[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 185 (Wednesday, December 5, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14764-S14766]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               OBJECTIONS

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, what is happening in the Senate is going 
to give frustration a new meaning. I cannot begin to explain how 
unbelievably frustrating it is for people elected to come to this body, 
they say the greatest deliberative body, to be at parade rest day after 
day after day, unable to move because of two simple words uttered 
almost routinely every day by the minority: I object. I object to 
everything. I object. I object.
  Mark Twain once was asked if he would engage in a debate. And he 
said: Of course, as long as I can take the negative side.
  They said: We have not told you what the subject is.
  He said: That does not matter. The negative side will take no 
preparation.
  It takes no preparation to say ``I object,'' to take the negative 
side of everything. Yet that is what has happened. We have people 
posing as a set of human brake pads, determined to stop everything in 
the Senate. Maybe that would make not much difference if there were not 
things that were so urgent and in need of being done.
  I sat here for a while this afternoon and saw something quite 
stunning. My colleague stood up and said, on the appropriations bill 
that passed the Senate by a wide margin, over 80 votes on 
transportation-housing and so on, she wanted to bring the conference 
report up to the Senate. There was an objection by the Republican 
leader of the Senate: I object.
  Then, immediately afterwards, Senator Cornyn from Texas stood up and 
said: I do not understand what all of the problem is, the way the 
majority is running this place, why do we not get appropriations bills 
to the floor of the Senate?
  This was immediately after his side had already objected to bringing 
an appropriations bill to the floor of the Senate. It is as if they 
think no one is watching. These are illusionists who provide no 
illusion. Nobody is watching, they think. This is all done in broad 
daylight. They say: We object to bringing appropriations bills to the 
floor of the Senate. Then they stand up and seek recognition and ask: 
Why are you not bringing appropriations bills to the floor of the 
Senate? Do they believe people do not watch and listen and understand?

  It is absolutely beyond me. Now, let me describe this ``I object'' 
strategy. I object to appropriations bills, they say. Do you know this 
year we even had to file a cloture petition to shut off a filibuster on 
a motion to proceed to the appropriations bill that would fund homeland 
security needs.
  We are in this process of waging a war on terrorism to protect our 
country, and we cannot bring a bill to the floor earlier this year on 
homeland security appropriations to fund the programs without having a 
filibuster by the other side on a motion to proceed, not even on the 
bill, but a motion to proceed to the bill. That describes what the 
other side has done all year long.
  Now, in December, they come to the floor and they say: Well, where 
are the appropriations bills? Well, I will tell you where they are; you 
objected to all of them. You took all the action necessary to try to 
prohibit us from moving these appropriations bills. That is the case.
  Alternative minimum tax, they call it AMT. It is a fancy way of 
describing an alternative tax system that recalculates your tax. It is 
going to affect millions more Americans. We should fix that. Why have 
we not fixed that today? Because the other side has objected. The 
Republican leader has objected. That is why we have not fixed it.
  The farm bill. Why have we not finished the farm bill? Because the 
Republicans have objected. We wanted to come out here and finish it. We 
have made unanimous consent requests. We have an offer in front of them 
now with the amendments and so on, but they continue to object.
  I have said often, if farmers behaved the way this Congress--and 
especially the minority--behaves, they would not have a crop to plant 
because they would not get time. They would not have a crop to harvest 
if they got it planted because they would not have time. They would 
object. They would not milk the cows when the cows were fresh. I mean 
they would not have a crop or cows. You cannot put all these things 
off, nor should the Senate put them off.
  An energy bill. Well we tried to go to conference on an energy bill. 
There was an objection on the Republican side. So now we are hoping to 
try to be able to consider an energy bill that comes from the House. I 
hope we can round up the votes for it. But we never got to conference 
because of an objection on the Republican side.
  Now my colleague, as I listened this afternoon, said the proposal on 
the alternative minimum tax by the Democrats was more taxes on the 
American people, a substitution of taxes and to accommodate the growth 
of Government.
  Let me take both those proposals. This issue of the growth of 
Government is fascinating to me because this President has proposed 
more spending than any President in the history of this country, by 
far. We have in front of this body right now a proposal by this 
President for $196 billion, none of it paid for, to support the war in 
Iraq and Afghanistan.
  Now, $196 billion, that is $16 billion a month, $4 billion a week, 
all of it added to the Federal debt, none of it paid for. We have 
someone over there stand up and say we are the big spenders, we are the 
ones who want to spend money, after the President has asked for $196 
billion in additional spending that he wants.
  He said that $22 billion we wanted to invest in this country was too 
much money. We were $22 billion apart, with respect to the President's 
budget and our bipartisan approach on the appropriations committee. He 
said: No, that is too much money, that $22 billion to invest in our 
country's roads and bridges and health care and energy. That is too 
much money to invest in our country, but I want $196 billion, none of 
it paid for, all of it outside the budget, for my priorities, the 
President said.
  It is interesting to me that even as we are told by my colleague from 
Texas and others that this is growth in spending and that somehow the 
profligate spenders are on this side of the aisle, and I must say I 
have held now 12 hearings on the issue of waste, fraud, and abuse in 
the countries of Iraq and Afghanistan in the prosecution of these wars. 
Waste, fraud, and abuse by contractors, a massive amount of money 
shoveled out the door by this administration to contractors.
  Let me tell you what the result has been: A blind eye. No one seems 
to care. You want some nails? I know where there are 50,000 pounds of 
nails lying in the sand. You know where it is? In the country of Iraq, 
50,000 pounds of nails lying in the sands of Iraq in a pile.
  You know why? Because the contractor ordered the wrong size. But it 
did not matter, throw them away, reorder. It is a cost-plus contract. 
The American taxpayers are picking up the tab. Do you want to see 
waste, fraud, and abuse? This is a hand towel provided to American 
soldiers.
  I ask unanimous consent to show the item on the floor of the Senate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DORGAN. This was provided to American soldiers by the subsidiary 
of Halliburton Corporation. They ordered hand towels under their 
contract for the American soldiers. Well, guess what. The guy who 
ordered these was the order manager sitting in Kuwait. His name was 
Henry Bunting. He came and testified before my hearing. He said: I 
ordered these towels, but I ordered white towels, plain white towels. 
My supervisor said: You cannot do that. You need for our name, Kellogg, 
Brown and Root, the subsidiary of Halliburton, to be embroidered on the 
towel.

