[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 120 (Monday, September 10, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6023-S6025]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             CLEAR PICTURES

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I wish to take a minute to talk about 
Congressman Paul Ryan's arithmetic. It is very interesting. He said he 
ran a marathon. A marathon is 26.2 miles long. While being questioned 
by the press, he said he ran it in about 2 hours and 50 minutes. Now, 
that is pretty fast. I would like to take a minute and apply the Ryan 
math to my marathon times. I will pick just one marathon time.
  I ran the Boston Marathon, and using the Ryan math my time would not 
have been a world record but within minutes of a world record. I could 
have made the Olympic team. By using Ryan math, I would have been 
superb. Well, the Ryan math doesn't work in marathons. As we all know, 
we can always check someone's math, and his math doesn't work for 
running a marathon or anything else.
  The Ryan math doesn't work with his budgets, it doesn't work with 
Medicare, and it doesn't work with his tax plan. It doesn't work with 
anything he has suggested and opined. It is no more than his little 
assertion that I guess he thought no one would check. When people run 
these races, they keep records. For all of my marathons, they have kept 
records. So as much as I would like to have the Ryan math apply to my 
marathons, it doesn't work.
  The Senate is going to resume its work in a few minutes on the heels 
of the two conventions. One was in Florida and one in North Carolina. 
The Republicans used their virtually fact-free convention to showcase 
the richest style economic policies.
  The Democrats took a different approach. I am sure we all had our 
favorites. I thought Congressman Cleaver's speech was so terrific. I 
don't know how many were able to see it, but it was great. He was up 
there marching. He was just outstanding.
  Gov. Jennifer Granholm from Michigan was so good as she explained to 
everyone about jobs and why Detroit should not have gone bankrupt.
  I thought Joe Biden's speech was typical for Joe Biden. It was 
wonderful. I admire him so much. I served with him for a quarter of a 
century. What a good man. He has contributed such valuable service to 
his country. While talking about his life story, we saw when his son 
introduced him. Tears were coming from his eyes.
  The President's and Mrs. Obama's messages were very clear. They did 
so well.
  In Charlotte Democrats presented Americans with a clear and honest 
assessment of the challenges we face as a nation and a concrete plan to 
overcome the problems we have together. That is why President Obama has 
seen a significant rise in the polls since that convention and all of 
those speeches--not just his speech but all of them. Even the 
Republican-skewed Rasmussen poll had him ahead by 5 points.
  In fact, we presented Americans with clear choices. It was not a 
choice between two candidates or two parties; it

[[Page S6024]]

