Senate Proceeding on Apr 1st, 2009 :: 2:57:05 to 3:03:10
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2:56:58 to 2:57:19( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: quorum call: a senator: i the order right now? the presiding officer: we are in a quorum a senator: i ask unanimous consen be dispensed. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. voinovich: madam president i rise the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. voinovich: i rise to support the amendment to create a deficit neutral reserve fund

2:57:05 to 3:03:10( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: George Voinovich

2:57:20 to 2:57:41( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: for the creation of a task force to address tax and entitlement reform and red gap. the amendment would fund a vehicle to examine our tax and entitlement systems and friend long-term solutions to place the united states fiscally sustainable course and ensure the solvency of our entitlement programs for future generations.

2:57:42 to 2:58:02( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: senator lieberman and i have introduced a similar amendment an lieberman will support this amendment. i'm not going to go into the details. the chairman and ranking member of the budget committee is laid out in very frightening terms where we are in terms o our

2:58:03 to 2:58:24( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: deficits and our national debt. frankly, i've b this since i have come to the since in 1999, but we have to someth debt that's just, you know, blossoming and now we are talking of the possibility of it doubling in five years so we have to get at entitlements and tax reform.

2:58:25 to 2:58:45( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: the thing that is encou me there is legislation i will introduce in the the safe commission and it is sponsored by 52 house members, 26 republicans and 26 democrats with the support of the business roundtable, the heritage foundation, the peterson foundation, they have alway

2:58:46 to 2:59:07( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: voiced support. what we're trying to do with this amendment to the budget is to have just an acknowledgment of the fact that money is set aside to fund a commission that will be set up and that my colleagues don't get involved in one of these "well, i don't like the language of

2:59:08 to 2:59:28( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: this gotten to the i'm saying to my colleagues on the othe my side of the aisle we have to negotiate the kind of vehicle that we're going to use. two years ago the vehicle we had, had more republicans than democrats because we controlled theresident, the house, and the senate. the

2:59:29 to 2:59:49( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: coming out support is going to have more democrats because the democrats have the president and the senate and the house. but it does provide that in order to get something out to fast-track -- say, they spend six months looking at it and come up with tax reform and intime reform and they send it

2:59:50 to 3:00:11( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: under expedited procedure to t house and senate and before they do that, they have to have 7 of the people done that and you have to have at least two repuicans so it brings in the minority participation. what i'm afraid of is i've heard senator conrad say i don't like the idea that it's going to be even-steven or whatever it is,

3:00:12 to 3:00:33( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: but the main thing is i'd just like the senate to go on record that we're going to create a fund that will fund a commission that will finally get to the entitlement problem that we have had now for a long time. i mean, the bottom line we've got this avalanche that's hiss us. you know, we're -- we're in trouble. but at the same

3:00:34 to 3:00:54( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: that we've got the problem of this long-term national debt problem, and everybody is aware of the problem. and just pointed out that he's considered about what we're doing. europe is concerned about what we're doing. canada's worried about it. they're saying, you folks just haven't been willing to take on your entitlement and tax reform

3:00:55 to 3:01:15( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: in your country. and what bothers me is, is that if we don't deal with this and -- and our neighbors start to get -- get leery of what we're doing, we could see interest rates skyrocket because everybody acknowledges that as long as we're getting money from china, japan, and the opec nations, money at cheap rate. but if ty lose confidence that

3:01:16 to 3:01:37( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: we haven't been up and do what we're supposed to do, that could change dramatically and we could see -- as i say, we could see interest rates skyrocket. so all i'm urging my colleagues to do is to look at this not as we're drafting the legislation. what we're saying is we acknowledge that there is a problem that needs to be dealt with. peter orszag understands that there's a problem.

3:01:38 to 3:01:58( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: in fact, he was with this effort two years ago. now he's been kind of -- you know, i'm not sure how we want to do this. but all i'd like to do is to come in with a bipartisan commission that says we're willing to tackle this and give it to the administration and say, if you don't like it, what's better than -- than what we have?

3:01:59 to 3:02:22( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: we've got to get going on this thing. we just cannot let it keep, you know, putting it under the rug, put it under the rug. we just need to deal with it. so, madam president, i have lot of other words to speak here today but i'm -- i hope i get the message across to everyone that all we're basically doing is setting aside

3:02:23 to 3:02:44( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: for a commission of which and the rules of which are something that we're going to have to try and come up a compromise on. now, we have an amendment, senator lieberman and i, that's less restrictive than senator gregg's. apparently that -- the gregg language bothers senator conrad all i know is that i'd sure like

3:02:45 to 3:03:05( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: us to go on record saying, hey, we know there's a problem, we know we can't get it done in the regular order of business doing tax reform, doing entitlement reform. we need a commission to take it on, just as we did social security. they took it on, got together, came back with a recommendation and we got it done. so i urge my colleagues to look at the big picture and not get tied in with this is a

3:03:06 to 3:03:10( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: republican thing or a democratic thing. it's a problem for america.