[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 220]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         BIPARTISAN COOPERATION

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I listened to the speech just given by the 
Republican leader of the Senate. He expresses a sentiment Americans 
share; that it is time for us to work together in the Senate and the 
House, across the board in Washington, and solve the problems which 
American families face every single day.
  I agree with him completely. Unfortunately, the record does not 
reflect the level of cooperation which the American people are 
expecting. It was hardly a month or two into the Obama administration 
when the Republican leader announced that his highest priority was to 
make certain Barack Obama was a one-term President.
  It is difficult to establish a working relationship when the first 
words out of a Republican leader's mouth are: We are going to defeat 
you. Then, as we addressed the largest issues of the day, time and 
again, we found little or no bipartisan cooperation. I think back to 
the important, historic debate on health care. If there was ever a 
moment when we should have come together with a bipartisan solution, it 
was that moment.
  Despite the best efforts of Senator Baucus, the Democratic Finance 
chair and others, we were unable to even get a core group of 
Republicans to join us in this conversation about containing the 
overwhelming increase in the cost of health care. At the end of the 
day, after one of the most painfully long and rancorous debates in 
Senate history, not one single Republican Senator would vote for health 
care reform--not one.
  The same thing held true when it came to Wall Street reform. Many of 
us felt the recession we are currently coming out of was created by 
mismanagement and greed at the highest levels of our financial 
institutions. Many of us were angered by the fact that we were called 
on, with a political gun to our heads, and told, if we do not pass a 
bailout program for the biggest banks in America, our economy will 
crater and the weakest, poorest people in America will suffer the most.
  That was our choice, our Faustian choice given at that moment. Many 
of us were determined to never let that happen again. So we put 
together a Wall Street reform bill. Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, 
now retired, led the effort on the Democratic side, and we tried to 
come up with a bipartisan bill. We worked to do it. He was masterful in 
his day and did everything in his power to make it a bipartisan bill. 
Yet at the end of the day, not one single Republican would vote for 
Wall Street reform--not one.
  Now, on the campaign trial, we hear from Republican candidates that 
they are going to repeal Wall Street reform. They are going to repeal 
health care reform. They are not creating an environment that is 
conducive to the level of cooperation of which Senator McConnell 
earlier spoke.
  I hope he is right; that even in this Presidential election year, we 
can find some common ground. There are several items which are 
immediately before us which require it: First, the extension of the 
payroll tax cut. This is a cut that helps working families across 
America and helps the economy. It will expire at the end of February if 
we do not reach a bipartisan agreement to extend it, along with 
unemployment benefits.
  Secondly, postal reform. Many of the suggestions that have been made 
by the Postmaster General about saving money at the post office create 
real hardship in States such as Illinois, where some nine different 
mail processing facilities would be closed, closed in areas where I, 
frankly, could never justify it because they do a volume of work, do it 
well, and perform a valuable function. We have a chance. By May 15, the 
deadline which the Postmaster General agreed to in my office--by May 
15, if we enact legislation signed by the President to save money and 
keep the post office running in the right direction, then we can avoid 
some of these onerous cuts and choices we have heard about.
  But the burden falls on Congress, Democrats and Republicans, to 
achieve it. I hope we can.

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