4:33:08 to 4:33:28( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from georgia is recognized. mr. isakson: thank you, mr. president. i rise for two the presing officer: the senate is currently in a quorum call. mr. isakson: i ask the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. isakson: i rise for two purposes.

4:33:29 to 4:33:49( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: i ask unanimous consent that my remarks be divided in the record as reflected. the presidinofficer: without objection. mr. isakson: i'm very pleased to come to the senate today and commend the warner robbins georgia girls' softball team that yesterday attended the white house and were honored by president obama. 11 and 12-year-old girls who went all the way last year and this year are in the finals to

4:34:16 to 4:34:36( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: ashley, avery, hannah, katie, chelsea. a fine group of young georgians who went all the way in the women's softball last year in the little league level and are about to do it again. in fact, yesterday as she was leaving the white house and president obama asked was there anything she had to say, ashley said mr. president, we're doing really well this year, we're going to be back next year to win it again. that's the type of positive

4:34:58 to 4:35:18( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: objection. mr. isakson: mr. president, we have been going through difficult economic times as a country, not only in our expenditures but in the revenues of our citizens of our states who face higher unemployment, lower productivity and very difficult economic times. as i have watched us on the floor time and again deal with

4:35:41 to 4:36:02( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: joined by other members of the senate, a bill that has a simple proposition to it, and that is that maybes a government, we should start doing what the people of our country have to do, determining how m in, prioritizing what we spend, and get back into balancing our budget while providing oversight on what we spend to see where savings could come from. you know, there is

4:36:26 to 4:36:47( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: leverage got too difficult, dave ramsey went bankrupt. after a couple of years, he got himself back together and built a large company on the basic philosophy of staying out of debt, staying within your means. in fact, i commend everybody to look at his proposals, look at his book, read his book "attain financial peace."

4:37:09 to 4:37:30( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: don't have the money for and began borrowing and begin to cut it piece after piece after piece. each month and each year, you live on a budget that is predicated on not going into debt and living within your means. we as a country must do the same thing. there may be an exception, obviously, for war. there may be an exception, obviously, if there is a significant terrorist attack or

4:37:52 to 4:38:13( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: you can't do it that way. you have to have a process where you're able to examine what you're spending money on, quantify how much you're going to take in and balance the two numbers so you don't go into debt. my suggestion and what i want to talk about today is the by anial

4:38:35 to 4:38:55( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: am. he sits on a number of committees. every now and then we'll have an oversight meeting, but more often than not, oversight gets left out because of the focus of what we're going to spend next or what project is going to be next proposed to be added to what we spend our money on. and that process itself builds more debt, builds a bigger appropriations act and never

4:39:18 to 4:39:39( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: numbered years come, two things ought to be happening. one congress ought to be doing oversight of his expenditures and second is running for office. i would love to see a time where running for office is in a year where you're doing oversight so you're focusing more on what you're saving the american taxpayer and less on what you're going to spend to try and impress them to get their vote one more time. we have a serious, difficult

4:40:01 to 4:40:21( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: here. it's time we focused on a way we started saving rather than continuing to spend, and i would like nothing better than that focus on saving to take place in the same election year wre everybody is running to be re-elected to come back and do the job. we would change the dynamics and the paradigm ofongress for it to focus on savings rather than focus on expenditure.

4:40:44 to 4:41:05( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: year, and i referred two or three times to a trillion dollars. at the end of the speech, this farmer raised his hand and he said excuse me, senator, can i ask a question? i sd sure. he said how much is a trillion? well, i don't know whether you have ever thought about it, mr. president, but when somebody asks you a question like that and you try to come up with a comparison to explain, it's hard to do.

4:41:28 to 4:41:48( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: i didn't know of a good comparison. she said why don't you just figure out how many years have to go by for a trillion seconds to pass? i thought that's a great idea. so i got a calculator out and i multiplied 60 seconds times 60 minutes to get the number of seconds in an hour. i multiplied that times 24 to get the number of seconds in a day. i multiplied that times 365 to

4:42:10 to 4:42:30( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: going to go one way or another, and fortunately we're recognizing we're at that point. i would submit one of the keys to stopping the growth of debt and improving the plight of our country in the future for our children and grandchildren is to begin spending within our means, and it takes a process like a biennial budget or a biennial appropriations act where you combine the responsibility of

4:42:53 to 4:43:13( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: our troops in week and will do it again. that's a special appropriation to our men and women who deserve that backing at a time we committed them to war. but we're not always at war. war is a special a a difficult time, and you ought to give your troops the support they need. but in every other case, it ought to be an expenditure that's based on the priorities of what's the most important

4:43:35 to 4:43:56( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: brings about that type of process, you will never really do it. and the biennial budget with appropriations in odd-numbered years and oversight in even-numbered years ensures that we begin being accountable to the electorate in an election year on what we're spending, and if those off years when we're appropriating, we're doing it based on the previous year's oversight so that we know the effectiveness of the department we're appropriating the money

4:44:18 to 4:44:39( Edit History Discussion )

Johnny Isakson: it's done systematically as it should be in odd-numbered years for appropriationnd in even-numbered years we're doing oversight. so our election is based on our accountability of spending money, not how much we can borrow or how much we can spend. mr. president, i yield back the balance of my time and suggest the absence of a the presiding officer: the clerk