[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 4207-4208]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                 ENERGY

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, too often in Washington our friends on 
the left seem to operate under a very dangerous assumption: that good 
intentions are more important than a good outcome. I say it is 
dangerous because we see all the time how liberal Washington politics 
that aim to alleviate problems such as poverty or wage stagnation or 
other social or economic problems just seem to make things worse. Yet, 
despite the evidence, the policies never seem to change. More money 
just gets thrown at the same failed programs year after year with 
barely any thought as to whether they actually work.
  ObamaCare is a case in point. Here is a big-government bill that 
Washington Democrats thought they could just pass and--poof--health 
care would magically be made more affordable for everybody. Yet for 
millions of Americans just the opposite happened. Contrary to the 
assurances, ObamaCare has upended lives and businesses all across our 
country. It has forced painful choices for people who could barely get 
by as it was. It is a mess.
  So one would assume Washington Democrats would step back and take a 
long hard look at the accumulating evidence and start thinking about 
ways to keep this thing from pummeling even more Americans. But we 
would be wrong. They just keep doubling down.
  When the Web site crashed, they called it a glitch. When people 
started losing their doctors and their plans, they told them: You can 
live with it. When Americans started sharing their ObamaCare horror 
stories, they basically called them all liars. That would tell us 
something we need to know about how much Washington liberals care about 
middle-class Americans. They are captive to the most extreme ideologies 
of the left, and they don't even try to hide it anymore. Forget reason 
or economics or sound argument; it is all about ideology with these 
guys.
  We saw it all on vivid display a couple nights ago with the 
Democrats' all-night talkathon on global warming. The reason for the 
all-nighter was pretty obvious: It was a command performance for a 
leftwing activist donor out in California. And the fact that taxpayers 
were basically subsidizing the whole thing was bad enough, but what 
about the basic substance of the issue Democrats were talking about the 
other night. What about that. It is just one more case where good 
intentions trump the impact their proposals would have on ordinary 
Americans.
  See, the Obama administration seems to think that if it just wishes 
really hard and issues enough regulations, it can singlehandedly reduce 
global carbon emissions--without bringing Beijing and New Delhi 
onboard. It is an alternate universe where ``victory'' means U.S. 
emissions going down by some negligible amount--and where China and 
India don't simultaneously eclipse that tiny emissions reduction with 
expanded energy of their own. It is a universe where the massive 
economic consequence of acting so recklessly doesn't seem to matter, 
and it is a universe where middle-class Americans somehow don't take 
the hit to our economic output right on the chin. In other words, it is 
the kind of thing that could only make sense to a party blinded by 
extremist ideology.
  Of course, Washington Democrats love to pull out that old straw man 
and

[[Page 4208]]

say: Either you support our approach completely--even if it won't 
actually solve the problem it purports to--or you hate the environment. 
It is kind of like when they said: Either you vote for ObamaCare or you 
hate affordable health care. Well, our constituents remember how that 
worked out, and our constituents are quite capable of seeing the 
complexity in the world which so often eludes our friends on the left. 
They are capable of caring deeply about the environment, for instance, 
while disagreeing with the administration's ideological crusade.
  Of course, every ideological crusade needs an enemy. In the 
administration's war on coal, Washington Democrats appear to have found 
their foil. It is not some fat cat. It is not some Wall Street titan. 
No. This time it seems to be middle-class Kentucky families--miners who 
struggle every day just to put food on the table, the kinds of 
Americans who work hard so the rest of us can have a better life. Well, 
it is unfair and it is wrong.
  Where Washington Democrats seem to see faceless adversaries, I see 
human beings, people who are hurting. I wish my Democratic colleagues 
would join me sometime as I travel around Kentucky listening to their 
concerns.
  At one recent hearing, a miner named Howard Abshire had this message 
for President Obama:

       Come and look at our little children, look at our people, 
     Mr. President. You're not hurting for a job; you've got one. 
     I don't have one.

  Another miner, Gary Lockhart, said his biggest worry was just trying 
to keep a roof over his family's head and food on the table. When it 
comes to his fellow miners, here is what he had to say:

       Many of these men, who have never asked the government for 
     any kind of assistance in their lives . . . [are] having to 
     go home and tell their families that their pay's going to be 
     cut to practically nothing, [that] there'll be very little 
     Christmas this year, no vacations, nothing extra.

  Miners aren't the only ones affected by all the pain out there in 
coal country. I will read a letter I received from Bill Scaggs, a 
businessman and pastor from Pikeville. Here is what Bill had to say:

       We have had to lay off employees due to the closings of 
     mines and the [effect] they have had. Our business is losing 
     thousands of dollars due to the negative impact of the EPA. 
     As a pastor . . . our benevolence to the community has 
     increased fivefold with help for food, power bills, clothing, 
     and just the day to day living expenses that families need.

  Americans may not always know it, but they owe a lot to coal miners 
like the ones I represent in Kentucky. Whether it is watching a TV 
show, drying a pair of jeans, or saving some leftover takeout for 
tomorrow, we often probably have a miner to thank for the electricity 
that makes it all possible. That is also true if we try to keep the 
lights on all night long.
  So I hope our friends on the other side will remember to be thankful 
for the electricity that makes all-night talkathons actually possible. 
Honestly, I still don't get the point of the stunt. They didn't 
introduce legislation or schedule votes on the national electricity tax 
they seem to want so badly. Remember, they control the Senate, so they 
can bring it up for debate whenever they want to. Where is the climate 
change debate? Where is the bill? People who were speaking all night 
control the Senate. Bring up the bill. Here is the point: Republicans 
care deeply about the environment. We also care deeply about creating 
jobs and growing the middle class, and we do not think our country 
should have to sacrifice one priority for the other. The American 
people do not either. So it is time for Washington Democrats to drop 
the billionaire-approved ideological crusades, to quit all the talk and 
get onboard with sensible forward-looking action to create jobs. We 
have tried the left's wish-upon-a-star approach already and real people 
have been hurt. So why not try some things that will actually work.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Will the Senator withhold his 
request?
  Mr. McCONNELL. I will withhold.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Missouri.

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