[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 36 (Tuesday, March 4, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1257-S1259]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CHILD CARE AND DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT ACT OF 2014--MOTION TO PROCEED--
Resumed
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 309, S.
1086.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Baldwin.) The clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 1086) to reauthorize and improve the Child Care
and Development Block Grant Act of 1990, and for other
purposes.
Schedule
Mr. REID. Mr. President, following my remarks and those of the
Republican leader, the Senate will be in a period of morning business
with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.
There will be no rollcall votes today because of the inclement
weather we have had the last 3 or 4 days. The next rollcall vote will
be tomorrow at 11:45 a.m.
Benefitting the Wealthy
Charles and David Koch are shrewd businessmen. Their wealth is nearly
unparalleled, not only in America but in the world. The brothers
inherited a small oil company. They inherited this company from their
dad. They built it into a multinational corporation. It refines oil,
makes carpets, manufactures fertilizers and chemicals, makes paper
products, extracts minerals, produces glass, owns a cattle ranch, and
lots of stuff.
Like most shrewd businessmen, the oil baron Koch brothers are very
good at protecting and growing their prodigious future and their
prodigious fortune. There is nothing un-American about that. But what
is un-American is when shadowy billionaires pour unlimited money into
our democracy to rig the system, to benefit themselves and the
wealthiest 1 percent.
I believe in an America where economic opportunity is open to all.
Based on their actions and policies they promote, the Koch brothers
seem to believe in an America where the system is rigged to benefit the
very wealthy. Based on Senate Republicans' ardent defense of the Koch
brothers and the fact that they advocate for many of the same policies
as the Koch brothers, it seems my Republican colleagues also believe in
a system that benefits billionaires at the expense of the middle class.
The Koch brothers are willing to invest billions to buy that America.
They are investing billions to buy that America. In 2010 the Supreme
Court opened the flood gates of corporate money into electoral
politics. That was with the Citizens United decision. Since mega donors
such as Charles and David Koch can launder their huge contributions
using shadowy shell groups and so-called nonprofits, it is difficult to
tell exactly how much they have invested so far.
Investigative reporting done by some of the most respected news
outlets in the country has revealed that the Koch brothers funnel money
through a web of investor groups and advocacy organizations that are
immune from disclosure rules, such as the Club for Growth, Heritage
Action, the NRA, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. We may never know
how much money the Koch brothers are spending to rig the system, to rig
the system for themselves.
But we do know their investments have paid off already. In November
2010, the petroleum industry walked right through the door the Supreme
Court had opened and spent hundreds of millions of dollars to elect a
Republican majority to the House of Representatives. That Republican
majority has effectively shut down any hope of passing legislation to
limit the pollution that has caused climate change.
That Republican majority is, in fact, working to gut the most
important safeguards to keep cancer-causing toxins and pollution that
cause sickness and death out of the air we breathe and the water we
drink. Without those safeguards, the Koch brothers would pass on the
higher health care costs to
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middle-class Americans while padding their own pocketbooks.
So the Koch brothers are already seeing a return on their 2010
investment in a Republican House of Representatives that does what they
want done. But they certainly have not stopped there. The Koch-backed
Americans for Prosperity alone spent $400 million in misleading attack
ads last election cycle.
If you have seen an ad recently maligning the Affordable Care Act or
ObamaCare, chances are, significantly, that these ads are from the Koch
brothers or one of the shadow groups paid for by the Koch brothers.
Koch-backed groups have spent a vast sum trying to elect Republican
Senate candidates this year, a sum that dwarfs even the National
Republican Senatorial Committee's own spending.
The Koch brothers and other moneyed interests are influencing the
political process for their own benefit in a way not seen for
generations. Republican Senators have come to the floor to defend the
Koch brothers attempts to buy our democracy. Once again, Republicans
are all in to protect their billionaire friends.
Not only have Senate Republicans come to the floor to defend the Koch
brothers personally, they have again and again defended the Koch
brothers' radical agenda--and it is radical, at least from a middle-
class perspective.
Senate Republicans have opened so many different avenues to oppose
closing a single tax loophole. Senate Republicans have opposed closing
even a loophole for these oil companies or corporations that ship jobs
overseas. This benefits the Koch brothers. Senate Republicans have
opposed asking billionaires to pay the same higher tax rate as middle-
class tax families, as illustrated by Warren Buffett.
