[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 54 (Wednesday, April 15, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2186-S2187]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HUMAN TRAFFICKING LEGISLATION AND THE BUDGET
Mr. REID. The Republican leader talked about two issues: one, sexual
trafficking, and, two, the budget. His statements regarding the two are
illogical as anything can be. Illogical.
First of all, let's talk about sexual trafficking. Senators on this
side of the aisle, with rare exception, are not wild about the Hyde
amendment, but it has been the law of the land for some 30 years. And
why is it the law of the land? Because it has been put in
appropriations bills over these many years. But what my friend the
Republican leader failed to mention is that if the Cornyn amendment or
the Cornyn language were adopted, it would change women's reproduction
rights permanently. You see, the Hyde amendment has always applied to
taxpayer-funded money. But what Senator Cornyn, the author of this bill
and this amendment, wants to do is direct this to private money. They
are two totally different things. Hyde has never, ever in the past
applied to private money--nontaxpayer dollars. So that is why my
friend's argument is totally illogical. Illogical. It has no basis in
fact. We are not going to stand by to enlarge this so-called Hyde
amendment to private money.
Now we have tried. We have tried. Ten different offers have been made
to Senator Cornyn and Senator McConnell to work our way through this.
There are many ways we can handle this. But they feel--my friend the
Republican leader and the assistant Republican leader feel this is
their opportunity to broaden Hyde. We are not going to allow that to
happen. It would be wrong. We have made 10 separate offers of ways to
get to yes, but Republicans appear unwilling to compromise about the
Hyde language, and that is unfortunate.
To carry on the illogic of the Republican leader, every organization
has a mission statement, a summary of their goals and values. Congress
is no different. There are mission statements that are done every year
and they are called a budget. We have our mission statement; the
Republicans have theirs. The budget sets forth our core values as a
party, a statement of our values that tells the American people what we
really care about and whose side we are on. We are committed to a
budget that puts the middle class first, a budget that supports hard-
working families, creates jobs, and invests in our future. The
Republicans, by contrast, are hell-bent on passing a budget that
creates a war on the middle class and serves the interests of special
interests and the superwealthy.
Let's take a look at what the Senate Republican budget does.
Remember, this is their statement of core values, and their war on the
average American from Reno to Las Vegas to Chicago to Louisville--it
doesn't matter where you go--is an attack on the middle class. Why do I
say that? It deprives more than 16 million Americans of health
coverage. That is the first thing their budget does. It devastates
Medicare. It makes Medicare something we would not recognize, and they
do it, of course, at the expense of America's seniors. It cuts Medicaid
and hurts millions of families who are not able to pay for their care.
Everyone thinks Medicaid is just for poor people. Some people don't
think they have much value in our society and Medicaid is something
that shouldn't get much of our attention. But a significant amount of
Medicaid money goes to people who are in rest homes and convalescent
centers. So the money they are whacking from Medicaid hurts not only
the young but the old. It guts nutrition assistance. It guts food that
can go to people who are hungry. It undermines job training and
employment services for millions of American families. It cuts billions
in financial aid for college students.
The Republicans not only want to cut aid to families as it relates to
education, but then the debts they have accumulated, which are larger
than credit card debt--they don't want to cut them any relief
whatsoever. We have tried that lots of times. Our budget reflects that;
theirs doesn't.
While the middle class is decimated by Senate Republicans--and who
benefits? Special interests and the superrich. They are protected more
than ever. The Republicans refuse to close a single loophole to reduce
this deficit.
A single tax loophole they will not touch. They will not end tax
breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. They will not close
loopholes for the wealthy, including hedge fund managers. They will not
take away wasteful and unneeded tax breaks for the very powerful oil
and gas industry. They are attacking the middle class while protecting
the super wealthy. That is wrong.
Now, the Republican budget is also dishonest. I heard the Republican
leader come here and boast. He boasted about the balanced budget they
have. That is absolutely not true. Their budget does not balance the
budget. It is simply dishonest to say so. The Republican budget claims
to add more money for defense, but it does not.
It is no wonder that the New York Times called the Republican budget
``a trillion dollar con job.'' ``A trillion dollar con job'' is the
Republican budget. I agree with the New York Times. In the coming days,
as we move forward toward a conference--now remember moving forward
toward conference has become kind of a joke around here because we do
not have conferences like we used to. That is too bad.
There will be no meeting of the conferees. There will be no debate in
open session as to how the budget should be changed. The Republicans
will get to conference. There will be meetings held by the Republicans.
Democrats will not be invited. If they are invited, it is pro forma:
Here is what we have decided to do. The conferences, as we used to do
them around here, do not exist. It is a rare occasion when they do.
We will not be looking into our efforts to try to improve the budget.
We are not looking to obstruct the process to force another all-night
vote-arama. We could. Under the rules we could offer endless, endless
motions to instruct: 5, 6, 50, 100, 200. We could do that. We are not
going to do that. But we will be offering a few motions to make clear
where we stand on important issues.
For example, there will be an amendment that men and women who do the
same work should be paid the same money. If my daughter works here and
[[Page S2187]]
a man works here and they do the same job, they should be paid the same
amount of money. We have tried to do that. The Republicans have
filibustered this five times over the last few years.
We are going to offer an amendment to provide sick leave to help
families get through tough times. We are going to offer an amendment to
ensure that same sex spouses have equal access to Social Security and
veterans' benefits. We are going to offer an amendment to relieve the
crushing burden of costly student loans. No one has worked harder on
this issue than the assistant Democratic leader. I heard him yesterday
talk about this at a meeting we had--the crushing, crushing costly
student loans. We are going to offer an amendment to address the
economic and national security threats posed by climate change.
In the West, we are in the midst of a 15-year drought. This is the
15th year. Lake Powell, the largest manmade lake in America, could go
dry very quickly. Hundreds of thousands of acre feet of water will not
go into that lake this year because of what is happening up in
Colorado.
So when we are done offering what we feel should be ways to improve
this dishonest budget that the Republicans put forward, the American
people will have no doubt which party stands with the middle class and
which stands with the special interests and billionaires. Yes, we have
set forth what we believe are our core values, and we believe our core
values are what the American people need.
____________________