[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 141 (Wednesday, September 21, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S5798]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            CHANGING COURSE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, there has been a lot of debate in the 
past week about the latest proposals coming out of the White House, 
about whether the President's latest stimulus bill or the tax hikes he 
is proposing will help or hurt the economy. But based on what we are 
hearing from the White House this week, it is hard to see the point in 
having any debate at all.
  I am referring, of course, to a comment by the White House 
Communications Director who told the New York Times on Monday that the 
President had entered what he referred to as a new phase--a new phase. 
He said the President may have worked with Republicans to avert a 
government shutdown last spring and to raise the debt ceiling this 
summer, but ``that phase is behind us.'' In other words, the White 
House isn't interested in actually accomplishing anything anymore. It 
is more interested in making a point than making a difference.
  So here is my question: How do you explain to the 14 million 
Americans looking for a job right now that you are more interested in 
motivating campaign supporters than in motivating businesses to hire?
  For the past week, the President has been running around the country 
trying to set a record for the number of times he can say pass this 
bill ``right away'' in a 5-minute stump speech. Meanwhile, his 
communications director is telling people the President doesn't expect 
the bill to pass. And the Democratic majority leader in the Senate is 
treating it like a legislative afterthought. My friend the majority 
leader said yesterday he might take up this supposedly ``urgent'' bill 
next month after he has had a chance to deal with a Chinese currency 
bill and a few others. As for the other Democrats in Congress, well, 
they are not exactly rushing to get it in the queue either.
  This so-called jobs bill seems to be about as popular as Solyndra, 
and I am just talking about among Democrats. Yet the President is out 
there acting as though somebody is actually putting up a fight. So this 
whole thing is a charade, and I think the American people deserve 
better. I think they deserve a President who realizes that governing 
involves working with a situation as it is, not as you would like it to 
be. President Obama may think the best way to distract people from the 
challenges we face is to stand near a bridge in a swing State and pit 
one group of Americans against another and hope his critics look bad if 
they don't go along with him, but I don't think he is fooling anybody. 
I don't think all the campaign stops in the world are going to convince 
most Americans that the real cause of our problems lies anywhere other 
than with the policies that are coming out of Washington these days or 
that the single greatest obstacle to job creation in America today is 
policies that punish the risk takers and the entrepreneurs and that 
stifle investment and private enterprise, rather than rewarding it.
  When it comes right down to it, I think most Americans care more 
about results than about rhetoric. Let's be honest. The results of this 
President's economic policies speak for themselves. After 2\1/2\ years 
of government spending, here is what we have: record deficits, chronic 
unemployment, median incomes going down, poverty rates going up, and 
the first ever credit downgrade. This isn't exactly a record to be 
proud of. So I can understand the President wanting to change the 
topic. It might make him feel better. It might energize his strongest 
supporters. But here is something it won't do: It won't create jobs.
  Look, if we can solve our jobs crisis and revive the economy by 
passing the hat at Warren Buffett's annual shareholders meeting, we 
would have done it by now, but we can't. Why? Because that is not a 
real solution. It is a campaign slogan.
  The President said the other day the tax hikes he is proposing aren't 
class warfare. He said they are math. Well, we can do math too, so 
let's do the math. According to the IRS, if you doubled--doubled--the 
tax burden on everybody in America who earned more than $1 million in 
2009, you would cover the cost of about 3 months of deficit spending 
around here. If you doubled the tax burden on everybody in America who 
earned more than $1 million in 2009, you would cover the cost of about 
3 months of the deficit we are running around here. If you confiscated 
every dime of taxable income from those the President refers to as 
millionaires and billionaires--take it all--you wouldn't even cover a 
single year of deficit spending in Washington right now. Spending more 
money in Washington won't solve our spending problem, it will enable 
it.
  How about the stimulus? One of the programs is the stimulus was 
supposed to create 65,000 jobs. So far, it has created 3,500 at nearly 
$11 million per job--$11 million per job. Solyndra was supposed to 
create thousands of permanent jobs. Two years later, more than 1,000 
Solyndra employees are out of work altogether, and the American 
taxpayer is on the hook for more than $\1/2\ billion in loans to the 
company.
  But here is the most important calculation: Not a single new job will 
come about as a result of the tax hikes the President proposed this 
week--not one new job. As the National Federation of Independent 
Business puts it:

       New tax increases on America's biggest job creators are the 
     last thing this economy needs to get back on track.

  What else do we need to know?
  Republicans are ready to work with the President on turning this 
economy around. We know what would work, and after the past 2\1/2\ 
years, we have certainly seen what won't work. So my suggestion to the 
President is the same now as it has been for months. Put aside the 
political playbook and work with us on policies that will actually 
solve the problems Americans care about the most. Let's work together 
on policies that are aimed at motivating job creators, not your 
political base. It is time to change course.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. McCAIN. I ask unanimous consent to address the Senate as in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is recognized.

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