On the recordMarch 8, 2011
I rise today to express my deep concerns with the two widely divergent proposals for a continuing resolution that will be presented to us here today. Now, I may be just a freshman Senator, but I will be blunt--this whole process does not make a lot of sense to me, and, I am afraid it doesn't make sense to a lot of West Virginians or most Americans. We will likely have votes on two proposals today, and both options are partisan and unrealistic. And neither one will pass. The first is a Democratic proposal that does not go far enough. This proposal, which calls for $6.5 billion in new cuts, utterly ignores our fiscal reality. Our Nation is badly in debt and spending at absolutely unsustainable and out-of-control levels. In February alone, the Federal Government outspent revenues by an unacceptable $223 billion. We must turn our financial ship around, but the Senate proposal continues to sail forward as if there is no storm on the horizon. On the other hand, we could choose a second even more flawed measure: a House GOP proposal that blindly hacks the budget with no sense of our priorities or of our values as a country. I did not grow up in an America that would carelessly cut Hear Start and make the playing field even harder for kids born into poverty. Our America should not cut funding for veterans or for border security or for first responders or especially for our children without at least discussing the alternatives.
