[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 60 (Tuesday, April 27, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2673-S2675]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             OBSTRUCTIONISM

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, part of our required reading, as I was going 
through college, was to read George Orwell's book, ``1984,'' which was 
looking into the future. Of course, looking at 1984 now, it is looking 
in the rearview mirror. But when I was in school we looked at ``1984.'' 
It was George Orwell's classic book.
  The main focus of the book is how societies would be in the years to 
come, in 1984. It appears he was fairly prophetic because one of the 
things that George Orwell talked about is that there would come a time 
when people would stand and talk, and whatever they said, the direct 
opposite would be true. That is what we have going on from my friends 
on the Republican side of the aisle as it deals with Wall Street 
reform, as it deals with what we have been doing legislatively.
  We have a situation where people sometimes forget where we were. 
Let's talk about where we were for just a short time. During the 8 
years of the Clinton administration, 24 million new jobs were created. 
During that period of time, we were paying down the national debt. We 
were being criticized for paying it down too fast, too quickly.
  Now comes 8 years of George Bush. Let's remember where we were. 
Privatization of Social Security was the cry of the Bush 
administration. Then we had a war of choice--and, by the way, there is 
a new book out by Evan Thomas of Newsweek. He talks about the rush to 
war, and I heard him interviewed.

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  That war was a war of choice. We are all glad to be rid of Saddam 
Hussein, but in the process we know the toll on our National Treasury 
and our men and women. That does not take into consideration what has 
happened to the Iraqi people, hundreds of thousands of them killed 
during this war. All of that war was unpaid for; the tax cuts to the 
wealthy, unpaid for. No longer was there any concern about paying down 
the debt too quickly.
  The Bush administration turned that on its head. In fact, they got 
rid of all of the rules that allowed us to do that, including pay-go; 
that is, we pay for things as we go along.
  So let's understand a little bit where we were. In the last 2 months 
of the Bush administration 1\1/2\ million jobs were lost. Obama came to 
the Presidency with this huge hole having been dug. I mean it was a 
hole that was a sight to behold. We have worked out of that hole. We 
still have a long ways to go, but we have come a long ways out of that 
hole.
  We know we stopped a worldwide depression with the stimulus bill, the 
recovery bill. Now that is of little consolation for people who have 
lost their homes or who are afraid they are going to lose their homes 
or who have lost their job or are afraid they are going to lose their 
job. But we have stopped the bleeding. Now we have to get back to a 
vibrant economy, and we can do that. We are not there yet.

  We have been able to accomplish a lot. We have been able to stop that 
worldwide depression. We were able to pass the most significant 
environmental legislation in more than a quarter of a century. We 
created more than 2 million acres of wilderness, 1,000 miles of wild 
and scenic rivers, hundreds of miles of trails, and many other things 
in that bill.
  We passed the Lilly Ledbetter legislation to more equalize pay 
between men and women. We have passed legislation to stop mortgage 
fraud. We passed legislation to stop children from being addicted by 
tobacco companies. For the first time in the history of this country, 
the FDA now controls tobacco, stopping people from being addicted, as 
all of my family was when they were teenagers.
  Credit card legislation--we were able to move forward on that and 
stop many of the abuses of credit card companies. National service 
legislation, something that Senator Kennedy wanted for 30 years, we 
were able to pass, and many other things, in spite of the Republicans 
fighting us every step of the way. We have had dozens of filibusters. 
They have certainly established themselves as the party of no.
  Of course, we passed health care legislation, one of the most 
important things ever done in the history of this country. Four million 
small businesses across America, 24,000 of them in Nevada, are now 
eligible for health care. They will be able to get a 35-percent subsidy 
for their health care premiums--4 million of them, 24,000 in Nevada.
  Children with preexisting disabilities can no longer be denied 
insurance if they have diabetes or other problems. We put $5 billion in 
that bill to allow States that already have programs to work with the 
people who have preexisting disabilities. Those who do not, they have 
that $5 billion so that adults, until we get the exchanges up, can 
apply to have insurance for preexisting disabilities.
  We also raised the age for young men and women who are not getting 
married as early as they used to. They can now be on their parents' 
health insurance policy until they are 26 years old. We filled the 
doughnut hole created during the Bush administration. So that health 
care legislation is extremely important and good legislation and 
important law in this country. Each day that goes by, part of the 4 
million businesses will be able to have insurance for their employees 
that they have never had before. People will no longer suffer as a 
result of the doughnut hole. People can stay on their insurance policy 
until they are 26. Preexisting disabilities will not be the problem it 
was, and we have done other things.
  We are now moving to Wall Street reform. Here is where George Orwell 
comes into the picture. Everything the Republicans have said about what 
we are trying to do with Wall Street reform is just the opposite. 
Whatever they say is just the opposite.
  I talked to one Republican Senator last night.
  I said: We should get on the bill and then you can offer all of the 
amendments you think are appropriate.
  That Senator said: No. We want all of the problems worked out before 
we get on the bill.
  I said: You know, that is not really the way the Senate was set up 
230 years ago. The Senate is to be a body where we proceed to 
legislation, then offer amendments, and then there is a debate that 
takes place.
  But the Republicans have a new standard; that is, they want to 
negotiate. That is the new banner. I wonder when the end of 
negotiations takes place? The ranking member and the chairman of the 
committee negotiated for months on this legislation. Then when that 
fell through, one of the junior members of the committee stepped 
forward and negotiated for a month, and that fell through.
  There comes a time when we have to start legislating and stop 
negotiating. We have a bill that is on the Senate floor. It received 
all Democratic votes except one, and none of the Republican votes. It 
is not as if we are asking anyone to approve the legislation. We are 
simply asking to be able to get on the legislation.
  But the Republicans said no. Now we know, from looking at the 
newspapers and all of the accounts on electronic media, that the 
American people support the legislation that is now being asked to be 
debated. They believe being too big to fail should be in the 
legislation as we have it. They believe in having a failsafe method to 
make sure that when these big companies have a funeral, they pay for it 
themselves.
  So I cannot understand why we cannot go to the bill, have amendments 
offered. The end of negotiations should terminate sometime. I was a 
trial lawyer by profession. Of course, it is good to negotiate, but 
there comes a time when you have to say: OK. We have had enough of 
this. Let's let the jury decide.
  That is basically what we have done. The jury is the American people. 
They decided they want us to move forward. The American people, 
undeniably demand we protect them from Wall Street, which has run wild.
  Two-thirds of the American people support us cracking down on big 
bankers' reckless risk taking. I direct everyone within the sound of my 
voice to read the book, the best seller--and it is a best seller for a 
good reason--called ``The Big Short.'' This book, written by the same 
man who wrote ``The Blind Side,'' talks about what has happened on Wall 
Street. I am from a State that is famous for gambling. But the people 
who come to Las Vegas to gamble do so with their own money. Wall Street 
gambled and caused this problem with our money. They are gambling now 
with our money. The rules are the same today as they were when this 
debacle occurred.

