[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 164 (Monday, October 31, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6898-S6899]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          DEMOCRATIC INACTION

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, it is no secret that Congress isn't 
winning any popularity contest these days. Americans are fed up with 
lawmakers who are either focused on the wrong thing or determined to 
block any serious reforms that would actually get at the root of the 
problems we face. That is why Republicans have been focused not only on 
legislation which we think has a good chance of jump-starting private 
sector job creation in this country but which also has a good shot at 
actually becoming law. Put another way, since taking back the majority 
this year, Republicans in the House of Representatives have focused not 
only on legislation which avoids the economic missteps of the previous 
2\1/2\ years of Democratic control but legislation which also has a 
good shot of making it through a Democratic-led Senate.
  You would never know it from listening to the President, but there 
has actually been a significant amount of bipartisan work that has been 
going on on Capitol Hill these days. House Republicans have passed bill 
after bill--many of them with solid bipartisan support--that would help 
spur private sector job creation and would help get this economy moving 
again, but the Democrats who have run the Senate for the past 5 years 
have ignored virtually all of it. Senate Democrats have decided it 
isn't in the interest of their party for Congress to get anything done 
right now. They have adopted a strict strategy of inaction. They simply 
won't take ``yes'' for an answer.
  The contrast between Republicans who run the House and Democrats who 
run the Senate couldn't be starker. Since taking over the House this 
year, House Republicans have searched for areas of common ground and 
then invited Democrats who run the Senate to take them up and pass them 
and send them on down to the President for a signature. Almost every 
single time, Senate Democrats have said no.
  House Republicans now count more than 15 pieces of legislation that 
would help us chart a very different path from the one the President 
and his Democratic-controlled Congress have charted over the past few 
years. This is legislation that would unlock America's energy 
resources, cut back on excessive regulations that are holding back job 
creation, and enable businesses, such as Boeing, to make their

[[Page S6899]]

own decisions about how and where to expand.
  Just last week, the House passed a bill to get rid of an IRS 
withholding tax on businesses that do work for the government. More 
than 400 Members of the House voted for this bill, including 170 
Democrats. Here is how one prominent Democrat described this bill:

       The repeal of this requirement will free up small 
     businesses' cash flow, increasing their ability to add jobs 
     and to bid on new projects.

  Republicans support this legislation. Democrats support this 
legislation. The President included this legislation in his own jobs 
bill, and he supports the bill that passed the House last week. There 
is no reason the Senate shouldn't take it up right now. This is one 
small thing we can do right now to reduce the burden on employers 
across the country. We came together to help them earlier this month by 
passing free-trade bills. Let's build on that success and pass this 
bill the job creators are telling us will help protect and create jobs.
  Like Senate Democrats, the President may think he benefits from the 
appearance of inaction in Congress. That is why he is running around 
the country reminding people how bad the economy is instead of urging 
Democrats who run the Senate to work with Republicans who run the 
House. But with all due respect to the President, the American people 
already know the economy is in bad shape. That is not news to anybody. 
They do not need the President to tell them that. They live it. What 
they need is for the President to get his party to agree to something 
that helps.
  I know Democrats will argue that our proposals for job creation 
wouldn't be their first choice. My response is that the Democrats had 3 
years to do something about jobs and the economy. The President's 
signature jobs bill cost nearly $1 trillion, and 2\1/2\ years later 
there are 1\1/2\ million fewer jobs in this country than on the day 
that legislation was signed. So why don't we try a different approach? 
Let's try an approach that actually takes into account the concerns of 
struggling business owners who are ultimately going to lift us out of 
this jobs crisis. They have told us what they want. It is not a mystery 
what we need to do to help these folks create jobs. Temporary fixes and 
more stimulus bills isn't it.
  So our message is this: The Democrats in Washington need to start 
taking ``yes'' for an answer. Republicans have put forward more than a 
dozen concrete proposals to spur job creation in this country that 
avoid the economic mistakes Democrats made over the past few years. We 
have done the hard work of legislating and looking for areas where the 
parties overlap on the issues. It is time for the President to signal 
to Democrats in Congress that it is OK to work with us.
  Everyone knows the economy is in bad shape. What Republicans are 
saying is that higher taxes and more government spending isn't the way 
to help it. Everyone knows the Federal Government in Washington is 
spending way too much money, money it doesn't have. What Republicans 
are saying is that the solution isn't to spend even more. Everyone 
knows that if the two parties are going to come together and act, we 
need to design legislation that appeals to both sides, and that is 
exactly what Republicans are doing.
  It is time to put the political playbook aside and actually take 
action. Republicans in the House are doing their job. It is time for 
the President and Senate Democrats to do theirs.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Alabama.

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