[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 143 (Tuesday, August 11, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5386-S5387]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CORONAVIRUS
Mr. SCHUMER. Now, Mr. President, America is living through a crisis
that exceeds anything we have seen in generations. Other countries were
able to test their populations, isolate cases, and contain the spread
of the disease, but here the failure of the Trump administration to
develop or implement a national strategy to defeat COVID on the health
front and economically has meant that the disease has raged through our
country for 7 months, is still spreading, and the economy is in very
bad shape.
We have over 5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. It just took 17
days to go from 4 million Americans with COVID to 5 million.
Unemployment is higher than it ever was during the great recession.
More than 150,000 Americans have died. Small businesses every day are
closing, and those that are still open are struggling. Families can't
afford to feed their children. Americans can't pay the rent and will be
thrown out of their homes. Millions are out of work, and many more
worry that they will be out of work in the month or two to come. This
is a huge crisis.
In this time of national emergency, Democrats believe we must focus
on the health and economic security of the American people. If we don't
address the health crisis, nothing else will matter, but we have to
focus on economic security as well.
We have to keep Americans in their homes, put food on the table,
prevent them from slipping into further hardship and poverty. That is
what animated Democrats to develop a $3.4 trillion plan to finally
crush the virus and rescue American families. It was based on the needs
of our country, both health and economic, the needs of our schools and
businesses and workers and our healthcare system. We Democrats tell
America, We have your back. Unfortunately, our Republican friends do
not.
In our negotiations with the White House, Chief of Staff Meadows and
Secretary Mnuchin were unable to go above $1 trillion, and their $1
trillion was far short of the country's needs. Democrats offered to
come down by $1 trillion. We asked our counterparts--Secretary Mnuchin,
Mr. Meadows--to come up by $1 trillion, meet us in the middle. They
said no.
So last Friday, after our negotiating session with the White House, I
made it clear that the reasons our talks had stalled was that the White
House had basically declared ``my way or the highway.'' They were
unwilling to meet us in the middle. They said that in the room. I guess
imitation is the sincerest form of flattery because now Leader
McConnell is blaming Democrats for the breakdown in negotiations, using
the exact same language. He said Democrats are the ones saying ``my way
or the highway.'' Seriously, that is what the Republican leader, who
wasn't even in the room and will not dare go in the room, claims.
Let's go over the facts--the facts. We said to the White House: We
are willing to come down by $1 trillion. Will you come up by $1
trillion and meet us in the middle? The White House said: No, we are
not budging. So to whom does this logic apply? Who is intransigent? Who
is really saying ``my way or the highway?'' The answer is obvious. This
is not a ``both sides to blame'' situation.
Democrats are willing to compromise. Republicans are being
intransigent and will not move from their position, which is totally
inadequate for the needs of America during the greatest economic crisis
we have had in 75 years and the greatest health crisis in 100. That is
where we are: Democrats willing to move and meet in the middle,
Republicans intransigent. Republicans declared ``my way or the
highway,'' and rather than defend their position, they falsely accuse
Democrats of doing the same.
Now, rather than trying to break the logjam, as a true Presidential
leader should, President Trump sits on the sidelines and just issued a
bunch of weak and unworkable Executive orders. He slashed the enhanced
unemployment benefits, asked the Americans who are out of work, through
no fault of their own, to take a pay cut. He deferred the payroll tax,
which even Republicans admit will do nothing to help our workers and
the economy and would undermine Social Security and Medicare to boot.
And the President's Executive order on evictions is more like an
Executive suggestion. It doesn't
[[Page S5387]]
even guarantee a moratorium on evictions. It merely instructs Federal
agencies to ``review'' or ``consider'' one and does nothing to help
renters actually afford the rent.
Here in Congress, the Senate Republican majority delayed for 4 long
months, failed to come up with a proposal that had the support of their
own caucus, and then gave up and left it for someone else to figure it
out. That is why McConnell is not in the room. Facing the greatest
domestic crisis in the 21st century, where Americans are hurting
healthwise and economically, the Senate Republican majority ran down
the clock, tossed up an air ball, and then subbed themselves out of the
game.
Even now, as Leader McConnell claims that Democrats are blocking
relief, there are 20 Members of the Republican caucus, according to
their own leader, who will not vote for anything--no more relief. A
group of Republican Senators came to the floor last week to warn
America about the national debt, not the health crisis, not the
economic crisis, not the looming housing crisis but the national debt.
It is something that concerned those same Members very little when
adding nearly $2 trillion to the debt in order to give big corporations
a giant tax cut in 2017.
Listen to this one: The Senator from Wisconsin, Mr. Johnson, said
yesterday:
From my standpoint, the breakdown in talks is very good
news. I hope the talks remain broke down.
Let me repeat that. Senator Johnson said:
From my standpoint--
Reflecting the views of many Republican Senators--
the breakdown in talks is very good news. I hope the talks
remain broke down.
Why did he say that? Because he doesn't want to spend one more
nickel. Despite the huge health crisis, the huge economic crisis,
people losing their jobs, small businesses closing, we shouldn't spend
a nickel. This is not both sides. This is one side only.
When President Trump called COVID-19 a hoax and told the country to
go take bleach and other quack medicines, some of my friends here made
disappointed noises. But when the President said the virus would just
disappear, it seems the Republican Senate bought it.
After we came together to pass the CARES Act, Republican Senators
pushed all their chips to the middle to bet with President Trump that
the virus was going to miraculously disappear. The Republican leader
said: I am going to put the Senate on ``pause'' and see what happens.
Last week, he actually defended that position, saying that his delay
``allowed us to learn the coronavirus didn't mysteriously disappear.''
Millions more people out of work, hundreds of thousands of small
businesses closing, many more people getting COVID and some more people
dying, and, now, after all that, the Republican leader says his delay
``allowed us to learn the coronavirus didn't mysteriously disappear.''
So while President Trump and his aides have certainly been an
impediment--an awful impediment to an agreement, the Republican Senate
is equally culpable, and the American people know it. They know that
Democrats have their back, healthwise and economically. Republicans, so
many of them, are saying: Don't do a thing. Don't do a thing. They are
glad the negotiations have broken down. We are not
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