Mr. President, after the vote was called on the Kavanaugh nomination--I should say immediately before it--the minority leader, the Senator from New York, told America that the most important thing they could do in response to that vote is…
Mr. President, after the vote was called on the Kavanaugh nomination--I should say immediately before it--the minority leader, the Senator from New York, told America that the most important thing they could do in response to that vote is go to the polls in the midterm elections. It is true that on November 6, Americans will head to the polls and select their Members of Congress, including the Senate, and as Ronald Reagan's famous speech said, it will be ``a time for choosing.''
Many people are wondering how they should choose, how they should exercise that most fundamental privilege of American citizenship, and that is the right to vote. Should they choose to vote for mob rule or do they choose to vote for the rule of law? Do they choose to endorse threats, intimidation, and incitement or do they choose to treat everybody--no matter how much you disagree with them--with dignity and respect? I believe those are our choices.
I was very disappointed to hear the former Secretary of State Mrs. Clinton say that you cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for and what you care about. She said civility is only possible if Democrats were to win back the House or the Senate. In other words, her commitment to civility in our political discourse is contingent upon political outcomes. Did you notice the verb she used? She used the word ``destroy,'' which I think is telling.
It is not that people may disagree with her or her party, it is that people who disagree with her want to destroy what you stand for and what you care about. In other words, this mindset, I think, is very disturbing and should be of concern to all of us who want to restore some civility, and decorum, and bipartisan cooperation.
We are going to have our differences, there is no doubt about it. I welcome the opportunity to debate those differences. That is what the Senate is all about, but there is a line we saw crossed last week during the confirmation hearing. We learned it is our Democratic colleagues, unfortunately, who have associated themselves with special interest groups that are willing to go to just about any length to achieve their desired ends. In other words, the ends justify the means. That includes climbing statues, disobeying Capitol Police, getting arrested, chasing Senators and their spouses from restaurants, screaming at Members in elevators, sending coat hangers to Senators at their offices, and offering what amounts to a bribe. That doesn't sound very civil to me.
Then you have former Attorney General Eric Holder, who was captured on video saying things that I, frankly, am shocked about. You would think the former head law enforcement officer for the U.S. Government, the Attorney General, would understand the need to be careful with your words and not stoke the ambers of conflict and civil unrest, but apparently disregarding that, he intentionally poured gasoline on the fire. He said last week, it is time to ditch the old slogan ``when they go low, we go high.''
He attributed that to Michelle Obama, and good for her.
He said instead: ``When they go low, we kick them.''
That is what the new Democratic Party is all about. The Washington Post has said Holder is proposing ``the party pursue a meaner, more combative approach,'' and noted he was alluding to metaphorical violence. This is from the former Attorney General of the United States.
I believe former First Lady Michelle Obama rightfully condemned this ugly and shameful statement.
Meanwhile, one Democratic Member of the Senate has recommended activists get up in the face of your Congresspeople. Another one has justified mob rule as entirely appropriate to our current political situation.
We had members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, during the Kavanaugh hearings, say: I am violating the rules intentionally. I am releasing committee-confidential information in violation of the rules, and, apparently, they were proud of it.
I hope the voters are listening. I think they are. They are coming from some of the most powerful voices of the Democratic Party, voices that could represent you in the next Congress. That is the choice-- between incitement, intimidation, mob rule, or civility and treating people you disagree with, with the respect all of us are entitled to in a democracy.
I don't think the voters will reward a party that is spitting out this sort of venom about what our politics should be about: sowing division, alluding to violence, rejecting civility. Is that what supposedly passes for leadership? Should the voters reward that in this midterm election? I think our forefathers would be shocked, but this election is about more than just the rhetoric.
I think the voters also have a choice when it comes to looking at who is interested in solving the problems that confront our country, who is willing to work on a bipartisan basis together with the administration to make the country a better place, more prosperous place, a safer place. All they need to do is look back at the last 22 months.
Yesterday, for example, we passed a major water infrastructure bill that will keep our communities safe by maintaining dams and levees and addressing drinking water and wastewater systems across the country. It will also expedite, in my part of the world, an important coastal study and authorize flood mitigation projects back home.
Then the President signed, just 2 days before that--I am sure most of this was lost in the furor over the Kavanaugh nomination--but just 2 days before that, the President signed another bipartisan bill I cosponsored called the Justice Served Act that will provide funds to prosecute cold cases solved by DNA evidence obtained from rape kits.
Then, of course, there was the Supreme Court confirmation last Saturday.
In the last 6 days, we have accomplished three major things: water infrastructure, funding cold case prosecutions, and filling Justice Kennedy's seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.
I would say that is a pretty good week, but our record of success is much lengthier than that. Judge Kavanaugh was far from the only Federal judge we have confirmed. Last year, we confirmed another superb Justice, Neil Gorsuch. On top of that, we have confirmed 69 judges under President Trump. That includes three Texas judges on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and four that preside over Texas district courts.
Those numbers begin to show you that since President Trump took office in January of last year, we haven't taken our foot off the gas when it comes to doing the people's work. Under this Congress, we have confirmed the most appellate judges ever during a President's first 2 years. Of course, these nominees, once confirmed, have a lifetime tenure, so they will be there long beyond this President's term or maybe our term in the Congress.
Our work extends far beyond filling the courthouses of this country. What we have done, working together with the entrepreneurs and the investors and the small businesses of America, is we helped reenergize the state of the American economy.
