[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 22763-22765]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    CONCERNS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I thank the Democratic leader for coming 
to the floor. We have all returned from our time back home. The 
Columbus Day recess gave us a chance to go back to our home States. I 
have run into Senators in the hallway. Senator Cornyn said: I was 
blazing across Texas. I know Senator Reid was in Nevada. I was going 
across the State of Illinois. It is a good time. It is a good chance to 
see if some of the things we are talking about in Washington are really 
resonating and important to the families back home.
  I sense, after having been around here for a while, where we spend a 
lot of time, the people back home scratch their heads and think: They 
are wasting time. It is all political talk and speeches. When are they 
going to talk about the things that really count?
  I will tell you what I found really counts back home. I went to 
Wheaton, IL, and visited with Joel Gomez. Joel Gomez, a year and a half 
ago, was injured in Iraq as an American soldier and became a 
quadriplegic. Joel Gomez is a wonderful young man. This was the first 
time I had met him face to face. He lights up a room with his smile, 
and he is so engaging. He is in a hospital bed and cannot move. The 
people in the community and the veterans organizations have come 
together and built him a new home. They built it in 3 months. They 
broke all construction records. It is for his mother and father and 
himself. It cost over $700,000. They put all of that into it to make 
sure that Joel Gomez can have a good life from this point forward.
  I talked to his mom and dad and the people who are around him. I 
said: How is care at the veterans hospital for Joel? They are trying 
their best. Sometimes his condition is so challenging, they have to go 
to other places. But they said: Senator, he is offered 16 hours of 
nursing care each week. Joel Gomez needs 24/7. He gets 16 hours from 
the Veterans' Administration. The rest comes from friends and family, 
other veterans and relatives who are giving money so Joel can have 
nursing care.
  So when I come back here and join in the debate with Senator Patty 
Murray and other Democrats and talking about the war in Iraq, I think 
of Joel Gomez. I think of the soldier who did what we asked of him, as 
so many hundreds of thousands have. He risked his life for America, has 
suffered a life-transforming injury, and now doesn't have the support 
of his Government that he should.
  In terms of the priorities of America, when it comes to Iraq, I am 
glad the constitutional referendum took place, but I also think we have 
to look at the security needs of Iraq and the reality of Iraq today. 
One hundred fifty thousand American soldiers are there today. As 
Senator Reid said, we have lost almost 2,000 of our best and bravest so 
far with no end in sight. So when we say to the administration, we are

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holding you accountable, we want to see this move forward so American 
troops can come home, I think that is our responsibility. We are not 
saying cut and run, retreat. We are saying: Tell us when the Iraqi army 
has improved to the point where it can take over for American soldiers.
  Two weeks ago, Generals Casey and Abizaid came to Capitol Hill 
disclosing information to congress that had been classified for months. 
The information was this: There is only one battalion in the Iraqi army 
standing ready to fight independently, alone, today, out of 110. Four 
months ago there were three. They have gone downhill because of 
desertions, because of the infiltration of insurgents. The Iraqi army 
is not growing in strength, as we had planned it would, so we could 
come home. So when the Democratic side of the aisle holds the White 
House accountable, it is so that we can start bringing these soldiers 
home. So that Iraq can take control of its own future and security; 
and, secondly, to make sure, as well, that when we consider cuts in 
appropriations, we never cut the Veterans' Administration--never.
  We made a solemn promise to these men and women. We said, If you will 
risk your life for America, we will stand by you when you come home. I 
think of Joel Gomez when I think about that.
  Then I went up to Elgin and went to the local community center there 
and met with the United Way and a young woman named Sheila Balthazar. 
Sheila Balthazar and her 2-year-old son are from New Orleans. They were 
lucky. They were traveling when Hurricane Katrina hit and they managed 
to escape and made their way, with her father, up to Illinois to a 
community in Kane County. The community of Elgin embraced her--because 
they wanted to make her feel at home--finding a home for her, finding a 
job for her, and taking care of her son.
  I said, What about Government help in this situation? You have lost 
your home; you have lost everything you own. She said there hasn't been 
much if any in terms of Government assistance.
