The Pork Barrel Reduction Act measure addresses two of the major challenges facing our country today. The first is the growing sea of red ink that threatens our economy, our national security, and our children’s future. The second is the growing crisis of confidence in our government: the feeling that Washington doesn’t work any more. Too often, it’s the self-interest or the special interests that are being served, rather than the general good.

This is an important step towards meeting both of those important challenges. I have always believed that fiscal responsibility is important. In a previous life, as governor, I vetoed the entire budget one year and sent it back. Indiana does not have a line-item veto. That was the only thing I could do to try and restrain excessive spending. It’s a course of action I recommend to the President, if he is really serious about this. That’s what leaders do.

Secondly, I was proud to join with some of my colleagues here being one of only fifteen senators to vote against the so-called “Bridge to Nowhere.” The fact that there were only fifteen of us suggests the magnitude of the challenge we face. It also indicates that this is a bipartisan phenomenon. Neither party has a monopoly on virtue when it comes to this kind of thing. I’m pleased that we can address it today in a bipartisan way.

I’d like to say a couple of things about deficits. They harm our economy by pushing up interest rates, making investments and productivity go down. They are harmful to our national security. How can we talk with the Chinese about Iran, or about trade, when we are so heavily indebted to them? We can’t. We are in a position of weakness and dependency. That has got to change.

Most importantly, I think about our children. No great nation borrows trillions of dollars increasingly from foreign countries, and asks their children to repay those debts with interest. But that’s what the United States of America is doing today. It’s got to stop.

In all candor, this is not going to solve our budget problem by itself. I’d like to think that even in Washington, $17 billion dollars a year is still real money. If we go back to the earmark levels of 1995, that’s how much we would save.

It’s a question of priorities. Some want us to look at cutting Medicare or Medicaid, or education. Some on my side want to raise taxes. Why should we do any of those things until we have first weeded out some of this unnecessary spending?

I am proud to join with my colleagues today. Again, I want to thank John McCain for his leadership. I hope that this can be a step toward restoring the American people’s confidence in our institutions of self-governance. Until we take that step, we’re not going to be able to address any of the other challenges that we face.