[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3450-3451]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Following leader remarks, the Senate will resume 
consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R. 933, the continuing 
resolution legislation. Last night I filed cloture on a motion to 
proceed to this most important legislation. We are now in the midst of 
another filibuster. If no agreement is reached, the cloture vote will 
be tomorrow morning.


                            The Ryan Budget

  Mr. President, yesterday Americans got their first look at this 
year's Ryan Republican budget. It turns out it looks like last year's 
Ryan Republican budget. I wasn't the only one who said: Gee whiz, not 
again.
  Here is the headline from Bloomberg News:

       Ryan Budget Replays Republican Hits.

  One Washington Post reporter compared the release of the not-so-new 
and certainly not improved Ryan Republican budget to the movie 
``Groundhog Day,'' where Bill Murray relives his least favorite holiday 
over and over and over. Remember, this is the third Ryan Republican 
budget.
  This is what the Washington Post also wrote:

       The unrepentant reprisal of the same fiscal vision that was 
     decisively repudiated last fall is bound to attract notice.

  Indeed, this is the same budget plan we saw from Congressman Ryan 
last year and the year before that. Even the name is the same. If 
anything, this new version is even more extreme than the last two Ryan 
Republican budget proposals--proposals that sought to end the Medicare 
guarantee and raise taxes on middle-class families, all the while 
handing out more tax breaks to the wealthy.
  The Ryan Republican budget is anything but balanced, and it reflects 
the same backward values Americans rejected in November. Instead of 
asking the wealthiest to contribute their fair share, the Ryan 
Republican budget demands that middle-class families pay more in taxes. 
Instead of ending wasteful corporate tax loopholes, it basically ends 
Medicare. In fact, the Ryan Republican budget takes special aim at 
health care. It would eliminate free preventive health services for 34 
million Americans. The Ryan Republican budget would increase 
prescription drug prices for seniors by $2.5 billion in 1 year. It 
would end the coverage guarantees for 3.1 million young men and women 
who are on their parents' health plans. The budget would end coverage 
for mammograms, cervical cancer screenings, and contraception for more 
than 47 million women and allow insurance companies to deny care for 17 
million children simply because they were born with a heart defect or 
some other illness. These drastic cuts will literally cost lives and 
also jobs.
  Instead of a balanced approach that protects the American economy, 
the Ryan Republican budget guts education, medical research, 
infrastructure, and even public safety. The Ryan Republican budget 
would actually jeopardize the economic recovery; it wouldn't help it. 
And in case you are thinking such huge and painful cuts can buy an 
awful lot of deficit reduction, think again. Instead, Congressman 
Ryan's cuts will buy more tax breaks for the wealthiest among us. This 
budget isn't a serious attempt to reduce the deficit. Meaningful 
deficit reduction will require shared sacrifice, including 
contributions from those who can best afford to contribute to it.
  Today, Budget Committee chairman Patty Murray will introduce a budget 
that reflects the principle of balance. Senator Murray's plan, the 
Democratic plan, will cut wasteful spending, reduce the deficit, and 
close tax loopholes that benefit the rich, and it will invest in the 
things that help our economy grow: education, preventive health care, 
worker training, and roads and bridges. It will invest in a strong 
middle class. And unlike the Ryan Republican plan, it won't leave you 
wondering if it is Groundhog Day all over again.
  As things now stand, we are in the midst, as I indicated, of a 
filibuster to even try to get on the bill. If we get on the bill 
tomorrow morning, then there will be 30 hours of waiting around, 
staring at each other. I just alert everyone that we have an Easter 
recess coming a week from Friday, and we are not going to be able to do 
that. The budget has a locked-in amount of time, 50 hours, plus the 
vote-athon. So everyone should be prepared to change their plans for 
the first few days--we hope it is the first few days--of the Easter 
recess.
  We are not even on this bill, and that is such a sad thing. I thought 
it was such a good atmosphere here. We had a bill at a decent time from 
the House. As I indicated yesterday, I didn't like everything in that 
bill, but we had Senator Mikulski and Senator Shelby working together. 
They checked in with me and Senator McConnell to let us know how they 
were doing, and they did well on their own. They didn't need our help. 
They came up with a plan that was fair and as balanced as could be 
under the sequester situation, and it was bipartisan. The amendment 
that is being filibustered is sponsored by Mikulski and Shelby. So this 
is a real shame.

[[Page 3451]]

  I said last week when we were going on this bill that we would have 
opportunities for amendments. I hope we can get on the bill and have 
some amendments offered, but each day that goes by--and we have wasted 
2 so far--we are unable to have the amendment process. We had yesterday 
waiting all day for Harkin and Cruz because that is the first 
Democratic amendment and the first Republican amendment. They are still 
on deck, waiting to come whenever the umpire says we can go forward--
the umpire being one Senator.

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