  He said: Well, that is going to triple the cost. He was told: It does 
not matter. It is a cost-plus contract. The American taxpayer pays for 
this. Katy bar the door. Spend whatever you like. The American taxpayer 
will pay for it. Two hundred and twenty million dollars to a contractor 
to rehabilitate health clinics in Iraq. The $220 million is gone. The 
contractor has it all, and there are 20 health clinics built.

[[Page S14765]]

  And a physician goes to the Health Minister and says: I want to see 
these 220 health clinics the American taxpayer paid for; the Health 
Minister of Iraq said: Well, those, you have to understand, are 
``imaginary'' clinics.
  Seven thousand six hundred dollars a month to rent an SUV, $45 a case 
for a case of Coca-Cola, $85,000 trucks that have a flat tire and they 
are left beside the road to be torched in Iraq because they cannot fix 
a flat tire.
  American taxpayer is going to pay for all of that. It is a cost-plus 
contract. You have a truck with a plugged fuel pump, do not worry, 
leave it behind. Yeah, it will get torched, but the American taxpayer 
pays for that. So when I hear somebody talking about profligate 
spending, I say to them this: We have had four votes on the floor of 
the Senate to set up a Truman Committee of the type Harry Truman led 
dedicated to root out waste, fraud, and abuse.
  Four times we lost that vote. I am proud to tell you every Member of 
the Senate on this side of the Senate voted with me, but four times we 
have lost because there are some who talk a lot about spending but do 
not care how much is spent.
  This is the greatest waste, fraud, and abuse that has occurred in the 
history of this country with this profligate contracting. I have only 
described the tip of the iceberg. I could spend an hour out here 
telling you stories about the way the American taxpayer has been 
fleeced by the massive amount of money that is shoveled out the door 
and the $196 billion the President now wants; a substantial portion of 
it will also go to corporations and still no one is watching the 
store. Still no one is watching the store. In Iraq itself, $8.9 billion 
is missing. Think of that. I daresay no one is looking for it.

