Floor Statements

Mr. President, I am going to get to another issue in a moment, but there is a special anniversary in Florida I wish to commemorate, and it is Naval Air Station Pensacola which is now celebrating its centennial anniversary. NAS Pensacola, as it is more commonly known, is a Florida institution and is known as the Cradle of Naval Aviation.

The first naval airplane flight from Pensacola took place on February 2, 1914. Over 325,000 alums have gone on to bravely serve with honor in our wars, and they have also delighted crowds across the country as part of the Blue Angels. They have made their mark on the Florida Panhandle and on our Nation's defense in the process.

In fact, one of our colleagues, John McCain, trained there. He of course went on to serve our country heroically and admirably and then has also served us in the Senate. Others who have passed through there include many NASA astronauts. Alan Shepard, Neil Armstrong, among others, began their aviation careers at NAS Pensacola, and of course eventually went on to become astronauts and made an immeasurable impact on American and world history.

NAS Pensacola is also the final resting place for thousands of fallen warriors at the Barrancas National Cemetery, a place which truly humbles visitors and reminds us to be thankful that America has been blessed with so many courageous patriots throughout our history.

Today there are over 17,000 service men and women who continue their service to America at NAS Pensacola, and there are an additional 7,000 civilians who support the base's operations. They are part of a real community, where parents are raising their kids, and where many veterans who once served there decide to make it their permanent home. We are proud of this in the Florida Panhandle. It makes our State a better place.

So as the celebrations get underway this weekend, I join our State and our entire Nation in celebrating 100 years of military excellence at NAS Pensacola. We truly give thanks to all the brave men and women who have made this military installation the crown jewel of our national defense and contributed to America's exceptional history.

ObamaCare Taxpayer Bailout Prevention Act

I also wish to take a moment to talk about an emerging problem with the health care law which has only begun to filter out in the news cycle but bears watching in the days and weeks to come.

As we all know, a key part of the health care law is the exchanges, which are theoretically supposed to be competitive private marketplaces where individuals can go online either through their State exchange or the Federal exchange and buy health insurance at a competitive price, and they can choose between different plans. That is the idea behind a health exchange.

In and of itself, the idea of an exchange is not a bad one, if appropriately administered and it doesn't come accompanied with all the other things the health care law came accompanied with. But there is a problem with the way the exchanges are now designed which has not yet received the attention it deserves but, I promise, we are going to be hearing a lot about in the days to come.

The technical term is risk corridors. What it basically means is companies that participate in an exchange or a marketplace of insurance are told there is a reinsurance plan in place which will protect them in case of loss or catastrophic loss.

For example, let's say you are an insurance provider and go into a marketplace, and then it turns out the demographics of the groups that signed up for your plans didn't turn out the right way or there was an enormous spike in health care costs, whatever it may be, and you suffered dramatic losses. A risk corridor is in place to protect you.

The reason is, No. 1, a safety net per se for the industry on a short-term basis. The reason that is important is because we want patients' bills to be paid and their providers' bills to be paid. The problem is applying that to the health care exchange is going to prove extraordinarily problematic.

What has happened over the last few weeks, as we predicted would happen, is not enough young people are signing up through the exchanges. In order for health insurance to work, you have to have enough younger and healthier people on it. If you have a health insurance plan largely composed of people guaranteed to get sick, economically it doesn't work. There is no dispute about that.

In fact, by the administration's own statistics, they say at least 38 percent of the enrollees in the exchanges had to be under the age of 34 in order for the exchanges to work in an actuarially sound way.

So based on the assumption that was going to happen, insurance companies bid on these exchanges, offered a product and have begun to sign up people. The problem is so far that figure is not being met.

The numbers are just starting to come in. We don't know the full picture yet, but the trends are troubling.

No. 1, not enough people are signing up. The target goal is a total of about 7 million people or more by a deadline which has now been extended to March 31. The number is less than 2.2 million. There are still 8 weeks left or so, so we will see what happens, but the trends are not positive.

Here is an even more troubling trend: Only 30 percent of national enrollees are from that demographic I described. Only 30 percent are under the age of 34. In Florida, it is only 25 percent.

