[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 28 (Wednesday, February 11, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2092-S2097]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             THIS RECESSION

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, you know in your State of New York and I 
know in my State of Illinois what this recession really means. In 
December, the recession hit my home State of Illinois hard. We lost 
1,200 jobs a day in the month of December--36,000 jobs. That is a hit 
that continues, I am afraid, in the month of January and maybe even in 
the early part of February. The overall unemployment rate for America 
is 7.6 percent. Madam President, 3.6 million jobs have been lost since 
the beginning of the recession several months ago. Clearly, that is the 
element which is driving our discussion now about what to do.
  There are some on the other side of the aisle in Congress who argue 
that the best thing to do is nothing, let the economy solve its own 
problems. But, sadly, many of us are meeting the casualties of this 
recession, and many of us know them personally because they are in our 
families.
  I talk to a lot of my friends who are struggling. It does not sound 
like much, you know, when they say: My hours have been cut back. A 
friend of mine, a lady who is raising three children, a single mom 
raising three kids, had her hours cut back. Her agency does counseling 
for drug addiction. So she is only working three-quarters of the 
regular time she was expecting. Well, as a result of that cutback in 
her pay, she could not pay her rent, and, sadly, she is now facing some 
of the hardest decisions of her life. So just a cutback in pay for many 
people who live on the margin makes all the difference. And then, of 
course, there are those who lost their jobs altogether. Many of those 
people find they stand the possibility of losing their homes. They 
cannot make the mortgage payments, and they are facing foreclosure. 
Their savings that have been devastated by the decline in the stock 
market have now become the only place to turn. They have had to make 
serious decisions.
  I talked to groups of college presidents from Illinois who came to 
see me, and some of them, community colleges. The colleges and 
universities are struggling because a lot of students are sitting there 
saying: I cannot keep going to school. I mean, dad lost his job and mom 
is working, and I am a big drain on their savings at a time when they 
do not have it. So colleges and universities are scrambling all over 
the campus to try to get people to stay in school. They are afraid they 
are going to lose them. Community college representatives who came to 
visit me yesterday said, incidentally, their enrollment is up because a 
lot of the students say: I can no longer go to the expensive other 
school, so I am going to come back and do community college courses and 
try to keep up with it.
  Lifestyles are changing. People are making decisions; some of them we 
hope will be temporary, some may not. That is what troubles me when we 
look

[[Page S2093]]

