[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16827]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            WORKING TOGETHER

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, for the past 3 years, President Obama 
and Democratic leaders in Congress have spent most of their time 
pushing policies that actually undermine the private sector. They may 
have the best of intentions, but the fact is they made a bad economy 
worse. Unemployment has now stood at 9 percent for more consecutive 
months than for any other period since World War II, and there are now 
more than 1 million fewer jobs in this country than when the 
President's first stimulus bill was signed into law.
  So the American people gave the President a chance to do something 
about jobs and the economy and he failed. That is why last year the 
American people put Republicans in charge of the House of 
Representatives--so they could try a different approach, and that is 
what they have done. For nearly a year now, House Republicans have been 
following through on their pledge to put Americans back to work by 
passing bill after bill aimed at helping businesses create jobs.
  The problem is, every time Republicans pass one of these bills over 
in the House, Democrats in the Senate refuse to take it up. The 
Democrats who run the Senate are letting all these bills die.
  Some people want to know why this is happening. They want to know why 
the Senate will not take up these bills. The answer is actually pretty 
simple. President Obama and his political advisers have put out the 
word they do not want Congress to get anything done around here until 
after next year's election, so the President can go around on the bus 
and blame Congress for the country's problems, and Democrats in the 
Senate are lining up right behind him. They are doing the President's 
bidding.
  But that is not stopping Republicans in the House from doing the work 
they were elected to do, and it is not going to keep the Republican 
minority in the Senate from calling on Democrats to act.
  To date, House Republicans have passed more than 20 pieces of 
legislation designed to do two things: make it easier for small 
businesses to create jobs and bills that would pass on a broad 
bipartisan basis.
  Last week, I highlighted 15 such bills the House had already passed 
and that Senate Democrats should take up. This week, Senate Republicans 
will highlight several additional such bills the House passed just last 
week. We are going to keep on talking about these bills until Senate 
Democrats realize there is no reason we shouldn't take them up, pass 
them on a bipartisan basis, and actually do something on jobs around 
here.
  For nearly 3 years, President Obama has demanded we pass massive 
legislation he knows Republicans have problems with. What we are saying 
is, let's start with things that have bipartisan support and that we 
know can pass instead of that other approach.
  Since Republicans control the House and Democrats control the Senate, 
we are not likely to agree on big partisan stuff. But there are a lot 
of other job-creating measures we actually could agree on. Why don't we 
focus on them? Let's work together on the things we can all agree on, 
as we did last month on the trade agreements.
  Here is just one example out of many. Last week, the House passed a 
bill called the Small Company Capital Formation Act, H.R. 1070. It got 
421 votes, including 183 Democrats. Only one person in the House voted 
against the bill.
  Here is a jobs bill that is about as popular as Mother's Day. There 
is no reason not to pass it in the Senate right now. Right now, 
promising businesses aren't going public because they simply can't 
afford the high cost of managing the mountain of government paperwork 
they are required to under current law. So instead of going out there 
and raising money to grow and hire, they are holding back. They are not 
expanding and they are not hiring.
  We recently heard from the CEO of a pharmaceutical company from Fort 
Washington, PA, who said companies such as his are at a major 
disadvantage if they come up with promising new drugs. He has at least 
one such promising new drug in the pipeline for chronic kidney disease 
but can't take it to the next level. If firms such as this want to 
expand and hire, they need to be able to raise capital from investors 
so they do not go into debt. But current law keeps them from doing so 
because of all the regulatory burdens that come along with it. I think 
we should be removing these barriers to growth for companies such as 
this one, and 183 Democrats in the House actually agree with me.
  President Obama actually supports the idea too. He said so in his 
speech to a joint session of Congress back in September. So this bill 
is as bipartisan as it gets. One will not find a bill any more 
bipartisan than this--passed overwhelmingly in the House and supported 
by the President of the United States. The only thing standing in the 
way right now is Senate Democrats. They just will not take yes for an 
answer.
  It is only a matter of time before the American people catch on to 
the Democrats' refusal to act. Once they do, Republicans will be ready 
with a long and growing list of bipartisan bills that have already 
passed the House and that we believe the President of the United States 
would sign. So let's not delay any longer. Let's stop the games, and 
let's do the work we were sent to do.

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