Floor Statements

Mr. President, this budget we have spent so much time talking about is really about making tough choices, hard choices, difficult choices. The American people understand this. They understand tough choices. They have to make them every day, especially now with the economy being in the shape it is in. So should their representatives in Congress make tough choices.

We are being honest with ourselves over here. We know we can't get 100 percent of what we want. That is what this negotiation is all about. That is why this is a negotiation. It is not a winner-take-all situation.

Democrats have made tough choices because we want to get this agreement finished. We want it completed. We want to keep the country running and keep the momentum in the economy that is now creating jobs. We want to avoid a shutdown and the terrible consequences that would follow.

The only thing Republicans are trying to avoid is making the tough choices we need to make. We have been more than reasonable. We have been more than fair. We meet them halfway, and they say no. We meet them more than halfway, and they still say no. We meet them all the way, and they still say no. If Republicans were serious about keeping the country running, all they would have to do is say yes.

Now we learn House Republicans are going to make another excuse, create another diversion, and avoid another tough choice. Instead of solving the crisis the way we should, instead of saying yes, they say, in fact, what they are going to do is pass what they will call another short-term stopgap measure. They will say it is short term, but what that really means is it is a short cut--a short cut around doing our jobs. Instead of solving problems, they are stalling. They are procrastinating. That is not just bad policy, it is a fantasy.

We all heard the President of the United States say yesterday that he won't accept anything short of a full solution. And why should he? We are 6 months into the fiscal year now. President Obama is right. We can't keep funding our great country with one stopgap after another. The United States of America, this great country of ours, shouldn't have to live paycheck to paycheck. We are not going to give up. We are going to keep talking and keep trying to find middle ground. The Speaker and I will go back to the White House tonight in 2 hours and 20 minutes to meet with him again to continue the conversation we have been having for weeks with this administration.

We know the Republicans are afraid of the tea party. That has been established. Now it looks as though they are also afraid of making the tough choices we have to make. But tough choices are what governing is all about. They are what leadership is all about. It is time for my friends in the House of Representatives to stop campaigning and start governing.

And remember what one of the greatest Speakers of all time said. In fact, he was Speaker three times. He was from the State of Kentucky. Henry Clay. He was known as the ``great compromiser.'' He said that all legislation is based on mutual consensus. That is what this is all about. But remember, let's focus on the word ``mutual.'' It takes both of us.

Mr. President, it is time to lead.

I note the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I have had a number of conversations over the last few days with my new friend, the junior Senator from Kentucky, Mr. Paul. He feels very strongly about an issue, and he should have the right to talk about that.

I ask unanimous consent that there be 10 minutes for Senator Paul to speak prior to my being recognized to have the bill called up; that is, the small business jobs bill, and that Senator Paul be recognized as in morning business.

During that morning business time, it will be for debate only by Senator Paul.

Mr. President, first of all, I wish to express my appreciation to the Senator from Kentucky. He is a gentleman. I know how sincere he feels about this issue. I admire him for feeling sincerely about issues, as he does on a number of them.

It has been good for me to get to know him better during the last 4 or 5 days.

I ask for the clerk to report the pending business.

Mr. President, it is my understanding that the Paul amendment is the pending business; is that right?

I move to table that and ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 11 a.m., Wednesday, April 6, the Senate resume consideration of S. 493 and the pending amendments be set aside and Senator Reid or a designee be recognized to call up the following amendments:

Baucus No. 236; Stabenow No. 277; Rockefeller No. 215; Coburn No. 217; Coburn No. 223; Coburn No. 273; Inouye No. 286; that the pending Sanders amendment No. 207 be modified with the changes at the desk; that the Senate then proceed to a period of debate only until 4 p.m., with the time equally divided between the two leaders or their designees prior to votes in relation to the following amendments in the order listed below:

Baucus No. 236; Stabenow No. 277; Rockefeller No. 215; McConnell No. 183; Coburn No. 223; Inouye No. 286; and Coburn No. 273; that there be no amendments in order to the amendments prior to the votes; the amendments not be divisible; the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; there be 2 minutes equally divided in between the votes; all after the first vote be 10 minutes in duration; and the amendments be subject to a 60-vote threshold for adoption; that upon the disposition of the Coburn amendment No. 273, amendment Nos. 184 and 217 offered by Senator Coburn be agreed to; that no amendments be in order to the Coburn amendments Nos. 184 and 217 prior to their adoption; and all of the above occurring with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I appreciate everyone's patience in regard to getting this consent agreement. None of these votes are easy, but the votes are necessary.

I would also say, in relation to the statement made by my friend from Colorado, that--I am trying to figure out who is the senior Senator between the Presiding Officer--the junior Senator from Colorado, the nice statement he made: We are doing our very best to work something out on the CR that will fund the government to the end of this fiscal year. As has been reported in the press, I had a meeting with the Speaker tonight at 4 o'clock. We are still negotiating in good faith. We are not that far apart. Hopefully, we can work something out. It is something we should be able to do and certainly we are trying. As we speak, our people are working. So I want everyone to know the government is not going to be shut down yet. There is still air in the tire. We still have some miles to travel, but I hope there is enough air in it to get us where we need to go.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the HELP Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 129, and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements relating to the measure be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, there will be a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. Following morning business, the Senate will proceed to executive session to consider the nomination of Jimmie Reyna to be U.S. circuit judge. We will vote on that at 5:30 this afternoon.

