10 years as a State senator in the North Carolina General Assembly. I served as the cochair of the Budget Committee, and I can tell you that crafting a budget is never easy. There are always difficult choices, and both sides have to make sacrifices.…
