[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 23 (Thursday, February 5, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1615-S1616]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            STIMULUS PACKAGE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, let me say a few words about the pending 
legislation. I hear comments all the time that this is the greatest 
financial crisis since the Great Depression. I have asked myself: Well, 
is this worse than the Depression that started in 1928? The answer is 
no. That situation was worse than what we find ourselves in today. In 
that period of time, the stock market dropped 89 percent, with more 
than 25 percent of the population without work, and there were millions 
of

[[Page S1616]]

others who were underemployed. It was an extremely difficult time in 
the history of our country. We do find ourselves in a very difficult 
position now, and we need to do what we can to work our way out of this 
situation so we don't have a depression but just a bad recession, and I 
am confident and hopeful we can do that.
  Now, as I mentioned last night, we are going to work our very best to 
complete this legislation as soon as we can. But I was terribly 
disappointed to see in the newspaper this morning ``GOP Reconsiders Use 
of Filibuster.'' It is a long article, but among other things it says:

       A number of Republicans say they believe leadership may 
     need to bring back the use of procedural filibusters.

  Well, all filibusters are procedural, so I don't know what that 
means. Then, on the carryover page, the headline, ``Filibusters May Be 
Back on Menu.'' And among other things, it says:

       Using a procedural vote muddies the issue for the public 
     and can allow Senators to stick with their party and block a 
     bill while still being able to say they didn't technically 
     vote against the legislation.

  President Obama has given the Congress a charge: Help America work 
our way out of the economic downturn we find ourselves in. Now, there 
isn't a Senator, Democratic or Republican, who doesn't acknowledge we 
have a tremendous problem, but the question is, How are we going to 
work through this problem? Of course, every one of us might suggest we 
could write a better bill. We all have an ego, and so we think we could 
do a better job than President Obama and his people. But we are at a 
point now where we have, as I have indicated, 13 amendments pending--
soon we will have 14--and I have no problem with that--but there comes 
a time when we need to work to complete the legislation.
  Now, I am not in a hurry to finish this legislation. However, I would 
like to get it done because we have to get to a conference report. I am 
a little troubled, I have to acknowledge, by seeing that a number of 
Republicans now are talking about the use of the filibuster. I can 
understand, when we were an evenly divided Senate, that people 
complained because they didn't have an opportunity to offer amendments. 
But no one can complain about that now. So I say to everyone who is 
reconsidering the use of the filibuster: What more in the world could 
we do to be cooperative than to try to move legislation through this 
body? We have not tried to use the power of numbers. We simply want to 
get this legislation completed.
  I say to everyone within the sound of my voice there are only 58 
Democrats. If they decide to have a filibuster on this or block it 
procedurally, we still need two Republicans, and I am hopeful and 
confident Republicans of good will recognize the hole we are in and 
will help us get out of this.
  I feel pretty good about the work we are trying to do. There were 
some important amendments dealt with, as I indicated, last night, and I 
have been told more are going to be offered, one by the senior Senator 
from Arizona and another by the junior Senator from Nevada that are in 
keeping with the many statements the Republican leader has made dealing 
with fixing the housing problems in America today. So I don't know of 
more that we could do to try to make the Republicans feel a part of 
what is going on around here.
  I do think most Republicans feel we are doing fine. But remember, it 
only takes a few to get started again and then we have to file cloture 
and have a cloture vote Saturday or Sunday. I think it would be a shame 
to do that and wait 30 hours, as we did about 100 times in the last 
Congress. I hope we don't need to go through all that. We have too much 
to do for this country that is so vitally important to get hung up on 
some procedural quagmire.
  I only say this because I can read. I can read and I understand what 
appears to be coming at us on this legislation. I hope not because it 
would be a real shame, seeing what our problems are, but a few 
Republicans are bound and determined to throw a monkey wrench into 
President Obama's recovery plan. That would be too bad.

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