Senate Republicans have opposed environmental and workplace safety
standards that might cause the Koch brothers or their corporate donors
a few extra dimes--a few extra dollars maybe. The Koch brothers are
returning the favor with huge donations to Republican Senate
candidates, either directly or indirectly.
Senate Republicans are addicted to Koch. In fact, Senate Republicans
hardly need the NRSC any more, which for decade after decade was the
main funding tool for the Republican Senate. Not any longer; the Koch
brothers take care of that.
Aside from that, the NRSC cannot hide its donors' identities like the
Koch brothers-funded groups can hide their donors' identities. Senate
Republicans call this freewheeling spending by anonymous donors nothing
more than ``free speech.'' Senate Republicans say that whoever has the
most money gets the most free speech. But that is not what America's
Founding Fathers said. They did not mean that by free speech. The
Founders believed in a democracy where every American had a voice and a
vote.
This discussion, this fight, is not just about health care or even
about a few hundred million dollars in disingenuous ads. This is about
two very wealthy brothers who intend to buy their own Congress, a
Congress beholden to the money and bound to enact their radical
philosophy. Witness this: Senators beholden to wealthy special
interests; Republican senators rush to the floor to defend the Kochs
whenever I say something negative about the brothers or their radical
agenda.
By the way, the words ``radical agenda'' are not my words. Charles
Koch proudly told Brian Doherty, an editor of the magazine ``Reason,''
about his self-described--his quote--``radical philosophy'' in 2007.
These are the same brothers who have lobbied against the recognition of
formaldehyde as a cancer-causing carcinogen, because it might be bad
for their business.
These are the same brothers whose Koch Industries ranks near the top
of the list of America's worst toxic air polluters. Those are the same
brothers whose company, according to a Bloomberg investigation, paid
bribes and kickbacks to win contracts in Africa, India, and the Middle
East.
These are the same brothers who, according to the same report, used
foreign subsidiaries to sell millions of dollars of equipment to Iran,
a state sponsor of terrorism. Let's make sure we understand that. I may
not have said it quite right. These are the same brothers who,
according to the same report, used foreign subsidiaries to sell
millions of dollars of equipment to Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism.
We all know that.
The Koch brothers already believe they can play by a different set of
rules. Think about how an America rigged by the Koch brothers would
look. The Koch brothers do not care about creating a strong public
education system in America. The Koch brothers do not care about
maintaining the strong safety net of Medicare and Social Security. The
Koch brothers do not care about the guarantee of affordable, quality
health insurance for every American.
That is obvious from the misleading ads they have paid for all over
the country. Why? Because the Koch brothers can afford to buy all of
those benefits and more for themselves and their families. Their
extreme vision for America means abolishing Social Security and
Medicare. Their extreme vision for America means eliminating minimum
wage laws. Their extreme vision for America means putting insurance
companies back in charge of your health care and denying coverage for
preexisting conditions. That is the way it used to be.
I guess that is what they want, running all of these ads. Their
extreme vision for America means stripping tens of millions of people
of the benefits in the Affordable Care Act today. Their extreme vision
for America means allowing the gap between the wages women and men earn
for the same work to keep growing. Their extreme vision for America
means giving giant corporations the unfettered right to dump toxins in
our rivers and streams, on our mountains and our valleys, and to give
them even more tax breaks while they destroy our environment.
We Democrats have a different vision. Democrats believe the economy
is strongest when the middle class is vibrant and growing. Democrats
believe world class education leads to world class work. This work is
one where people are ready to take on any challenge. Right now there
are at least three people for every job available. Democrats believe in
an even playing field with higher wages, affordable health care, and a
secure retirement for every American so that every American can have a
shot at success.
I welcome a debate over these competing visions. Average Americans
share our vision for a country whose success is built on a strong
middle class. The Koch brothers know Americans share our vision for a
country where success is built on a strong middle class. That is why,
rather than having an honest and fair debate, they are pouring hundreds
of millions of dollars into a massive campaign of deception. They
manufacture stories. They make up facts. They are angry that I am
calling attention to their campaign of distortion and deceit.
I am not oblivious that my comments about the Koch brothers have
caused some controversy. Anyone who has turned on FOX News knows that I
have gotten under their skin. But I will continue to shine a light on
their subversion of democracy.
When I hear my Republican colleagues defending the Koch brothers as
they have, I recall the words of Adlai Stevenson:
I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my
Republican friends . . . that if they will stop telling lies
about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about
them.