Additionally, we were able to reach an agreement to vote in relation to H.R. 4, the 1099 repeal. This is not going to be part of the small business jobs bill we have before us. We have spun that out so it can go right to the House. We have spent enough time on the 1099. Senators should expect two rollcall votes on 1099, on Tuesday, prior to the caucus meetings.

I have spoken to the Republican leader, and we think we may have a pathway cleared to finish the small business jobs bill, but we will see how that turns out. We will work on that today and in the morning and certainly at our caucuses tomorrow afternoon.

Mr. President, I am told there are two bills at the desk due for a second reading.

Mr. President, I object to any further proceedings with respect to these bills en bloc.

Mr. President, the time we have left to work on a budget agreement is extremely short. The window in which we can avoid the terrible consequences of a shutdown is closing quickly. It is no longer measured in months or weeks. We are now down to just a few days in this deadline. The time we have to get the long legislative process started in both Houses is measured in hours.

It is clear those sitting at the negotiating table have different priorities. That is true of any negotiation. We all should share the same goal: to keep the country running and to keep the momentum of our economic recovery moving forward. We all want to cut the deficit.

Last week, we agreed upon a number on which to base our budget--$73 billion below the President's proposal. But disagreements remain on where we should make those cuts. We worked

through the weekend to bridge that gap. We have made some progress, but we are not where we should be yet.

There is another way in which the sides remain separated. Democrats have demonstrated throughout this process that we are willing to meet in the middle, but Republicans and the tea party continue to reject reality and insist, instead, on idealogy. Let me give a couple of examples.

First, they refuse to recognize H.R. 1--that is the budget the House passed--isn't going to happen. The tea party pushed it through the House over the objections of some Republicans and all Democrats. Then, the Senate soundly defeated it. Even all Republicans didn't vote for this H.R. 1 in the Senate. We all know the President would never sign it into law anyway.

So the Republican Party and the tea party need to admit the Democrats have proven what the country already knows--that neither party can pass a budget without the other party and neither Chamber can send it to the President without the other Chamber. Democrats stand ready to meet the Republicans halfway and the Senate stands ready to meet the House halfway. We hope our partners on the other side are willing to be as reasonable.

Second, tea party Republicans refuse to recognize that their budget is simply an appalling proposal. They stomp their feet and call ``compromise'' a dirty word and insist on a budget that will hurt America rather than help it. It slashes programs for the sake of slashing programs. It chops zeros off the budget for nothing more than bragging rights. The authors and advocates of the Republican budget either completely ignore the practical impact of their dangerous cuts or they know the damage they will do and simply don't care. Either way, it is not right.

Their budget would not do a thing to lower unemployment. In fact, it will cost the country 700,000 jobs. That is not my estimate but the estimate of the head of Moody's, an independent economist who has worked for both Democrats and Republicans.

It will also hurt seniors. It slashes funding from the Social Security Administration, which means seniors and disabled Americans who count on the benefits they have earned over a lifetime of hard work will have to wait for these benefits. In many cases, those Social Security checks are seniors' only source of income. In some cases, they are the only thing keeping them out of poverty, and those checks have nothing at all to do with the deficit--nothing.

The Republican budget will hurt women and their families. It cuts nutritional programs for women, infants, and children. This program has nothing to do with the deficit. This program--the WIC Program, Women, Infants and Children--is a program for the very poor. Their budget makes cuts to Planned Parenthood based on ideology, not economics. Planned Parenthood doesn't contribute to the deficit, but it does contribute, in great measure, to the health and safety of women of every age in every State.

Their budget will also hurt our veterans. There is a veterans program in this country that helps homeless veterans afford housing. Democrats think our Nation's veterans who are down and out deserve a roof over their heads, and we think it is a worthy program. The Republican budget nearly eliminates it.

Their budget will also hurt students. The tea party plan kicks hundreds of thousands of impoverished boys and girls out of Head Start, a program to allow them to learn to read--little preschool kids. It cuts college students' Pell grants and slashes job training programs. That is no way to recover.

Independent economists have analyzed the tea party's plan and found it will actually put the brakes on economic growth. The point of this whole exercise--of a budget--is to help the economy. Democrats will not stand for a budget that weakens our economy.

None of the people I have just mentioned led us into the recession. Punishing innocent bystanders, such as seniors, women, veterans, and students will not lead us to a recovery. This is what we mean when we say their budget is based on ideology and not reality. This is what we mean when we say the Republican and tea party budget slashes irresponsibly. When they refuse to relent on those dangerous cuts--many of which have nothing to do with the deficit--that is what we mean when we say the other side simply isn't being reasonable.

