[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 222 (Wednesday, December 30, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7979-S7980]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, we have heard a lot of revisionist history 
this afternoon.
  Look back in March, when Congress did the right thing and the Senate 
voted unanimously. Because of our efforts, 13 million people were kept 
out of poverty--we know that--because we provided relatively generous 
unemployment insurance. We did the direct payments. We helped with 
small business loans. But then this Senate thought its work was done 
for the year. We begged Senator McConnell month after month after month 
to come back and help.
  As I said, 13 million people were kept out of poverty because of the 
work this Congress did in March of this year, but now, since--many of 
those benefits, especially the unemployment benefit and the direct 
payments, were not continued, of course. Those benefits expired in 
August, and we have seen 8 million people drop into poverty in this 
country since. Yet Senator McConnell refuses and refuses and refuses
  I hear this revisionist history that Democrats just want to help 
people who are already affluent and give them more money. Well, 
remember back in March, the only amendment that we considered, the only 
amendment that Senator McConnell allowed on the floor of the Senate to 
the CARES Act, the only amendment was to take away the $600-a-week 
unemployment insurance. The only place Republicans fought was the $600-
a-week unemployment insurance. That more than any single thing we did 
is why people were kept out of poverty. Now the best we could do was 
$300-a-week unemployment insurance--the best we could do. In spite of 
Senator Cornyn's and others' comments, Senator McConnell waited, 
waited, waited, and waited. Finally, we were able to do that.
  The President of the United States threatened to veto it, causing 
millions of Americans to fall off their unemployment insurance. We know 
all that. It is just important to remember all that.
  But there is one simple question before the Senate this week: Are we 
going to put more money into people's pockets? The American people made 
it clear on election day that they want a government that is on their 
side. This is our chance to deliver for them, to show people whom we 
serve that we can make a real difference in their lives, which we did 
back in March.
  It is pretty simple. The best way to help Ohio workers and families 
is to put more money in their pockets, not in the bank accounts of the 
largest corporations and biggest banks, hoping it will trickle down. We 
know it never does. The CEOs just pay themselves instead.
  We know that just recently there was more good news for American CEOs 
who are able again to do stock buybacks, more dividend distributions. A 
lot of corporations have made a lot of money--more power to them--
during this pandemic, but those are the corporations that continue to 
get the big tax breaks.
  We need, instead, to directly invest in people who make this country 
work. It helps people pay the bills and stay in their homes and get 
through this downturn. It injects money into local economies that 
really need it. The more money people have, the more they spend in 
small businesses that are hurting.
  We know this works. It did in the spring. We came together. We 
crossed the aisle, passed the CARES Act, expanded unemployment, and 
provided direct stimulus checks, keeping 13 million people out of 
poverty. The bill we passed last week was a good step in that 
direction, but we should make it stronger.
  Back in March, my original plan that I tried to negotiate as I sat 
with Secretary Mnuchin and a handful of other Senators was $2,000 per 
person, adults and children. We called for it to be sent automatically 
throughout the year, every quarter, as long as we remained in a public 
health emergency.
  It is clear now what we could have done and should have done. No one 
could predict how long this crisis would last. Today, we still aren't 
sure when everybody will be vaccinated and when the economy will return 
to full strength. We don't want to sit idly by. We don't want to wonder 
how bad it could get. We are the strongest, richest country on Earth. 
We have the resources to do something about it; we just need leadership 
willing to use every tool we have.
  If they refuse to support this $2,000 per person, if they refuse to 
support these direct payments, Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans 
will again make it perfectly clear to the American people whose side 
they are on.
  Every time there is a fork in the road and Senator McConnell and 
Senate Republicans have to make a decision--either go with corporate 
interests or go with working families--every single time, they choose 
corporate interests. They had no problem pouring money into corporate 
coffers with their tax cut and blowing up the deficit.
  Just down the hall here in Senator McConnell's office, I remember 
lobbyists lining up, looking for those tax cuts back 3 years ago, and 
they got those tax cuts. They didn't say anything about government 
deficits back then--$1.5 trillion added to the deficit. They didn't 
mind that because that was money going into their contributors' 
pockets, into big corporate coffers

[[Page S7980]]

for the wealthiest people in this country. They were all too happy to 
let the government shovel loans to the biggest banks and companies. But 
in the middle of the worst crisis of our lifetime, faced with the 
chance to give money directly to ordinary Americans, my colleagues 
claim we can't afford it. That is just simply a lie. We are the richest 
country on Earth.
  I remember Bill Spriggs--an economist at Howard University--told the 
Banking and Housing Committee in September: We didn't win World War II 
by worrying about whether or not we could afford it. We were in a 
global crisis. We marshalled all our vast resources and talents to rise 
to meet it. We grew the economy from the middle class out. We paid down 
the debt with rising wages.
  If we have learned anything from the crisis, it should be that we can 
do the same again. Americans are tired of being told we can't. It is 
the only answer that Senator McConnell and Senate Republicans ever have 
for most people's problems: We can't help you. We can't solve your 
problem. You are on your own.
  Let's aim higher. Let's deliver for the people we serve. Let's put 
$2,000 into their pockets--money that will make such a difference for 
so many families. It will help a mother worried about how she will pay 
back rent. It will keep a laid off restaurant worker from turning to a 
payday lender. It will allow a father to buy a new computer so his kids 
are better able to learn online. These are millions of real people--
people we swore an oath to serve who would breathe a little easier this 
new year if we pass this.
  So let's be clear about the decision today and this week before the 
Senate. Are we going to give the people we serve $2,000, or are you 
going to stand in the way? It is that simple. Let's come together. 
Let's pass this. Let's make a real difference in people's lives.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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