Senate Proceeding on Apr 29th, 2009 :: 3:55:35 to 4:06:35
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3:55:23 to 3:55:43( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: quorum call: a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from south carolina. a senator: i would ask unanimous consent to terminate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. a senato and could you inform me when 10 minutes has the presiding officer: the chair will do so. mr. graham: thank you very much. i rise today to speak about the budget and the debate we're

3:55:35 to 4:06:35( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Lindsey Graham

3:55:44 to 3:56:04( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: having in the senate about the budget and, quite frankly, if you ask me to give us a -- give a scenario that would best explain what a politician thinks about life and politics, i would say let them write a budget. when you give a political leader the opportunity to sit down and

3:56:05 to 3:56:25( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: spend money coming from the taxpayer, it tells you a lot about their priorities. it tells you a lot about how they view government. and i'm here to say that this budget is not good news for the american taxpayer. the biggest accomplishment in the first 100 days, which today is the anniversary, i think is a

3:56:26 to 3:56:46( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: budget that is transformational in terms of allowing a trans-- it transforms the country in a way that i don't think is helpful. the one thing that we as americans from one generation to the next is our hope and belief that we're going to do what's right and what's

3:56:47 to 3:57:08( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: they'll have a chance to do better. if this budget passes, you're going to have a hard time looking the next generation of americans in the eye and say: you're going to have a chance to do better than people who alive here today. because what it does is it doubles the national debt. president obama's proposal of a 10-year budget. i'll give him credit for making

3:57:09 to 3:57:29( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: it a 10-year window, tripled the national debt. this budget creates more debt for america in the first 100 days of the obama administration than every president since george washington combined. we have spent in the first 100 days $12 billion a day.

3:57:30 to 3:57:50( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: we are running up the deficit and the debt at an and we're growing the size of the government in a way future generations are going to have to pay f it. the question for the country when you pass this budget: are we creating a gov sustainable by the next generation and can the next

3:57:51 to 3:58:12( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: generation with this budget in place have a chance of doing better than we've don i don't think so. i really don't. and i never thought i would hear myse if you look down the road to how the budget explodes the debt and the deficit, 67% of the

3:58:13 to 3:58:34( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: debt held by the public percentage of.d.p. that's what happens under the obamaudget in 2014. now this is a five-year budget. and we ignored some of the things that we know we're going to do to make the numbers look better. the president's budget was so large and so unnerving in terms

3:58:35 to 3:58:57( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: of worst bush did, and we did not a good job on our wch as republicans, was have a $500 billion deficit. the best this budget does 10 years from now is about $600 billion. and we sustained trillion dollar deficits for several years. but the percentage of publicly

3:58:58 to 3:59:18( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: held debt relative to g.d.p., gros to be 67% down the road. that's third world nation status. now the budget is a five-year budget, the numbers look better, but we haven't done anything to fix the doctor reimbursement problem. the last two years of the a.m.

3:59:19 to 3:59:39( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: fix are not included -- a.m.t. fix are not included and expanding credit. we have amassed the real cost of what we know is going to be there after five years. by the president triples the nation debt, increases taxes by $1 trillion on people who

3:59:40 to 4:00:01( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: make over $250,000 a now that may sound good because i don't make $250,000 a year. maybe two or three years of my entire life i have. there are a lot of years -- i'm the first in my family to go to college. my dad and mom owned store. a middle class lifestyle at best but we were happy.

4:00:02 to 4:00:23( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: i never looked across the street at the person who owned the big business in town or had the nice house as my enemy. they if you start raising taxes in recession, in a global economy that's on its knees, on american business people, they're going to look to take their business somewhere else.

