[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 10113-10114]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           EXECUTIVE SESSION

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     NOMINATION OF JAMES MICHAEL COLE TO BE DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL

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    NOMINATION OF VIRGINIA A. SEITZ TO BE ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL

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     NOMINATION OF LISA O. MONACO TO BE ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL

  THE ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the 
Senate will proceed to executive session to consider the following 
nominations, which the clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read the nomination of James Michael Cole, of 
the District of Columbia, to be Deputy Attorney General;
  Virginia A. Seitz, of the District of Columbia, to be Assistant 
Attorney General; and
  Lisa O. Monaco, of the District of Columbia, to be Assistant Attorney 
General.
  THE ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, there 
will be 2 hours of debate concurrently on the nominations, equally 
divided and controlled in the usual form.
  The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask that the time of all the quorum 
calls during the debate on these important nominations be equally 
charged to both sides.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the final 15 minutes for 
debate on these nominations be set aside for the chairman of the 
Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. REID. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business for 5 minutes.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection.


                          Budget Negotiations

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, the last thing we need when we are 
trying to get back on track is a default crisis that would grind our 
economy to a halt and bury us under even more debt. Yet the latest 
round of Republican politicians threatening to default on our debt has 
made their priorities clear: They would rather stop paying our men and 
women fighting overseas, force deep cuts to Social Security and 
Medicare, and throw even more Americans out of work than tell big oil 
companies and corporate jet owners to pay their fair share.
  Clearly our Republican colleagues are serious about politics, not 
deficits. You cannot be serious about deficits and at the same time 
recklessly jeopardize our economic standing in the world in order to 
protect tax breaks for the wealthiest few. Yet that is what leaders 
such as Mitch McConnell seem to be saying. Yesterday my Republican 
colleague drew a line in the sand on cutting wasteful spending in the 
Tax Code, calling elimination of special interest giveaways politically 
impossible. Politically impossible? Really? Just two weeks ago 34 
Senate Republicans joined Democrats in passing the repeal of subsidies 
to ethanol companies. Politically impossible? The landmark budget 
agreements of the 1990s brought us into balance and ushered in 
surpluses that took a balanced approach and created prosperity and job 
creation such as we have not seen in this decade.
  Politically impossible? Right now in America middle-class families 
are living paycheck to paycheck while Senator McConnell and his 
colleagues are going to the mat to protect billions in tax breaks to 
oil companies. They say two things--Senator McConnell says two things: 
He says he is not raising taxes. He wants the average American to think 
it is your taxes. No one wants to raise taxes on people below $250 
million--many of us, people below $1 million. But when oil companies 
get big giveaways, when corporate jets get huge deductions, a greater 
deduction than Delta gets when it buys a plane for commercial use, that 
should be on the table. We should ask Senator McConnell and the press 
should ask Senator McConnell: When you say no taxes, do you mean some 
of our largest corporations should pay no taxes? When you say no taxes, 
should no taxes be on the table? Are you saying we should not close 
corporate loopholes? Are you saying people who are making $1 billion 
should not sacrifice and all the sacrifice should be the middle class? 
Because that is what Senator McConnell is saying.
  Again, we do not wish to tax and will not tax average middle-class 
people. That is the President's pledge and that is our pledge. The 
question is: When you tell an average teacher or cop or firefighter you 
have to sacrifice, are you going to tell the millionaire they have to 
sacrifice too? Not because we dislike them, but because it should be 
shared across the board, and Senator

[[Page 10114]]

McConnell has said: No, the millionaires should not sacrifice. Because 
the only way they are going to sacrifice is closing loopholes in the 
Tax Code. They don't need loans to help their kids get to college.
  One other thing: Senator McConnell says we should take anything about 
corporate loopholes, about taxing wealthy people off the table. His 
``my way or the highway'' approach is what is standing in the way of 
getting an agreement. The person standing in the way right now is 
Senator McConnell. You have not heard such strident language from the 
other leaders. He says: Take everything we want and nothing you want or 
we will not get an agreement. That is what he is saying.
  The bottom line is very simple. Senator McConnell, cutting Medicare 
benefits will not make us stronger; Firing teachers will not make us 
stronger; rolling back investments in innovation and research and high-
tech jobs of the future will not make us stronger, but ending wasteful 
tax subsidies that do nothing but contribute to the deficit for oil 
companies and corporate jet owners will make us stronger. Meet us part 
of the way here. Don't say my way or no way because that is too risky, 
and that is telling the world we will not fulfill our obligations the 
way every family in America has to fulfill theirs.
  I yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. KIRK. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. KIRK. I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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