[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16701-16703]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            THE FISCAL CLIFF

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, yesterday I came to the floor to 
point out something that shouldn't need repeating but does: Any 
agreement on debt and deficit reduction has to include cuts on 
government spending.
  The reason I shouldn't have to repeat this is because the President 
himself has been running around the country for 2 years saying any 
agreement has to be balanced--meaning both revenue and cuts. This was 
the message he ran on, and it also happens to be one that the 
overwhelming majority of Americans actually support, especially the 
part about cuts, which more than three-fourths say they support. If you 
heard some of the wasteful projects I detailed yesterday, you would see 
why.
  I don't think there is a single person outside of Washington who 
doesn't think we waste massive amounts of money in this town and who 
doesn't wonder why it is so hard for us to agree to cut back. Yet now, 
with the election behind him, President Obama is suddenly silent on the 
need for spending cuts. He keeps talking about balance. That polls 
well, but when it comes to specific cuts he is largely silent. All of a 
sudden it is all tax hikes all the time. Forget balance. Just raise 
taxes and spend even more.
  The President and his allies have taken so many things off the table, 
the only thing left is the varnish. The President now seems to think, 
after his reelection, if all he talks about is the need for tax hikes 
and that is all reporters write about, we will all magically forget the 
part about needing balance. It is a classic bait-and-switch, and we are 
seeing new versions of it nearly every day now.

[[Page 16702]]

  Democrats campaigned for 2 years saying we needed to take a balanced 
approach to our problems. Yet now that the President has been 
reelected, they are walking back, and the only thing left are the 
taxes. What the President should be doing after his reelection is 
bringing people together and showing that he has the desire and the 
ability to lead the two parties to an agreement that is good for the 
economy and good for the country.
  So far, at least, he has chosen a different path--a path aimed at 
pleasing the most partisan elements of his base. A month after his 
reelection and weeks before the fiscal cliff, he would still rather 
campaign than cooperate. We will find out this week if he has the will 
to change paths and get something done or just double down on the 
campaigning.
  Look, the election is over. The President may enjoy these political 
rallies, but it is time to get serious. The American people are gravely 
concerned about the Nation's future. They are counting on us to prevent 
the kind of crisis that we have seen unfolding all across Europe.
  Republicans have engaged in these discussions in good faith. We have 
agreed to make tough choices. The question is, Where is the President? 
Where is the President? Where is the only man in the country who can 
make it happen?
  Well, it appears that with just a couple weeks left to resolve this 
crisis, he is busy moving the goal posts. Instead of leading as he was 
elected to do, he is out campaigning and playing games with the 
Nation's future.
  So my sincere plea this morning is that the President get serious; 
that he put the campaign behind him and lead. If he does, he will have 
willing partners. The first sign is seriousness--seriousness about 
spending cuts.


                             Olympia Snowe

  Madam President, yesterday I began the difficult task of saying an 
early good-bye to now six Members of our conference who will be leaving 
the Senate at the end of the year. This morning I would like to say a 
few words about my friend and longtime colleague, Senator Snowe.
  She has devoted the last 40 years of her life to serving the people 
of Maine. It has been an honor to work alongside this remarkable woman 
for the last 18 years and to see up close her tenacity and tough-
mindedness in the service of her constituents. Some have described 
Senator Snowe's advocacy for Mainers as ferocious, and I think there 
are few better examples of that than the fight she waged on behalf of 
Maine after the BRAC recommendations of 2005.
  When the list of targeted facilities came out, Senator Snowe mounted 
what has been described as a relentless months-long campaign akin to a 
defense at a trial. She marshaled all the data and the best arguments. 
When decision day finally arrived, not only were two of the three Maine 
facilities told to remain open, one of them was actually expanded. It 
is stories such as this that help explain why Olympia's constituents 
keep sending her back to Washington by such wide margins and why so 
many were shocked to hear that she would be leaving at the end of the 
year.
  As one shipyard worker in Portsmouth whose job she helped save put 
it:

       We love her, and she loves us. [And] I can't recall ever 
     saying that publicly about a U.S. Senator, but truly she's 
     such a wonderful person.