at the debate in Congress. There are so many people who, I am afraid, 
are removed from this. It really would do a lot of Senators some good 
to get in touch with the real world out there and what people are going 
through. We are somewhat insulated in the life we lead, and we have to 
overcome that because the people who are the casualties and victims 
here are the ones who should be remembered when it comes to these 
votes.
  Now, President Obama inherited this. I am not going to dwell on the 
mistakes and miscalculations of the previous administration. That is a 
matter of record. There is no point in going into that. That was 
yesterday. We need to talk about today and tomorrow. What are we going 
do about this?
  What the administration, what the President wants to do is to make 
sure we do not stand back as spectators and watch this collision that 
is occurring, destroying a lot of lives and a lot of people's hopes. So 
he came to us and said: We have to breathe some life into this economy. 
We think that this year in America, $1 trillion less will be spent on 
goods and services, $1 trillion taken out of the economy. What happens? 
Shops close. People are laid off if there is not economic activity. So 
what the President has said is: Let's infuse back into the economy 
government spending now to try to make up for that and to try to get us 
moving forward.
  Now, I understand--and we all have to be honest about this--that the 
money we spend on this stimulus is money added to our Nation's debt. 
But failing to do anything and allowing this recession to continue to 
go downhill will increase our Nation's debt anyway and, of course, will 
add to a lot of suffering by families and businesses. So the President 
came forward and said: Let's focus on several things. First, let's 
provide tax relief to working families. They are struggling. They need 
a helping hand. Let's provide help in a safety net, a little more money 
for people who are unemployed, $25 a week. For anybody who thinks that 
is a huge amount of money, that is $100 a month for people unemployed. 
For most of us, that does not mean a lot; for people struggling to get 
by, it could be important.
  Also, there is some help when it comes to continuing health 
insurance. That is one of the first things that happen when you lose a 
job--you lose your health insurance. The COBRA program allows you to 
turn to Government help for that, but it is darn expensive if you have 
to pay both the employee and employer share. So we are trying to 
provide a helping hand when it comes to the folks who have lost their 
health insurance, giving them a little bit of help so their families 
are not left defenseless to the next diagnosis or the next disease.
  Then we add, for the poorest of the poor, those who are struggling 
the hardest, help with food stamps. You know, if you keep track in your 
own community, you are going to find that a lot of pantries and church-
run efforts to help feed people have more folks showing up than ever. 
Even those who are working part time are struggling to put food on the 
table. So we provided additional help when it comes to this 
supplementary feeding program to help families who are struggling the 
hardest.
  I have often used this statistic, but I still marvel at the fact that 
one out of eight people in the State of Michigan is on food stamps--one 
out of eight. It shows you what has happened to their economy, and, 
sadly, many of our States are following in terms of our own needs.
  So we have the tax cuts for working families, we have this safety 
net, and the President has also asked us to put money into spending 
that will not only create jobs but make an investment in America's 
future.
  Transportation is the obvious thing to turn to, but it goes beyond 
that. President Obama would like to see us put more money into building 
libraries, laboratories, and the classrooms of the 21st century, 
modernizing schools so they are energy efficient, reducing the cost of 
energy. That is a good investment for families, and it is a great 
investment for schools. The President wants money to go in, as well, to 
health technology so we start computerizing medical records across 
America. That is a first step in bringing medical care into the 21st 
century. With computerized records, doctors and nurses are less likely 
to make mistakes. They are more likely to have all the information they 
need before they make a diagnosis and suggest a treatment. It will 
reduce the cost of medical care and reduce the number of mistakes made, 
which is very important. That is money well spent.
  The President focuses on energy. He is right to do so. We have to 
understand, as long as we are dependent on foreign nations for our 
major energy sources, we are at their mercy. We saw it happen when 
gasoline was over $4 a gallon, and it could happen again. We have to be 
thoughtful in the way we move forward in this economy, creating jobs 
but looking for more energy efficiency, more energy independence. That 
is part of the President's goal.
  Yesterday, Secretary of the Treasury Mr. Geithner came forward with a 
plan dealing with banking institutions. It is a complex problem, and it 
is a multifaceted response. It tries to get at the heart of these banks 
that, sadly, have portfolios riddled with mortgages that have been 
overvalued. We have to get to the bottom line so the banks have solid 
balance sheets and the people have more confidence in them and, 
importantly, the credit being offered by these institutions starts 
coming forward so businesses, large and small, individuals buying homes 
or automobiles, have a chance.
  It is a big agenda, and there are a lot of people on the other side 
of the aisle who say: We shouldn't do any of this. What are we doing 
this for? The economy will fix itself.
  I disagree. The American people expect us to find solutions, do our 
best to come up with good-faith efforts to find solutions. They expect 
us to work together and not squabble, to try to find give-and-take that 
leads to a good solution. They want to make sure there is 
accountability. They are mad--I am too--that $350 billion was spent 
several months ago for the so-called TARP, and at the end of the day, a 
lot of people said: How much did they spend and what did it do?
  That is taxpayer dollars. We have a responsibility to be transparent 
and be held accountable as part of that. They certainly expect us to do 
this on a timely basis. They don't want Congress chewing over this 
issue for weeks and months while the economy continues to decline.
  Some have suggested: Are you saying this is going to work? Is this 
perfect? The answer is, no; I am not sure. But if we do nothing, I know 
what will happen. It is going to get progressively worse, where more 
people lose their jobs, more businesses fail, more families suffer, and 
we will see a spiral head downhill and continue not only in the United 
States but around the world. That is why what we are doing in the 
stimulus program is so important, that we get it done. As we speak, 
last-minute negotiations are underway for the stimulus bill. I hope we 
can get it done even today to send a clear message across the United 
States and maybe to the rest of the world, as they are paying 
attention, that we take it seriously. We are not going to buy into a 
Herbert Hoover mentality that everything will get well if we leave it 
alone. It is not going to happen.
  This patient, the American economy, is in serious need of attention 
now. We need to apply the tourniquets to stop the bleeding. We need to 
make a good diagnosis and order the medicine and treatment that is 
essential. It has to be done in a timely fashion. I encourage my 
colleagues to come together. Fortunately for us, three Republicans 
stepped forward in the Senate and joined this effort. We could not have 
done it without them. We have listened to them. We have accepted their 
counsel. We have made changes and compromises. We have tried to work 
together. I invite even more to finally realize that just standing back 
and saying: No, I will not do a thing, isn't going to solve this 
problem. We are expected to work together.
  We understand what led up to this; we don't want to dwell on the 
past. But we want to look forward to a new America that gets back on 
its feet using the spirit of this country to restore the economy and 
get us moving forward again.
  Mrs. BOXER. Will my friend yield for a few questions?
  Mr. DURBIN. I am happy to yield.

