[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 64 (Wednesday, May 8, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3215-S3216]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, for years Republicans have been singing the 
praises of regular order, week after week, month after month. It has 
gone into years now. Even though they may not have been correct, they 
did it anyway. They said how they missed the days of committee markups, 
how they longed for an amendment vote-arama, amendments, and how they 
pined for a budget resolution.
  As the junior Senator from Texas said just before the election:

       Senate Democrats have not even had a budget in 3 years. 
     They are not pretending to try to fix these problems. I think 
     that is irresponsible.

  But then Republicans got what they wanted 46 days ago. Forty-six days 
it has been since the Senate passed its budget, but Republicans are 
standing in the way of moving forward in the conference. They got what 
they asked, and now they no longer want what they asked for.
  Remember, 46 days ago, under regular order, after a thorough 
committee markup, an all-night session--we ended at 5 a.m. in the 
morning--the Senate passed a budget resolution. Over the last 46 days, 
Republicans have stunningly and repeatedly blocked attempts to name 
budget conferees. If we did that, we could start down the path to 
compromise.
  That is what legislation is all about. Legislation, by definition, is 
the art of compromise.
  It is Republicans who, as Senator Cruz put it, aren't even intending 
to fix these problems.
  Republicans often have said the regular order of the budget process 
is the only way to get long-term sound fiscal policy. Democrats and 
Republicans will not find common ground if they don't sit down and 
talk. Obviously, if we can't talk, it doesn't do any good. We need 
someone to talk to. Here is what we are trying to accomplish. Move 
legislation forward.
  Don't take my word for it. This is what the Speaker of the House of 
Representatives said just a few weeks ago:

       Here is the process. The House passes a bill. The Senate 
     can pass a bill. And if we disagree, we go to conference and 
     work it out.

  What Speaker Boehner and Senator Cruz have said is that they used to 
love the idea of regular order, but they don't like it anymore. They 
got what they wanted, but they don't like what they got.

[[Page S3216]]

  This is what my friend, the minority leader, said in January of this 
year in praise of the conference committee:

       If the Senate version is different than the one the House 
     sends over, send it off to conference. That's how things are 
     supposed to work around here. We used to call it legislating.

  That is what the Republican leader said.
  A few days later, Senator McConnell extolled the virtue of regular 
order by saying this:

       Remember, regular order is how the Senate is supposed to 
     function. . . . The public is supposed to have a chance to 
     scrutinize the proposals before us.

  Here we have the junior Senator from Texas, the Speaker of the House, 
and the Republican leader saying we should have regular order. We 
should pass legislation, as we have done and the House has done, and 
then work it out in conference.
  So we agree. I agree with those three people. Do you know something 
else. The American public agrees.
  They suddenly don't like what they wished for. We passed our budget; 
the House Republicans passed theirs. The next step under regular order 
is to move to conference to negotiate a compromise.
  I can't understand--maybe I do. I think I understand why Republicans 
don't want to debate their budget in the light of day.
  You see, the Ryan budget, which they extol to each other, which 
passed the House, would turn Medicare into a voucher program--the end 
of Medicare as we know it.
  The Ryan Republican budget would lower taxes for the rich while the 
middle class foots the bill. That is in their budget.
  The Republican budget would rip the safety net from under the 
elderly, the middle class, veterans, and the poor. No wonder they don't 
want to go to conference. No wonder they don't want transparency.
  The Democratic budget, by contrast, would preserve or protect 
Medicare for our children and grandchildren. The Democratic budget 
would ask the wealthiest Americans to contribute just a little bit more 
to help reduce the deficit. The Democratic budget would balance smart 
spending cuts with new revenue from closing loopholes.
  It is obvious, then, why the Republicans don't want to compare the 
sensible Senate budget with the extreme House budget. The extreme House 
Republican budget was resoundingly rejected by the voters in November. 
That is what Governor Romney touted. Remember, Congressman Ryan was his 
Vice Presidential candidate. They ran together.
  Now it is time for each side to stand for what it believes. As the 
junior Senator from Texas said late last year, we have ``got to go on 
record and say this is what we want to do, this is our budget.''
  Democrats aren't afraid to debate our principles in the light of day. 
We aren't afraid to try to resolve our differences in a conference 
committee instead of behind closed doors. This has been the custom in 
the Senate and House of Representatives for more than 200 years.
  Why are Republicans so afraid? Why are they blocking us from 
continuing this process in public?
  We heard from the junior Senator from Texas: Republicans will only go 
to conference if Democrats agree ahead of time to give in to every one 
of their demands. That is a strange one. Sure, we will go to 
conference, but before we go you have to agree to everything we want.
  If Republicans can't rig the game in their favor, he said, there will 
be no game, no conference, no legislating at all. Democrats want to put 
deadline-day negotiations and last-minute fixes behind us. We want to 
engage in a responsible legislative process under regular order, and we 
will keep pushing the process forward. Passing a budget in each Chamber 
is a good step to restoring regular order. It is only a first step. The 
next step is to sit down and resolve our differences.

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