[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 101 (Wednesday, June 18, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5710-S5711]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   UNANIMOUS-CONSENT REQUEST--S. 3098

  Mr. McCONNELL. Finally, I notified my friend on the other side I also 
wanted to ask consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate 
consideration of Calendar No. 771, S. 3098, a bill to extend expiring 
tax relief. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time 
and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that 
any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. DURBIN. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. McCONNELL. That was the extender package, the McConnell-Kyl-
Grassley package. That includes the 1-year AMT patch omitted by the 
House bill that we had a vote on yesterday and extends the provisions 
that expired in 2007 for 2 years. This is a 1-year

[[Page S5711]]

longer extension than in the House bill we had the vote on yesterday.
  S. 3098 does not include any tax hikes, reflecting the position 41 
Senators took in a letter to Senator Baucus on April 23 of this year.
  Our Republican alternative also includes the Ensign-Cantwell energy 
tax incentives, which were approved by the Senate earlier this year, 88 
to 8.
  In addition, S. 3098 does not contain the New York City earmark. It 
also does not contain the tax break for trial lawyers. It also does not 
contain Davis-Bacon expansion. And it also would not be vetoed by the 
President.
  On balance, this is a bill that could pass the Senate and get signed 
by the President. We hope to pass it as soon as possible.
  Let me conclude my remarks by saying that my good friend on the other 
side of the aisle and I both know how we pass these bills--we pass them 
together. As he frequently said when he was in the minority and in a 
position similar to mine, we are not the House. We are the Senate. It 
is not going to work to turn the Senate into the House. We all know 
that. Both sides have tried it. We have been in the majority and the 
minority, and the minority always insists they be part of the process.
  We have two important bills here that clearly need to be completed. 
We all know how to get there--bipartisan negotiation on the Medicare 
bill and bipartisan negotiation on the tax extender bill.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The assistant majority leader is recognized.
  Mr. DURBIN. I wish to say a word in response to my earlier objections 
and note the bill related to Medicare, presented by the Senator from 
Kentucky, the Republican minority leader, failed to include critical 
provisions that we had in our earlier legislation.
  Our legislation would have provided financial assistance to low-
income Medicare beneficiaries who cannot afford Medicare premiums and 
it would have finally moved us forward on the issue of mental health 
parity. This is an issue that is long overdue. There are millions of 
American families who are struggling with mental health issues. They 
understand that the high copayments for mental health services in 
effect deny service to a lot of those who cannot afford them. We wanted 
to address that in the bill. We thought it was a priority. The Senator 
from Kentucky in his measure they brought before us did not include 
that, and that is unfortunate.
  I say to the Senator from Kentucky, I believe in the battle of ideas 
on the floor of the Senate. Looking back, in the time I have been here 
I have lost a lot of amendments on the floor. I have come here, brought 
the amendments, debated them, subjected them to a vote, and lost. But 
it was a fair fight. People spoke on both sides of the issue. The 
Senate spoke. That is how it should be. If the majority prevails, then 
we move forward. That is the only way this body can work.
  But the Republicans have now taken a new approach and that approach 
is: We will not debate issues. We will not deliberate them. It is a 
take-it-or-leave-it situation. Seventy-seven filibusters have been used 
now. They are stopping this Medicare bill. Then when they realize how 
bad it looks back home--when they know they cannot explain it to 
seniors and disabled when the doctors who treat them say we are about 
to take a 10-percent pay cut and I may not be able to see you--they 
understand it is hard to explain that vote. So then they come to the 
floor and make a unanimous consent request to say let's drop in a bill 
and take care of the whole problem.
  That is not the way the Senate works either. We don't want to turn 
the Senate into the House, but the Republican strategy is turning the 
Senate into a ghost town. We don't do anything here. We have procedural 
votes three or four times a week and then go home. If those in the 
Senate were paid on the basis of debate, deliberation, amendments, 
bills passed and that kind of effort, we would not earn a minimum wage 
around here because we never get to the substance anymore. There were 
77 Republican filibusters so far, the latest on the energy issue.
  For the Senator from Kentucky to come forward and say the reason we 
could not support the idea of moving forward on these energy tax credit 
extenders was because they involved a tax--do you know who was going to 
pay that tax? Companies that locate overseas, American companies that 
go overseas trying to avoid our taxes would have been subject to more 
taxes. The Senator from Kentucky is saying 41 of his members have taken 
a solemn pledge not to raise the taxes of those American companies that 
go overseas to avoid paying American taxes. How about that? Is that 
what we need in America, more incentives to take jobs offshore?
  Senator Baucus in the Finance Committee had a reasonable approach to 
this, taking that money and putting it back into America for tax breaks 
for our families and to encourage energy production for our future, and 
the Republicans voted no--time and again they vote no. But the American 
people will have a final vote on November 4. They will remember the 
party that is trying to move forward an agenda to make this a better 
nation and they will remember the party of filibusters that votes no.
  I yield the floor.

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