[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 94 (Thursday, June 7, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S3276]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Accomplishments of the Republican-Led Congress
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, sometimes when I am traveling across
Tennessee, someone will come up to me and say: Why don't you guys in
the U.S. Senate ever do anything? So I have taken to carrying around a
little card that I keep in my pocket. I hand it to them and I say:
Well, I can read this to you in about 30 seconds, and this is what has
happened in the last 18 months: the best economy in 18 years; lower
taxes; biggest reforms in 31 years; biggest increase in financial
support for the military in 15 years; biggest pay raise in 8 years for
the military; more repeal of regulations than anyone can remember; a
Supreme Court Justice; 21 conservative appeals court judges; Alaska
energy, which took 38 years, and the Presiding Officer knows all about
that; a new National Labor Relations Board, which could be the most
important change of all; repealed the ObamaCare individual mandate; the
Dodd-Frank mortgage rules are gone; Veterans Choice, which the
President signed yesterday; Iran, Russia, and North Korea sanctions.
All of that would not have happened without a Republican President,
and it would not have happened without Republican majorities in the
U.S. Congress. It took both.
The person who asks me ``When are you guys ever going to do
anything?'' will often say ``Well, I didn't know that; I hadn't
realized that.''
So I am very proud of that record; that is in 18 months. I think if
you like a conservative government, a center-right government, you
would have to agree that those are the most accomplishments in at least
30 years in this country. The President should be justly proud of that,
and so should the Congress.