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Senate Proceeding on Jun 10th, 2009 :: 3:32:15 to 3:52:35
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George Voinovich

3:32:07 to 3:32:28( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: i request to be able to speak as if in morning business for 20 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. voinovich: thank you. madam president, i rise today -- if we could have order in the senate. mr. voinovich: madam president, i rise today again to call attention to the irresponsible and reckless fiscal path we find

George Voinovich

3:32:15 to 3:52:35( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: George Voinovich

George Voinovich

3:32:29 to 3:32:50( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: ourselves as a nation and to urge my colleagues to act now to take the first step toward meaningful, comprehensive tax and entitlement reform through the enactment of the saving america's fiscal future commission act. and i introduced with senator joe lieberman.

George Voinovich

3:32:51 to 3:33:11( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: and i urge my colleagues to take the time to read a recent letter from senator lieberman and i urging their support of this legislation. the safe commission has broad bipartisan support outside of congress, including the peter j. peterson foundation, the business round-table, the concord coalition, the national

George Voinovich

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

George Voinovich: federation of independent business, the brookings institution. i think if you can get concord coalition and brookings institution to support a piece of legislation, it's got to be pretty bipartisan and fair. and also the responsible federal budget. all of these back the safe commission concept as the way to tackle tax reform and our entitlement crisis.

George Voinovich

3:33:34 to 3:33:54( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: as you may know, madam president, recently chinese prime minister ja je recently expressed his concern abo the -- quote -- "huge amount of money chinese has invested in the united states" -- saying -- quote -- "to be honest, i'm definitely a little worried."

George Voinovich

3:33:55 to 3:34:18( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: he then went on to call on the u.s. to maintain its good credit, to honor its promises and to guarantee the safety of china's assets. madam president, i hope this frightens you as much as it frightens me. china is the united states largest foreign creditor, holding an estimated $1 trillion in u.s. government debt. though it may be unlikely due to

George Voinovich

3:34:19 to 3:34:39( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: the complex interdpind not interdependent relationship we have with china, if china were to call in that debt, sell o its holdings or direct its foreign investments away from the united states, the impact oour economy and our national security would be devastating. i've been saying for years that we cannot allow countries that control our debt to control our future.

George Voinovich

3:34:40 to 3:35:00( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: and the fact is -- and i think this is a statistic most americans are not aware of -- is that foreign creditors have provided 70% of the funds that the u.s. has borrowed since 2001. as a resul 5% of privately held debt is held by

George Voinovich

3:35:01 to 3:35:21( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: foreign creditors and that's going to be increased significantly because of all the borrowing we're doing. and mostly foreign central banks. and these lenders are starting to express serious concerns about the status of our fiscal situation. and to be frank, they should be concerned, madam president. our spending is out of control,

George Voinovich

3:35:22 to 3:35:43( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: and as a result, our debt is skyrocketing. when i arrived in the senate in 1999, gross national debt stood at $5.6 trillion, or 61% of our g.d.p. the obama administration recently projected the national debt to more than double to $12.7 trillion by the end of fiscal year 2009.

George Voinovich

3:35:44 to 3:36:08( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: from 2008-2009 alone, the federal debt will increase boosting the country's debt to national income ratio from 70% last year to 89% this year. so here we are

George Voinovich

3:36:09 to 3:36:30( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: to the senate in 1 1999, 200, the 8, the federal debt or 2008, the federal debt or national debt was 70% last year, and today it's at 89%. and you can see that we're going to be very closely to 100% of our g.d.p. on our debt. i call this the pacman that's eating up particularly the

George Voinovich

3:36:31 to 3:36:52( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: interest that we're goi pay, money that could be used for other things. alarmingly, the figures that i just mentioned don't count our accumulated long-term financial obligations. the peterson foundation recently pointed out that the federal government has accumulated $56.4 trillion in total liabilities and unfunded promises for medicare and social