Here is the fundamental problem we have right now with the exchanges, beyond all the other ones we have already discussed ad nauseam: Not enough people are signing up and not enough people under the age of 34 are signing up.

The result is that the way this is trending now, the exchanges are becoming more like a high-risk pool and less like a true competitive exchange. Here is why that is problematic: If companies lose money, as they are going to if we look at these figures and as the companies themselves anticipate--in fact, in some of the early disclosures these companies are making,

we are starting to see the forecast of losses.

If these trends continue and companies lose money because not enough people under the age of 34 signed up for them and not enough people signed up, under the ObamaCare law they will be entitled to a payout from the high-risk pool. This is a program in place for the first 3 years of these exchanges.

What that means is a taxpayer-funded bailout of ObamaCare. For taxpayers of the United States, this means your money is going to go from your pocket into the pocket of these private companies.

What the private companies will tell us is: Look. We bid on this product when you said the rules were going to be this. But since then you changed the rules even more, and so what was already bad has gotten worse.

There is not enough awareness about this, but we are going to be hearing about it in the weeks to come. As we get closer to the reality that billions of dollars in taxpayers' money is going to be used to bail out these exchanges, there is going to be growing outrage around the country and people are going to want answers. I hope my colleagues are starting to think about what we need to do.

That is why I filed a bill in November called the ObamaCare Taxpayer Bailout Prevention Act. What it would do is eliminate this provision which allows for the tax-funded bailouts of these exchanges.

As we get closer to this problem, the numbers are as bad or worse than we anticipated. So in the months to come, here is what we can expect to see:

First, we can expect to see that companies are now going to say: We need our money. Under the law, we were promised this high-risk bailout. We signed up for it under that assumption. Now we need taxpayer money.

I predict the second thing we are going to see is as companies begin to prepare their filings for next year, some companies are going to decide that they are not participating in ObamaCare exchanges next year at all, which means less choice and less competition and, therefore, higher premiums. Other companies are going to say: We will participate but only at these premiums; and they are going to be significantly higher than the ones we have seen this year, meaning it will be even less affordable, meaning even less people under the age of 34 will sign up, meaning even more money will have to go from the taxpayer to bail out these exchanges.

We are still in mid-January and these numbers could change, but nobody realistically expects them to. In fact, I have yet to hear from anyone knowledgeable about this subject who has said to me: Oh, don't worry. In the next 8 weeks, another 5 million to 6 million will sign up and we are going to get to over 30 percent of national enrollees. We are going to get to over 38 percent of the people signing up being in the demographic of 34 or under.

So it is only mid-January. But I come to the floor to sound the alarm that this is coming so people across this country know we are weeks and months away from transferring potentially billions of dollars from taxpayers to private companies to bail out these exchanges. I promise you, this will not be the last time we hear about this.

I encourage my colleagues, as they go home on this recess and talk to people, get informed about this subject because we are going to be hearing a lot about it in the weeks and months to come. This is a very serious threat--to the law itself, by the way. This is unsustainable.

At a time that we have a $17 trillion debt, when so many Americans are struggling to find employment which pays them enough to live off of, when so many Americans have seen the jobs they once had disappear and cannot find a job to replace it, when so many Americans are struggling with a growing cost of living in every aspect of their lives--childcare, student loans, utility bills, you name it--to be told that at a time when all of these challenges are happening in the personal economies of so many people that billions of dollars of taxpayer money is going to go to bail out this law, there is going to be collective outrage across the political spectrum in this country and rightfully so.

Here is the last point I would make: If this law has to be bailed out, it is one more reason why it doesn't work. These exchanges are supposed to be private competitive marketplaces, where companies could actuarially and soundly price a product and sell it at an affordable rate. That is not where they are headed. We are headed toward a day soon, as early as next year--and we will see the filings this year-- when companies are going to decide either not to participate or to participate but only if they can charge substantially higher premiums with higher copayments and higher deductibles; and, on top of that, the only way they will participate is if they are promised this bailout.

