Today’s Agenda
Roll Call votes are expected today on the Democrats’ motion to raise taxes and on a motion to move to the Mil-Con Appropriations bill. Senator Lee is giving a speech to BYU interns this evening and hosts his weekly open house for constituents in the afternoon.
From the Senator’s Desk
“Madam President, the need has never been greater for us to avoid gimmicks. Gimmickry in this context can have very high stakes and can prove most detrimental to our economy and to the ability of our government to function. We have to look out for those gimmicks that would say we’re going to make a few cuts now but most of the cuts we’re going to propose in return for our ability to raise the debt limit will involve sacrifices by future Congresses, not the 112th Congress. We’ll just make a few, but we’ll say that the 113th and 114th and successive Congresses after that will make the difficult, necessary sacrifices. We can’t do that. Nothing allows us to bind a future Congresses. That’s why we need something that’s gimmick free. That’s why we need to amend our law of laws, the US Constitution, to place important meaningful permanent restrictions on the ability of Congress to engage in perpetual, reckless deficit spending, of the sort that is produced in national debt, now fast approaching $15 trillion.” Senator Lee’s floor speech, 7/12/2001
Recent Votes
On a sense of the Senate motion to raise taxes in the middle of a recession, Senator Lee voted NAY.
Around the Water Cooler
Jobs: “Between 2000 and 2010, the economy lost roughly 4 million blue-collar jobs — according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics — mainly as a result of manufacturing job losses, the housing crisis and the recession.”
Cut, Cap, Balance: “The plan — which would substantially cut next year’s projected deficit, institute statutory spending caps and require Congress pass and send to the states a balanced-budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution that has real teeth — is still the only serious proposal out there that would amount to a permanent fix.”
Debt Deal: “Absolutely not. Never.”
A Look Ahead
Tomorrow, several groups from Utah will be in Sen. Lee’s office, dealing with issues such as education and health care. Lee also had ENR and Judiciary mark ups and has a conference call with several Utah county commissioners to discuss land issues. He will appear on Fox’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto” to talk about the debt debate.