[[Page S2094]]

  Mrs. BOXER. I was thinking the other day to when we had another 
difficult crisis of confidence in the economy in 1993, when Bill 
Clinton was elected and we had deficits as far as the eye could see and 
debt as far as the eye could see. Things were slowing. We were in 
difficulty. A new President came forward, Bill Clinton, and we had the 
Congress, the Democrats did. We passed a budget. We did it without one 
Republican vote. Thank goodness here we have three. We have the 60-vote 
supermajority Republicans are insisting upon. If you remember, it was 
Senator Bob Kerrey who had to think long and hard and decided to 
support that.
  I wonder if my friend remembers because I just looked up some of the 
comments made by the Republicans. I read into the Record one of them by 
Trent Lott. He said: We have not been involved in this. This is going 
to be a disaster. This is awful. They said: No.
  I wonder if my friend knows about the Clinton economic record: 23 
million new jobs created during the 8 years of the Clinton Presidency; 
the largest surplus in history was left behind by President Clinton, 
over $230 billion; unemployment rates were the lowest in three decades; 
there was the lowest overall poverty and child poverty rate since the 
1970s.
  Does my friend remember that battle and how we Democrats had to do it 
all by ourselves?
  Mr. DURBIN. I remember it well because I was serving in the House at 
the time. When we called the Clinton plan to try to reduce the deficit 
and invigorate the economy, we did not have a single Republican who 
supported us. When it came to the Senate, it passed because Vice 
President Gore cast the deciding vote so it could go forward. That is 
the reality. There were many skeptics. You mentioned Senator Lott. 
There were others who said: This isn't going to work. The best thing to 
do is nothing. Sadly, they were wrong. They should have known they were 
wrong. We ended up seeing a surge in economic growth, the likes of 
which we have not seen in modern times.
  I think right now we are in a slightly different situation because we 
are not talking about a big economic surge. We need to stabilize the 
economy. That is the key. I am afraid many of the people who are 
criticizing President Obama's efforts are not in touch with what is 
going on at home.
  I watched this morning, as I am sure the Senator from California did, 
as President Obama went to Ft. Myers, FL, and talked to two particular 
people. One was Henrietta Hughes, who said: I am living in my car. I am 
a homeless person. What I wouldn't give to have my own kitchen and 
bathroom. Can you help me?
  Sadly, a lot of people are homeless today. The President reached out, 
embraced her, and said: We will do what we can. Someone in the 
community stepped forward.
  Another fellow said: I have been at McDonald's for 4 years. 
McDonald's is a great Illinois corporation, but the fact is, he wants 
benefits. He wants improvement in wages. You see a lot of people 
struggling and falling behind. If we don't stabilize this economy, that 
group is going to grow--people losing their homes, people in jobs that 
don't even sustain them.
  What we are doing is a leap of faith. We are saying: We believe in 
this President. We believe in this last election where the people said 
they wanted change. We are going to stick with this President and move 
forward. We hope some Republicans will join us this time.
  Mrs. BOXER. I think my friend is so eloquent as usual. The point I am 
trying to make is, we faced a serious economic problem in 1993, when a 
Democratic President took over. You are right. Things are way worse, 
and it is a different circumstance. But the same thing happened then. 
We had Senate leadership, Senator Lott saying, on August 6, 1993: This 
is a pork alert, pork alert. It is 1,800 pages. We are talking about 
big sums. He said: We have to concentrate on spending cuts first.