  As Senator Snowe will tell you, many of her political views 
solidified during her modest Maine upbringing. Her parents ran a diner 
near Augusta. While they didn't have much, her father was adamant she 
receive a good education. So much so that he was dismayed to learn her 
kindergarten only lasted half the day. ``He was convinced,'' she once 
said, ``that I was getting off on the wrong foot.''
  It was at school that Olympia first discovered her passion for 
politics. At St. Basil's Academy, a Greek Orthodox girls' school she 
attended until she was 15, she won her first election--as dorm 
president. She later graduated from Edward Little High School in 
Auburn, ME, and subsequently attended the University of Maine where, in 
1969, she earned a degree in political science. It was also in college 
that she met Peter Snowe. Peter shared Olympia's passion for politics. 
They married shortly after graduation. In 1972, Peter was elected to 
the State legislature, while Olympia went to work as a legislative 
staffer for Maine Congressman Bill Cohen.
  The young couple seemed well on their way to building a life 
together, but in 1973, in the midst of a winter snowstorm, tragedy 
struck. Peter was killed in a car crash, and at a still young age 
Olympia was left to build a life for herself.
  What could have marked the end of her political aspirations became a 
new beginning instead. As Olympia once put it, she resolved to ``make a 
positive out of a terrible negative.'' She ran for office in the 
special election held to fill her late husband's seat, and she won. It 
was the start of a long and distinguished career in public service.
  Olympia was subsequently reelected to the Maine House in 1974 and 
elected to the Maine Senate in 1976. In 1978, when Bill Cohen, her 
friend and former boss, ran for the U.S. Senate, she ran for his seat 
in the House of Representatives and won again.
  At the age of 31, she was at the time the youngest Republican woman 
ever elected to Congress and 1 of just 16 women in the House. Olympia 
served eight terms in the House. She was a member of the House Budget 
Committee, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the former House 
Select Committee on Aging. Working with an Arizona lawyer named Jon Kyl 
and a Mississippi whip named Trent Lott, she helped turn minority 
Republicans into a potent legislative force, ensuring some of the 
biggest legislative victories of the Reagan era.
  It was while serving in the House that Olympia met Jock McKernan, who 
was a rising political star in his own right. Elected as Maine's second 
Congressman in 1982, Jock served alongside Olympia in the House and was 
later elected Governor of Maine. The two were married in 1989, and they 
have been a great team since. As Olympia puts it:

       I have a wonderful partner in life. We've been able to ride 
     the waves together.

  When George Mitchell announced his retirement in 1994, Olympia threw 
her hat into the ring and won by a landslide with 60 percent of the 
vote against her opponent's 36 percent and carrying every county in the 
State. Believe it or not, it was the smallest margin of victory she has 
enjoyed in three Senate races. With this victory, Olympia became the 
only woman in history to serve in both houses of her State legislature 
and both Houses of Congress.
  In the Senate, Olympia has worked tirelessly as a member of the 
Finance Committee, the Armed Services Committee, the Committee on 
Commerce, Science, and Transportation, the Select Committee on 
Intelligence, and as chair of the Committee on Small Business and 
Entrepreneurship.
  A lot of people like to focus on Olympia's independent streak, but my 
experience is that she herself has always cared most deeply about the 
people of Maine. She has gone through great efforts over the years to 
talk to her constituents directly. She once said:

       I've made main street tours across this state a hallmark of 
     my tenure in public office. They are like my secret poll.

  It is through these tours that Olympia decides which problems to 
fix--whether it was storm relief after the 1998 ice storm, the fight I 
already mentioned to keep Maine's military facilities open, or 
reauthorization of the Northeast Dairy Compact on behalf of Maine's 
dairy farmers.
  Of course, this isn't to downplay Olympia's penchant for independence 
or for joining gangs. Senator Snowe's maternal grandparents immigrated 
to the United States from Sparta, which may help explain her fighting 
spirit. Just like the Spartan King Leonidas, she has never been afraid 
of a fight--even with members of her own party.
  She headed the Centrist Coalition with Senator Breaux. She cochaired 
the Common Ground Coalition with Senator Landrieu. In 1999 she was one 
of five Republicans to vote to acquit President Clinton of both 
articles of

[[Page 16703]]

impeachment. And in 2005 she joined the bipartisan Gang of 14, which 
helped defuse an earlier dispute about threats to change the Senate 
rules.
  Yet what many fail to mention is that despite her vaunted 
independence, Olympia has always been a very proud Republican. She 
recently said:

       We believe as Republicans that the individual is more 
     important than the state. We believe that the great days of 
     our past can be a stepping stone to an even greater future. 
     We believe a job is preferential to a handout and 
     independence is better than dependence. We believe that the 
     private sector is more productive than big government will 
     ever be.

  When it comes to a balanced budget--a top priority for the party--
Senator Snowe has been a true leader. She has been a long-time 
supporter of a balanced budget amendment. As far back as 1993, when she 
was still serving in the House, she was one of four initial sponsors of 
the legislation that would have mandated a balanced budget. One of her 
first acts as a Senator was to deliver a speech before a Senate 
committee in support of a balanced budget amendment.
  Olympia's many accomplishments have attracted broad notice outside of 
Washington. In 2004 Forbes named her ``one of 100 most powerful women 
in the world,'' rating her even more influential than J.K. Rowling or 
Oprah. In 2006 Time named her one of the ``ten best senators,'' noting 
that she is ``in the center of every policy debate in Washington.''
  I do not think anything compares with the honor that was bestowed on 
Senator Snowe by the townspeople of Bethel, ME, who, in 1999, created 
the ``Olympia SnowWoman,'' a 122-foot tall snowman that still ranks as 
the tallest snowman--or woman--ever built. It required 13 million 
pounds of snow, took more than 1 month to build, wore a 100-foot-long 
scarf, had two entire 27-foot evergreen trees for arms, and required 16 
pairs of skis for eyelashes.
  ``It's just my luck,'' Senator Snowe said of the monument, ``I'd have 
a world record breaking monument named after me, and it will be gone by 
summer.''
  Olympia, you have had a truly remarkable career. We thank you for 
your service to this Chamber and most especially to the people of the 
great State of Maine. We wish you all the best in the next phase of 
your life and, as you think of what to put in your memoir, I would only 
ask one thing: Please, go easy on us.

                          ____________________