[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 17180]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           SETTING PRIORITIES

  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, I am simply amazed that, when we are 
borrowing $4.2 billion a day from our grandkids--that is what we are 
borrowing, $4.2 billion a day--we are going to run a $1.4 trillion 
deficit, and we have a unanimous consent request to move to things that 
spend more money, money we do not have that we are going to borrow from 
the Chinese or Russians to be able to pay for it, and we are going to 
spend the money overseas. There is no question that we should try to 
develop consensus in our body, but the first consensus we should have 
is the priorities of the problems that are facing this country. The 
problems that are facing this country are so big and so massive that 
our attention ought to be focused on those large problems, not on five 
separate bills that have been proffered for special interest groups. I 
don't understand the motivations. What I do understand is that the 
American people get it, even if we do not.
  The fact that we are going to make attempts for political purposes to 
put bills that are not paid for and that will add to the $4.2 billion a 
day that we borrow on the floor when our economy is languishing because 
we continue to grow the Federal Government, continue to build 
regulations that affect and diminish the desire for people with capital 
to invest it in our economy--and we force people out of this country to 
build their plants and manufacturing facilities because of our 
regulations and tax codes, I do not understand.
  My objections--I will not spend the time exactly outlining my 
objections to all these bills, but my overall objection is the 
priorities we are setting in the Senate. We ought to be about creating 
confidence so people will invest in this country rather than continuing 
to undermine that confidence with superfluous, well-meaning bills that 
are put up for political purposes instead of addressing the real 
problems that are facing our country.
  Out of a courtesy to Senator Reid and the agreement I just made with 
him, I will not offer my unanimous consent request at this time, but I 
will later today after he has had a chance to read them, on the 
following five bills:
  The Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act. Mr. President, 140,000 
veterans in this country have lost their second amendment rights. It 
has never been adjudicated that they were a danger to themselves or 
anybody else. Yet a bureaucrat somewhere has taken away their second 
amendment rights. This bill has come out of committee twice. Senator 
Burr is the lead sponsor on it. We treat veterans as second-class 
citizens when it comes to their second amendment rights. We ought to 
pass that. I will ask that later.
  The Firearms Fairness and Affordability Act. We make firearms 
manufacturers pay their taxes every 2 weeks instead of quarterly like 
every other manufacturer in this country. But we penalize them. We 
ought to treat them the same as everybody else.
  The earmark transparency bill gives one Web site so everybody in 
America can see where the earmarks are, who offered them, what the 
basis for them is, whether they were competitively bid. That is 
something America would like to see.
  Then there are two tax cheat bills, for us as Members of Congress and 
our employees and then other Federal employees.
  So I will not offer those unanimous consent requests at this time, 
but I will later in the day. Again, there are important, big problems 
in front of this country. We need to be about addressing those rather 
than special interest favors at this time.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that 
the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Franken.) Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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