  A majority of the American people support us asking banks to pay for 
their own funerals. I already mentioned that. That is the fund financed 
by the big financial firms to cover the cost of their liquidation--not 
to bail out banks that threaten the larger economy, as some 
characterize it, but to shut them down for good. The American people 
also demand that their leaders discuss these details and improve on 
those ideas. They have two simple requests--this is the American 
people: One, that their leaders look out for their economic security, 
and two, that their legislators will legislate. In other words, they 
want us to protect their job, and they want us to do our own job. Right 
now, Senate Republicans are refusing to do either. Yesterday, they 
stood together en bloc to block us from moving this bill to the floor. 
They did not even want the Senate to talk about legislation as part of 
the normal legislative process.
  More than 2 years after the financial collapse that sparked a 
worldwide recession, Senate Republicans are claiming we are moving too 
fast--too fast. They are claiming that only a fully negotiated and 
agreed upon bill can come up for debate. That is absurd, stunning, 
unheard of. They want all the details to be worked out beforehand, 
behind closed doors, and out of view from the public. That is 
unprecedented in the more than 200 years we have been a Senate. As we 
all learned in civics

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class, that is not how the legislative process should work.
  We want to bring our bill to the floor so we can discuss it, debate 
it, amend it, and improve it. We want to do it in the open. After all, 
if we are not debating, if Senators refuse to let the Senate do its 
job, what are we doing here?
  It is very interesting, Mr. President, that the Republican Senators 
are willing to talk about financial reform with press conferences and 
other media events. Why weren't they willing to talk about it here on 
the floor?
  What purpose does the Senate serve? Why do we have rules for debate 
and the opportunity to offer amendments?
  President Kennedy once said:

       Let us not be afraid of debate or discussion--let us 
     encourage it.

  That is what he said. So I ask my Republican colleagues, why are you 
afraid? What are you afraid of? All we want to do is move to the bill.
  If something untoward happens after the bill gets to the floor, they 
can still stop us from getting 60 votes. There are 41 of them. Why in 
the world can't we go to the floor and debate this bill? They have that 
protection.
  The right response to disagreement is not dismissal; it is 
discussion. For far too long, there has been too much secrecy and too 
little transparency on Wall Street. The American people have paid the 
price in their job and their life savings, and they demand we fix what 
is broken. As long as Republicans insist on secrecy and resist 
transparency here in the Senate--and if they do not let us address the 
problems we were sent here to resolve--we will never fully recover.
  Remember, this debacle on Wall Street took place starting more than 2 
years ago. Why aren't we here debating the issue? Because the 
Republicans want more negotiations. They refuse to legislate.

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