  I thought to myself, we have appropriated $60 billion, and yet when 
it comes right down to it, the people who are suffering turn to the 
best place one can turn, and that is the compassion and caring of their 
fellow Americans. But where is their Government? Where was our 
preparation? Where was our preparedness? We were told by this 
administration: We are ready, whatever the disaster might be. It did 
not happen. We saw those horrifying images on television as a reminder 
that it did not happen.
  The one issue that kept coming back was the cost of energy. It was 
announced while I was home that even in the upper Midwest, northern 
Illinois, people can expect historically high natural gas heating 
bills. We rely on natural gas more than anything else. People in the 
Northeast use heating oil. They expect the average home to see an 
increase of $200 or $300 a month in their heating bills this 
approaching winter.
  It shows us that what we passed and had signed into law a few weeks 
ago, the Energy bill, is not much of an energy bill. It did have some 
good provisions in it. I voted for the bill because it helped ethanol, 
biodiesel--alternative fuels--that I think move us in the right 
direction. But when we offered an amendment on the floor and said to 
the Senate, Shouldn't we as a nation accept as a challenge for every 
President--Democrat and Republican--from this day forward to reduce our 
dependence on foreign oil by at least 40 percent by the year 2020, the 
amendment was defeated on a partisan rollcall, Republicans voting no on 
energy independence for America by 2020.
  Now take a look at where we are. We are still heavily dependent on 
foreign oil, still finding our economy at the mercy of the OPEC cartel 
and others who run prices up as high as they can. What is even worse, 
we are finding that the big oil companies are making obscene profits at 
the expense of individuals and families and businesses across America.
  The top four big oil companies in America in the first 6 months of 
this year reported $40 billion in profits, recordbreaking profits. So 
as we stick that nozzle into the gas tank and look at those numbers 
rolling, trust me, a small part may be going to Saudi Arabia, but the 
biggest part of it is not going to the man who owns the gas station, it 
is going to that oil company that owns the gas station: $40 billion in 
new profits, windfall profits that consumers are paying across America. 
We will see it with heating bills this winter, and we are going to see 
it as well with the pressure on airlines for the cost of jet fuel.
  The obvious question is this: What will this Congress do about it? 
Before we leave in 5 weeks, will we do anything? Will we make a move 
now to establish a goal of energy independence by the year 2020? Will 
we set up a strategic gasoline and jet fuel reserve so that when we 
have these price spikes, the President has a tool he can use to reduce 
these costs? Will we hold the oil companies accountable for these 
windfall profits, $40 billion, that have come at the expense of average 
Americans over the last 6 months?
  You can understand that the President and Vice President, because of 
their business backgrounds, are not excited about these ideas, but the 
American people expect us to do something. The Democrats have come 
forward with specific proposals dealing with energy. The Republican 
side has said, Let business continue as usual. Let these billions of 
dollars continue.
  Then I ran into a friend of mine in Springfield with whom I have 
worked for years. We talked about credit card debt. He said he 
understood that his credit card company by the end of the year was 
going to do something that could hurt his family. I said, What is that? 
He said they are going to increase the minimum amount you can pay each 
month on your balance from 2 percent to 4 percent. He said: I am not 
sure I can keep up with it.
  I thought to myself: If you can't pay off 4 percent of your credit 
card balance each month, how can you ever get ahead of the game? The 
interest they are going to charge you is going to eat up 4 percent--2 
percent at least. And if you are not paying down that principal and 
still charging away, how are you ever going to get out from under?
  The reason why that is especially appropriate to mention today is 
because today is the first day of the new bankruptcy law in America. 
The Republican leadership here points with pride to the fact that they 
put in a new bankruptcy law.
  The most basic question one can ask in Washington when people say 
they want a law passed is, Who wants it passed and why? This bankruptcy 
reform bill was the darling and pet project of the financial 
institutions and credit card companies of America for almost 10 years. 
