[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 42 (Tuesday, March 10, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S2920]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. REID. Madam President, I direct everyone's attention to today's 
column in the New York Times written by David Brooks. David Brooks is a 
Republican columnist, conservative, but basically he is saying that the 
Republicans are opposing everything. It does not matter what it is, 
they are opposing it. And I think that is basically what we have here 
today with Senator McConnell. I mean, I cannot imagine how he could 
stand before this body, after having talked favorably of this bill in 
the past--and his statements have been read in the Record on previous 
occasions about how much he believed in this omnibus bill. In fact, he 
said--and I am paraphrasing--that there had been input by Democrats and 
Republicans, it had been fully vetted. But suddenly--using the David 
Brooks theory of Government--they are opposed to everything.
  It is not helping the Republicans around this country. You have to be 
in favor of something. And for my friend, the senior Senator from 
Kentucky, to stand before this body and lament the deficits--``this 
spending that has to stop''--where were they during the 8 years of the 
red ink of George Bush? The biggest deficits in the history of this 
country are all held by George Bush: the unending spending on the Iraq 
war, not putting that in the budget in an effort to hide it from the 
American people--how much it cost--the tax cuts that were never big 
enough for the Republicans that ran us into this deep hole President 
Obama has inherited.
  So everyone should read David Brooks. Let's have the Republicans 
start being in favor of something. That would be the right thing to do.
  The fairness doctrine. What a ghost that does not exist. None of us 
wants to go back to the way it was before. It is an issue they brought 
up to talk about. No one wants to reestablish the fairness doctrine, 
Democrats or Republicans.
  I know the State of Nevada is prideful in determining what the 
education standards should be in the State of Nevada. I think we should 
do more in the State of Nevada. I am not happy about where our 
educational levels are, the spending levels in the State of Nevada. But 
Nevada determines that, and that is the way it is around the other 49 
States, that it is a prerogative Governors have protected for many 
generations--that the Federal Government should stay out of local 
education. But when it comes to the District of Columbia, they do not 
count, I guess. So how would the rest of the States feel if we suddenly 
determined what was going to happen in those States as it related to 
vouchers, school choice, charter schools?
  So I hope we can get these amendments out of the way and pass this 
legislation and go on to other things. I am sorry I had to file cloture 
on three nominations. I hope we do not have to take those votes because 
it goes in opposition to what the Republicans always told us: What 
right does the party in the minority have to hold up Presidential 
nominations or judges? We are finding that is happening. I hope we can 
work our way through that.
  This legislation is important. It is important because it takes care 
of these Government agencies that had been, over the Bush years, so 
underfunded, underresourced that we had--because of the 8 years of 
neglect--to increase spending for these Government agencies so they can 
do their job. I met yesterday with new Secretary of the Interior Ken 
Salazar. He is lamenting how the parks in our country are in such bad 
shape, terrible shape. The Mall out here, because the Republicans 
complained about the money for the Mall--there was a major feature on 
all public radio stations yesterday about the Mall, what terrible shape 
this Mall is in. It is used. It is an American landmark. But they do 
not want money spent on that.
  When I read David Brooks this morning, I thought: Gee whiz, he has an 
understanding of what is wrong with the Republican Party. And no one 
more than a Republican can probably say it as strongly as he did. David 
Brooks--I have told him how on a number of occasions I disagree with 
his end line, but his reasoning is always brilliant, as it was today.

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