Senate Proceeding 03-31-09 on Mar 31st, 2009 :: 3:22:25 to 3:36:10
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3:22:21 to 3:22:42( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: but many of them are now at the verge of retirement. we need this budget resolution provides the funds for traing them. the presiding officer: the senator's time has expired. mr. inouye: i have many others, madam president. but you can i to vote against this amendment. it's a bad, bad amendment.

3:22:25 to 3:36:10( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Benjamin L. Cardin

3:22:43 to 3:23:03( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: it's not american. thank you very much.

3:23:04 to 3:23:25( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: mr. cardin: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: madam president, i take this time to urge my colleagues to support the budget resolution that came out of the budget committee. i'm proud to serve on the budget committee. i want to congratulate senator conrad for his extraordinary work in bringing out a well-balanced budget resolution

3:23:26 to 3:23:47( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: during extremely difficult times. i think we all know the economic cris that we're in and the budget committee -- senator conrad's budget, think, does what a budget should do. it is the blueprint of our nation's priority. president obama b a budget that gives new hope for america's future.

3:23:48 to 3:24:08( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: and then senator conrad had to fit those realities of our revenues. we all know that we got the new congressional budget office numbers. it showed that the economy quais a lot weaker than when president obama submitted his budget. but senator conrad's budget fits the priorities of president obama into the realities of our

3:24:09 to 3:24:32( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: projected revenues. and i want to thank senator conrad f budget. president obama inherited an economic mess. that's worth repeating. take a look at the mess that the president inherited. the congressional budget office

3:24:33 to 3:24:56( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: shows th thought when he took office. the deficit in 2000 when president bush took office, madam president, was not a deficit. it was billion. congress w those years to balance the federal budget. in 2009, we're now projecting a

3:24:57 to 3:25:18( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: deficit of $1.75 trillion. how did we get there? well, there's been a lot of time going over the mistakes that have been made eight years, but we had tax cuts that we didn't pay for, we had spending that we didn't pay for, we had a war in iraq that we never budgeted for correctly, and we ignored the

3:25:19 to 3:25:40( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: problems of our economy. the bush administration took our health care system that h million people without health insurance when president bush took office to a health insurance system that now has 47 million people without health insurance. health costs in america grew during those years to be twice any other industrial nation's

3:25:41 to 3:26:03( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: spending on healthare, and we don't have the results to reflect that type of public -- or economic expenditures. we found that the bush administration wanted to privatize our health care system, d as a result we spent more money, more money on prescription drugs cause we used a private insurance option, more money for private insurance

3:26:04 to 3:26:26( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: within medicare paying those who enroll in private insurance more than the government would pay they stayed in traditional medicare. this past administration did everything it could to privatize, evenf it cost more in energy, the bush administration never dealt with the energy problems of our country. we became more dependent rather

3:26:27 to 3:26:48( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: than less dependent upon imported energy sources. we -- this prior administration subsidized the oil industry even more, knowing full well that the energy we imported very much affected our national security and the moneys that we had to spend on national security. well, we now have these large

3:26:49 to 3:27:10( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: deficits we can't do anything about. president obama inherited these deficits. he ao system that failed to deal with the underlying problems of our economy. and president obama says ther is a different course. if we take the same type of budget and do that for our future and try to address the

3:27:11 to 3:27:32( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: deficits today, we're going to have the deficits of tomorrow. we need to deal with the underlying problems. president obama has submitted a very open and honest budget. he's actually budgeting for the cost of government rather than saying, well, we'll pay for it after the fact. he has tackled the tough

3:27:33 to 3:27:54( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: problems of our time, and he's prepared to make difficult choices to meet tomorrow's ch the first this budget deals with is economic problems of our comaition. we need to make that our top priority. the budget allows for investment in job creation.

3:27:55 to 3:28:16( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: we're losing over 500,000 jobs a month. in america today. in fact, it's about 600,000. we've been doing that for the last several months because of the economic crisis. this budget allows us to invest in job creation so we can create new j

3:28:17 to 3:28:38( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: it provides money in the hands of consumers. middle class tax cuts are extended, the a.m.t. is extended, there's credits for savers, the estate tax issue is accommodated in the budget. so the budget provides for the

3:28:39 to 3:29:00( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: realities of consumers need to have more money in order to help stimulate our economy. the has brought forward ptects critical programs for to meet the economic challenges,

3:29:01 to 3:29:21( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: whether it is unemployment insurance, veterans, transportation, research, job education, small business issues, i'm going to mention just for a minute, the s.b.a., the small business administration. if we're going to get out of this recession, we need to create jobs and we create job main over 99% of america's businesses are small b and they're particularly

3:29:22 to 3:29:44( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: vulnerable today. most of our job growth comes from small companies. the president has brought forward initiatives that allow for the s.b.a. loan program and the costly to small business. he's also instrucd treasury to go out and help in the secondary markets to make money vawbl for small business loans.

