[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 208 (Wednesday, December 9, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7289-S7290]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the American people are hurting. We are 
in the thick of one of the worst national crises in modern memory, and 
people's eyes are fixed on Congress. They need the House and the Senate 
to stop chasing our tails and make a law.
  There are small business employees who have held onto their jobs all 
this time because of the Paycheck Protection Program but are facing the 
prospect they might be laid off now, with vaccines just around the 
corner, because Washington fumbles the ball in the red zone.
  There are medically vulnerable Americans who have watched Operation 
Warp Speed appear to succeed at a historic pace, but Congress can't 
even agree to fully fund the distribution efforts that will get the 
vaccines to people.
  There are Americans who have been thrown out of work, through no 
fault of their own, who are watching Federal aid programs tick toward 
expiration in a few weeks, even though neither side in Congress opposes 
extending them.
  Senate Republicans have made one offer after another after another to 
try and make law on all the significant areas where nobody even 
disagrees. We spent July, August, September, October, and November 
trying different ways to create common ground, but the Speaker of the 
House and the Senate Democratic leader have been just as consistent. At 
every turn, they have delayed, deflected, moved the goalposts, and made 
the huge number of places where Congress agrees into a hostage--into a 
hostage--of the few places where we do not agree.
  Back in the summertime, I pointed out the obvious. I said leading 
Democrats simply just didn't want any more help to reach American 
families before the election occurred. The other side claimed great 
offense; how insulting to even suggest that such cynicism might be at 
play.
  And now they are admitting it out loud. Yesterday, on CNN, the 
Democratic whip was asked point-blank why the Speaker and the 
Democratic leader were so unwilling to play ball back in the autumn. 
The No. 2 Democrat responded: ``[Well], there was some exuberance 
involved because an election was coming.'' Well, he gets points for 
candor: ``because an election was coming.''
  A few days ago, Speaker Pelosi told reporters why she reversed months 
of

[[Page S7290]]

statements and suddenly began discussing comparatively more reasonable 
sums of money. Her answer was simple. She thinks the Presidential 
election went the way she wanted. The Speaker of the House views it as 
a success that she denied struggling people relief they badly needed 
for months because she thinks she got the political result she was 
after.
  I count no fewer than 10 separate times that top Democrats rejected 
or blocked various Republican efforts to jump-start the process, so 
here is just a partial sampling.
  In July, Republicans sketched a comprehensive plan for safe schools, 
jobs, and healthcare. We could have made law in July, but the 
Democratic leader wouldn't even engage with it. Just before August, 
Republicans tried to at least extend unemployment aid before it 
expired. Democrats blocked that as well.
  In September, we tried something else: a targeted effort to spend 
hundreds of billions of dollars for PPP, vaccine development, and other 
priorities. Every Democrat who voted blocked us from even debating it, 
and they did it a second time a month later in October.
  Last week, after speaking with the administration, I made yet another 
overture. The Democratic leader said: No thanks. And just yesterday, 
the Speaker and the Democratic leader brushed off two different 
overtures in the space of about 2 hours.
  I suggested that both sides drop what seemed to be the most 
controversial demand in the eyes of our counterparts. Democrats 
continued to oppose commonsense legal protections that university 
presidents have been begging for, and Republicans see no need to send 
huge sums of money to State and local governments whose tax revenues 
have actually gone up--gone up.
  Negotiating 101 suggests we set those two controversial pieces aside 
and plow ahead with a huge pile of things that we agree on, but that 
would require both sides to truly want to get an outcome.
  Just hours after Democrats poured cold water on that, Secretary 
Mnuchin tried another new tack and sent over an offer, and in a bizarre 
and schizophrenic press release, the Speaker and the leader said the 
administration was obstructing negotiations by negotiating. Two more 
brush-offs in about 2 hours. More deflection, more delay, and more 
suffering for innocent Americans.
  Can anyone point to a single sign--a single sign--from April through 
now, that Democratic leaders have seriously wanted another bipartisan 
deal to become law? Can anybody name one way--just one--the Democratic 
leaders would have behaved differently if their singular goal was to 
kill any compromise? That hypothetical world looks suspiciously like 
the world we have been living in.
  Think of it. We have a Speaker of the House from San Francisco who 
has spent months ensuring that unemployed Californians can't have 
jobless aid extended and California restaurants can't get another round 
of PPP unless the Governor of California gets a Federal slush fund out 
of proportion to any proven need.
  Do working families agree they should not get any more help 
themselves unless the Governors and State legislators get a 
controversial bailout? Are struggling Americans saying: Thank goodness 
the Democrats are bravely--bravely--blocking help for me and my family 
unless my State politicians get some more cash? I would say not.
  Our people need more help. There is a huge list of helpful policies 
that both sides agree on. This need not be rocket science. But we can't 
do a thing unless the Democrats decide they actually want to make a 
law.

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