George Voinovich

3:36:53 to 3:37:13( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: security as of september 30, 2008. that works out -- listen to this -- to $483,000 per american household, or $184,000 for every man, woman and child in the country to pay for these unfunded in other words, we have $56.4 trillion in total

George Voinovich

3:37:14 to 3:37:38( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: liilities and unfunded promises for medicare and social security. it's unfunded liability. and if you look at it per household, it's a $483,000 for every man and woman in ohio, in the united states, $184,000. to be completely fair to

George Voinovich

3:37:39 to 3:37:59( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: president obama, our annual deficit and growing national debt have been problems for some time n to the floor of the senate time and time again to talk about paying down debt, balancing our budget and so forth. and to my knowledge, president bush never once mentioned the debt in any one of his state of the union addresses.

George Voinovich

3:38:00 to 3:38:20( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: over eight years, it was like it didn't exist. never mentioned the national debt. and also, another disappointment for me is that he failed to deliver on tax reform as he promised in -- in 2004 at the republican convention. promised all of us that he was going to do something about tax reform and he never kept his

George Voinovich

3:38:21 to 3:38:41( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: promise. but under the obama administration, exacerbated the problem with omnibus appropriations bill that includes $408 billion in nonemergency funding, a $787 billion stimulus bill a ten-year proposed budget

George Voinovich

3:38:42 to 3:39:02( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: the lowest deficit for a single year is larger than any annual deficit from the end of world war ii to president obama's inauguration. madam president, i know we're going through some tough times over the past year, we've been hit by an economic avalanche that started in housing, spread to the financial and credit

George Voinovich

3:39:03 to 3:39:24( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: markets, and onward to every corner of our economy. i know it i'm a senator from ohio. we are spending money to get out of this economic mess but we cannot allow that to be an excuse to continue our reckless fiscal path. we have to start finding ways to work harder and smarter, to do

George Voinovich

3:39:25 to 3:39:45( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: more with less, and it doesn't take an economist to realize that our course is unsustainable. i know it. the obama administration knows it. the american people know it. and so does the rest of the world. i just read a story to my granddaughters, "the

George Voinovich

3:39:46 to 3:40:07( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: that's where we're at today. everyone understands that we have a real problem in terms of our unsustainable debt and the cris that we have, but for some reason, we fail to recognize that we have the problem. according to a poll conducted by the peterson foundation, america's concern for the growing national debt takes

George Voinovich

3:40:08 to 3:40:28( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: second only -- only -- to their concern for their own jobs. the american people know that we cannot continue to ignore our ballooning national debt and our continued deficit spending, which is projected to be $2 trillion this year. $2 trillion this year. and i just checked on ten-yr t-bills that are starting to

George Voinovich

3:40:29 to 3:40:51( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: reflect people's concern about our future and inflation and they're up almost 4% today. the obama administration knows that we can no longer ignore cris. and peter orszag, who i consider a friend, obama administration's o.m.b. director, has even

George Voinovich

3:40:52 to 3:41:14( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: said -- this is a quote from the c.b.o. director -- or the o.m.b. director -- "i don't want to sound like the boy crying wolf but it is a fact that given the path we are on, two things. one is we will ultimately wind up with a financial crisis that is substantially more severe than eve today if we don't alter the path

George Voinovich

3:41:15 to 3:41:35( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: of federal spending. and, secondly, that if we are on that path inhe future and something like we experiencing today occurred, we would have much less maneuve to fight those fires because we will have already depleted the firetruck." i'd like to say in due respect to the o.m.b. director,

George Voinovich

3:41:36 to 3:41:56( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: mr. orszag, the firetruck is depleted. we're already there. and i'm disappointed as o.m.b director he has forgotten his commitment to entitlent and tax reform that he so boldly and loudly called for when he was c.b.o. director. you would think that a change in

George Voinovich

3:41:57 to 3:42:18( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: title would not cause such a memory loss on as important an issue as the financial health of our country. to me it can only mean one thing thing, that peter orszag's boss, serious about addressing the gross national debt or, worse, doesn't understand our fiscal cris or even worse than that,

