Mr. President, for years Republicans have been singing the praises of regular order, week after week, month after month. It has gone into years now. Even though they may not have been correct, they did it anyway. They said how they missed…
Mr. President, for years Republicans have been singing the praises of regular order, week after week, month after month. It has gone into years now. Even though they may not have been correct, they did it anyway. They said how they missed the days of committee markups, how they longed for an amendment vote-arama, amendments, and how they pined for a budget resolution.
As the junior Senator from Texas said just before the election:
Senate Democrats have not even had a budget in 3 years.
They are not pretending to try to fix these problems. I think
that is irresponsible.
But then Republicans got what they wanted 46 days ago. Forty-six days it has been since the Senate passed its budget, but Republicans are standing in the way of moving forward in the conference. They got what they asked, and now they no longer want what they asked for.
Remember, 46 days ago, under regular order, after a thorough committee markup, an all-night session--we ended at 5 a.m. in the morning--the Senate passed a budget resolution. Over the last 46 days, Republicans have stunningly and repeatedly blocked attempts to name budget conferees. If we did that, we could start down the path to compromise.
That is what legislation is all about. Legislation, by definition, is the art of compromise.
It is Republicans who, as Senator Cruz put it, aren't even intending to fix these problems.
Republicans often have said the regular order of the budget process is the only way to get long-term sound fiscal policy. Democrats and Republicans will not find common ground if they don't sit down and talk. Obviously, if we can't talk, it doesn't do any good. We need someone to talk to. Here is what we are trying to accomplish. Move legislation forward.
Don't take my word for it. This is what the Speaker of the House of Representatives said just a few weeks ago:
Here is the process. The House passes a bill. The Senate
can pass a bill. And if we disagree, we go to conference and
work it out.
What Speaker Boehner and Senator Cruz have said is that they used to love the idea of regular order, but they don't like it anymore. They got what they wanted, but they don't like what they got.
This is what my friend, the minority leader, said in January of this year in praise of the conference committee:
If the Senate version is different than the one the House
sends over, send it off to conference. That's how things are
supposed to work around here. We used to call it legislating.
That is what the Republican leader said.
A few days later, Senator McConnell extolled the virtue of regular order by saying this:
Remember, regular order is how the Senate is supposed to
function. . . . The public is supposed to have a chance to
scrutinize the proposals before us.
Here we have the junior Senator from Texas, the Speaker of the House, and the Republican leader saying we should have regular order. We should pass legislation, as we have done and the House has done, and then work it out in conference.
So we agree. I agree with those three people. Do you know something else. The American public agrees.
They suddenly don't like what they wished for. We passed our budget; the House Republicans passed theirs. The next step under regular order is to move to conference to negotiate a compromise.
I can't understand--maybe I do. I think I understand why Republicans don't want to debate their budget in the light of day.
You see, the Ryan budget, which they extol to each other, which passed the House, would turn Medicare into a voucher program--the end of Medicare as we know it.
The Ryan Republican budget would lower taxes for the rich while the middle class foots the bill. That is in their budget.
The Republican budget would rip the safety net from under the elderly, the middle class, veterans, and the poor. No wonder they don't want to go to conference. No wonder they don't want transparency.
The Democratic budget, by contrast, would preserve or protect Medicare for our children and grandchildren. The Democratic budget would ask the wealthiest Americans to contribute just a little bit more to help reduce the deficit. The Democratic budget would balance smart spending cuts with new revenue from closing loopholes.
It is obvious, then, why the Republicans don't want to compare the sensible Senate budget with the extreme House budget. The extreme House Republican budget was resoundingly rejected by the voters in November. That is what Governor Romney touted. Remember, Congressman Ryan was his Vice Presidential candidate. They ran together.
Now it is time for each side to stand for what it believes. As the junior Senator from Texas said late last year, we have ``got to go on record and say this is what we want to do, this is our budget.''
Democrats aren't afraid to debate our principles in the light of day. We aren't afraid to try to resolve our differences in a conference committee instead of behind closed doors. This has been the custom in the Senate and House of Representatives for more than 200 years.
Why are Republicans so afraid? Why are they blocking us from continuing this process in public?
We heard from the junior Senator from Texas: Republicans will only go to conference if Democrats agree ahead of time to give in to every one of their demands. That is a strange one. Sure, we will go to conference, but before we go you have to agree to everything we want.
If Republicans can't rig the game in their favor, he said, there will be no game, no conference, no legislating at all. Democrats want to put deadline-day negotiations and last-minute fixes behind us. We want to engage in a responsible legislative process under regular order, and we will keep pushing the process forward. Passing a budget in each Chamber is a good step to restoring regular order. It is only a first step. The next step is to sit down and resolve our differences.