3:29:45 to 3:30:06( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: but you need a small business administration that can provide the services to small business. during the bush years, the s.b.a. budget was decimated. this will allow the s.b.a. to have the resources necessary, not only to administer these programs but counseling and mentoring to small businesses and oversight with other federal agencies to make sure that small businesses

3:30:07 to 3:30:27( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: get their fair share of government procurement contracts. i appreciate the fact that the budget committee passed an amendment that i offered that increased the s.b.a.'s budget to $880 million, up from $700 million. that money is going to be used, i think, for the this budget also deals with

3:30:28 to 3:30:48( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: fiscal responsibility, deals with the economic cris but also fiscal responsibility. the president's goal was to have the budget deficit -- to the budget deficit in five years. it's gone beyond that. the budget that senator conrad has brought out will take the budget deficit from $1.7 trillion this year to five years

3:30:49 to 3:31:09( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: from now a budget deficit of $508 billion. we want to see it lower than that but reducing it by two-thirds over that period of time is certainly moving in the right direction. that's fiscal responsibility. that's making the tough decisions. but it also allows us when we get out of this recession to deal with the und problems in our economy. we deal with energy in this

3:31:10 to 3:31:32( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: budget by allowing a cap-and-trade system, so that we can become energy-independent for the sake of our national security, that we can create good jobs for the sake of our economy, that we can reduce carbon emissions for the sake of our global climate change

3:31:33 to 3:31:53( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: to deal with it byeducing the deficit b also dealing with energy independence. it deals with the underlying problems on our healt health care system, by allowing our communities to bring out provisions to allow with universal health care coverage to deal with the 47 million that don't have health improving health information

3:31:54 to 3:32:14( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: technology which will save money, by which will give us the answers to the -- how to deal with the health challenges of tomorrow, by improving the medicare system to deal with the physician reimbursement rates and an amendment that i offered that deals with the outpatient therapy caps.

3:32:15 to 3:32:35( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: to deal with the health care issues that will, if we don't deal with them, add to the budget deficits of the future. investing in education from head start to making college affordable. in 1979 pell grants covered 70% of the tuition and fees of public four-year colleges. today that's less than one-third. we need to do better at making

3:32:36 to 3:32:56( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: college affordable. the obama bud the conrad budget does that. it invests in america's future so we can meet the challenges of the future so we'll have an easier time not only balancing our budgets in the future but having the type of economic growth that this nation needs. i want to deal with one last issue, which there is disagreement in our caucus, and that is reconciliation

3:32:57 to 3:33:17( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: instructions. i regret that the budget does not bring forward reconciliation instructions, particularly on the energy issue. i know there is a bad taste among my colleagues on the use of reconciliation, considering how it's been used in with the republican leadership to bring about tax cuts. it's supposed to be used to reduce the deficit. that in fact increased the

3:33:18 to 3:33:39( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: deficit and that but the proper use of the reconciliation instructions can help us reduce the federal deficit and does anyone here believe that the right number of filibusters have been used by the minority over the last years? of course not. we've use it way -- it's been

3:33:40 to 3:34:01( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: used way too often so what proper budget reconciliation instructions will allow us to do is to have an up-or-down vote on a critical issue that's important to reducing the deficit. why do i say that? because the cap-and-trade will produce $237 billion worth of revenue over years. some will ub used for direct --

3:34:02 to 3:34:22( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: direct -- deficit reduction. and if we system right, if we become energy-independent, we all know the secondary impact of becom energy-independent of not having to bring our energy in from foreign sources will help us billion our budgets in the future. we also know that we do it right an use the market f

3:34:23 to 3:34:45( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: cap-and-trade system will do, will create good green jobs here in america using american technology, keeping jobs here that will also help us balance the budget so i hope time to the proper use of reconciliation instructions. that was part and that should be included in our

3:34:46 to 3:35:07( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: but today we have a choice on the resolution that's before us. i support, strongly support, the budget resolution that came out we have a choice. we can continue down the same path we h deal with the problems of our country, and i dare say we'll have a much more difficult time balancing our budgets in the futurend certainly being competive

3:35:08 to 3:35:28( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: internationally as we need to for the sake the growth of our economy. or we can choose a direction for our economy, one that embraces fiscal responsibility, one that provides an opportunity to really reform our health care system, one that allows us to have an energy policy that not only brings about energy independence but does

3:35:29 to 3:35:50( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: way that will reduce greenhouse gases and deal with the international issues of global climate change, one that have invest in the issues for america's future, including education. that by the budget brought out by the budget committee. i urge my colleagues to support

3:35:51 to 3:36:10( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: the budget resolution so that we can change the direction of america, so we can invest in our future, so we not only deal with the economic cris t in today, we not only deal with the budget deficits that we're facing, but we deal with the underlying problems and invest in america's future.