[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 167 (Wednesday, October 31, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S13597]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REPUBLICAN OBSTRUCTIONISM

  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, right up the street from here, right up 
Pennsylvania Avenue, is the White House. It is not far, a little over a 
mile. But what has been made abundantly clear over the past 10 months 
since Congress changed hands, what has been made abundantly clear is 
that when it comes to the priorities of the families of this Nation, 
when it comes to the values they hold, the distance between here and 
the White House is many miles.
  Americans have seen for themselves what we in Congress want to do for 
them. They have seen some truly meaningful and landmark initiatives 
achieved on behalf of American families: The 9/11 Commission bill, 
bringing security to all our communities; the most sweeping ethics 
reform in a generation, extracting lobbying influence from the policies 
that affect all of us; the first increase in the minimum wage, the 
first raise for American workers in more than a decade; and the most 
significant college affordability package since the GI bill, because we 
recognize that a good education is the great equalizer.
  But that is not all we are trying to do for middle-class Americans, 
for working Americans, for families in this country. That is the tip of 
the iceberg. We want to help American families by investing in 
security, education, and health care, and we have legislation to do 
that. Yes, there will be plenty more ideas, plenty more initiatives, 
plenty more investments in the people of this country whom we stand 
together to support but only to have the President and his friends in 
Congress block our progress.
  Time after time, a majority of the Members of this body have lined up 
behind truly important legislation, only to have the President take out 
his veto pen or our Republican colleagues in the Senate strike up a 
filibuster.
  Yesterday I saw President Bush, flanked by some of his top allies 
from Congress, complaining about what he claims Congress has not done 
this year. It takes a lot of nerve for the President to say that, when 
he received from this Congress landmark security legislation, landmark 
education legislation, landmark ethics reforms, and the first minimum 
wage raise in a decade. He signed them all into law, all within 10 
months.
  It takes a lot of nerve for President Bush to say we are wasting 
time, when he, along with his allies, has refused the children's health 
legislation, stem cell research legislation, and legislation to change 
the course in Iraq.
  I know it is Halloween, but the legislative graveyard for which the 
President is the grim reaper is not a trick or a treat. It is downright 
scary that the President can be so disconnected from the values and 
hopes of mainstream America.
  Ask the American people: What would they rather us do in Washington--
stand up for lifesaving research, lower energy costs, get our troops 
out of Iraq or kill initiative after initiative that would benefit 
American families? In Congress, we are going to try to give the 
President what we call in golf a mulligan on one of the most important 
investments we can make in our country, the health of our children. The 
first time, he vetoes it, sending the message that millions of children 
who have nowhere else to turn are unworthy of a strong Federal 
commitment.
  We believe that is fundamentally wrong. The President has to choose 
if he is going to sign it into law or again write a big ``no'' on an 
investment in America's children. This is a President who says, no, no, 
no, when it comes to investing in our families, but yes, yes, yes, when 
it comes to more troops, more time, more money for his stay-the-course 
plan in Iraq.
  This is a President who does not see the irony in sticking out the 
one hand to ask for $200 billion for Iraq this year, while using the 
other hand to veto health coverage for poor American children. This is 
a President who has no problem with killing a child's health bill that 
would have been paid for with 3\1/2\ months of Iraq funding. This is a 
President who says: We are fighting them over there so we do not have 
to fight them over here, when what he means is: We are spending all our 
money over there, and we do not have it to spend here.
  In Congress, we want a strong investment in children's health care, 
in stem cell research, in changing the course in Iraq. We have offered 
those to the President. He has rejected it. The President and his 
allies seem to want to stay the course in Iraq and not much else.
  Well, America is going to see a lot of ghouls and goblins tonight. 
But what is truly scary is that the legislative grim reaper that 
threatens millions of families without health care insurance, the demon 
of oil addiction, and the specter of an endless war, are not going to 
be gone when we wake up. That is the reality we face. That is why we 
continue to challenge to change the course.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BROWN. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call 
be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Dorgan). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. BROWN. I ask unanimous consent to speak for no more than 5 
minutes as in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________