Kirk supports added borrowing, coupled with reforms

Sen. Mark Kirk said he supports short term borrowing if — and only if — several spending reforms are put into place.

At a news conference at his new Senate office in Chicago Tuesday, Kirk outlined 15 reforms he says should be attached to any legislation regarding the country's debt.

With the federal government expected to reach its current limit of $14.3 trillion in debt this spring, Kirk said an expected vote on raising the country's debt limit was the single most important priority as he begins his tenure.

Kirk, a Highland Park Republican who spent the past decade as a 10th District congressman, who will be sworn into a six-year Senate term Wednesday. He has spent the past five weeks filling the remainder of President Barack Obama's expiring Senate term.

Among the 15 spending reforms Kirk plans to propose to be added to the borrowing legislation is that the debt limit extension be relatively small — allowing just $2 billion to $3 billion to be added at a time, so reformers have “three or four legislative bites of the apple to restrain spending of the United States.” He called it “critical for the economy and for people watching the value of the dollar to see.”

Kirk also wants lower health care costs; reform of mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; the lease or sale of underutilized government buildings; 15 percent cuts to the congressional and White House budgets; and a freeze in federal workers' pay and hiring.

Kirk has pledged to cut his own Senate office budget by 15 percent of what his predecessor, Democratic Sen. Roland Burris, spent.

Meanwhile, Kirk said he and Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin agree that O'Hare International Airport modernization is vital to getting Illinois' economy back on track.

“Maintaining the momentum of that project is a key part of my service to the Senate,” he said. “... Even as a fiscal conservative it is one of the highest yielding projects for new jobs in Illinois and should receive the lion's share of our attention.”

Following the news conference, Kirk offered reporters a tour of his “half completed” new office on South Dearborn Street, previously occupied Democratic Burris. Much of it is still under construction — with the heating system being replaced. Kirk's personal office features framed newspaper articles from his years in the House of Representatives, and a bobble head doll of Chicago Alderman Burt Natarus, which he calls among his “most prized possessions.”

Kirk said that when he is not in Washington, D.C., he plans to split his time between Chicago and downstate in hopes of talking to Illinois constituents.