[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 155 (Wednesday, December 5, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7405-S7406]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          DISABILITIES TREATY

  Mr. REID. Madam President, across the country Americans are lamenting 
the lack of progress in negotiations to avoid a massive tax increase on 
middle-class families, and I share that frustration. But for insight 
into why negotiations have been difficult, consider yesterday's failure 
of the disabilities convention at the hands of the tea party. This 
shouldn't have been a battle, but extreme elements of the Republican 
Party picked a fight when there was nothing to fight about. Thirty-
eight Republicans voted against the convention, including several who 
were on record supporting it, even cosponsored it. This treaty, already 
ratified by 125 countries, would hold foreign nations to the same high 
standard and treatment the United States already maintains for people 
with disabilities.
  It would safeguard American citizens traveling, working, and serving 
abroad, and that is hundreds of thousands of people right now. The 
treaty has the support of veterans groups, disability groups from 
around the country, virtually all of them. It wouldn't cost the 
taxpayers a single penny. It wouldn't require any changes to existing 
United States law, and the issue is as bipartisan as they come.
  Here is what one Senator said about the treaty:

       Protecting the rights of persons with disabilities, any 
     person's, is not a political issue. It is a human issue, 
     regardless of where in the world a disabled person strives to 
     live a normal, independent life where basic rights and 
     accessibilities are available. Disability rights and 
     protections have always been a bipartisan issue and ratifying 
     this treaty should be no different.

  This wasn't some ultraliberal speaking, it was Senator John McCain, a 
disabled veteran, a hero from the Vietnam conflict, who broke with 
extremists and tea partiers and voted to ratify the treaty.
  The convention also has the strong support from a number of other 
leading Republicans, including George H.W. Bush, the first President 
Bush. He, by the way, of course, was a World War II veteran and did 
heroic things during that war.
  It also has the support of former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, 
certainly a patriot. Senator Dole, a disabled veteran from World War 
II, who led the fight to pass the treaty, was here yesterday urging 
Republican support.
  Think about that. Robert Dole, who was grievously injured in World 
War II, spent more than 2 years in a hospital, came to this Senate 
floor, and the first speech he gave was on disabilities. We

[[Page S7406]]

need to do something about it. He was here leading the fight to pass 
the treaty, urging Republicans to support it.
  A few Republicans greeted him as he was in his wheelchair here. They 
greeted this 89-year-old war hero--I repeat, a patriot--who just last 
week was in Walter Reed Hospital. Then one by one all but a handful of 
them voted against the treaty, ensuring its failure. But their 
professed reasons for opposing it had no basis in fact--none.
  Most Republicans acknowledged that. Some used an excuse, well, it is 
a lameduck, we shouldn't be doing it in a lameduck. I mean, wow.
  There is no justification for sending a message that every individual 
around the world who strives to lead a productive life in spite of a 
disability does not deserve the same just treatment. There is no 
justification for telling disabled Americans, especially those who have 
sacrificed their bodies for our freedom, our veterans, that they don't 
deserve the same protections abroad they do here at home. Yet that is 
the message 38 of my Republican colleagues sent yesterday.


                             Tax Increases

  These are the same Republicans with whom Democrats are supposed to 
reach an agreement to protect middle-class families from a tax 
increase. It is difficult to engage in rational negotiations when one 
side holds well-known facts and proven truths in such low esteem. 
Hopefully, compromise is not out of reach, but as negotiations 
continue, I hope my Republican colleagues will keep in mind the oft-
repeated words of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan who said, You are 
entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own 
facts.
  I know how high the stakes are. The days run short. There is still a 
quick, easy way out of this. The House must take up the Senate-passed 
middle-class tax cut. A few reasonable Republicans who are left agree 
we need to give certainty to middle-class families now.
  Yesterday Olympia Snowe, a very courageous legislator for more than 
two decades, who is retiring, said Congress should fight about tax 
rates for the top 2 percent after we have reassured the middle class. 
Americans ``should not even be questioning that we will ultimately 
raise taxes on low- to middle-income people.'' That is her quote.
  People are questioning this. If House Republican leaders allow a vote 
on our legislation, it will pass; every Democrat will vote for it. It 
will only take 26 Republican votes. It is a huge body, 435 Members. We 
only need 26 Republicans for this to pass. I know there are 26 
Republicans who would vote for this. We have one conservative 
Republican serving in the House who has said more than half would vote 
for it. I believe there are 26 reasonable Republicans willing to put 
their promise to serve constituents ahead of their pledge to serve 
Grover Norquist.
  So I say to my friend, John Boehner, in the House of Representatives, 
you control matters on the floor. No one else does. You have the 
ability, and you are the only one who has the ability, to put this on 
the floor for a vote.
  He should do that. That would be the American way.

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