Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday regarding the need to reduce Washington spending:

“I’d like to start this morning by acknowledging the progress that’s been made this week.

“Senator Reid’s prediction that the Senate will follow the House in approving a $4 billion cut for the current fiscal year is a small step, but it’s a step in the right direction.

“This is a long-awaited acknowledgement by Democrats in Congress that we have a spending problem around here.

“It’s hard to believe when we’re spending $1.6 trillion more than we’re taking in a single year, that it would take this long to cut a penny in spending, but it’s progress nonetheless.

“It’s also encouraging to hear the White House say yesterday they’d be supportive of a 4- week CR with $8 billion in cuts.

“So it’s encouraging that the White House and Congressional Democrats now agree that the status quo won’t work, that the bills we pass must include spending reductions.

“Beyond that, the GAO report we all saw yesterday makes it pretty clear to me at least that there are a lot of other very obvious targets for additional cuts.

“I want to thank Senator Coburn for requesting the report, first of all.

“I don’t think most Americans are surprised to hear that Washington is wasting so much money.

“I do think some people might be surprised at how rampant it is and, frankly, the sheer idiocy of some of the waste we’ve been tolerating around here.

“I can’t imagine anyone in the Senate voting against a bill that would return to taxpayers money that we’re wasting on the bloated and duplicative programs outlined in this report.

“Programs which, as ABC put it, are chewing up billions of dollars in funding every year.

“It would be an embarrassment and a double indictment of Congress to not act on this.

“The report is damning — but it comes at a good time.

“Right when we’re looking to make cuts both parties can agree on we learn that we’ve got more than 100 programs dealing with surface transportation issues, 82 programs monitoring teacher quality, 80 programs for economic development, 47 programs for job training,17 different programs for disaster preparedness, and here’s my favorite — 56 programs to help people understand finances.

“If that isn’t an emblem of government waste I don’t know what is: We’re going to be $1.6 trillion dollars in the red this year alone, and not only do we think we’re in a position to teach other people about financial literacy, we’ve got 56 overlapping programs to do it. If we’re going to create the conditions for private-sector job growth in this country, this is a good place to start.

“We’ve got to stop spending money that we don’t have on more government, and calling it progress.

“Democrats have tried that. They’ve borrowed three trillion dollars over the past two years to expand the size and scope of government, and what’s it gotten us? Three million more lost jobs.

“So we’ve made some progress this week — a very small step, perhaps, but one in the right direction.

“At the same time, the White House took another step backward this week by failing to fulfill another responsibility.

“According to the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act, the President is required to submit a reform proposal for Medicare if more than 45 percent of the program’s finances are being drawn from the government’s general revenue fund instead of a fund specifically set aside for Medicare for two years in a row. As of today, that’s the situation.

“So as of today, the President was supposed to have taken care of this. He hasn’t. He’s punting on this responsibility just as he punted on other reforms in the 10-year budget plan he released last month.

“Washington’s unsustainable spending on entitlements like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security must be addressed now, and we’ll never be able to assure the stability and solvency of any of them without

Presidential leadership. In this case, that’s not just my opinion. The law actually requires it.

“One more word on the continuing resolution. 

“Once we've passed this stop-gap spending measure, of course, we’ll be right back at it again two weeks from now unless we can reach an agreement on a long-term measure before then.

“The House has sent us a bill that will keep the government funded through the end of the year.

“At the moment that this next continuing resolution expires we will be nearly half way through the fiscal year. The House bill contains a much-needed Defense spending bill for the rest of the year.  Many important programs have been delayed and Secretary Gates has made clear that further delay will harm combat readiness.

“So there are many compelling reasons for us to reach agreement on a longer-term bill.”