  Growth in government has a pretty hollow sound, it seems to me. The 
growth of spending, the waste, fraud, and abuse that is occurring under 
the nose of this administration, an administration that seems 
unconcerned, is the most significant waste, fraud, and abuse in the 
history of this country. We need to stop it. I will offer again the 
issue of a Truman commission to set up a special committee to 
investigate this and put an end to it.
  On the question of who pays taxes, my colleague says: This is fixing 
the alternative minimum tax, but you are charging some others 
additional taxes. Let me remind my colleague who is going to pay 
additional taxes. The person who ran a hedge fund last year and made 
$1.7 billion was the highest paid person in this country that we know. 
If you are adding that up, if someone asked: What is your monthly 
salary, that person would have to say, it is about $145 million a 
month. Some would ask: What do you earn in a day. About $4.5 million a 
day. That is a pretty big salary.
  Do you know something more interesting about that? The people earning 
at that level are paying an income tax rate in most cases of 15 
percent. Think of that. There are no Americans going to work this 
morning working in ordinary jobs who are paying 15 percent income tax. 
I guarantee they are paying much more.
  One of the richest men in the world, Warren Buffett from Omaha, said 
in his offices they got permission from his employees to figure out 
what happened with respect to the percentage of taxes paid by the 
employees. It turns out in that office, the lowest tax rate paid in his 
office is paid by the second richest man in the world, Warren Buffett. 
He said that is an outrage.
  He said: I pay a lower percent of taxes from my income than my 
receptionist does. That is an outrage. Some want to correct that. I do.
  My colleague from Texas would say: You are going to hurt people 
engaged in capital accumulation. Well, it seems to me the issue is one 
of fairness. Why is it that one group of people who makes hundreds of 
millions gets to pay a 15-percent tax rate. But a whole lot of other 
people who work hard all day, take a shower at night because their 
labor is important, come home with a meager paycheck and haven't made 
much progress with their salary in recent years, they look at their tax 
bill and are paying 25, 30, 35 percent, plus their Social Security 
taxes.
  When my colleague talks about the growth of government, I say: Look 
in the mirror. When my colleague talks about taxes, I say: Look in the 
mirror and ask yourself whether you want a fair tax system.
  More important than that, I want to talk for a moment about 
priorities. When we are told that $196 billion ought to be made 
available, none of it paid for, for the President's priorities, and we 
don't have enough money for things at home, I ask a question about this 
young lady. Her name is Ta'shon Rain Littlelight. She is a beautiful 
young Indian girl from the Crow Reservation in Montana. Ta'shon was 5 
years old. Ta'shon died.
  I held a hearing in Montana with Senator Tester on the Crow 
Reservation. This little girl's grandmother came to the hearing and 
held up this picture. She said Ta'shon died a very painful death, was 
in pain month after month. The kind of health care that should have 
been available to diagnose an illness which later became terminal was 
not available to this little girl. So she lived a painful last 3 months 
with a terminal illness and never got the health care she should have 
received. Not enough money for that, just not enough. Yes, this 5-year-
old girl died. Not enough money for Indian health to deal with her.
  I have shown my colleagues a picture of a little girl named Avis 
Littlewind. She was 14. She is dead as well. She took her own life. She 
lay in bed 90 days in a fetal position, missing school, 90 days, and 
somehow it didn't raise alarms anywhere. She took her own life. No 
mental health treatment, no mental health treatment available on that 
reservation for that young lady.
  I have shown my colleagues a picture of a woman brought into an 
emergency room--a Native American woman, as well. She had an 8-by-10 
piece of paper attached to her thigh by a piece of masking tape, being 
transported on a hospital gurney from the ambulance to the hospital 
with a piece of paper attached by masking tape to her thigh that said 
to the hospital: If you accept this patient, understand that the 
contract health care money is gone for the year. You accept this 
patient on your own dime and at your own risk, this patient with a 
heart attack.
  We don't have enough money for our domestic needs. The President 
says: No, I want $196 billion for my priorities. I have just described 
the massive waste, fraud, and abuse with respect to the priorities of 
contracting in Iraq. I care about Indian health care for a lot of 
reasons. I chair the Indian Affairs Committee. We have struggled 
desperately to try to get the money we need for Indian health. That 
money is not available. Why? Because investment at home is not the 
priority. The fact is, these issues are life or death for a little girl 
like Ta'shon Rain Littlelight. This Congress can do something about it.
  One hundred years from now, we will all be dead. But historians can 
understand who we were. They can look at what this country decided to 
do, what kind of decisions this Senate made by what we spent our money 
on. What did we think was important? Someone once asked the question, 
if you were charged with the task of writing an obituary for someone 
you had never met, and the only information you had was the check 
register from that person's checkbook, what could you write about that 
person? What you could write about that person is what you knew that 
person to value based on what they spent their money on. What did they 
invest in, contribute to? What was important to them? What was their 
value system?
  The same will be true when historians evaluate what was important to 
us, what our value system was. So we have this dispute these days with 
President Bush and those on the other side of the aisle who are loyally 
supportive of the President's priorities at this point. I am not 
suggesting that we shouldn't work together. In fact, all of us have 
reached out to say: Let's find a way to reach compromise. But on issue 
after issue after issue--the alternative minimum tax, the Energy bill, 
the farm bill, appropriations bills--we have had great difficulty 
getting anything other than a cold shoulder from the White House. 
Democracy works and this system of government works only with 
compromise. It is the only way it can work.
  The majority leader was here today once again seeking an opportunity 
to have unanimous consent requests

