Saturday, July 30, 2011

U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Floor Statement on the Need for Congress to Find Common Ground

Mr. President, today when the Chaplain opened the Senate, he prayed for divine guidance to end the paralysis of analysis in Congress. I thought it was an excellent point. When I heard the two leaders speak today I realized where that paralysis was. We were paralyzed by analyzing our differences and failing to look at what we have reached common ground on already.

I have been worried about a default on our debt for some time, but right now I am worried about Congress defaulting on our country. Failure should not be an option for us in this case and it is time we started finding common ground. So for the purpose of discussion, I want to put forward some thoughts about where we agree, some identification of where we do not but where we could be.

We have already agreed, in one form or another--whether it was the Vice President's group or the Speaker's group or whoever--that we ought to have a $1 trillion downpayment in initial cuts to bring about deficit reduction.

There is common agreement between both sides in the Senate and I think in the House as well that we need a short-term committee, equally divided in a partisan way, to come up with at least another $1.8 trillion that results in reductions in debt and in deficit. We have agreed on those two things.

Third, we have agreed we do not want to default on our debt. There may be a handful of people around here who think that is a good idea, but with all due respect it is not a good idea and the ramifications of default are already showing themselves in small measures in the market but will show themselves a lot greater next Wednesday if we fail.

Where do we differ? We do not differ on raising the debt ceiling, we just differ on when we raise it, how we raise it, and how long we raise it. The President favors raising it past the election in November 2012. There are others who want to have votes every 6 months or 10 months. Frankly, there is something to be said for waiting until after the November election of 2012 so we have 18 months of stability and predictability in the United States of America; there is not the uncertainty of us coming back.

There are a lot of differences on the other side about whether we have a constitutional amendment on the balanced budget vote. Frankly, I cannot understand why in the end anybody would reject both bodies being able to have a vote in regular order on a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. We are supposed to vote. We are supposed to confront those decisions. I think an agreement could be reached between those two differences that would ensure us moving closer to an agreement on the entire package.

Third, and probably toughest, we do not disagree on the committee that is appointed to find the $1.8 trillion or better in savings or cuts, but we disagree on the mechanism with which that is enforced. I want to talk about that for a minute. There is a fear--and a lot of it is justified because of the way we are acting right now--that if you had a committee of 12, 6 Democrats and 6 Republicans, charged with finding $1.8 trillion or more in reductions, they would never agree; therefore, they would be gridlocked; therefore, those reductions would not take place. I understand that fear and agree with the concern for that fear. So we need a mechanism where there is a risk for them to do that.

One of the discussions that has been floating around--last night it was in a discussion I had with the officer presiding right now--is you should allow the Congress itself to create a committee with an equal number of Democrats and Republicans of some accountable number, such as 10 or 20, to come together. If the committee fails to make its recommendations and make alternative recommendations, that must by requirement of the law be voted on on the floor of the House and Senate. If for some unbelievable circumstance that did not happen, there has to be an absolute fail-safe to ensure that failure is not an option. I have suggested automatic sequestration. I know that causes heartburn with some. But somewhere there is a silver bullet. The Lone Ranger had it. Tonto had it. Wyatt Earp had it. Why can't the Congress find it? Why can't we find the majority bullet that is the enforcement mechanism that ensures we come together on the $1.8 trillion or more? If we do those things, we have an agreement. We have already agreed in principle on most of them and we understand our differences on the ones we have not agreed on. We ought to be spending the next 24 hours finding out where our differences are and coming to find common ground because we are not that far apart.

I want to go back to the prayer of Barry C. Black this morning. I listen to his prayer just about every morning because it is very insightful. In fact, there is a clear message in it and he is usually talking to all of us because he watches all of us and he is concerned and I am concerned.

I have three children and nine grandchildren. I said in my campaigns the rest of my life is about leaving them a country as prosperous, free, and great as the country my parents left me. If we blink on this issue before us, that is not going to be the case. There is irreparable harm that can come from a failure to act. It doesn't harm me as a politician, it harms my kids and my grandkids. It harms those people I know on Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, and it harms those standing right now on a firing line somewhere in Afghanistan, realizing today could be their last day on this Earth so America could live to see another day. That is how serious the consequences are.

I suggest instead of being paralyzed by our analysis of where we differ, let's come to an analysis of where we find common ground. We do on raising the debt ceiling; we know we should raise it. We know we could find $2.8 trillion and hopefully more in cuts in the deficit and spending over time. We know we have to extend the debt ceiling to some point in time, and if it is past the Presidential election of 2012, let's ensure that each body in regular order can vote on a constitutional amendment to balance the budget, which leaves us with one difference, and that difference is what is the enforcement mechanism on the $1.8 trillion cut that the joint committee, equally divided, is supposed to come up with.

I submit we can find the common ground to find the silver bullet that causes that to happen and I encourage all of us to forget now where we differ and recognize where we agree and then work on building a bridge on those differences so the United States of America does not default on its debt and the Congress of the United States does not default on its obligation to the people of the greatest country on the face of this Earth, the United States of America.