On the recordFebruary 15, 2012
As the Presiding Officer knows, this week the President sent his budget to Congress. This happens every year. The budget is a document that determines what the spending will be and what the revenues will be not just for the next fiscal year but for a 10-year period. So it is a document about what the direction of our country ought to be. It is a vision for the country, if you will. It is being sent to the Congress at a time when we face extraordinary fiscal challenges. We have a record debt of over $15 trillion. We have deficits that have been over $1 trillion a year for the last several years, and it looks as though this year, once again, it will be well over $1 trillion. In comparison to previous years, we have a debt that is now as large as our entire economy, which is larger than at any time since World War II. In fact, as a country, we are spending more money at the Federal level than we ever have before--as a percent of GDP, more than we ever have since World War II. So these are times when we have a true fiscal crisis at our doorstep and we need to handle it. We are borrowing over 35 cents of every $1 we spend at the Federal level. In that context, I have to say I am very disappointed in the budget proposal that was sent to us because it is simply not up to the challenges we face. It taxes too much, it borrows too much, and it spends too much.…
