[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 66 (Monday, May 13, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3355-S3356]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE BUDGET
Mr. REID. Mr. President, as indicated in this chart, 51 days ago the
Senate passed its budget. It has now been 51 days. So why are
Republicans standing in the way? A picture is worth a thousand words,
and that is the picture.
Common sense and more than two centuries of history dictate the next
step would be to go to conference and try to find common ground between
our budget and the budget passed by the House of Representatives. The
conference committee is one of the oldest traditions of the entire
American Government. In fact, during the first session of Congress--No.
1--on April 7, 1789, the day after a quorum had been secured and the
first meeting of Congress was held, the Senate charged a committee with
setting out the rules for such conferences. During that first Congress,
the two Houses convened many times on conference committees to consider
many different issues they disagreed on, including differences of
opinion over amendments to the Constitution, differences of opinion
over
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legislating as to what the courts should do, and looking at bills that
created a post office and the Treasury Department. All those were
bills, one passed by the House and one passed by the Senate, and they
got together to work out the differences.
In this esteemed tradition, Democrats now wish to resolve our
differences over the budget in a conference committee subject to the
disinfectant of public scrutiny, instead of behind closed doors, as we
have done for more than two centuries. A number of Republican Senators
have joined Democrats in calling for such a conference. It has now been
51 days since the Senate passed its budget. Even Republicans are asking
why can't we go to conference?
This is what the senior Senator from Arizona, a Republican, said last
week:
I'm very much in favor of it, and I think we ought to do it
right away. . . . After 4 years of complaining about Harry
Reid's failure to bring up a budget and then we do one and
block conference . . . is incomprehensible.
That was a quote from John McCain.
After 3 years of Republican yearning for such regular order,
Democrats assumed every Republican Senator would be enthusiastic to go
to conference. But although a few Republicans, such as Senator McCain,
have called for a conference committee, Republican leaders have refused
for weeks to name conferees, flouting more than 200 years of tradition.
Republican leaders have also refused to explain why they won't go to
conference. But the longer the Republicans delay, the more transparent
this partisan political tactic is becoming. It is transparent they
oppose transparency. They do not want openness in government.
Republicans continue to put off a fiscal compromise until our backs
are up against yet another manufactured crisis--a catastrophic default
on the financial obligations we have as a country. Republicans hope to
use the threat of default as a bargaining chip to extract concessions
for tax breaks for the wealthy, extract concessions for drastic cuts to
Medicare, extract concessions for more Draconian cuts to programs that
keep the elderly, the sick, the disabled, and the most vulnerable
Americans from slipping further into poverty.
Even though Republicans caused themselves and the country immense
political harm by pursuing this wrongheaded strategy last summer, they
are at it again, and this time Republicans aren't even hiding their
desire to cause a first-of-its-kind default on our Nation's financial
obligations.
Last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill called the
``Full Faith and Credit Act.'' If there were ever an Orwellian name,
this is it. In their lexicon, up is down, down is up; east is west,
north is south. A bill called the Full Faith and Credit Act? Come on.
This legislation ranks the Nation's debts in order of priority--their
priority, a Republican-dominated, tea party-driven House of
Representatives. Listen to this. Here is what the legislation says:
In the event of a Republican-forced default, the Nation would stop
payments to Medicare, veterans, active-duty military servicemembers,
national security personnel, and you name it--everything except paying
the debt to China.
In addition to threatening the full faith and credit of the United
States, this legislation would cost American jobs, hurt businesses, and
tank the economy. And it wouldn't prevent default. If an American
family has a mortgage payment, a car payment, and credit card payment,
but pays only three of those bills, the family is still in default. The
Federal Government lives by the same rules. If we pay China but default
on obligations to our veterans, we are still in default. If we pay
China but not our Border Patrol, not our FBI, not our law enforcement
officers, including drug enforcement, we are in default. If we pay
China but not our troops overseas, we are in default.
The Republican approach to default is totally irresponsible. The
Republicans know this risky measure is a nonstarter in the Senate. Even
if it could pass the Senate--which it won't--President Obama would veto
it.
Americans are tired of these protracted fights over the budget caused
by the tea party-driven Republicans in Congress. It is through
compromise, not through hostage taking or political blackmail, that we
can set the Nation on the road to fiscal responsibility. That
compromise begins by going to conference on the budget. Americans agree
the path to economic prosperity runs through the regular order of this
legislative body--a process that honors more than two centuries of
work.
Finally, I had hoped we would have an opportunity for the Republican
leader to explain why he objects to going to conference on the budget.
We informed the Republican side we would ask this consent today,
tomorrow, the next day, and every day. Let us hope we don't get to day
62, 63, 64, 65, 75, but the way they are going, I guess they are never
going to go to conference.
We informed the Republican side we would ask consent today and every
day we are in session. While the Republican cloakroom informed us there
was an objection, no Republican was available to explain that objection
in person. I did this last week, and again they had no one here. I did
the same thing I am going to do here. I am asking for consent, but I
will withdraw my request out of respect for the long tradition of
comity. This is not comedy but comity.
It is outrageous, first of all, that they block this and then don't
have the courage for somebody to stand and object. It speaks volumes
that no Republican Senator was available or willing to explain the
bizarre objection to a perfectly reasonable request to go to conference
and work out the differences. The only explanation we have had so far
came from the junior Senator from Texas where he said: We will go to
conference, but you have to agree to what we want before we go to
conference. How is that for a deal?
The junior Senator from Texas was not available today, and no other
Republican Senator appears willing to stand and explain why Senate
Republicans are now standing in the way of a budget. So I will ask this
and then I will withdraw it.
Unanimous Consent Request--H. Con. Res. 25
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 33, H. Con. Res. 25; that
the amendment which is at the desk, the text of S. Con. Res. 8, the
budget resolution passed by the Senate, be inserted in lieu thereof;
that H. Con. Res. 25, as amended, be agreed to; the motion to
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; that the Senate
insist on its amendment, request a conference with the House on the
disagreeing votes of the two Houses and the Chair be authorized to
appoint conferees on the part of the Senate, all with no intervening
action or debate.
I would elaborate. This is a process that started being developed in
the first Congress that was ever held in this country--1789. My
Republican colleagues for years complained about not following regular
order. They said we didn't have a budget. We didn't need one, but they
said we didn't have one. We didn't do one by resolution, we did one by
passing a law. But regardless of that, they came and talked about that.
This is out of line. It is ridiculous. It is unfair to the American
people, but it is very obvious what is going on.
I withdraw my request, Mr. President.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Murphy). The request is withdrawn.
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