As long as the Koch brothers continue to spend hundreds of millions
of dollars buying elections, I will continue to do all I can to expose
their intentions.
Recognition of the Minority Leader
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader is recognized.
Political Participation
Mr. McCONNELL. I noted with interest that the majority leader was
hammering the Koch brothers again today, and I wondered why he left out
billionaire Tom Steyer, who plans to spend as much as $100 million
pushing the issue of climate change in the 2014 election and ``appears
primed to rival the deep-pocketed and conservative Koch brothers,''
according to the New York Times. The truth is that these American
citizens have a constitutional right to participate in the political
process.
It strikes me as curious that if we are going to demonize people for
exercising their constitutional rights to go
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out, speak, and participate in the political process, we would just
pick out the people who are opposed to us and leave out the people who
are in favor of us. The truth is that there are many wealthy Americans
who feel deeply about the country, who are committed to one side or the
other, and who are trying to have an impact on the country--as many on
the left as on the right.
So we ought not to leave out Tom Steyer. I believe he also has a
brother, who is also a billionaire, who has similar views and will
probably try to impact the fall's election in one way or another
beneficial to the things he advocates.
The Budget
The release of a President's budget is usually a pretty big deal, but
President Obama's latest budget, released only this morning, hasn't
even ginned up much excitement. Folks just aren't taking it very
seriously because it is not a very serious document.
First, it could probably never even pass the Democratic-led Senate,
and in some sense that is the point. Rather than put together a
constructive blueprint that the two parties could use as a jumping-off
point to get our economy moving and our fiscal house in order, the
President has once again opted for the political stunt--for a budget
that is more about firing up the base in an election year than about
solving the Nation's biggest and most persistent long-term challenges.
It would increase taxes by well over $1 trillion in the worst
economic slowdown nearly anyone can remember. It would explode spending
by $790 billion, forcing us to borrow more money from places such as
China. As I indicated, it would do almost nothing to address the most
serious threats facing our children's future, and it doesn't even come
close to balancing this year. No wonder the President thought the left
would love it.
But this is my question for the President: What about the middle
class? What is in it for them? It seems as though the President has
just about given up on helping folks who are in the middle, folks who
feel as if Washington doesn't take their concerns and anxieties into
consideration anymore. What hope is he giving them that their medical
bills won't be as high, that their wages will start going up instead of
down? What is in this budget for them except for this nagging feeling
that they will just keep getting squeezed?
The President is well into his sixth year of trying to fix this
economy, his sixth year of trying to tax, spend, and regulate our way
to prosperity--just as his ideology demands. But this much has to be
clear by now: This doesn't work. Since 2009 the government has spent
almost $18 trillion. Yet millions of middle-class Americans continue to
suffer, whether in the unemployment line or in jobs that barely allow
them to get by.
It is time the President realized that doubling down on the same
failed policies is simply not going to work. Yet that is just what this
budget proposes to do. We do not need any more election-year gimmicks.
What is needed is a new approach, a positive strategy that focuses on
helping the middle class instead of appeasing the far left.
President Obama still has 2 years in his Presidency. It is not too
late for him to try to make a positive difference for folks struggling
to pay their bills, but he has to let go of the left and reach to the
middle. He has to decide that bipartisan solutions are worth fighting
for. If he does he is going to find significant support on this side of
the aisle. We want to work with him to get important legislation done
for our country. We always have. We are eager to expand opportunity for
the middle class and to build more ladders of opportunity for those who
aspire to it. We are eager to enact policies that can create American
jobs--approving things such as the Keystone Pipeline, medical device
tax repeal, and important new trade legislation, just to name a few we
could do together. We are eager to find ways to control spending and
put the debt on a path to elimination. We are eager to reform the
regulatory state so that the rules coming out of Washington actually
work for people other than the bureaucratic class who writes them.
There are bipartisan solutions to be had on these types of issues if
only the President could put the politics aside for a few minutes and
actually work with us, really work with us, because the kind of
unserious budget he put out today is just the type of silly politicking
we need to get past. After all, why would we want a budget that grows
the Federal Government while the middle class continues to shrink?
Washington is doing just fine in the ObamaCare economy, but real
Americans deserve a lot better. We can give it to them if we work
together.
What I am saying is this: Mr. President, you have 2 years remaining
in office. Work with us to make them count.
I yield the floor.
Reservation of Leader Time
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the leadership time
is reserved.
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