Wednesday, July 6, 2011

U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Floor Statement on the Debt Crisis
Remarks as Delivered on the Senate Floor

Madam President, I rise this morning to talk about the meeting tomorrow the President has called at the White House--a summit, I think it has been referred to, one for which I have great hope. I hope it will be a summit where both sides leave their weapons at the door, sit across the table from one another, and begin talking about a comprehensive solution to a comprehensive problem. The solution to that problem, though, does not lie in creating villains and enemies. In the last 2 weeks, we have heard a lot of rhetoric coming from the White House demonizing people who have corporate jets or demonizing people who make over $1 million.

I was reminded in this debate about millionaires in the debate in 1969 in America. It was one of the first debates I ever watched. I had returned home from the service, I had begun my business, and a report came out in the newspaper that 155 Americans who made over $1 million paid zero taxes. I personally was astounded. Everybody else was astounded. Congress went to work to close the loophole, and they did it by creating something known as the alternative minimum tax--something to make sure someone who paid no tax at least paid ``their fair share,'' and I put that in quotes.

Today, it is not 155 millionaires who are paying the alternative minimum tax; 34,200,000 Americans are, because oftentimes when Congress goes to target one person, they catch everybody in a bigger loop.

I do not think we need to demonize those who employ Americans, those who create the jobs, those who make our economy run, any more than we should villainize people who want to try to save Social Security or Medicare.
The President in his two speeches last week targeted millionaires, he targeted job creators, he created villains, and he created enemies. None of that will help us to solve a problem.

Now, the President is not the only one playing that game. A little bit of criticism can go to both sides.
As we look at this chart that has been on the floor in the last 2 weeks about what has happened in the last 30 months since the President was elected as to critical things, unemployment is up by 1.9 million people--17 percent in terms of the rate--gas prices are almost double, and the Federal debt is up 35 percent. But, remember, it was $10 trillion when the President was elected, so it is not just the President's fault, but he is making it worse. Debt per person is now up by $11,258, and health insurance premiums are up by almost 20 percent. In fact, the only thing that is down in the last 30 months is the expectations of the American people--
expectations of what our future is going to be like.

So for a moment I would like to offer some historical suggestions as to what both sides can do tomorrow at the White House, when they leave the weapons at the door, sit at the table, and really begin to negotiate.
One is to look back in history when we have had big problems and we came up with big solutions. The 1980s is a particular time. I was in the State legislature then. I followed what was happening in Washington. In fact, when I was 39 years old in 1983, Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill had a meeting at the White House. I was not there, but allegedly it went something like this:
The President said: Well, Social Security is going broke in about 20 years. We just got that report. We need to fix it.

O'Neill said: I agree.

The President said: I am willing to work on it, but I am not willing to raise the tax.

O'Neill said: Well, I am willing to work on it, but I don't want to cut the benefit.

They looked at the Actuary and said: What do we do?

The Actuary said: Well, you push the eligibility out, and you get the system back in actuarial soundness.

I was 39 in 1983. I would have been collecting Social Security at the age of 65 in 2010. But because Reagan and O'Neill got together, they pushed my eligibility out by 1 year to age 66, not age 65, and now incrementally it goes up 2 months a year to age 67 in a few years. That put the system in actuarial soundness for 67 years. The reason it is now all of a sudden in trouble again is the protracted economy, and these difficulties have caused people--baby boomers--to now go to the bank of Social Security and collect early Social Security at age 62. So we have had a rush to Social Security because of the unemployment and the uncertainty in our economy. But Reagan and O'Neill fixed Social Security by pushing the eligibility out. They did not raise the tax, but they did raise the ceiling upon which it was levied.

I think it is interesting politically--I note the President should understand and all of us should recognize--the next year was 1984, and President Reagan won 49 of 50 States, a year after he fixed Social Security.
So I do not think we ought to demonize people for trying to solve the bigger problems of our debt and deficit. Everybody in this room knows you could cut every discretionary dollar out and you would still owe $300 billion in the deficit. The only way we are going to fix Social Security and Medicare is if we are going to fix the debt and deficit.

On Medicare, I was disappointed that when Paul Ryan in the House came up with a forthright plan, he was immediately demonized. In fact, he was invited to the White House and criticized face to face at a conference the President had. That was just for trying.

It is about time all of us start trying, we start trying to find common ground, we start to look at our solutions in a comprehensive way. It is a time where we stop calling names and instead we start calling numbers, we start looking at what it is we can do within our control to put our spending back in line, amortize our debt over time to a reasonable amount, and reduce our deficit over time. It is not going to be fixed with one stroke of a pen or one single piece of legislation, but it is going to begin to be fixed when both sides sit down at the table and understand that this is the fourth quarter of the ``major super bowl'' of the future of the United States of America. Continuing to shoot each other and throw bricks and bats and create victims and create enemies and not talk about the real problems is just making it worse for all of us. It is time we made it better for the American people.

I spent the weekend with the American people who live in the State of Georgia celebrating our independence on the Fourth of July and spending some time with five of my nine grandchildren. I remember Saturday night watching my grandchildren play in the den, looking down at them. They were not looking at me. I was just watching them play, and I thought about their future. I thought about what their future was going to be like in a country that ran unlimited debt and deficits, that inflated its dollar, lowered its expectations, and was not the America I had been fortunate enough to live, work, and be born in.

Recognizing my age and my time, I know my future--the years I have left--is all about those children and those grandchildren. I want to be a part of the solution for the problem today but a part of their expectations for the future. I do not want them to look back and say: Granddad made it worse. I want them to look back and say: Granddad made it better.

Tomorrow is an opportunity for the President of the United States to lead. He has templates with which he can lead. He can either choose to take isolated enemies and isolated arrows and shoot them at people or he can, instead, look back at his deficit commission. His deficit commission, which I voted for, by the way--I was one of the Republicans who voted for the creation of the deficit commission--came back in December with a comprehensive recommendation that should have come to the floor for debate. It dealt with Social Security. It did not deal with Medicare. It dealt with the Tax Code. It dealt with spending. It dealt with expenditures. It lowered tax rates and raised opportunity. The President did not even let it come to the floor of the Congress of the United States. He looked the other way.

It is time we look straight in each other's eyes and say there are solutions out there that good people of good will can find a way to do, just as Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill did. But I do not want to be a part of making it worse. I want to be a part of making it better.

I hope those at the conference tomorrow sit down with that type of attitude--we do not create enemies and villains, we do not make it worse, but we begin a platform and a template where in the next 3 to 4 weeks we can begin to amortize our debt over time, reduce our deficit over time, raise the expectations of the American people, and cause a brighter future for our children and for our grandchildren.