We are going to hear a lot about this in the weeks to come, and I encourage my colleagues--irrespective of how you feel about this law, I cannot imagine any of us believing we are at a time in our Nation's history, given the challenges we face now, where we should be bailing out this plan with taxpayer money being transferred to private companies to keep them in business.

That is where we are headed and we better be able to do something about it soon, because people are not going to stand for it.

I yield the floor.

Thanking Members

Mr. President, I intend to be here for the next little bit--under an hour--sharing this time on the floor with you to discuss some of the issues before us, particularly the pending issue before us of nominations and the concern we have about that.

People back home and across the country may be watching the news tonight or perhaps over the last few weeks they have watched the news and wonder what this debate is about. I wish to use this opportunity tonight to address the nomination of Cornelia Pillard for the DC Circuit because it is a good example of the government overreach that has impacted all sorts of issues in our lives. So on this nomination issue, let's lay the groundwork here so people back home understand what is happening.

Last week or the week before last the Senate majority, by a simple majority vote, changed the practice of the Senate that has existed here since the beginning of the Senate, and they did so in an effort to grab more power for themselves and the President.

Basically, here is the precedent which has been set here and which is exemplified by the nomination before us. The precedent which has been established from now on is that any Presidential nominee, except for the Supreme Court--at least for now--is only going to need a simple majority vote to confirm them. There are problems with that because in the Constitution it gives the Senate--wisely--the power to advise and consent. The reason that was done, especially for judges, is that these are lifetime appointments. When someone is made a Federal judge, it is for the rest of their lives--unless they are impeached, which is a rare occurrence, thankfully. So these are people who are going to serve on the bench for the rest of their working lives, making decisions about the application and interpretation of our Federal laws. That is why the Senate was given this extraordinary opportunity to vet these people and to look for a supermajority of votes in this Chamber before someone is put in a position such as that. The other positions, of course, are Cabinet nominees, and so forth, and those are very important as well.

By breaking the rules to change the rules of the Senate--something that, by the way, we were told at least on two occasions this year was not going to happen but ultimately did--what we basically saw was the ramming through--just as ObamaCare was, on a party-line vote--of the President's nominees, and tonight's nominee is an example of that. This is going to have enormous consequences on this institution for sure. You are seeing it play out tonight.

I say to my colleagues in the majority party that the history of this body is that power trades hands. I believe that as early as January next year when a new Congress reconvenes, you won't be in the majority, you will be in the minority. Soon thereafter, there may be a Republican President appointing judges and appointing Cabinet members and other appointees. Now, all of a sudden, a simple majority is going to be enough, and you have set that precedent.

Beyond the impact that is going to have on this institution, it is going to have an impact on this country. It is going to have the impact of putting these activist judges, such as the nominee before us tonight, on the bench. It is going to have an impact on a wide range of issues, from ObamaCare, to the sanctity of life, to the Second Amendment, just to name a few.

Why does the majority want to pack this particulate bench, this particular DC Circuit Court of Appeals with a supermajority? Why? Well, it is because it is a court which is often called the second highest court in the country. It is a court which is key in reviewing all these regulations that are being imposed upon us. It is a court which is key in reviewing all these assertions of Executive power that this President and other Presidents have instituted.

The current DC Circuit as currently made up has proven to be somewhat of an obstacle to the big-government agenda the White House and the majority here in the Senate have been pursuing, and they don't like it. That is, by the way, why the majority leader earlier this year said: We need at least one more--meaning one more judge--and that will switch that majority on that court. Well, with that vote, by changing the rules, that is what they are setting up for here.

Now they seek to expand it tonight or early tomorrow with a nominee who, quite frankly, is completely out of the mainstream. For example, on the question of abortion, do you know what Professor Pillard calls pregnancy? ``Conscription into maternity.'' I don't know what that means, but I bet the vast majority of Americans would see that as outside the mainstream.

By the way, as you look at the majority pulling out all these stops to confirm controversial nominations, such as this one who is someone completely outside the mainstream, they do so despite the fact that they have spent most of the last 10 years basically filibustering some of former President George W. Bush's best nominations to the judiciary, especially to the DC Circuit. Let me give some examples.

