[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 141 (Wednesday, September 21, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5795-S5797]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              THE ECONOMY

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, this morning we learned that the 
Republican leaders of the House of Representatives and the Senate have 
done something which may be unprecedented. We are searching for some 
example in the past when this has occurred, but we have learned today 
that the Republican leaders of both the House and the Senate have sent 
a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke ahead of the central 
bank's 2-day meeting that begins today. That letter to Chairman 
Bernanke from the Republican congressional leaders instructs him as to 
what they should try to achieve during their 2-day meeting.
  A former Commissioner of the Federal Reserve said this is outrageous; 
that an independent agency such as the Federal Reserve, which is 
operated with independence of political impact and political pressure 
over the years, would now be receiving direct political communications 
from the Republican leaders.
  What is the message from the Republican leaders to the Federal 
Reserve? The message is, don't lower interest rates. I don't know if 
Senator McConnell, Senator Kyl, Speaker Boehner, or Congressman Cantor 
have been home lately. But if they have been home and met with local 
businesses, small businesses, they will have learned very quickly that 
it is very difficult for them to borrow money to sustain and expand 
their businesses and to hire more people.
  As we have a monetary policy which allows expansion of these 
businesses and expansion of jobs across America, we have an opportunity 
to try to put this recession behind us. So what is the message of the 
Republican leaders to

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the Federal Reserve Board? The message is clear and simple: Do nothing. 
Stand by the sidelines and watch this economy languish.
  It is the same message the Republican leaders are sending the 
President of the United States. He came to us almost 2 weeks ago and 
said: We have to move together to make this economy stronger. We have 
to find a way, working together, to create jobs. The President said: 
Let's give to working families across America a tax cut, a payroll tax 
cut. The average family in my State of Illinois will receive about 
$1,500 a year. This will help those families who are working but 
struggling from paycheck to paycheck.
  The Republican response to them: No. They have said to the President 
they will not accept a payroll tax cut for the working families and 
middle-income families across America.
  The President said: Let's give to businesses across America some 
help. Let's reduce the payroll tax. In fact, let's create a tax 
incentive for these businesses to hire unemployed workers.
  We know there are plenty of people out there who need work. Some 
businesses, with an enticement through the Tax Code, may be able to 
finally hire that extra worker and reduce the unemployment rolls.
  The Republican answer, again, is no. Time and again, when either the 
Federal Reserve Board or the President or, in fact, any economist 
suggests that we need to move forward as a nation to deal with the 
recession, the answer from the Republican side of the aisle is no.
  Now, with this letter to the Federal Reserve, the Republican 
congressional leaders are telling the Federal Reserve, we believe for 
the first time in history, that they should not provide a vehicle for 
expansion by lowering interest rates in this economy.
  That, to me, is wrongheaded. When I think of the businesses looking 
to borrow money, when I think of those homeowners who need to refinance 
their homes, interest rates are critical to the expansion of this 
economy. Time and again, the Republican approach to this economy has 
been simply stated in just a few words: Do nothing and protect the 
millionaires.
  When the President steps forward and asks the wealthiest among us to 
pay something more in terms of their own taxes, which is only fair, the 
Republicans cry foul, class warfare, and all the words they have used 
to defend their position defending millionaires across America. Most 
people across American understand we are going to need to have shared 
sacrifice to emerge from this recession. A lot of families are making 
that sacrifice today. Working families and middle-income families have 
been falling behind for a long time. We want to help them with a 
payroll tax cut and by creating some life in this economy that creates 
new jobs.
  Unfortunately, we have no help coming from the Republican side of the 
aisle. The President believes, as we do, that putting workers back on 
the job while rebuilding and modernizing America is the best way to see 
us through this recession. He believes there are pathways back to work 
for Americans looking for jobs. He wants to restructure the 
unemployment compensation program using some innovative techniques that 
have been popular in the past with Republicans but now are being 
rejected because the President offers them--an idea that has been 
suggested of allowing some unemployed workers to come back to work and 
still draw unemployment so they can have valuable work experience and 
perhaps find a long-term permanent position.

