[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 13381]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            HOUSE REPUBLICANS' SHAMEFUL DIVERSION TECHNIQUES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Nadler) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, 6 years ago, President Obama and the 
Democratic Congress took office. When they took office in January of 
2009, the economy was in free fall, and we were losing 800,000 jobs a 
month--losing 800,000 jobs a month, but the Congress went to work, and 
under the guidance of President Obama, we passed the American Recovery 
Act, we saved the American automobile industry, and within 14 months, 
we were gaining 250,000 jobs a month. We turned around over 1 million 
jobs a month, from losing 800,000 to gaining 250,000 in 14 months.
  The President knew that that wasn't sufficient to continue the 
progress, so he proposed the American Jobs Act, and he proposed a major 
investment in American infrastructure. But the newly elected Republican 
Congress--the obstructionist Republican Congress--stopped the American 
Jobs Act, wouldn't pass the infrastructure bill, and stopped every job 
initiative the President and Democrats proposed, and we have had a slow 
recovery from that recession.
  We are gaining about 200,000 to 250,000 jobs a month. It is up a 
little, and that is good, but our economy is about $2 trillion below 
its productive capacity, below what it should be because every proposal 
from the President has been stopped by the Republican Congress, which 
shouldn't have time for it, but they had time for other things.
  We had plenty of time to take 50 votes on repealing the Affordable 
Care Act at a cost to the taxpayers of about $79 million to repeat that 
vote 50 times. We had time for the Republicans to shut down the 
government. That cost the economy about $24 billion.
  We had time when the administration knew that the Defense of Marriage 
Act could not be defended in court, the House of Representatives wasted 
$3.5 million trying to defend the indefensible in court and lost in 
front of the Supreme Court. We have had, in that time, no minimum wage 
increase, no extended unemployment insurance, and no pay equity for 
women because it costs too much money. This House has passed $850 
billion in unpaid-for tax loopholes for large corporations--unpaid for.
  Now, they want to waste more money. The Speaker wants to waste more 
money on a meritless lawsuit against the President for not taking care 
that the law be faithfully executed.
  What did he do? In implementing the Affordable Care Act--which the 
Republicans have tried to repeal 50 times--he postponed implementation 
of one provision by a year--a provision the Republicans opposed, so 
they now want to waste money to go into court and sue the President to 
say he had no power to postpone this for a year, even though no one 
opposed President Bush when he postponed for a year a provision of the 
Medicare drug act when he was President.
  It is well within the discretion of Presidents, in implementing a 
law, to postpone parts of it in order to get it done right. That has 
been very clear, and it becomes another question. Let's assume the 
Republicans went into court and overturned the standing question that 
Mr. Butterfield talked about--which they will not--what is the remedy 
they seek?
  By the time it got to court, that provision will have been 
implemented, so the Republicans want to waste $5 million or $6 million 
of taxpayers' money to go into court and say, Judge, order the 
President to implement what has been already implemented--totally 
ridiculous.
  So what have we got? We have got a Congress with no highway bill, no 
minimum wage bill, no unemployment extension bill, no pay equity for 
women bill, no action on campaign finance reform, no action to reduce 
the burdens of student loans, no action to make sure that women 
continue to have access to contraceptive services--despite the Supreme 
Court's Hobby Lobby decisions--no action on all the emergencies that 
face the American people, but we are going to waste money on a 
meritless lawsuit that will go nowhere, but simply will serve the 
single function of diverting attention from all the real problems the 
House Republicans want to continue to ignore.
  That is not a proper use of the taxpayers' money, more wasted money 
for political purposes--for shame.

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