  They predicted gloom and doom. What happened was the greatest 
economic recovery in modern history because we took a chance. We 
followed the wisdom of many economists at the time. We know now that if 
the Republicans would just join with us, we can get this economy moving 
in the right direction. A trillion dollars has been taken out of the 
economy due to lost productivity. Who is going to put it back? The 
banks won't. We are the only ones who can put it back. It is not going 
to be a trillion. It is probably under $800 billion. But it is the way 
to go forward.
  I agree with my friend. I am so glad President Obama is out there. 
Doesn't he agree--and this is my last question. Then I will do a 
presentation about what is happening in my State--that it is important 
for the President to get out there, not to a group of people who have 
been prescreened, who are all his admirers, but actually to get there 
with all these people who are troubled? They are worried. They have 
hope and faith, but they are scared. It gives him a reality check 
rather than listening to what goes on around here because I am afraid 
the GOP, the Grand Old Party, has turned into the same old party, the 
same old negativity we heard in 1993 when we had another Democratic 
President get us on the right road to an amazing recovery. It is sort 
of the same old thing.
  I wonder how my friend feels about our President getting out among 
the people.
  Mr. DURBIN. The Senator from California knows the President, before 
he was elected, was my colleague for 4 years in the Senate. Every 
Thursday morning at 8:30, then-Senator Obama and I would get together 
for a town meeting which we opened to people who came to Washington. 
Originally, it was for people from Illinois who came to Washington. 
Then when I saw the crowds growing with my colleague, Senator Obama, I 
suggested those who wish they were from Illinois or just those who want 
to see Barack Obama. We would have a huge room full of people. Many of 
them were fans and admirers. But I watched Senator Obama field 
questions then.
  During the campaign I saw the same thing. This is risky business 
about which politicians are warned: Don't walk into that crowd that has 
not been prescreened because they are going to throw you curve balls. 
They will criticize you. It could get tough and out of hand. Be ready.
  He is ready because he has been tested. He was tested as a Senator, 
certainly tested 2 years on the campaign trail. It is downright 
refreshing that he walks in and has somebody hold up their hand and he 
doesn't know what is coming. This could be a person who would never 
consider voting for him, a person who disagrees with him completely, 
and he is prepared to hear that. That is a refreshing change in 
American politics. I hope he sticks with it. I think he will.
  The fact that he is going to communities that are suffering--whether 
it is Elkhart, IN, or Ft. Myers, FL--he is doing his best, as 
Presidents are generally isolated in the White House and away from most 
of the people, to get back in touch. I hope our colleagues will do the 
same, whether they go to New York or California or Illinois or Florida. 
Go out and talk to the folks.
  In my hometown of Springfield, my wife came in Sunday and said: I was 
just driving down South Grand Avenue, and there was a young woman 
standing there with a sign saying: I am out of work. Can you help me 
feed my family?
  This was in my hometown. That is an eye opener. There are people like 
that. But she was so desperate she stood out by the side of the road 
asking for help. That is happening.
  We have to do something about it. The answer is not to ignore it. The 
answer is not to do nothing. The answer is to do our level best to find 
a solution so we can have our best efforts, working together to find a 
way, an accountable way, to get the economy moving again.
  I yield the floor.
  Mrs. BOXER. What is the order now?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senate is conducting morning 
business, and the Senator is authorized to speak for up to 10 minutes.
  The Senator from California.
  Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I want to pick up on where I left off. 
This is the same old, same old fight again. I looked back for some more 
quotes on the Clinton economic plan which led to 23 million new jobs, 
the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history. 
I read what Senator Lott from the other side said about it.
  Here are other Senators: We are going to pile up more debt. We are

[[Page S2095]]

going to cost jobs. That was Senator Conrad Burns.
  What happened? We went into surplus, and we created 23 million new 
jobs.
  Orrin Hatch:

       Make no mistake, these higher rates will cost jobs.

  That was because there were some tax hikes on the wealthiest few. It 
went on and on.
  This is Phil Gramm, the guru of the other side:

       I want to predict here tonight that if we adopt this bill 
     the American economy is going to get weaker and not stronger, 
     the deficit four years from today will be higher than it is 
     today and not lower. . . .

  He was wrong. This is no longer an academic debate. The Republicans, 
in 1993, said the same things about the Clinton plan they are saying 
about the Obama plan.
  Phil Gramm again:

       I believe that hundreds of thousands of people are going to 
     lose their jobs as a result of this program. I believe that 
     Bill Clinton will be one of those people.

