[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 9208]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           BUDGET CONFERENCE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, it has been 86 days since the Senate passed 
its budget. We have been through this on several occasions. We have had 
Republican Senators come and criticize the Republican leadership here 
for not letting us go to conference. They talked about their wanting 
regular order so we could move forward in dealing with the financial 
crisis facing this country, but they have ignored us.
  We are proud of the budget we passed. It was hard, but it reflects 
our priorities: protecting middle-class families and growing the 
economy. Even though that is the case, we are still willing to work out 
a compromise with our Republican counterparts.
  We are not going to get everything we want. That is what conferences 
are all about. They have been going on in this country for more than 
two centuries. But we believe our sound fiscal policy would stand out 
as being so much better than what they have done in the House. We could 
do this through the regular order of the budget process. Unfortunately, 
Democrats and Republicans are not going to find common ground if we 
never start negotiating. As I said, for 86 days Republican leaders have 
objected to a conference with the House of Representatives. In 
conference, Democrats and Republicans could work together to work out 
our differences--differences between our budgets as well as our 
priorities. But Senate Republicans have objected to a conference time 
and time again.
  Today, I read in the Hill newspaper called Politico that the House 
Republicans are more than happy for their Senate colleagues to obstruct 
and delay. They know a budget conference would only put the spotlight 
on divisions within the House Republican caucus. Here is what the 
article said:

       Going to conference to match the House and Senate-passed 
     budgets--or making any movement on the budget right now--
     could open up a schism in the [Republican] caucus on spending 
     that for months leadership has managed to keep mostly at bay.

  So what they are saying is the Republican leadership over here is 
protecting the House. The House Republican leadership understands they 
cannot agree on anything--nothing. Therefore, objecting to this is the 
right thing to do because they will never get out in the open as to how 
crazy their budget priorities are.
  But as Senate Republicans cover for their dysfunctional House 
colleagues, the country inches closer to another crisis: a default on 
the Nation's bills.
  Reasonable Republicans are just as concerned as I am about this last 
manufactured crisis--a crisis that would undercut the economic progress 
of the last 4 years. Those reasonable Republicans have come to the 
floor repeatedly to call on Republican leaders to stop blocking 
bipartisan budget negotiations. I hope those reasonable Republicans 
prevail. I hope Republican leaders in the House and in the Senate will 
stop bowing to tea party extremists and listen to the more reasonable 
Members of their caucus.
  I repeat, Republican Senators have arrived here on the floor on more 
than one occasion and criticized our not being able to go to 
conference. So if past is prologue, using the full faith and credit of 
the U.S. Government as a political hostage will not only be bad for the 
economy, it will also be bad for the Republican Party.
  It is time Republican leaders acknowledge that compromise--not 
reckless brinkmanship--will put America on the road to fiscal 
responsibility.

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