U.S. Senator Mark Pryor today delivered the following statement on the Senate floor encouraging his colleagues in the Senate and House of Representatives to work together, turn off the rhetoric and avert a government shutdown. Without a compromise to fund government operations for the next six months, the government will cease operations on Friday, April 8, 2011.
Highlights:
“We find ourselves in dangerous territory. While Republicans and Democrats continue to point fingers and hold fiery press conferences, a government shutdown is quickly approaching. This blame game is like quicksand; it has the ability to drag down not just the Senate and the House, but our entire economy and our country. No matter how you look at it, a shutdown would be reckless and irresponsible.”
“And now, with all the momentum and opportunity built up over the past few months, is the time to lead. We must make the serious decisions to get our nation out of the red so we can be competitive for the future. Again, I’d say let’s turn off the rhetoric and be part of the solution, not part of the problem.”
“Are we so blind that we can’t see the forest for the trees here, that we can’t understand how important it is for this country to get our debt and deficit where it needs to be? Are we so blind as to not be able to see that we need to put everything on the table, that this is a time for great leadership and sacrifice and we all have to give up something to get this done?”
Full Text:
Mr. President. We find ourselves in dangerous territory while Republicans and Democrats continue to point fingers and hold fiery press conferences, a government shutdown is quickly approaching. The blame game is like quicksand. It has the ability to drag down not just the Senate and the House, but our entire economy and even our country. No matter how you look at it, a shutdown would be reckless and irresponsible.
We can get this short-term budget problem resolved if all parties would turn off the rhetoric and stop the campaigning. A few extreme partisans stand in the way of progress, blocking a good-faith effort of many others seeking common ground. I ask them to take to heart what it says in the Book of Isaiah, “Come now, let us reason together.” We need to overcome this budget impasse and live up to the oath we took to the people we represent.
Larger challenges await our attention. It is not in our best interest to see a government shutdown, and I don’t think it is in the best interest of the nation to continue on this deficit spending cycle that we’ve been on. We owe it to the American people and the world watching us to show American leadership on both our short-term and long-term fiscal challenges.
I’d like to see us turn our efforts to the blueprint provided by the debt commission. We must find ways to reduce spending, address entitlement programs, and reform the tax code. And now with all the momentum built up over the last few months, it is the time to lead. We must make the serious decision to get our nation out of the red so that we can be competitive for the future. Again, I’d say let’s turn off the rhetoric and be part of the solution, not the problem.
In Washington, the blame game has become par for the course. It’s become just become politics as usual. In fact, it’s one thing that people in my state are sick and tired of and one of the reasons why they’ve lost confidence in Congress and in our government.
Besides that, how in the world does holding press conferences and pointing fingers at others help resolve anything? It’s not true. The truth of the matter is that we are in this fiscal situation that we’re in today because of decisions that all of us have made over the last decades.
In fact, I saw yesterday in the paper where Speaker Boehner was talking to his caucus about getting ready for the shutdown and there were ovations over there. There are no ovations over here for a government shutdown. We do not want to see it. I’m not just talking about the Democrats in the Senate. I don’t know of any Republicans in the Senate who want to see a shutdown.
One of the tests I use when I look at politicians is the louder they are and the more often they have press conferences to blame other people, it probably means they are more to blame for the problems we have today. I certainly hope as the elections roll around next year the American people will remember many of the politicians’ attempts here in Washington to avoid responsibility for this terrible fiscal crisis.
One thing we need to keep in mind is that we’re talking about this week in terms of shutting down the government. I hope that doesn’t happen. But what we’re talking about this week is really only important for the next six months. We’re only talking about for the rest of this year. The only fight that we need to have is over the long-term fiscal policy of this country. So for the next six months, I don’t want to say that it’s not important because it is but I would say it’s time for us to demonstrate to the American people, to the markets, and to the world that we can come up with political solutions to the very challenging problems that we have.
I’m also very concerned in this fragile economy that if we do shut down the government, that might be something that would shake this economy and, possibly, stop it in its tracks. I hope not reverse it, but I do have concerns about what an abrupt cutoff of government spending will do to the economy.
Our fiscal challenges that the debt commission has focused on and many of us have focused on, they’re beyond politics. They’re bigger than politics. They’re more important than the next election. In fact, they’re more important than our own personal political fortune. This fiscal situation that we’re in is not about the next election, but it’s about the next generation.
In fact, if you look back at the time that we call “The Battle of Britain,” one of the things Winston Churchill said that always stuck with me. He said “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” And he was talking about those brave men who flew those airplanes over Great Britain to protect the skies and protect the British people and really to win the war, to stop Nazi Germany from invading and defeating the British Empire.
The so few that we have today could be named and their names are Tom Coburn, Dick Durbin, Mark Warner, Saxby Chambliss, Mike Crapo, and Kent Conrad. Those few have been meeting for weeks, even months to try and come up with a comprehensive budget agreement based on the blueprint that the debt commission has given us. I would say that these six senators, they’re not politicians. They’re statesmen. They’re trying to do what’s right for the country. They’re trying to do what’s in the country’s best interest, not their own best interest. I can guarantee you, each one of the six will face tremendous criticism from their own parties and from other quarters about what they’re trying to do. To me that’s courage, to me that’s leadership, to me that’s what being a Senator is all about.
Right now I know there are six of them meeting. I know at some point once they come out and once they’re ready to announce what they want to do, many others will join that effort. I think that we need to cheer them on and encourage them to finish this very hard task that they’ve begun.
When I think about those six sitting in various rooms around the Capitol, I’m reminded of the phrase in the Declaration of Independence right before our founding fathers signed that great document where they say “We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” This is our time to put it all on the line. We need to put our political lives on the line, our political fortunes on the line, and our honor. We need to honor the commitment we’ve made to this country when all 535 stood up and took the oath that we were going to do what was right for this country.
I’m reminded many times in the Bible, we’re always encouraged to do right, to do justice, to show mercy. We want to be upright and true. I think that’s what they call us to do and what they want us to do. I’m also reminded in the New Testament when Jesus is talking to political and religious leadership of his day. He says “Are you so blind?”
Are we so blind that we can’t see the forest for the trees here, that we can’t understand how important it is for this country to get our debt and deficit where it needs to be? Are we so blind as to not be able to see that we need to put everything on the table, that this is a time for great leadership and sacrifice and we all have to give up something to get this done?
It is our time to lead. This may be the greatest challenge of our generation, of any of us who are in this chamber who are serving either in the House or Senate right now. This may be our one moment in history for greatness. And I sincerely hope that we rise to the challenge because I believe the future of the republic depends on it.