  Well, Bill Clinton got reelected. Twenty-three million new jobs were 
created. He left behind the largest surplus in history. Unemployment 
rates were the lowest in three decades. We had the lowest overall 
poverty and child poverty rates since the 1970s.
  Charles Grassley, my colleague:

       I really do not think it takes a rocket scientist to know 
     this bill will cost jobs.

  That is what he said of the Clinton plan that created 23 million new 
jobs.
  Connie Mack from Florida, from the other side of the aisle:

       This bill will cost America jobs, no doubt about it.

  Senator William Roth, from the other side:

       It will flatten the economy. I am concerned about what it 
     will do to our families. . . .

  Well, what did it do to our families? The Clinton plan, with the 
Democratic support, created 23 million new jobs, left behind the 
highest surplus in history, unemployment rates were the lowest in three 
decades, and we had the longest peacetime expansion of economic 
expansion in history.
  Rick Santorum, from the other side of the aisle:

       . . . bad policy. Let's do something that creates jobs that 
     doesn't feed the monster of government.

  It goes on and on, and later today I will read some more into the 
Record.
  So as I was listening to the debate yesterday and the day before and 
the day before--it has been good--I had a sense of deja vu. I heard 
this before. I turned to my staff and I said: Can you go and find out 
what the Republicans said about Bill Clinton's economic plan that was 
so successful? We did not get one Republican vote. Thank God we are 
getting three Republican votes for this plan because they have set a 
60-vote filibuster-proof vote. That is what we need, which is a shame, 
but that is the way it is.
  So what I would like to do today, again, is make the point that 
Republicans and Democrats have a philosophical disagreement. They had 
it back in 1993. We tested who was right and who was wrong. We put in 
the Clinton plan. We got a great economic recovery. We got surpluses as 
far as the eye could see. We had the debt going totally down.
  When the Republicans took over, the deficits soared, the debt 
doubled, and we have now on the backs of the American people--every 
man, woman, and child--$17,000 more in debt as a result of an open 
checkbook for Iraq and tax cuts to the millionaires and the 
billionaires who never needed it anyway. That is a fact. It has been 
proven. There is no debate over it.
  I have what the Republicans said back then, and I know what happened 
to the economy. So if you are looking for past history to guide what we 
do today, it is time to step to the plate and support President Obama. 
He has learned from history. He has looked at what happened. He 
understands.
  So I want to take us now to where we are in this recession: 3.6 
million jobs lost since the beginning of the recession. I want people 
to think about 3,600,000 people. Think about your own community, how 
many people live in that community. Think about your own State, how 
many people live in that State. Think about what it means to have these 
many people unemployed, and think about what it means for their 
families, for their spouses, for their children, in the face of this. 
Doing nothing is not a passive act. It is a hostile act. It is a 
hostile act because doing nothing says: We like the status quo. We 
don't care about this. Let it just play out. I say that is 
unacceptable.
  Now, we can look at what is happening month by month: almost 600,000 
jobs lost in January; 524,000 in December; 533,000 in November. This is 
what is happening on the ground today.
  The other day, I placed into the Record some of the layoffs that are 
going on in my State--everything from Macy's, to Starbucks, to little 
mom-and-pops, to big companies, to high-tech, all over California. We 
have 37 million people, and, as they say in California, when we get a 
cold, everybody else sneezes because we have such an impact. We would 
be about the seventh largest economy in the world.
  This is another bad picture, I show you in the Chamber--unemployment 
rates rising: 6.7 percent in November; December, 7.2 percent; January, 
7.6 percent. In my home State, it is now 9.3 percent unemployment. And 
there are some communities that have 15 percent unemployment. That is 
getting closer to a depression.
  We have a problem, and we cannot afford stall tactics around here and 
60-vote supermajorities. We cannot afford partisanship. We need 
cooperation because the longer we wait to put those dollars into our 
communities, the more job losses we are going to see.
  Total unemployed Americans: 11.6 million. That is unemployed 
Americans at the time. Think about that. Think about your community. 
Think about your State. Think about what 11.6 million unemployed 
Americans means. There are 1.6 million unemployed Californians. The 
number of long-term unemployed--they have been looking and looking and 
cannot find work--is 2.6 million.
  By the way, there are 7.8 million underemployed Americans, meaning 
people who get part-time work who want full-time work--so many people 
who have higher skills that are not being put to good use. 
Underemployment is a problem. It is a serious problem.
  They say pictures speak a thousand words. I show you a picture of a 
homeless man in Bakersfield. My local officials in Bakersfield, CA, 
have noticed a rise in the number of homeless individuals. These are 
individuals without shelter. As shown in this picture, here is one 
hiding his face--hiding his face. It is a sad thing, and we are seeing 
more of it across our Nation.
  Job seekers in search of employment at a Goodwill Industries career 
center in Los Angeles. A Los Angeles man who lost his job at a computer 
disposal facility was forced to place his children into foster care. 
Imagine all of us having to place our children into foster care because 
we could not find another job to support our family. He said: You've 
got to stay positive, but the economy is failing. I'll take anything.
  He visited this Los Angeles Goodwill career center to learn about job 
opportunities.
  The other day, I held up a picture from Florida where thousands of 
people came for 35 firefighter jobs, and they had to have the police 
come out, not that anyone was acting out, but they just needed order--
for 35 firefighter jobs.
  In Fresno, kids are having a good time, but where are they having a 
good time? In a pool at a home that has been foreclosed upon. They are 
creating backyard skateboard arenas. The skaters found the addresses of 
foreclosed homes on the Internet or through friends who work in real 
estate, and these young people came there to this foreclosed home. This 
home was once teeming with a family. Your home is your castle. It is a 
dream being lost.
  If we do not pass this first leg of our economic recovery package, 
this will continue. Because it is one thing to lose your home because 
your interest rate got out of reach--that is a terrible thing--it is 
worse when you lose your home because you lost your job. So this is not 
a good picture.
  This is an area in our State that was ready for development in the 
city of Rio Vista in eastern Solano County. The city of Rio Vista is 
nearing bankruptcy, its problems coming from plummeting property and 
sales taxes, a lack of funds coming from the State. The city has laid 
off employees. They have left open full-time positions. They

