Floor Statements

Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 65.

Madam President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 2.

Madam President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to legislative session for a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Madam President, I have six requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority Leaders.

Pursuant to Rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate:

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 758, which is at the desk.

I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 101, submitted earlier today.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 102, submitted earlier today.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned to convene for a pro forma session with no business be conducted at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, March 10; that when the Senate adjourns on Friday, it stand adjourned until 3 p.m. on Tuesday, March 14; that on Tuesday, following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; that following the conclusion of morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the Neiman nomination; further, that the cloture motions filed during today's session ripen on 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 14.

Madam President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order, following the remarks of Senator Cardin.

Mr. President, last night, additional new evidence came to light that Rupert Murdoch and FOX News knew Donald Trump lied about the 2020 election. Yet they allowed the Big Lie to air on their network all the same. More and more evidence keeps pouring out that these are the undisputed facts.

I have never heard of a news organization push a story with such intensity while acknowledging, very candidly behind the scenes, that what they were peddling was total balderdash.

In one email just revealed last night, Mr. Murdoch admitted sometime after January 6 that ``maybe Sean and Laura went too far,'' referring to prime-time hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham.

In another instance published in last night's Washington Post, Mr. Murdoch speculated that after losing the election, Donald Trump was going ``increasingly mad.'' Murdoch said Donald Trump is going ``increasingly mad,'' and then Murdoch worried that President Trump's allies' plans to overturn swing State results ``sound ridiculous'' and could lead to ``riots like never before.''

Murdoch, the head of FOX News, allowing these lies to continue, worries that they could lead to ``riots like never before.''

But it is not enough for Mr. Murdoch to express doubt and regret in private, which is continuing to be documented, because today, after he makes these expressions of doubt and regret and is very pejorative of his own newscast and newscasters, the Big Lie still has a home at FOX News, Mr. Murdoch's station--news network. Just look at Carlson's segments this week.

Members on the Republican side of the aisle should drop the pretenses and say it plainly: FOX News lied to the country about the 2020 elections and, in doing so, eroded the public's trust in American democracy. For their own sake and for the sake of the country, Mr. Murdoch and FOX News leadership should put a halt to the spread of the Big Lie on their network.

This is about preserving trust in our 200-year-old system of government. When enough people believe elections are not on the level, that is the death knell of democracy.

Of course, the fault also lies with the person who shared Capitol security footage with FOX News to begin with--

Speaker McCarthy. Speaker McCarthy has held a gavel for less than 3 months and already he has done more than any party leader in Congress to enable the spread of Donald Trump's Big Lie.

While the Speaker can't undo his decision to share security footage with FOX News, he should denounce them for the way that FOX News manipulated that footage to rewrite the history of January 6. The Speaker should not delay because his decision to share sensitive security footage with FOX News has made our democracy weaker because millions--millions--of people, sadly, believe Mr. Carlson when he says January 6 was a legitimate protest. And the more people who believe that January 6 was legitimate, the more they will accept the lie that Donald Trump won the 2020 election.

Bewilderingly--bewilderingly--Speaker McCarthy said yesterday that he didn't regret his decision to share Capitol security footage. He said he didn't see what FOX News aired; that people can make their own conclusions. Then, for some reason, he started pointing the finger at

Mr. President, now on the budget, President Biden's budget won't be released until midday tomorrow, but we can already draw a couple of big conclusions about the contrast between his vision--the Democratic vision--and the Republican vision for our country.

The President, for instance, is willing to do what Republicans are not: lower the deficit in a realistic, responsible way without cutting benefits that tens of millions of people rely on.

In fact, Democrats have already proved it is possible: The Inflation Reduction Act not only saved families money, it also lowers the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars.

The Republicans like to talk about cutting the debt, but Democrats are the ones actually getting it done. Unlike Republicans, the President is also asking the richest of the rich to pay a little more of their fair share in taxes so that tens of millions of Americans will not see their Medicare benefits wither away in a few years. Under the President's plan, Medicare would remain solvent well beyond 2050. Isn't that great? Medicare, which we have always worried about, which is so important to tens of millions of Americans, would stay solvent until 2050.

Republicans, of course, want to go the other way. Instead of cutting taxes for the middle class, their priority is tax cuts to billionaires and large corporations. Now, I have no problem with those at the very top. God bless them. They are doing just fine. But I think most Americans agree that CEOs should never have a lower tax burden than nurses, teachers, cabdrivers, firefighters, and police officers. If my friends on the other side want to call that outlandish or extreme, they can go right ahead, but I warn them they will be at odds with the vast majority of Americans.

Finally, the President's plan will build on what Democrats accomplished last year to lower the cost of prescription drugs.

For the first time ever, Medicare now has the authority to negotiate the price of certain drugs, saving taxpayers billions of dollars, but the President is right to push further in expanding the list of drugs whose prices Medicare can negotiate.

So let's run through the list one more time. The President's plan is going to continue lowering the cost of prescription drugs. He is going to ensure that Medicare remains solvent beyond 2050, without cutting a penny in benefits. He is going to ask the wealthy to pay just a little more of their fair share in taxes without raising taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 a year. And his plan will cut the deficit by $2 trillion--$2 trillion--over the next 10 years.

Speaker McCarthy, what about you? Where is your plan? Enough with the dodging. Enough with the excuses. It is time to level with the American people so they can see the contrast between Democrats and Republicans for themselves.