On the recordSeptember 16, 2014
as we consider this continuing resolution to fund the Federal Government in fiscal year 2015, which begins October 1, I rise to voice concern about our Nation's spending and debt. At last count our country was more than $17 trillion in debt, and that number increases every single day. My parents told me you shouldn't just complain, you should have solutions, and I am going to talk about two solutions. One is the Penny Plan, which would cut 1 cent out of every dollar we currently spend and, according to the Congressional Budget Office, balance the budget in just 3 years. If we continued it for another 7 years, we would reduce spending by $7.6 trillion. Another solution would be to do biennial budgeting. We obviously don't have time to look through the budget--we keep doing continuing resolutions and then we do an omnibus bill. We are supposed to do those through 12 separate bills--12 separate bills that get debated not just in committee but on the floor of the Senate with amendments. It has been a long time since we have done that. So biennial budgeting would allow us to get into this nerve center of spending and get something done. For fiscal year 2014, we expect to pay $231 billion in interest on the national debt according to the Congressional Budget Office. With our pattern of unsustainable spending, in 10 years we could pay close to $800 billion in interest. That is not counting the interest rate going up.…