[[Page S2096]]

have frozen salaries. They have cut city programs. And they have closed 
city hall 1 day a week. This is a small city, and the reverberations 
are many.
  The San Fernando Valley Career Center--this is a picture of a 
gentleman who is desperately looking for work. This is what he says: I 
don't have a single cent in my pocket.

  He has been unemployed since September. He visited this career center 
to seek job opportunities. People are trying desperately to find work.
  It is easy to stand up here and say: I don't like the bill. I don't 
like page 47. I don't like paragraph 2 and paragraph 8. The bottom line 
is, you can either have the perfect bill, no bill, or the compromise. 
Again, yesterday we passed the compromise, and we need to get this 
done.
  This breaks my heart. I know all of us feel this way when we see our 
constituents who are hard workers, who cherish work, who want the pride 
of a job, having this circumstance.
  There is a story from North Hollywood: a mother of five laid off in 
November 2007, spending hours each day looking for work. She said: This 
is the longest I've been unemployed. I feel stressed out. I have bills 
piling up.
  So we are at the crossroads. President Obama is getting out to this 
country. He is going to places like this, where people are desperate. 
This is ``one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice 
for all.'' We are not going to live up to that ideal if we do not act 
now.
  My friends on the other side of the aisle, believe me, they had their 
turn. They had 8 years of their turn. They took a surplus, they turned 
it into deficit. They took debt that was on the way out and expanded it 
by double, laying on the backs of every man, woman, and child another 
$17,000 of debt. They had their chance. This is the worst economy we 
have seen since the Great Depression. They had their chance. They had 
an open checkbook for Iraq and they had an open checkbook for their 
very wealthy friends, and it did not work.
  When we were in charge--we are not perfect, God knows, that is for 
sure--we got this economy back on track. We know what it takes. We have 
to stimulate this economy. That is the first leg. When it gets on its 
feet, we will wrap our hands around these deficits and get them under 
control. We will make sure our financial system has sensible regulation 
again so people have confidence in it. We know what we are doing.
  It is true that the problems are vast, but this country did go 
through the Great Depression. And what did we see? When we put people 
to work, it restored their faith and confidence. When we mobilized for 
a war, we mobilized the productivity of people. We do not want to 
mobilize for war now, but we do want to mobilize for energy 
independence by turning to clean energy and creating technologies we 
can export. We know we have to take care of the housing crisis. We know 
we have to get ahead of it. We know we have to help people stay in 
their homes. This next tranche of the TARP funds that Timothy Geithner 
talked about--the money is already there--$50 billion will be used for 
that, and I hope even more. So we know what we are doing.
  We are not standing up here with a plan that, as President Obama 
said, is plucked out of the air. It is not plucked out of the air. He 
spoke to economists--Democratic economists, Republican economists, and 
those all over the map--and the vast majority say we need to stimulate 
this economy, get money to the cities, get money to the counties, get 
money to the States, get money to the private sector, rebuild our 
physical infrastructure, our highways, our bridges. These are things we 
need to do anyway--these are things we need to do anyway. We need to 
get funds to law enforcement so we are not laying off police officers 
but hiring them. We need to get funds to our schools so we are not 
laying off teachers, but we are hiring them. We need to have tax breaks 
in here to encourage investments in alternative clean energy so we can 
make our government buildings energy efficient. These are all things 
that save money, create jobs, and we have to do them anyway.