[[Page S14766]]

agreed to or negotiated. The farm bill is an awfully good example. We 
have now sent to the other side a list of things that we hope perhaps 
they might agree to. And if they don't agree to that, to give us a list 
back. Let's find a way to have common lists of amendments to bring the 
farm bill to the floor and finish it. That is a reasonable thing to do. 
Yet we can't get that done, can't get the first baby step in the right 
direction. All we get is hot air, a lot of rhetoric, discussion such as 
I heard this afternoon that somehow the majority is a group of 
profligate spenders, and the majority wants to increase taxes. What a 
bunch of nonsense. It is completely at odds with the facts. It is as if 
they believe that there are not cameras here and this isn't being 
recorded.
  I was thinking, as I was sitting here, about a story I heard when I 
was a kid of Joseph Montgolfier from rural France. The story was in 
1783. He was sitting in a big, overstuffed chair looking at his 
fireplace in his country home. And as he watched the fireplace he saw 
sparks and smoke go up the chimney. As he contemplated the smoke and 
the sparks, he thought: There is something taking the smoke and sparks 
up the chimney. That must be some sort of energy. And so several months 
later he was in a meadow in rural France with burlap bags he had 
dampened and straw he was burning and he fashioned the first balloon. 
And it was the first recorded evidence of powered flight. He discovered 
that hot air rises and used hot air to lift a balloon.

  I was thinking about hot air today because I listened to what is 
supposed to somehow pass for informed debate, and it is nothing but hot 
air. Why don't you pass the appropriations bills. OK. Let's try one. I 
object, he says.
  I don't understand that at all. Don't ask us to pass bills you are 
going to object to, if you are going to continue to stall and object. 
If you want us to pass legislation, appropriations, energy, AMT, if you 
want us to pass legislation, come to the floor this afternoon. Let's 
work together and work out a process by which we pass legislation that 
advances this country's interests. It is not as if we don't have 
significant challenges and significant interests. We do.
  No one in this Chamber can suggest somehow that with the price of oil 
bobbing at around $90 to $100 a barrel that we don't have serious 
challenges and a need to pass an energy bill. The House of 
Representatives is doing an energy bill. We did one in the Senate prior 
to this. We tried to go to conference, and there was objection. So we 
couldn't even get to conference. But we will, I think and I hope, have 
the Energy bill the House is going to pass and then send over to the 
Senate next week. There is an urgent need to have conservation, 
efficiency, and renewable energy, as well as continue to use fossil 
fuels without injuring the environment. We can do all of those things, 
and should, but we will need some cooperation. We are not asking for 
the Moon. We are just saying this country faces obvious challenges.
  No one party can do it alone. We have a 51-49 majority. All we need 
is some cooperation. All we need is for people who continue to come day 
after day after day with a two-word vocabulary, ``I object,'' to see if 
they can't add a few words and say ``I accept.''
  Let's work together. Let's join together to get things done. That is 
all we are asking. We only have a few days left in this session, 
probably a maximum of 12 or 13 days. I would hope all of us who are 
paid to work here and do the public's business would want to make those 
days productive on behalf of the country. We live in a great place. We 
should give thanks every day for this opportunity. Let's find a way to 
address these issues, invest in this country's priorities, pass an 
energy bill that we can be proud of that makes us less dependent on 
foreign oil, pass an AMT bill that is going to help avoid increased 
taxes for a lot of Americans who do not deserve to have an increased 
tax bill. We can do all of those things if we work together.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, are we in morning business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate is in a period of morning business.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent, if there is 
discussion of AMT today, that my remarks be placed in the Record at 
that point.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________