Why did they want to change the bankruptcy law? Because this individual 
I mentioned in Springfield and others who become so heavily indebted to 
credit card companies sometimes reach a breaking point. The one thing 
that pushes them over the edge more than anything is medical bills 
uncovered by their health insurance. When these medical bills come 
crashing on them, some are forced into the bankruptcy court.
  Other things can happen--a death in the family, a divorce, a loss of 
a job. But the No. 1 reason people go to bankruptcy court is because of 
medical bills. So this bankruptcy reform which we passed--I voted 
against it--with a majority in the Senate will make it more difficult 
for individuals with medical debt forced into bankruptcy to discharge 
their debt. In other words, at the end of this legal proceeding in 
bankruptcy, they are still in debt. They walk out the door with the 
debts all over again. The credit card debt and medical debt is still 
there.
  So, of course, the financial institutions and credit card companies 
couldn't be happier. If you can't get out from under this debt, they 
will get more money from you, they will harass you for years and months 
to come. That is the idea of breakthrough legislation by the Republican 
leadership in the Senate.
  From my point of view, it does not help the average person in 
America. It

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puts an unreasonable burden on people who are struggling to survive as 
each year we see fewer and fewer people with health insurance, as each 
year the Republicans resist efforts to increase the minimum wage in 
this country so people who get up and go to work every day can make 
enough money to get by. As the number of impoverished people in America 
continues to grow each year, we end up making it more difficult to go 
to bankruptcy court and get out from under that debt, even if that debt 
is caused by medical bills.
  That, to me, is not the people's agenda, it is not America's agenda, 
and it does not reflect what I found when I returned to Illinois. The 
people I represent believe America can do better. We can do a lot 
better. We can have an energy policy that moves us toward independence 
and gives us some way to deal with these obscene profits by the oil 
companies that are dragging our economy down, as well as family 
budgets. We can do better in Iraq by establishing standards of 
accountability for this administration: How many Iraqi soldiers are 
going to be prepared to fight, and how soon can American soldiers come 
home? What is the progress on reconstructing Iraq? There is less 
electricity in Iraq now than when we invaded. There is less potable 
water available. There is a 50-percent unemployment rate and less oil 
production than at the time of the invasion.
  We need to hold this administration and the Iraqi Government 
accountable so our American soldiers can come home successfully with 
their mission truly accomplished.
  We also need to see accountability when it comes to health care in 
America. This is a topic that neither the President nor leaders in 
Congress are willing to talk about in public, and it is the No. 1 
issue. When I sat down with the Chamber of Commerce in Elgin, IL, and 
asked the gathering of business leaders, If you had to rank the top 
three issues facing your business today as a challenge, how many of you 
would put the cost of health insurance in the top three? Every single 
hand went up.
  What are we doing about that in Washington? The answer is absolutely 
nothing. While people are making a handsome profit as providers and 
insurance companies and HMOs, we are doing nothing to help the average 
American.
  We had a hearing on the Medicare prescription drug bill in Chicago 
with Congresswoman Schakowsky. I feel sorry for the seniors of this 
country. I am glad they have a benefit coming their way, but it 
couldn't have been more complicated. In an effort to protect the 
profits of pharmaceutical companies, we would not let Medicare offer--
simply offer--one plan for all seniors across America, a plan that 
could compete by bulk purchases and discounts in lowering the price of 
drugs. No way. The pharmaceutical companies opposed it, and they, of 
course, rule the roost when it comes to Capitol Hill. They get what 
they want. As a result, we have the jumbled mess of bureaucracy and 
redtape that our seniors have to go through to try to figure out what 
this Medicare prescription drug benefit is all about.
  We should have done a lot better for our seniors than this Medicare 
prescription drug bill. It is not as good as America can do. I think we 
have an obligation to do better.
  In the weeks ahead, the 5 weeks when we are scheduled to adjourn, I 
hope we rise to the challenge on a bipartisan basis. I hope the 
Republican leadership looks to the real issues facing America: energy, 
dealing with the Katrina crisis with a truly independent nonpartisan 
commission, and making certain we have accountability with what is 
happening in the war in Iraq. That will move the Senate forward and 
move America forward.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cornyn). The assistant majority leader.

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