  So as President Obama has said, we didn't expect this kind of an 
economic crisis, but it is upon us. It is upon us. Listen to my friends 
on the other side and go back to 1993. They are saying the same things. 
They were the party of ``no'' then; they are the party of ``no'' now. 
No, no, no, no, no; don't do it. It is not going to work; it is going 
to hurt the economy; it will lead to a recession; it will increase the 
debt. All the things they are saying now they said then. They always 
have a reason to say no.
  I wish to close by saying to the three Republican colleagues of mine 
who came forward: Thank you again. I have said it before. It takes 
courage. It is hard to go against the caucus you sit in every day. It 
is hard. I have had to do it on a couple of things. It is very 
unpleasant. I remember being 1 of 11 people who went a different way on 
one occasion on a gay rights issue. It was very hard. I remember being 
1 of 23 who voted against the Iraq war. It was popular then. It was 
very hard. I remember voting against the Medicare prescription drug 
benefit because I thought it would lead to major problems with people 
getting kicked off their insurance when they needed their medicines the 
most. It also stopped Medicare from negotiating. It didn't allow them 
to negotiate for lower prices, and I felt the pharmaceutical companies 
were going to make a bundle and the people wouldn't get the benefits. I 
was in the minority. So I know how it feels to be in the minority. I 
know how it feels to vote differently than most of your colleagues. It 
is a lonely feeling. I say to those Republican friends on the other 
side: You are showing courage and you are showing wisdom. You are also 
showing you have learned from history, because you went back to the 
Clinton years where we didn't get one Republican vote for a bold 
economic plan. All the dire predictions turned out to be totally false.
  We need to get back to those days of economic growth and expansion, 
but we can't do it until we move forward with this three-legged stool, 
this economic stimulus package to create jobs, jobs, jobs; the housing 
piece to address the terrible loss of confidence in housing, to help 
people stay in their homes and stop the slide; and, of course, the 
third piece of making sure our financial sector works once again, so 
that creditworthy people can step to the plate, go to the bank, and get 
a loan. It is very hard to do that.
  I wish to point out one other piece of the package that is so 
important. The small businesses in our country will have some credit. 
This is very key. They will be able to go to the SBA and get this 
credit. So this is a package that is worthy of our support. It is far 
from perfect because, again, each of us could write the perfect bill, 
but that is not possible. Thank you to my Republican friends who have 
joined us.
  I wish to say to the conferees: I understand the pressures they are 
under and I make a plea to them that within the confines of the numbers 
we sent over, I hope they can find the right path to take so that this 
bill coming out of conference is acceptable over here, we get the 60 
votes, and we move forward. We have a lot of work to do.
  Today I was on a TV show and it was so interesting because one of the 
experts on the show said, Well, wait a minute. You are talking about 
this economic stimulus. What about energy independence? What about 
health care? And he went on and on. What about exports? I thought after 
I got off the show: In 8 years we have developed all of these problems. 
We are not going to fix them in 24 hours. You have to have a list, as 
President Obama has, and tick them off one at a time, address these 
issues one at a time. The first issue is the stimulus. The second issue 
will be the financial sector, and then the housing sector. We are 
already talking about an energy bill that is going to come out pretty 
soon, which is going to be very exciting. These experts were saying we 
need a bold vision for America. I agree with them, but we can't fix 
what went wrong in 8 years in 24 hours. Give us a couple of months, at 
least, to get it on track and the effects of it will start being felt 
soon after that, but we can't do everything in 1 day.
  So, yes, these experts are right. We have to do all of this, but we 
have to start at the beginning. The stimulus package is No. 1. We are 
almost there. When it comes back from conference, we will have another 
vote, and it will go to the President's desk, and then we will move 
forward with the rest of the economic recovery plan. I do believe in