George Voinovich

3:42:19 to 3:42:40( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: that he doesn't care. just last friday, "the washington post" ran an opinion piece taking the administration to task for lacking a plan on just how we start to dig our country out of this financial cris. the article details secretary -- treasury secretary geithner's trip to beijing two weeks ago

George Voinovich

3:42:41 to 3:43:03( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: when he went to reassure china, the world's largest holder of our treasury debt, as i mentioned, that lending money to the u.s. government is still a wise thing to do. he ar foundations for restoring fiscal sustainability. in a moment that all americans

George Voinovich

3:43:04 to 3:43:24( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: should consider a wake-up call, mr. geithner met with laughter -- laughter -- when he told a group of chinese students that their country's assets in werevery madam president, i'd like to submit in this "washington post" article for the record.

George Voinovich

3:43:25 to 3:43:45( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: title of it is: "no laughing matter: why the u.s. needs to get serious about long-term budget deficits." the presiding officer: without objection. know, president obama announced a plan to reenact statutory

George Voinovich

3:43:46 to 3:44:06( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: pay-go. pay-go basically is this, that if you want to spend more money you either have to find other spending that you're going to reduce, or in the alternative, you're going to have to raise taxes to pay for them. or in the alternative, if you want to going to have to raise other

George Voinovich

3:44:07 to 3:44:28( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: taxes to make up for it. or in the alternative, cut spending. but you've got to balance them up. unfortunately, in his plan, he exempts the tax cuts,

George Voinovich

3:44:29 to 3:44:49( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: alternative minimum tax, updating physicians payments in medicare -- we all know what i don't know, madam president, what it is in your state but we've got doctors now that are not taking medicare because the reimbursement is so low. and last but not least, modifying the estate tax. they woul pay-go rules.

George Voinovich

3:44:50 to 3:45:10( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: folks, i believe this is intellectually dishonest. this does not reflect the high standards the president has set for his administration. and in my opinion, is more like the smoke and mirrors of the past that got us intohe mess that we find ourselves today. the president of the committee for responsible budget put it

George Voinovich

3:45:11 to 3:45:32( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: like this: it's like quitting drinking. she was referri to the president's pay-go announcement. here's what she said -- "it is like quitting drinking, making an exception for beer and hard liquor. exempting these measures from pay-go would increase the ten-year deficit by over $2.5 trillion."

George Voinovich

3:45:33 to 3:45:54( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: this is still her the end of the quote is, "that's not fiscal responsibility." today i'm reiterating my call for president obama and congress to enact the first pillar of meaningful tax reform through the the safe commission i'm asking my colleagues and their staff to step up and look at this legislation and read the

George Voinovich

3:45:55 to 3:46:19( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: "dear colleague" lear that senator lieberman and i sent this past week with materials from the peterson foundation. those materials for a senator or staff members really lay out what i'm talki about today. in addition, there's a d.v.d.

George Voinovich

3:46:20 to 3:46:41( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: that's called i don't know anything that depicts our financial crisis as that d.v.d. does. the safe commission we're talk vehicle much like we do for the brac process, to take on the tough issues of social security, tax reform, and creating, by vote of 13 out of 20 members --

George Voinovich

3:46:42 to 3:47:03( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: there will be 20 members on the commission. two of them would be from the administration. but it would take 13 out of 20. and if we have 13 out of 20, the recommendations would be fast tracked through a special process and of both chambers. in other words, we give it expedited procedure, and then we have to either vote up or down, just as we do on the brac process.

