Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to enter into a colloquy with my Republican colleagues for up to 20 minutes. Mr. President, as we all know, the most important issues that are facing our country today are the economy, job creation,…
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to enter into a colloquy with my Republican colleagues for up to 20 minutes.
Mr. President, as we all know, the most important issues that are facing our country today are the economy, job creation, the national debt, and excessive government spending. One of the things that is having a huge effect on job creation and the economy right now is regulation.
The administration continues to overreach and overstep in the implementation of dozens of new regulations, be it the EPA regulating greenhouse gases, or the DOT's recent proposal that would require commercial drivers' licenses for farmers who drive tractors.
These oversteps have real consequences in the form of jobs. Take, for instance, Mr. Thomas Clements from Youngsville, LA, who is testifying today in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Mr. Clements is a small business owner since 2008. He owns Oilfield CMC Machining with his wife. They produce metal parts and systems for offshore oil rigs.
His run-in with our overreaching administration started after the tragic 2010 BP oilspill with the President's decision in May of 2010 to enact a 6-month moratorium on new oil drilling in the gulf. His business continues to struggle today because of the Department of the Interior's decision to slow walk new drilling permits. Before these actions, he had a thriving small business that not only provided for his family but also for his employees.
Today, they are barely staying afloat, and will likely close unless the administration changes course and actually begins taking steps toward recovery instead of continued rhetoric.
Another big drag on the economy is the amount of spending and debt. Yesterday the Congressional Budget Office released their long-term budget outlook. This was certainly sobering reading. They pointed out that under the alternative fiscal scenario, in 2024, interest costs, Social Security, and major health spending would exceed all of the revenue coming into the government.
The need for action is clear. The Congressional Budget Office states that these levels of debt will cause incomes to be between 7 percent and 18 percent lower in 2035 than they would be otherwise.
Another study by economists Reinhart and Rogoff found that countries with a debt-to-GDP level that is greater than 90 percent--I would emphasize that we are currently at 95 percent--but that countries with a debt-to-GDP level greater than 90 percent grow at 1 percentage point less than they would otherwise. In other words, when you are carrying this kind of a debt load, 90 percent debt to GDP, for a sustained period of time, you are bleeding about 1 percent of economic growth every single year.
As we know from the President's own economic advisers, a 1-percent reduction--1-percent drop in growth--translates into about 1 million lost jobs. One of the places we see that has been hard hit in our country by the downturn is the State of Ohio. My colleague from Ohio Senator Portman is here. I would be interested perhaps in hearing from him on whether he has seen the evidence of the recovery that was promised by the administration or does his economy in Ohio still reflect an economy that is held back by excessive regulation, debt and spending. I would be interested in the perspective of the Senator from Ohio on that particular subject.
I appreciate my colleague's observations regarding his State, which is a pivotal State when it comes to whether we are going to see the economy recover. It is a State that feels the impact right away when you have a down economy and job losses and all of the negative things that go with that. So I appreciate his perspective on it. Obviously, I wish I could say this administration's policies have made the situation better. Unfortunately, the evidence overwhelmingly points to the President and his policies making this situation worse-- much worse. For example, the Senator mentioned nondefense discretionary spending, which is the part of spending that the President has to sign into law every year. It went up 4.1 percent. That is astounding when you consider inflation was about 2 percent over that time. Government spending was growing 10 times the rate of inflation.
What is even more amazing, this doesn't include the increases in discretionary spending attributed to stimulus. That was supposed to have brought the unemployment rate down to 6.7 percent. Clearly, we are over 9 percent today.
There is no correlation between additional spending and job creation. We have clearly demonstrated that. That spending level doesn't include spending on the ``Cash for Clunkers'' program, which was supposed to create jobs. It doesn't include ``un-offset'' increases in spending on mandatory programs that are signed into law, such as additional unemployment insurance, Medicaid, or trade adjustment assistance. It doesn't include the spending increases the President fought for but has been unsuccessful in passing.
Because of this exorbitant spending, we are at a point where 40 cents out of every dollar the Federal Government spends is borrowed. While most people would look at this situation and say it is time to do something about it to improve the situation, the President clearly punted over the medium and long term, and his proposed budget makes the situation even worse. In fact, his proposed fiscal 2012 budget would spend $46 trillion over a 10-year time period, add $9.47 trillion to the debt, and raise taxes by $1.6 trillion. So their prescription continues to be more spending, more borrowing, and higher taxes.
The question is, is this helping or hurting our economy? If you look at a recent Bloomberg poll, it found 65 percent of Americans think the debt is a major reason why our unemployment rate is so high. The answer from the American people is clear.
I guess what I say to my colleague from Ohio--and he and I have worked together on ideas on how to get the economy going again and create an environment conducive to job growth--is that, clearly, getting spending under control here is a huge factor. As he pointed out, there is lots of research out there that demonstrates connectivity between spending and debt and the economy. I simply add that ratings agencies, such as Standard & Poor's and Moody's, all gave a negative assessment to our credit rating; and if that led to a downgrade in our credit rating, it would reflect much higher interest rates for another negative impact.
Spending and debt have a profound negative impact on our ability to grow the economy and create jobs. The Senator from Ohio has been a great leader getting out there in talking about solutions that would lead to job creation. I am interested in hearing about some of what we might be able to do that is clearly not being done today and, frankly, what I hope is contrary to the policies put forward by this administration, which are costing jobs.
I appreciate that. That was a great description by the Senator. The Senator from Ohio hit upon all the relevant issues, if we are going to get the economy going, creating jobs again--talking about getting trade deals done, and energy policy that relies upon American energy production, keeping taxes and regulations low, common sense when it comes to energy regulations, and getting spending and debt under control. Those are all part of a solution that will grow the economy.
What I say to my colleague with regard to the issue of taxing and spending is that a lot of people believe somehow we can get additional revenues and raise taxes and solve these problems. Clearly, that would be very counter to growing the economy and creating jobs. I think it would be harmful, if anything. If we look at taxes as a way to deal with the deficit and debt issue, frankly, I think most Americans believe--and I believe they are right--this is overwhelmingly a spending issue.
If you look at our 40-year average spending, up until 2008 it was 20.6 percent of our GDP. The budget would have to spend about 24.3 percent of GDP. If you look at what we need to focus on, I say to my colleague from Ohio, it is clearly in the area of spending and debt control and dealing with that issue as opposed to the issue of revenue. I look forward to working with him on these issues. I hope we can put policies into place that will grow the economy and get people in this country back to work.