[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 129 (Thursday, September 23, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7367-S7368]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE DISCLOSE ACT

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, we are now in day 2 of debate 
regarding the DISCLOSE Act--2 more days Senate Democrats have chosen to 
ignore the jobs of the American people in an effort to save their own 
job.
  Americans are speaking out, but Democrats in Congress still aren't 
listening. At a time when Americans are clamoring for Democrats in 
Congress to do something about jobs and the economy, Democrats are not 
only turning a deaf ear, they are spending 2 full days here working to 
silence the voices of even more people with a bill that picks and 
chooses who has a right to political speech. This is precisely why 
Americans are speaking out loudly--loudly--about the excesses of this 
administration and this Congress. This is why Senate Republicans 
strongly support the efforts Republicans in the

[[Page S7368]]

House will unveil later this morning in Virginia.
  The proposals House Republicans will put forward today are clear 
proof that, unlike Democrats in Washington, Republicans have been 
listening intently to Americans over the past year and a half. 
Americans have been telling us they want us to focus on jobs first, 
fight wasteful Washington spending, repeal and replace the health 
spending bill, and shrink an exploding deficit. They have been telling 
us they want a smaller, less costly, and more accountable government.
  The House Republican plan is a clear and forceful response to these 
concerns, and, working together, House and Senate Republicans will 
continue to fight for the principles upon which it is based. Together, 
we will focus our efforts on making America more competitive, reducing 
the size and cost of government, keeping our Nation strong and secure, 
and reining in the massive health care costs and mandates imposed by 
the Democrats' health spending bill.
  This is an appropriate statement to make on the sixth-month 
anniversary of the passage of the Democratic health spending bill, 
which--both in its contents and in the process used to enact it--so 
clearly undermined the principles House Republicans will discuss this 
morning.
  Americans never wanted this massive government-driven intrusion into 
their health care, and virtually every day it seems we see that the 
concerns Americans had about this bill are being vindicated. Throughout 
the day, administration officials will tell people the things it wants 
Americans to believe about this bill. Based on the promises the 
administration made to pass it, Americans should be deeply skeptical.
  They said: ``If you like your plan, you will be able to keep it.'' 
Now we know that wasn't true. As the Associated Press recently put it: 
``This is a promise that is beyond the President's power to keep.''
  They said it wouldn't raise taxes--not by one penny. Yet even the 
administration's own lawyers now acknowledge that it does. One report, 
from the Joint Committee on Taxation, says that 40 million individuals 
and families will get hit with a tax hike as a result of this health 
care bill.
  They said it would slow the growth of health care costs and that it 
was essential for that reason. Yet now the government itself says costs 
will go up as a result of the bill.

  What about premiums? Well, the administration now says it knew all 
along that insurance premiums would go up as a result of this bill. 
Less than a year after the President said Democrats had agreed to 
``reforms'' that would enable families to save on their premiums, the 
Secretary of Health and Human Services now says rates will increase 
substantially as a result of the bill--exactly the opposite of what was 
said during the debate.
  And in what may turn out to be the most thoroughly discredited pledge 
about this bill, the President and other Democratic leaders assured 
their colleagues that Americans would come to like the health spending 
bill once it passed--they would come to like it. As for that claim, 
well, I think Politico put it best this morning:

       Rarely have so many strategists been so wrong about 
     something so big.

  Rarely--rarely--have so many strategists been so wrong about 
something so big.
  So Democrats were eager to listen to the strategists and the 
administration officials who told them what this bill would do and how 
it would be received, when what they should have been doing is 
listening to the American people, who never liked this bill--never 
liked it--and who knew it wouldn't deliver on the promises Democrats 
made. So this is no anniversary Democrats should be celebrating.
  Americans have had it. The American people have had it. They have had 
it with Democrats focusing on their own pet issues at the exclusion of 
America's top priorities, and they are tired of being told that if only 
the Democrats pass their agenda these priorities will somehow be met. 
Well, the results are in. The results are in. The Democratic agenda has 
been a failure for the economy and for jobs. It is time to move on. It 
is time to start listening instead of dictating. Americans are speaking 
out. It is time Democrats in Congress start listening.
  Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I withhold the suggestion.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Florida is 
recognized.

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