4:00:24 to 4:00:44( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: and to go from $39.00 -- 39.5% to 39% on people who make over $250,000 is in her theormore money for the government, but what it is is less money for the people who have taken a lunge risk to create a business. and the day that you start punishing people and rewarding the government for the risk that

4:00:45 to 4:01:05( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: you take is the day america got off track. raising the capital gains rate as this budget does from 15% to 20% will make it less likely that people will engage in entrepreneurial activity. the one thing that john kennedy understood is that low tax rates generatesore business opportunity that actually collects more money for the government. so what we're doing is we're

4:01:06 to 4:01:26( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: raising taxes and we're playing class warfare. and the defense spending in president obama's budget over a ten-year period went to 3% of gross domestic product. it's about 4.5% or 4.6% now. that would pus us on the low end in -- put us on the low end in the anything's historyor

4:01:27 to 4:01:48( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: defense spending. so liberals, they raise taxes and they cut defense. any time when i think we can afford -- we can't afford -- at a timehen i think we can't afford to do either. the world to me in the next ten years is not going to be safer unless we act, and iran and north korea are pursuing nuclear programs that would jeopardize

4:01:49 to 4:02:09( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: our life as we know it. and the one thing i can tell you about iraq and afghanistan, we made plenty of mistakes but we've got the best-trained, best-equipped military in the world and that really does matter. we're going to win in iraq if we continue the course that we're on and we're going to turn afghanistan around but it's going to take blood and treasure. and the one thing i'm not

4:02:10 to 4:02:30( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: looking for from an american perspective is a fair fight. when we go to war -- and sometimes that's required to protect the national interest -- we need to go to wi and to overwhelm the enemy. we need to have technology they do not. we need to have more troops than they do. we need to have can destroy their equipment without destroying our people.

4:02:31 to 4:02:51( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: that requires investment. and the whole world is reducing their defense budget. our nato allies spend less on defense combined than we do. like it or not, we're the arsenal of democracy and now is not the time to reduce the arsenal defense and grow the domestic side of government. we need butter and you need

4:02:52 to 4:03:12( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: guns, but let me tell you right now, you need a lot of guns in the world that we're about to inherit for the next ten years finally, the increase in domestic spending puts the country on an unsustainable path and the next generation's going to have to pay for this big government, and to pay for

4:03:13 to 4:03:33( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: you're going to have to raise their taxes. and to make it all work, you're cutting defense. there is a better way. let's keep taxes competive and low as possible, realizing we got a government to run. let's spend wisely. let's reform health care so the government doesn't become the one person in the -- the

4:03:34 to 4:03:54( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: country, the one group that decides what doctor you see and what the doctor makes as and what kind of treatment you get. this climate change issue is real, in my opinion. i think manmade emissions, co2 emissions are heating up the planet. in the predent's budget, he was going to put a $646 billion cap-and-trade tax

4:03:55 to 4:04:15( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: and american consumers, $3,100 per family at a time we could ill afford it. this w budget. that's good news. but what i am trying to say to my democratic colleagues, this is your government now. you run this place. the problems in the past, the real. you don't fix those mistakes by

4:04:16 to 4:04:36( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: spending more you don't fix the problems that america faces for the next generation by growing the government at a pace and a level they can't pay for down the road unless they have to give up some of there is a role for government. there is a role for us in health care. there is a role for us to play

4:04:37 to 4:04:58( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: in the economy of our times to help business and to be a safety net for their jobs. but we're about to pass a budget that will increase the national debt double what we have today. there will be a day i we will spend more money paying the interest on the national

4:04:59 to 4:05:19( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: debt the entire defense department budget. that is not healthy for this country. we've done nothing to reform medicare or social security. we're talking about more in spending on health care, when we spend more than any nation in the world. it is my hope

4:05:20 to 4:05:40( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: we're going to pass this budget. it is my hope that the american people will weigh in. a stimulus package was $787 billion of growth in government, very few jobs created. you need to speak out. you need to get involved. you need to tell

4:05:41 to 4:06:01( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: republicans and democrats -- that "i expect you to collect taxes from me. i expect you to offer services to me and my family. but i don't expect you to make it so that my children and my grandchildren can't have the life i've had. i expect you to do what i'm doing. tighten your belt and set prioriti "this is your government at the

4:06:02 to 4:06:22( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: end of the tkaeufplt it is fashionable and appropriate -- at the end of the day. it is fashionable and appropriate to criticize political leadership. but in a democracy, when you look in the mirror, that's we the people. so for america to change is going to require americans to demand it, from both of us,

4:06:23 to 4:06:37( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: republicans and democrats. i believe in you. your government is dysfunctional. it will be made better if you want it to be. there are people up here listening. speak outefore it'