This started with tax reform, which has been the biggest game changer. This is the first major overhaul of the Tax Code in 31 years. It lowered rates, doubled the child tax credit to help working families, and made American businesses more internationally competitive. I am sorry we had to do that all by ourselves without a single Democratic vote, but we thought it was so important to do that we stepped up, and we did it. I think the benefits are pretty manifest.
Ms. Pelosi likes to say the savings individual taxpayers got were merely ``crumbs,'' but I would like to tell her about some of my constituents and what they told me.
One of them, Kim Ewing from Mesquite, wrote me and talked about how tax reform was hugely helpful because she hadn't had a raise in 7 years. Now she enjoys a boost in her paycheck each month. She called tax reform a no-brainer or what she referred to as merely ``common sense.''
Then there is Claudia Smith, owner of the Aggieland Carpet One in College Station, who told me earlier this year that she has been able to reinvest the savings she received under the new tax law to buy new equipment for her small business, as well as provide healthcare coverage for her employees. She says she will also have enough left over to hire more people.
Claudia's story is the same one that is being told all across the country. More than 700 businesses have used the tax savings to benefit their employees and customers. They have announced pay raises, 401(k) match increases, cuts to utility rates, bonuses, and other benefits to American workers.
These developments are just part of the reason this economy is growing again and why people have renewed confidence and optimism in their future.
As the majority leader reported yesterday, unemployment in this country has now fallen to 3.7 percent, which is the lowest rate since 1969. People are going back to work; they are earning more; they are keeping more of what they earn; and they are investing. This is what it looks like when that sleeping giant of the American economy wakes up and is unleashed from the constraints of high taxation and overregulation.
It is not just the economy that deserves mention. One of our accomplishments has been repealing burdensome regulations--I have mentioned that overregulation--and we have done that through the Congressional Review Act.
Previously, it had only been used 1 time, but we have used this device 16 times to eliminate Agency rules which really had been the ropes that tied down that sleeping giant of the American economy. It allowed it to come roaring back.
We have repealed the Independent Payment Advisory Board under ObamaCare, which will allow seniors and their families to take greater control of their healthcare decisions without being subject to the whims of unelected bureaucrats. We have also eliminated the root of ObamaCare--the individual mandate. This was literally a coercion by the Federal Government, forcing people to buy something that, in many cases, they couldn't afford, and they didn't want.
We literally made ObamaCare voluntary now so people have choices, but this was essentially a tax on some of the most disadvantaged people in the country who were coerced into buying healthcare they didn't want or couldn't afford, and if they were unable to even do that, they were forced to pay a tax or a penalty.
Recently, we have been accomplishing a lot more for our men and women in uniform, our intelligence officers, and our veterans. We have helped restore America's defense with
the greatest investment in the military in decades, including the largest troop pay raise in nearly 10 years.
We have reauthorized important intelligence-gathering tools, like section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act--a vital tool in tracking foreign terrorists abroad who try to hurt us at home.
For our veterans, we passed the VA MISSION Act, which will make significant reforms to the Department of Veterans Affairs by strengthening healthcare and community care options that are available to those who have served our Nation in uniform.
Last, but not least, is our series of accomplishments. We have taken other important steps, like passing the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act just last week. It is legislation that modernizes our airports, improves service for travelers, enhances safety, and boosts industry innovation.
Then, almost without anybody paying any attention at all, we passed a huge bipartisan bill to address the opioid crisis. Senator Alexander, the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, ushered this bill through the House and the Senate, along with Senator Murphy and others. It has contributions from 70 Members of the Senate and 5 standing committees. That takes a lot of hard bipartisan effort, but it is important because it combats the nationwide epidemic that has led to the death of 49,000 Americans in just 2017 alone.
We have done important work in terms of improving public safety by enacting a bill I sponsored and that was supported by our colleagues here called Fix NICS; that is, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. We also passed a bill sponsored by Senator Hatch called the STOP School Violence Act.
The Fix NICS bill helped fix our broken background check system and ensures that criminals aren't able to purchase or possess firearms after they are convicted.
In the wake of the Texas shootings at Santa Fe and Sutherland Springs, we know there were a lot of people crying out for Congress to do something, and this was the one thing we could all agree to, on a bipartisan basis, across the ideological spectrum. These two bills-- mine and Senator Hatch's--are a part of the way we have answered that call.
We have tried to protect our young people--especially women--in another important way as well. We enacted what is known as SESTA, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act. This legislation by the junior Senator from Ohio helps to stop online trafficking and adds to a bill I sponsored called the Abolish Human Trafficking Act. It strengthens programs and supports survivors of human trafficking and provides resources to law enforcement officials on the frontlines of the fight against modern-day slavery.
I understand why most Americans have not heard of all or many of these accomplishments, but I think it is important to note what we have been able to do while we have fought mightily over some things, like judicial nominations.
We have also worked in a bipartisan way to get the people's work done. I believe we have done so mainly by treating each other respectfully and by demonstrating civility, not by yelling at each other, by making threats, or inciting people to violence. That is not the American way.
I am hopeful that after the scenes we saw here last week during the confirmation proceedings for the Supreme Court, that the American people will reject that sort of conduct and demand that their elected officials act in a way they can be proud of.
Yes, we put money back into America's pockets. We have rolled back regulations to make their lives a little bit easier. We have strengthened our military, given our veterans access to better healthcare, and protected our communities from harm.
As the minority leader, the Senator from New York, said right before the confirmation vote on Judge Kavanaugh, the people need to vote. They will, I hope, exercise that franchise--that right of every American citizen to determine the direction of our country and who will represent them in the Halls of Congress.
It is my sincere hope that they will remember some of these accomplishments we have made together during this administration and know we can continue to do more for them in the future.
I yield the floor.