was a choice between two visions: the Romney vision and the vision we 
certainly think was pronounced at that convention, the Obama vision and 
a vision about America's future.
  The Republican vision would return us to the failed economic policies 
that brought us to the great recession. It would return us to 8 years 
of wars, rumors of wars, and massive debt, everything unpaid for.
  We don't want to go back to that. We can't go back to that. It would 
further tilt the playing field in favor of those who have every 
advantage, millionaires and billionaires. They already have an 
advantage. We don't need to give them any more.
  President Obama showed a vision of America where every person has a 
shot at success, where fairness replaces favoritism. His policies led 
to 30 straight months of private sector job growth. Would we like more? 
Of course we would.
  I met with Harold Schaitberger this morning, general president of the 
firefighters. He has been working in the field with firefighters. He 
started out as a firefighter. As a boy, his father died, and before he 
was old enough to be a firefighter, he actually lived in a firehouse by 
himself with the rest of the firefighters. That is where he got the 
idea that was what he wanted to do with his life's work. He has 
dedicated so much to making America a better place.
  In my conversation with him we discussed how we are approaching 1 
million people who have been laid off in the public sector. I am sure 
it has happened in Connecticut. It has happened in Nevada. It has 
happened everyplace. We thought we had a way of solving that problem.
  Mr. President, you voted, I voted, and we thought we should stop the 
layoffs of firefighters, police officers, and teachers, and we would 
pay for it and have no more debt. We would pay for it by having a 
three-tenths of 1 percent surtax on people making more than $1 million 
a year. Every Republican voted against public employees. Three-tenths 
of 1 percent would have taken care of all of that.
  I enjoyed my conversation with President Schaitberger. We lamented 
the fact that all of these public employees have been laid off, and we 
have to get back to where we can have a public sector where people are 
not so overworked. I know in Nevada we have too few firefighters, too 
few police officers, and teachers who have been laid off, and that is a 
shame.
  We have had 30 straight months of private sector job growth. Too bad 
the numbers are not more than 4\1/2\ million, but that is where they 
are. We lost 8 million jobs in the Bush years, and we have gained more 
than half of them back. We are making progress. We wish we could do 
better, and everyone acknowledges that. There is more work to be done. 
Too many Americans are still hurting.
  President Obama has a plan to put more than 1 million people back to 
work next year. His plan will create jobs for the middle class and not 
just profits for the CEOs. We all want profits for these companies--and 
that is good--but we also want to make sure there is a fair program out 
there and that we do something to stop the middle class from being 
squeezed so hard. A lot of the CEOs are doing extremely well, and I am 
happy.
  The Dow is up more than 6,000 points since President Obama took 
office. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney has failed to offer a single concrete 
idea to get good-paying jobs for American workers.
  I watched part of an interview of Congressman Ryan today. It was a 
replay from yesterday. I think he was on ABC with George 
Stephanopoulos. All I could see was the back of Stephanopoulos's head, 
but I think that is who it was. He was saying they want to close these 
tax loopholes. So Romney has been asked and Ryan has been asked: What 
loopholes do you want to close? They will not say. It is part of their 
fictitious math because when they start talking about how fast they ran 
a marathon or talk about holes they want to plug, they have to give 
facts. And they have refused to do that.
  Do they want to get rid of charitable donations? Do they want to get 
rid of the deduction for buying a home? They will not say. It is 
obvious why; they are afraid. So they give the Ryan math and the Romney 
math, which doesn't add up.
  It is no surprise that Governor Romney has failed to offer a single 
proposal to create a good-paying job. After all, he belongs to the same 
Republican Party that has put partisan politics ahead of creating jobs 
for almost 4 years now. In fact, some would say 6 years. We have never 
had such obstruction in the history of the country. Nothing even comes 
close.
  In the almost 6 years we have had the majority in the Senate, we have 
had to file cloture 380 times. There were times when the Congress would 
file cloture a handful of times, maybe 10 times. It has been 380 times 
in less than 6 years. This is the same Republican Party whose leader 
has said his No. 1 goal is to defeat President Obama, not create jobs 
for the American people in the private or public sector.
  We have been rolling up our sleeves to put teachers, firefighters, 
police, and construction workers back on the job. For every $1 billion 
we spend as a Federal Government for infrastructure, there are 47,500 
high-paying jobs. There are other lower paying jobs that spin off of 
that. These are not government jobs. We don't send a truck out that 
says ``U.S. Federal Government'' on it to do this work. This money goes 
to the private sector to create jobs.
  So while we have been working to try to create jobs, Republicans have 
been throwing up their hands--or worse, standing in the way of 
progress. Our No. 1 goal is to get our economy back on track. I repeat, 
the Republicans' No. 1 goal is to defeat President Obama. What a shame.
  We are resolute in our commitment to restore the economy. That is why 
we proposed the Veterans Job Corps Act, a measure that fulfills our 
promise to the brave men and women who dedicated their lives to making 
our lives safer.
  President Obama kept his promise to end the war in Iraq and wind down 
the war in Afghanistan. The war in Iraq is over, and each year about 
200,000 servicemembers reenter the civilian workplace. That is the way 
it is right now. As this new generation of veterans returns home ready 
to work, it is our job to make sure they have the opportunity to work 
and succeed.
  The bill that is now before the Senate, the Veterans Job Corps Act, 
will reinvest in our returning servicemembers, easing the sometimes 
difficult transition back to civilian life.
  The measure will also offer priority hiring for veterans who want to 
become first responders. As we have talked about already, these include 
firefighters, police officers, and EMTs. It will also create jobs for 
veterans restoring forests, parks, coasts, and public lands. These are 
really good jobs. These are really important jobs. We tried this once 
before when we were really struggling as a country during the Great 
Depression. We had the Works Progress Administration. We had the 
Civilian Conservation Corps. In my little town of Searchlight, NV, 
there were numerous projects that were developed by these individuals 
during the Great Depression. They would fix watering holes, put in 
windmills, build walkways, and many of these things are still in 
existence. So I commend the senior Senator from Florida, Mr. Bill 
Nelson, and the junior Senator from Montana, Mr. Jon Tester, for their 
work on this legislation. Unfortunately, we once again face Republican 
obstruction.
  I repeat something I said a few minutes ago. Since we took control of 
the Senate in 2006-2007, Republicans have mounted an unprecedented 380 
filibusters. This is outrageous. This obstruction exceeds anything we 
have ever seen before in the Senate. This is not using Romney-Ryan 
math; these are actual, valid numbers. By comparison, in Lyndon 
Johnson's 6 years as majority leader--I could ask everyone here to take 
a guess as to how many filibusters he had to overcome. Remember, these 
were the years when he was President and we had the civil rights stuff 
going on and all kinds of problems. Everyone would fail the test. He 
had to overcome one filibuster. I have been faced with 308.
  I hope Republican colleagues will join us tomorrow as we vote to 
advance this measure. It is too bad we have had to file cloture on 
moving to proceed to this bill. The heroes who fought for their country 
overseas shouldn't have to fight for jobs once they get home.

[[Page S6025]]

  Tomorrow marks the 11th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist 
attacks. The date is a reminder that through over a decade of war, the 
bravery and dedication of America's Armed Forces has never wavered. It 
is a reminder that our commitment to those fine young and women should 
never waver, either.

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