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my hearts of hearts--I have been around here a while--I do believe 
President Obama has learned from history. I do believe President Obama 
is a student of history, because if you are not a student of history 
you are going to repeat the mistakes of the past. I think he knows what 
works and I think he knows what doesn't work. So let's get behind him 
on this first initiative. Let's get it done. Then we will attack each 
and every problem, because there are many we have on our plate, but we 
will deal with them. I am confident--this is America--we will be 
stronger at the end of the day.
  Thank you very much, Madam President. I yield the floor, and I note 
the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. TESTER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. TESTER. Madam President, we have made some difficult decisions 
over the past few months. After years of failed policies that have 
dragged our economy into the ditch, we still have many more difficult 
decisions ahead.
  The next big decision will be for Republicans and Democrats working 
together on a final version of the jobs bill. Now we have an 
opportunity to focus on a bill that will rebuild our economy from the 
ground up by putting Americans back to work right now.
  The jobs bill we passed yesterday creates jobs--up to 4 million of 
them--and saves many more by investing in our roads, bridges, water 
systems, energy facilities, and our schools.
  This is long-term infrastructure that will support our economy for 
generations to come. The jobs bill also invests in what matters--
people. It invests in health care and an education, puts cops on the 
street.
  Where I come from, we call things as we see them. The word 
``stimulus'' is a Washington, DC, word that doesn't mean much in my 
book. That is why, from day one, I have called this the jobs bill 
because that is exactly what it is.
  You are either for jobs or you are against jobs. Every day, we hear 
of layoffs by the tens of thousands.
  Unemployment numbers are skyrocketing. Businesses--and even entire 
industries--are being forced to call it quits.
  The national housing slump is taking its toll on Montana's timber 
industry. The Columbia Falls Aluminum Company is at risk of closing its 
doors after decades of being a major driver of the economy in Flathead 
Valley. The Stillwater Mine has laid off hundreds of its employees.
  Montana's unemployment rate jumped from 4.9 percent in December to 
5.4 percent last month. That is an increase, in 1 month, of a half 
percent.
  The numbers are grim, and they are real. Now is the time for Congress 
to vote for jobs.
  They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This picture is worth 
much more than that. It is a picture that I came across in the 
Whitefish Pilot the other day. It was taken by a guy named David 
Erickson.
  The man in this picture is standing on a street corner in Whitefish, 
MT. He is holding a cardboard sign that says: Work needed. He is 
someone whom I represent in the Senate. He is one of the 950,000 
Montanans whom I am proud to call my boss. His story is a story of 
millions of Americans right now--millions of Americans who either don't 
have a job or who went to work today wondering if it will be the last 
day on the job.
  Millions of Americans are wondering how they are going to be able to 
continue to put food on the table for their families or pay their 
mortgage or pay for medicine or pay for childcare.
  We are not talking about a few folks who drew a short stick. We are 
talking about millions of Americans who are in the same boat as this 
guy in the picture--folks who are paying a tough price for the failed 
economic policies of the past.
  Some DC politicians say we don't need to pass a jobs bill because the 
current recession is only temporary. I ask you to tell that to the guy 
standing on the street in Whitefish, MT, or to the unemployed woman who 
wrote me to say she is willing to sweep the streets with a broom if we 
will give her a job.
  These are proud folks. They don't want unemployment checks; they want 
paychecks. Right now, work is needed. That is the task ahead for my 
friends in the House and Senate who are working on the final version of 
the jobs bill.
  We need jobs, jobs, and more jobs. We don't need politics as usual. 
Now is not the time for Congress to be against jobs. It is the time for 
Congress to work together to put folks back to work by investing in 
America.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Casey). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent under morning 
business to use such time as I may consume.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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