[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2362-2363]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             REGULAR ORDER

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, back in November the American people 
sent a divided government to Washington. I know this is not the outcome 
that President Obama had hoped for. I know he wanted complete control 
of Washington, just like he had the first 2 years of his Presidency.
  Still, it was surprising to me--and I think to a lot of other people 
around here--to learn over the weekend that among the first calls the 
President made after his acceptance speech on election day had to do 
with ginning up another campaign.
  The President wasn't focused on solving the problems that middle-
class families face today but how to get a Democratic Speaker of the 
House 2 years down the road. That was the message he sent to top House 
Democrats.
  Since then, the President, along with his Washington Democratic 
allies, has expended enormous amounts of energy to advance that goal--
rebooting his political organization, provoking manufactured crises 
with Congress, engineering show votes in the Senate, and traveling 
around the country to campaign relentlessly against his opponents.
  That is why the sequester went into effect in its current form. That 
is why Washington continues to careen needlessly from crisis to crisis.
  And that is why we find ourselves in a situation where more than 
1,400 days have passed since Senate Democrats last passed a budget. 
What a sad state of affairs for our country, and for the notion of 
governance in general.
  Every year House Republicans have passed budgets that seriously 
address the transcendent challenge of our time: putting runaway 
Washington spending and debt on a sustainable path so we can create 
jobs and grow the economy.
  Meanwhile, Democrats have followed the President's lead, focusing on 
the next campaign to the exclusion of all else.
  But it is not just Senate Democrats who have been missing in action. 
The President has been late submitting his own budget outline nearly 
every single year.
  He has already missed this year's deadline by more than a month.
  Just last week we learned the President will submit his budget after 
the House and the Senate have passed their own budgets and have gone 
home for Passover and Easter. That goes far beyond the pale of just 
missing deadlines.
  Look, the American people are tired of the delays and the excuses. It 
is time for the President to get his budget plan over to us. Not next 
week or next month, but now. And this time, it should be serious--it 
should root out waste and inefficiency instead of kicking the can 
further down the road.
  The budget blueprint he sent us last year was so roundly ridiculed 
for its fiscal gimmickry and its massive tax hikes that, when it came 
to a vote in the Senate, his own party joined Republicans in voting it 
down 99 to 0.
  In the House, it was rejected unanimously. Even the President's most 
liberal allies couldn't defend it.
  So we are counting on the President to get serious this time. And we 
are counting on Senate Democrats to stop relying on Republicans to bail 
them out of their irresponsibility and habitual legislative tardiness.
  But the broader point is this: President Obama and his Senate 
Democratic allies will have plenty of time to campaign next year. The 
American people are exhausted after all these years of campaigning, and 
they expect Democratic leaders now to finally work with the divided 
Congress they elected to get things done. As I have said before, the 
President has to figure out how to govern with the situation he has, 
not the one he wishes he had. That is what being President is all 
about.
  It is time to return to actually solving problems--in other words, to 
legislate the way we are supposed to around here: with transparency, 
with public input, and with sufficient time to develop sound policy. 
That is especially true when it comes to dealing with the most 
controversial issues in Washington. Whether it is the budget or tax

[[Page 2363]]

reform or health care, we end up with better outcomes when we legislate 
in the light of day and not in some back room.
  For instance, the Senate majority should be allowing us to mark up 
bills so that Members with expertise in a certain issue area can 
contribute to the legislative process in the most constructive and 
transparent way possible.
  When bills do reach the floor, the Senate majority should allow 
Members of both parties the chance to represent the voices of their 
constituents by offering amendments in an open process.
  And when the House sends us bills, the Senate majority should 
actually take some of them up every once in a while.
  The leadership won't agree with everything the House passes; but that 
is okay. If the Senate passes a different version of a bill, we can 
work out our differences through the legislative process.
  That is how Congress is supposed to function, even though it's not at 
all how the Senate has functioned recently.
  I know Washington Democrats' most important priority right now is 
getting Nancy Pelosi her old job back in 2014. But that is not what 
Americans want--and that is why Washington has become so dysfunctional.
  The American people, including my constituents in Kentucky, expect 
them to get off the hustings and work with Members of both parties to 
address the most serious challenges facing our country. The public is 
tired of the manufactured crises, the poll-tested gimmicks, and the 
endless campaigning. They expect and deserve better than that.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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