[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 40 (Tuesday, March 11, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1496-S1497]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              THE THREE ES

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I congratulate my colleague from Texas 
for his comments, and I agree with his concerns. These are the same 
concerns I hear at home in Wyoming.
  I was in Buffalo, WY, at a health fair this past weekend. Hundreds of 
people from the community turned out. They have concerns about the 
health care law. They have concerns about their take-home pay. They 
have concerns about their jobs. And Wyoming is an energy State.
  I am the only Republican Senator who is both on the energy committee 
as well as the Environment & Public Works Committee, and so I think 
about the three Es: energy security, economic growth, and environmental 
stewardship. We need energy security for our country, economic growth 
for our citizens, as well as to protect the environment and be good 
stewards of the land. I believe in Wyoming we continue to do all of 
those.
  The American people have made it very clear that what they want from 
Washington is a focus on jobs and the economy. This is not what I have 
heard, though, over the last 24 hours from the Democrats on the other 
side of the aisle. The American people I talk to want us to make it 
easier for them to get back to work, to provide for their families, to 
get the kids back to school so they can go off to work. People's jobs 
are linked to their identity, to their dignity, to their self-worth. I 
think more of these regulations make it harder for people to have a 
job, to keep a job, and to provide for their families.
  So we had an all-night talkathon, and what did it accomplish? To me, 
the only accomplishment was a waste of time and more hot air. It seemed 
to be a dog-and-pony show to satisfy their big liberal donors.
  The majority leader spent part of the weekend in California with a 
big liberal donor who has promised $100 million to the Democrats on the 
issue they decided to hold an entire night talkathon on. They had five 
or six Democratic Senators at this man's home in California basically 
saying: We want your money. We want your money. This is what the 
Democrats did.
  So they put on an entire dog-and-pony show, showing that Democrats 
and their leadership--including the majority leader--is beholden to 
that liberal money that wants to call the tune for this Senate.
  It is astonishing this would happen in the United States; that the 
majority leader of the Senate would take a number of Democratic 
Senators to California specifically to go to the home of somebody who 
says: I want to give $100 million to promote what he said was his 
agenda--his agenda--and make the majority leader dance to that tune. 
This is what we saw for the last 24 hours.
  The majority leader could call a vote tomorrow--he could call it 
today--on a

[[Page S1497]]

national energy tax. I think everybody on this side of the aisle is 
ready and prepared to vote on that. But for most of these folks, they 
wanted to just talk all night. They don't actually want to do anything. 
They just want to talk.
  The Democrats control the agenda. They control the majority. They 
have changed the rules in terms of approving nominees. They have it all 
lined up.
  It is astonishing that the most vulnerable Democrats who are running 
for office this year didn't show their faces last night. They wanted 
nothing at all to do with this.
  So we hear about regulations which are going to crush jobs and make 
it harder for people to go to work. As a doctor having taken care of 
people who are out of work for a long time--and I am sure the Presiding 
Officer knows people like this as well--I know that being out of work 
impacts their identity, the way they view themselves, and their human 
dignity. In fact, it affects their health as well.
  As a doctor, I have put together an entire report: ``Red Tape Making 
Americans Sick,'' a report on the health impacts of high unemployment. 
Studies show EPA rules--the rules, regulations, and redtape--cost 
Americans not just their jobs but also their health.
  For people who are chronically unemployed, we know there are higher 
rates of cancer, higher rates of suicide, higher rates of heart 
disease, higher rates of stroke, and higher rates of abuse--whether it 
is substance abuse, spousal abuse, child abuse. All of these add to 
hospital visits, premature deaths, all in communities where there is 
high joblessness. It is because of regulations which continue to come 
out of the EPA which are burdensome, which are expensive, which are 
time consuming. The costs are real, the benefits are theoretical, but 
yet this is what the Democrats on the other side of the aisle were 
talking about all night last night.
  So I would say, instead of spending 24 hours on extreme regulations 
which result in a national energy tax, Democrats ought to be listening 
to the American people and focus on jobs and on the economy.
  It is too bad Democrats would rather talk about a national energy tax 
for 24 hours than vote on the President's budget, a budget which never 
balances. Then vote on the Keystone XL Pipeline, a pipeline proposal 
which would bring, according to the State Department, 42,000 more 
individuals in our country into the workforce or even discuss and vote 
on other job proposals.
  They don't want to talk about job creation ideas. I will continue to 
do so in terms of the Keystone Pipeline and in terms of exporting 
liquefied natural gas. We have an abundance in the United States which 
would be helpful to our economy, helpful to jobs, as well as helpful in 
our foreign policy as we work toward not just energy security but 
global security as well.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Baldwin). The Senator from South Dakota.

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