Our national budget reflects our values and the tough choices we make. Democrats have made many tough choices because we know sacrifices are the cost of consensus, and we believe they are worth it. But we have never forgotten that what we cut is more important than how much we cut.

In addition to the many choices about what to slash and what to keep, the Republican leadership has another very big choice to make: It has to decide whether it will do what the tea party wants it to do or what the country needs it to do.

I am hopeful it will make the right choice and we can come to a timely agreement. But the bottom line is this: At the end of the day, we are all on the same side. Time now is not on our side.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, we are continuing to work very hard to avoid the terrible consequences that would come with a government shutdown. As Vice President Biden announced last night after a 1\1/2\-hour meeting we had in his office just a few feet from where I speak, the Democrats and Republicans have agreed upon a number on which to base our budget cuts. That number is $73 billion below the President's budget proposal. Now we have to get to that $73 billion number.

As I said all along, this is not just about dollars and deficits; it is about principles and priorities. What we cut is much more important than how much we cut. The media is very concerned with which party will win this fight politically. I am much more concerned with making sure the American people do not lose out on this program we are doing. We have to make sure the cuts do not damage the basic fiber of our country.

Let me once again remind the Senate that children, students, teachers, nurses, and seniors would be significantly hurt by the cuts in the Republican-passed H.R. 1. The tea party is here today. They are here demonstrating that H.R. 1 should be followed--$100 billion-- damaging children, students, teachers, nurses, seniors, and many other people in this country. H.R. 1 is not a piece of legislation of which anyone should be proud. Not a single child, not a single student, not a single teacher, not a single nurse, not a single police officer, not a single senior led us into this recession--not one. Punishing innocent bystanders will not lead us to a recovery.

We will continue talking and continue working to find a middle ground. Again, we have agreed on a number. We have not agreed on how to get to that number. I hope an agreement can be reached as to how we get to that number, but it will not come on the backs of middle-class families and the jobs they need, and it will not come if the other side continues to insist on unreasonable and unrealistic tea party cuts.

I appreciate Speaker Boehner and the rest of his Republican leadership in the House. What a tremendously difficult job they have. I am sure it is not easy trying to negotiate with the tea party screaming in their ears.

We have a lot more work to do. This country is at a crossroads in a lot of different ways. The economy is recovering--not as much and not as rapidly as we would like, but we cannot have what is going on here with the tea party demonstrating all these very harsh cuts, unrealistic riders, punishing innocent folks just for political ideology.

We have a lot more to do. I hope this latest development is the beginning of the end of this crisis because, remember, this is not the only crisis we as a country are dealing with. We have about a score of ships from our Navy trying to help the good people of Japan. We have a big situation going on in the Middle East, not only in Libya but all over the Middle East. We have a war going on in Afghanistan. As I speak, we have men and women whose lives are on the line in Afghanistan. We are trying to draw down in Iraq. We have a lot of issues we need to deal with.

We know there have to be budget cuts, and we are willing to do that. But

let's also understand we cannot balance our budget with what the tea party is wanting us to do. We have a huge problem in this country with deficits. We have been a pretty good example of how we can balance the budget. We did it in the Clinton years. We spent far less money than we were taking in. We were reducing the debt. We were not having annual deficits. We know it can be done, but we have to do it in the right way, as we did.

We want to work with our Republican colleagues. We have proven we can do that with the two short-term CRs we have had. But I hope everyone understands that there is only so much the middle class of this country can take. There is only so much we can do to damage the basic fiber of our children, students, teachers, our nurses, and our seniors.

Head Start is a program that has been around for decades, and it helps a lot. It helps little boys and girls learn to read and do their math that they would not ordinarily have the opportunity to do. These are really poor children. H.R. 1 cuts hundreds of thousands of little boys and girls from that program. That does not help our country.

We know cuts must be made, but they must be smart cuts, and we want to do the best we can to work together to do whatever is reasonable to reduce this debt we have. We know it can be done. It has been done in recent history.

Mr. President, following any leader remarks, there will be a period for the transaction of morning business. During that period of time, Senators are permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. The first hour is equally divided and controlled, with the majority controlling the first 30 minutes and the Republicans controlling the next 30 minutes.

We hope to work out an agreement to vote on the 1099 and the EPA amendments to the small business jobs bill today. We have been trying to do that for several days. A number of Members of the Senate are attending the funeral for the late Geraldine Ferraro. Senators will be notified when votes are scheduled. They will be this afternoon at the earliest.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, April 5, the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 16, H.R. 4; that the only amendment in order to the bill be an amendment to be offered by Senator Menendez; that there be up to 60 minutes of debate equally divided between the two leaders or their designees, prior to a vote in relation to the Menendez amendment; that the amendment not be divisible and no amendments be in order to the amendment prior to the vote; that upon disposition of the amendment, the bill be read a third time and the Senate proceed to a vote on passage of the bill, as amended, if amended; that the amendment and the bill be subject to a 60-vote threshold; that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.