[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 10327-10328]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          BUDGET NEGOTIATIONS

  Mr. REID. Madam President, yesterday my distinguished Republican 
counterpart said the debate over how to avert the looming default 
crisis is really a debate over what kind of a country we are going to 
be. I agree. That is certainly true. So will we be the kind of country 
that protects tax breaks and giveaways for the richest people and 
corporations while sacrificing seniors and the middle class? That is 
the America my Republican colleagues have proposed, and those 
priorities are simply backwards.
  Democrats, on the other hand, believe that in a nation where half the 
country's wealth is controlled by probably less than 1 percent of its 
people, perhaps that 1 percent should not be exempt from the sacrifices 
asked of everyone else. If these negotiations will determine what kind 
of nation we are going to be, they will also determine the character of 
the Republican Party as well.
  Will they be the party who came to Washington to help govern, to 
craft solutions to the difficult issues facing this Nation in 
cooperation with patriots on both sides of the aisle or will they be 
the kind of single-issue, ideological party that walks away from 
reasonable compromise for the sake of politics? That is the question.
  David Brooks, a conservative columnist for the New York Times, was 
hired for that reason, that usually liberal editorial page. They wanted 
someone who wrote well and was a certified conservative. David Brooks 
is who they chose. David Brooks believes it has obviously turned into 
an ideological party that walks away from reasonable compromise for the 
sake of politics. This is what he said yesterday--not me. Conservative 
columnist David Brooks said it yesterday, about the illogical and 
ideological Republican Party that has emerged.
  Here is what he said:

       If the debt ceiling talks fail, independent voters will see 
     that Democrats were willing to compromise but Republicans 
     were not.

  He said: If we default, it will be the fault of the ``Republican 
fanaticism.'' That fanaticism is making compromise impossible no matter 
how much Democrats are willing to give. Independent voters, Brooks 
says, ``will conclude that Republicans are not fit to govern. And they 
will be right.'' David Brooks, conservative columnist, said this. The 
Republican Party has been taken over by ideologues devoted to or 
terrified by Grover Norquist and his no-tax pledge. These Republicans 
refuse to believe countless respected voices that have said over and 
over how serious a crisis we face if we fail to avoid default.
  They have refused a deal that Brooks called the ``mother of all no-
brainers'' because it violates an arbitrary pledge. Never mind that the 
deal is in the best interest of the country and gives the Republicans 
much of what they say they want. They walked away from the table.
  The statesman, Dean Acheson--and he was one of our great diplomats 
and, certainly, a statesman--said negotiating ``assumes parties more 
anxious to agree than to disagree.'' It is no wonder, then, that 
Republicans have refused to negotiate. They will not

[[Page 10328]]

even admit to supporting their own long-held positions if Democrats 
also support those positions.
  We should all be able to agree we need to reduce the deficit and get 
the fiscal house in order. Democrats and Republicans alike have said 
that. We should all be able to agree we need to avert the global 
economic disaster the American default would cause. Business leaders 
and economists alike have said that exact same thing.
  We should all be able to agree millionaires and billionaires, oil 
companies and the owners of yachts and jets don't need special tax 
breaks the rest of Americans don't get. Yet Republicans have defended 
those tax breaks again and again. They claim Democrats want to raise 
taxes on shipbuilders and airplane manufacturers. That couldn't be 
further from the truth.
  In fact, Democrats want to end special tax breaks for the 
millionaires and billionaires who are lucky enough to be able to afford 
private jets and yachts. We are happy that we stand in that way 
politically. These tax breaks aren't available to middle-class 
Americans. They can't write off the family station wagon or the rowboat 
they take fishing with the grandkids or the motor boat they go out with 
every week to see if they can catch a bass or trout. These breaks are 
available for multimillion-dollar toys that only a handful of Americans 
can afford.
  I repeat: I am proud that Democrats are standing up for America's 
middle-class families instead of the richest of the rich. As my 
Republican colleagues defend tax breaks for special interests and the 
wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, I ask them again what kind of 
political party they want to be. They must ask themselves whether they 
want to be the kind of party that David Brooks, a conservative, 
described--a party of unreasonable fanatics who don't want to 
compromise, no matter how sweet the deal for their side might be and no 
matter how grave the consequences for our Nation if they don't agree.

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