  Tax relief for workers and families across America--cutting payroll 
taxes in half for 160 million workers--is going to be a break they 
need. Many of these workers and working families are struggling with 
high gasoline prices. Does $125 a month mean that much to a Senator or 
Congressman? Maybe not. But if you are living paycheck to paycheck and 
you just saw gasoline go over $4 a gallon, $125 is absolutely essential 
so you can make it back and forth to work and do what is necessary for 
your family. The President's payroll tax cut will help these working 
families, and Republicans oppose it.
  This plan also has deficit reduction. The President understands, as 
we all do, that the deficit America now faces in our long-term debt 
needs to be faced squarely. He believes--and I share that belief--we 
should spend the next year building the economy but make it clear that 
over the long term we are going to take the actions necessary to reduce 
our deficit substantially over a 10-year period of time by more than $4 
trillion. That is what the President announced when he made his 
statement on Monday.
  He also realizes that while cutting the deficit and reducing 
America's debt, we have to keep our promise, the promise to Americans 
who receive Social Security. Twenty-six percent of Social Security 
recipients have no other source of income. If we talk about cutting 
those benefits or privatizing Social Security, as many Republicans do, 
we are putting at risk, literally, the lifeblood of 26 percent of 
Social Security recipients.
  For 70 percent of Social Security recipients, Social Security 
represents more than half of their income. So they listen carefully as 
the President says we are going to protect the basic benefits under 
Social Security. The same holds true for Medicare. Medicare is a 
program that has been dramatically successful. Don't take my word for 
it, don't take any politicians' word for it, look at the life 
expectancy for senior citizens since we passed Medicare in the 1960s. 
Senior citizens can live independently, with more confidence, and live 
longer because of Medicare.
  We know we have to make changes in this program, but let's do it in 
the spirit of preserving the basic benefit structure of Medicare. That 
is essential, and the President has made that clear too. Those on the 
Republican side who support the Congressman Paul Ryan budget, which 
would basically hand out vouchers to seniors and say good luck in the 
insurance marketplace, ignore the reality that as people age they 
sometimes face medical challenges that others don't have, and they need 
the benefit and protection of Medicare in years to come.
  The President is committed to that. The Democrats are committed to 
that. It should be a bipartisan commitment.
  The same is true when it comes to Medicaid. This is a program across 
America that is essential in New York and Illinois. Thirty-six percent 
of all the children in the State of Illinois rely on Medicaid for 
health insurance. More than half of the babies born in my State are 
paid for by the Medicaid Program, and 20 percent of Medicaid recipients 
in Illinois consume 60 percent of the money spent. Most of them are 
elderly people who are very poor, living on Medicare, relying on 
Medicaid to stay in a convalescent setting or a nursing home setting.
  So Medicaid has to be protected as well. That is a challenge the 
President and those of us on the Democratic side accept.
  The bottom line is, we can move this economy forward in a 
coordinated, bipartisan effort; use the President's payroll tax cuts, 
the business tax cuts that are fully paid for; make certain we are 
dedicated to rebuilding America's basic infrastructure; and make 
certain, as well, that we take care of our own: the veterans returning 
from war, 10 percent of whom are out of work today. That is an 
embarrassment, and it is one that should come to an end immediately. We 
should work on a bipartisan basis to encourage their being hired.
  There is something else that worries me as we come to the end of this 
week and face a recess for both the House and Senate. The Republican 
leader, Congressman Eric Cantor of Virginia, has suggested we may be 
facing another government shutdown threat. It is just incredible that 
the Republican leader would bring that up as one of the options as we 
go into this week before recess.
  We don't need this. We have faced two previous threats this year from 
the tea party-dominated Republican House of Representatives. They 
threatened to close down the government when we passed the continuing 
resolution. They threatened again to close down the economy when we 
faced the debt ceiling.
  At this moment, this perilous moment in America's economic history, 
we should not face a government shutdown again, and the Republican 
leaders in the House should not be suggesting that as an alternative. 
We need to work together.
  The bottom line issue is disaster aid. I think the Senator from New 
York

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knows, as I do--in Illinois we have faced these natural disasters; 48 
States have this year. Hurricane Irene, I know, did tremendous damage 
in the State of New York. Earlier this year in the spring the flooding 
on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers did tremendous damage in my State of 
Illinois. We cannot predict when these natural disasters will come, and 
we certainly cannot predict how much they will cost. Now the 
Republicans in the House are insisting that we have to pay for every 
dollar of disaster aid.
  What are their pay-fors? Take a look at it. It is a program we 
created to encourage the creation of manufacturing jobs in the United 
States, making fuel-efficient vehicles. The Republicans say eliminate 
it, eliminate a program focused on putting Americans back to work in 
good-paying jobs, building the vehicles of the future so we can be 
competitive not only at home but overseas? The Republicans say that is 
something government should not do.
  It is a consistent pattern, whether it is their message to the 
Federal Reserve to do nothing when it comes to lowering interest rates, 
whether it is their message to the President to do nothing when it 
comes to payroll taxes to help middle-income families and business tax 
credits to put people back to work or when it comes to paying for 
disasters when they suggest eliminating a program that will create 
manufacturing jobs in the United States. Time and again, the philosophy 
of the Republicans comes through: Stand by; do nothing.
  We saw it as well when it came to making certain that General Motors 
and Chrysler survived the crises of the last several years. The 
Republican position was: Do nothing.
  There are many employees whose jobs are at stake when we talk about 
the automobile industry--all across America. We often think of some of 
the big names now that we see every day in the news. There are about 
3,000 employees of an operation known as Facebook. There are around 
30,000 employees of a company known as Google. There are 200,000 direct 
employees of General Motors, not to mention the millions who are 
suppliers and vendors of their products. To me, that is an indication 
of the shortsightedness of the Republican approach. Ignoring the 
reality of an automobile industry that needed a helping hand meant, if 
the Republicans had their way, GM and Chrysler may not exist today. 
Thank goodness they did not have their way. The President stepped in, 
made the changes necessary, encouraged the management of these 
companies to restructure in light of the new economic realities, and 
the companies survived.

  In my home State of Illinois, in Belvidere, we are proud to have a 
Chrysler facility. I talked to the CEO of Chrysler. He believes--and I 
certainly concur--this facility has a bright future because the 
government helped Chrysler through an economic crisis, and now they are 
restructuring to build for the future. That is the kind of forward-
looking view of the economy that we need.
  When the Republicans instruct the Federal Reserve Board to do nothing 
to help the economy, say to the President: Do nothing to help the 
economy, and then threaten a government shutdown over paying for 
disaster relief across America, that is shortsighted. It is not 
consistent with the economic growth we need in this country to make 
certain we are moving forward.
  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.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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