[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 166 (Wednesday, November 2, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7014-S7015]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          A DIFFERENT APPROACH

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, there is no denying the fact that the 
policies of the past 2\1/2\ years have made a bad situation worse. For 
2\1/2\ years, Democrats completely dominated this town. They got 
everything they wanted. And what happened? Unemployment has hovered at 
around 9 percent for 32 months. The so-called misery index is worse 
than it has been in more than 25 years. Consumer confidence is at 
levels last seen during the height of the financial crisis. But if one 
number really stands out, it is this: 1.5 million. That is the number 
of fewer jobs we now have in this country since the day President Obama 
signed his signature ``jobs bill'' into law.
  These are just some of the numbers that all of us, Republicans and 
Democrats, read about every single day. But it is not the numbers that 
compel us to action; it is the stories that lie behind them. It is the 
millions of men and women who have seen their dreams shattered, their 
lives upended, and their potential unfulfilled.
  What Republicans have been saying is that if we truly want to help 
improve the situation we are in, if we want to turn this ship around, 
then we need to learn from our mistakes and take a totally different 
approach. We know what policies haven't worked. We have tried that. 
What sense does it make to try those same policies again and again? 
That is why Republicans in the House and the Senate have been taking a 
different approach.
  Democrats may control the White House, and they may control the 
Senate, but for the past 10 months Republicans in the other half of 
Congress have done their best to correct the mistakes and excesses of 
the previous 2\1/2\ years and set us on a different course.
  They have done something else that Democrats have not done over the 
past few years: Week after week, the Republican majority in the House 
of Representatives has been passing bills that actually have a chance--
actually have a chance--of gaining bipartisan support and becoming law. 
They are actually trying to do something.

[[Page S7015]]

  Unlike the President and the Democrats who run the Senate, House 
Republicans are designing legislation to pass rather than fail. They 
want to make a difference rather than make a point, and the only thing 
keeping these bills from becoming law is that the Democrats in the 
Senate will not take them up.
  We know the President's strategy. His so-called jobs bill has one 
purpose and only one: to divide us. Just this morning I read a story 
that quoted some Democratic operative almost bragging about the fact 
they do not expect any of the legislation the President has been out 
there talking about on the bus tour to pass. They openly admit these 
bills are designed to fail.
  It is not exactly a state secret that Republicans--and, yes, some 
Democrats--don't think we should be raising taxes right now on the very 
people we are counting on to create the jobs we need to get us out of 
the jobs crisis. Yet the one thing every single proposal Democrats 
bring to the floor has in common is it does just that.
  So the Democrats' plan is to keep putting bills on the floor they 
know ahead of time we will vote against instead of trying to solve the 
problem. They do not even hide it. The President's top strategist 
actually issued a memo a few weeks ago stating the President would use 
this legislation not as a way to help people but as a way to pummel 
Republicans.
  Meanwhile, House Republicans have passed bill after bill after bill 
actually designed to do something. On March 31 they passed H.R. 872, 
the Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act. It got 57 Democratic votes--57 
Democratic votes--in the House, a bipartisan bill that could pass and 
become law. On April 7 they passed H.R. 910, the Energy Tax Prevention 
Act. It got 19 Democratic votes. The list goes on and on. There are 15 
of these, Madam President--15 of them--that have passed, and each with 
significant Democratic support--one with 33, one with 28, one with 21, 
one with 23, one with 16, one with 10, and one with 47 votes.
  So there are 15 of these bills that have passed the House with 
bipartisan support, and in the Senate we don't take up any of them 
because we are busy taking up bills that everybody knows are not going 
to pass.
  This week, over in the House, they are going to pass four more bills 
making it easier to hire out-of-work Americans. Just last week, House 
Republicans passed a bill that would repeal a law requiring the IRS to 
withhold 3 percent of future tax payments from any company that does 
business with the government--a bill the President himself said he 
would be willing to sign into law, and 170 Democrats voted for it. So 
why don't we pass it in the Senate? The President is waiting to sign 
it.
  This is just the latest example of a simple bipartisan bill that 
struggling businesses are begging us to pass but that Senate Democrats 
are holding up right now because it doesn't fit the story line.
  I am not saying we have to vote on every one of the bills the House 
passed just as they are--there is an amendment process for that--but 
why not take them up? Every one would help create jobs, and none--
none--would raise taxes. That is what we call compromise. It is called 
finding common ground, and it is how the American people expect us to 
legislate.
  What we are witnessing in Washington right now is two very different 
styles of governance: a Republican majority in the House that believes 
we should actually do something about the problems we face and which 
has put together and actually passed bipartisan legislation that would 
help address those problems, and a Democratic majority in the Senate 
that has teamed up with the White House on a strategy of doing 
nothing--nothing--all for the sake of trying to score political points 
and spreading the blame for an economy their own policies have cemented 
in place as they look ahead to an election that is still more than a 
year away.
  The President's economic policies have failed to do what he said they 
would, and now he is designing legislation to fail. Americans are 
actually tired of failure. So Republicans are inviting Democrats to 
join us in succeeding at something--anything--around here that would 
make a difference.
  I guess to sum it up, Madam President, what we are saying is, why 
don't we quit playing the political games? The problems we face are 
entirely too serious to ignore. Let's take up the bipartisan bills that 
House Republicans have already passed and actually do something. There 
is no better time to tackle the problems we face than now. Let's not 
squander this moment because some political strategist over in the 
White House is enamored with their own reelection strategy.
  Let's take advantage of this moment to act when the two parties share 
power in Washington. As I often note, it is only when the two parties 
share power that they can share the credit and the blame. That is why 
some of the biggest legislative achievements have taken place at 
moments like this, and that is why I have been calling on Democrats in 
Washington--privately and publicly--for the past year to follow the 
example of those Congresses and those Presidents before us who were 
wise enough to seize an opportunity such as this one for the good of 
the country.
  We face many serious crises as a nation. We know how to solve them. 
Let's not let this moment pass us by.

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