[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 151 (Tuesday, October 11, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6360-S6361]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               JOBS VOTE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, a little later today, the Senate will 
vote on President Obama's second attempt to address our Nation's 
ongoing jobs crisis with a stimulus bill, and Republicans actually 
welcome the opportunity. If voting against another stimulus is the only 
way we can get Democrats in Washington to finally abandon this failed 
approach to job creation, then so be it.
  The President has been calling for this vote for weeks, and, in my 
view, we cannot have it soon enough. In fact, on the previous bill, I 
kept trying to get a vote on the President's first version of the 
stimulus bill. We will be voting on the second sort of modified version 
of the stimulus bill this afternoon. This is a vote Republicans are 
anxious to have.
  For nearly 5 years, Democrats have controlled the Senate. For the 
last 3 of those years, they have also controlled the White House. By 
proposing a second stimulus, Democrats are showing the American people 
they have no new ideas for dealing with our jobs crisis.
  Today's vote is conclusive proof that Democrats' sole proposal is to 
keep doing what has not worked--along with a massive tax hike we know 
will not create jobs. So it is hard to overstate the importance of this 
vote.
  The President's first stimulus was a legislative and economic 
catastrophe. Nearly 3 years after passage, we are still learning about 
its failures and its abuses. We knew it was a bailout for States. We 
knew all about the absurd projects it funded. Over the past few weeks, 
we have also learned that the Obama administration was doing the very 
thing with solar companies that it once rightly criticized many others 
for doing on Wall Street: gambling with other people's money; the 
Federal Government playing venture capitalist with our tax money.
  But there is only one thing we need to know about the first stimulus 
to oppose the second one and it is this: $825 billion later, there are 
1.7 million fewer jobs in this country than there were when the first 
stimulus was signed. That is the clearest proof it was a monstrous 
failure, and it is the surest proof we have that those who support the 
second stimulus are not doing so to create jobs.
  As I see it, that is what today's vote boils down to. Everyone who 
votes for this second stimulus will have to answer a simple but 
important question: Why on Earth would we support an approach that we 
already know will not work?
  Of course, the truth is most Democrats know just as well as I do that 
passing another stimulus and tax hike is a lousy idea, which is why the 
Democrats are having such a hard time convincing their colleagues to 
vote for it.
  Here is what they have decided to do instead. Democrats have designed 
this bill to fail--they have designed their own bill to fail--in the 
hopes that anyone who votes against it will look bad for opposing a 
bill they mistakenly refer to as a ``jobs bill.''
  That is not just my interpretation. The senior Senator from New York 
has

[[Page S6361]]

been out there telling reporters that what the Democrats are going for 
today is ``contrast.'' The senior Senator from New York said this is 
all about contrast--not about jobs, about contrast.
  It does not seem to matter that this bill will not pass or that even 
if it did pass, American businesses would be stuck with a permanent tax 
hike. Forget about all of that. What matters most to the Democrats who 
control the Senate, according to the stories I have been reading, is 
that they have an issue to run on for next year. This whole exercise, 
by their own admission, is a charade that is meant to give Democrats a 
political edge in an election that is 13 months away.
  Well, with all due respect to the senior Senator from New York, the 
American people don't want contrast, they want jobs. They want the 
Democrats who control the Senate to stop thinking about how they can 
improve their own political prospects 13 months from now and start 
thinking about how they can help other people's job prospects right 
now. They want Democrats to focus on job creation, not political 
preservation. So I have a better idea. How about we get this vote that 
Democrats already know will not pass behind us so we can focus on real 
job-creating legislation that we actually know is worthy of passing 
with bipartisan support. Republicans have been calling on Democrats to 
work with us on bipartisan job-creating bills for 3 years, and every 
once in a while we convince them.
  Tomorrow, we will approve three free-trade agreements I have been 
calling on the President to approve since his first day in office. 
These agreements will not add a dime to the deficit, and they are 
expected by Democrats and Republicans to create tens of thousands of 
jobs. They will have strong bipartisan support, and they do not contain 
a single job-destroying tax hike.
  Both parties also came together earlier this year to pass a patent 
reform bill President Obama and Democrats in Congress touted as a job 
creator, and Democrats and Republicans came together this summer to 
pass a highway bill extension, FAA extension, that will lead to just 
the kind of job creation that has bipartisan support. You don't hear 
much about any of this from the President. It gets in the way of his 
campaign strategy. But that does not mean Republicans cannot continue 
to urge the President to work with us, and that is just what we plan to 
do.
  Over the next weeks and months, Republicans will continue to press 
our friends on the other side to work with us on legislation that will 
actually do something to create jobs in this country. Our first 
criteria for any proposal is that it would actually lead to more jobs, 
not fewer. I know that may seem crazy to some, but in our view it is 
not a jobs bill if it leads to fewer jobs. Our second criteria is that 
it does not add to the deficit. There is no reason we need to 
exacerbate one crisis in an effort to tackle another one.
  Democrats like to point out that the second stimulus we will have a 
vote on today is ``paid for with tax hikes'' and that it contains a 
``tax cut.'' What they do not tell you, of course, is the tax cut lasts 
for 13 months, while the tax hikes last forever. They hide the fact 
that over the next 5 years it will actually increase the deficit, by 
nearly $300 billion next year alone: Permanent tax increases, temporary 
tax cuts, increase the deficit by $300 billion next year alone.
  Another thing the Democratic supporters of this bill fail to mention 
is that about four out of five of the people who would be hit with 
their new taxes are, in fact, businesses, including thousands of small 
businesses across the country--in other words, the very people 
Americans rely on to create new jobs. So the legislation we will be 
voting on today is many things, but it is not a jobs bill. Republicans 
will gladly vote against any legislation that makes it harder to create 
jobs right now.
  The President's advisers have said they are counting on a do-nothing 
Congress. That is why we will be voting for legislation today that is 
designed to fail. If you ask me, this is a pretty sad commentary on the 
state of the Democratic Party in Washington.
  I think the American people deserve better. I think the 16.5 percent 
of Americans who are looking for work or who stopped looking for work 
deserve better. I think the 4.5 million Americans who have been out of 
work for more than a year deserve better. I think the nearly 15 percent 
of young Americans who cannot find work right now deserve better. 
Americans deserve more than a clumsy political stunt. They deserve 
better than the same well-rehearsed talking points we have been hearing 
from Democrats over the past few weeks. Above all, they deserve a 
different approach to this crisis than the one they have gotten from 
Democrats over the past few years. For nearly 3 years, Democrats in 
Congress have done virtually everything the President asked of them--
everything he asked of them. And I would remind everyone that they 
owned the government the first 2 years of the Obama administration. 
They got everything they wanted. They passed his health care bill. They 
passed his financial regulations bill. They passed his stimulus. They 
waved through all the regulations, the bailouts, and the massive 
spending bills. And what did we get? A bad economy became worse; record 
deficits and debt; a first ever credit downgrade; and 1.7 million fewer 
jobs. Democrats may have run out of ideas, but Republicans are ready to 
work with them on a new approach. It is why we are here. And we are 
ready to act.
  I yield the floor.

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