George Voinovich

3:47:04 to 3:47:24( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: it would break the logjam in washington and people and the world that we are serious about getting this nation back on track.?? madam president, for the life of me, i cannot understand why president obama does not support this concept. i know that he's getting a hard time from speaker pelosi and

George Voinovich

3:47:25 to 3:47:45( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: from sever in the house of although steny hoyer is in favor of the commission approach to solving our entitlement and tax reform crisis. this done through the regular order of business. we know it. we won't be able

George Voinovich

3:47:46 to 3:48:06( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: and the proof of it is we haven't been able to do it thus far. and s we're going to need the commission. everybody understands that we're going as i say, if i were the president, if i were the mayor of cleveland, governor -- and i know the president wants to move on health care. i know he wants to move on climate change.

George Voinovich

3:48:07 to 3:48:27( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: bu substantive point of view and a political point of view, he's going to have to do something about this long-term financial cris that we find ourselves. and it would seem to me that he could go forward with climate change, he could go forward with

George Voinovich

3:48:28 to 3:48:48( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: health care reform, get the commission formed. it will take the commission at least a year to finish its business. and think commission is able to get 13 out of 18 members to come back with a bip with tax reform

George Voinovich

3:48:49 to 3:49:09( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: reform, that would be wonderful. president's plate. in other words, sooner or later our president and his party are going toave to face up to the fact that the people of america are really the people of the world about us doing something about tax reform and entitlement reform. and wouldn't it be great -- i

George Voinovich

3:49:10 to 3:49:30( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: mean, if i were the governor, as i was for eight years in and something said, governor, you you've got a real problem. and what we're going to do is we're going to put a commission together on a bipartisan basis, and we're going to come back with recommendations to get the job done, i'd kiss him and say wonderful. i could except for two people in

George Voinovich

3:49:31 to 3:49:51( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: administration working on it, and they came back with a bipartisan solution, wow! get it through congress and we deal with the substantive problem, and we get a big, big political problem off our plate when i'm going into the next presidential election. so, i just hope that there's some more thought being giv

George Voinovich

3:49:52 to 3:50:13( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: the administration, more thought being given by the congress. we all say, oh, yeah, we're concerned about the national debt, we've got to do something about it. but when you go home, where are you going to point to, the people, your constituents? and say -- i'm sincere about this, i want to do something about it. then they're going to ask you, what did you do? i think one of the things you

George Voinovich

3:50:14 to 3:50:34( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: can do is say i support a commission, a bipartisan commission. they're going to go to work during the next year. they're going to come back with recommendations. and this is the way we can deal with this problem that is going to be such a burden on the future of our country. you know, i came here in 1999, and one of the reasons i came here was to deal with our

George Voinovich

3:50:35 to 3:50:55( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: deficits and with reducing our national debt. and i couple years. madam president, you won't believe this, but in reduced the deficit by billion. really. didn't use social security.

George Voinovich

3:50:56 to 3:51:17( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: the next year we did it by $284 billion. that was 2000. in 2001, we just took off. and we find ourselves where we are today. i'm going to be leaving this place at the end of next year. i have three children. i have seven grandch and i happen to believe that just like the pages that are

George Voinovich

3:51:18 to 3:51:41( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: here today in this room, that they're going to have to look a lot harde than i did in order to maintain the standard of living that i've been able to have because the competition in the w is a lot keener than it was 15 or 20 years ago. so they're just going to have to work harder than they've e had to work before to maintain the kind of standard of living that we'd like to have for them

George Voinovich

3:51:42 to 3:52:02( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: and for my children and grandchildren. but if you think about don't deal with this problem i'm talking about today, we're going to lay on their back taxes that will break their back. put them in a position where they're going to have to work harder to maintain a decent standard of living, and then

George Voinovich

3:52:03 to 3:52:23( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: going to let you pay for those things to do without or pay for on our own. and to me, that's absolutely immoral. it's absolutely immoral. and one of the things that i would hope is -- and, you know, i feel like i'm a broken record.

George Voinovich

3:52:24 to 3:52:35( Edit History Discussion )

George Voinovich: but i would hope that the holy spirit would somehow enlighten us to face up to this very serious responsibility, one that if we don't face up to will have

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