Senate Democrats, over 2 years, refused to even give Peter Keisler a Judiciary Committee vote despite his extraordinary credentials and a record of public service. At the time, they argued among other things that maybe the DC Circuit wasn't busy enough to warrant filling some of these vacancies. He was just the most recent of several Republican nominees to the DC Circuit whom Senate Democrats blocked and filibustered. There were others. For example, they successfully filibustered Miguel Estrada, a Honduran-born legal superstar, a person who some said may one day be the first American of Hispanic descent to serve as a Supreme Court Justice. Senate Democrats voted seven times to filibuster this great American success story and this great judge. Other nominees to the DC Circuit, including then-California Supreme Court justice Janice Rogers Brown and Brett Kavanaugh, also faced long delays of failed cloture votes and filibuster attempts, as did, by the way, President Bush's nominees all across the country.

The numbers on this issue do not lie. Numbers are facts, and the numbers don't lie about the double standard that has been applied here today. For example, tonight's vote on Judge Pillard will come after just 190 days after her nomination. For historical context, Senate Democrats obstructed now-Chief Justice John Roberts' DC Circuit nomination by 729 days. Another impressive nominee whom I mentioned earlier, Mr. Cavanaugh, took 1,036 days. Miguel Estrada was obstructed for 184 days. Janice Brown's nomination took 684 days. Tonight, 190 days. And on that and similar cases, they have completely changed the rules of the Senate and how the Senate nominates people to lifetime appointments to the second highest court in the land.

But despite this record and despite the fact that the DC Circuit is still known to be underworked today, the majority presses ahead on what will be a midnight or 1 a.m. vote to install a controversial law professor on the Nation's second most important court.

So what has changed? What caused the same people who used to routinely filibuster highly qualified judges to now come here and make these changes?

What has changed is that now there is a Democrat in the White House. What has changed is they now want an ideologically compliant court. What they want is a liberal activist court, one that protects all the things they have rammed through Congress over the years and imposed through regulations and pushed through Executive order.

Now we know why Senate Democrats were less interested in the workload of the DC Circuit or the objective qualifications of the nominees over the past decade, why they were less concerned about that than they are today. It is because their dreams came true of having a Democrat in the White House and a majority in the Senate so their efforts to keep vacancies open, that is what has brought us here today, in order to fill them in order to radically change the Federal judiciary into their own image.

But I think what is important to understand is that this whole effort to start this debate about judges and all that is an effort to distract from another big government intrusion that everyone knows too well; that is, ObamaCare. Interestingly enough, this Sunday I was at a wedding. I was approached by someone who had a story similar to what my colleague from North Carolina just outlined. This is outside of ObamaCare. This is someone who has employer-provided care, but that is going to be impacted by these changes that are happening in the law. She had just gotten notice that her premiums had gone up, but here is what is worse. Her deductible had gone up to about $5,000 or $6,000. She doesn't have $5,000 or $6,000. The way she quickly figured it out is she is going to have to spend $6,000 she doesn't even have before she can even begin to use the health insurance plan that she can barely afford. She is basically uninsured.

I wish I could tell you that is a rare story and we are not getting a lot of input about that, but we are. This ObamaCare disaster is starting to take its toll. I think it is unconscionable, by the way, that the majority seeks to distract focus of this body on these important issues such as ObamaCare by pulling this stunt on the judges. But what it doesn't stop is the wave of letters we are getting from people all across the country. These letters are not talking points. These are not complex policy analysis. These are not op-eds in newspapers. These are the letters from real people who are being impacted in real ways by this law.

I wish to share with you some of their stories. I am going to leave their last names out to protect their privacy, but I wish no share with you some of these examples because these are very typical of the kinds of things we are hearing about all across the country.

Philip in Winter Springs. Philip is retired. He is living on a fixed income with insurance from United Health Care that he has for himself and for his wife. His monthly premium increased from $530 to $867. That is over a 60-percent increase in his monthly premium and his $15 copay has doubled now to $30.

How about Charles in Winter Garden? Charles had employer-provided health care which ObamaCare caused to spike in price nearly 80 percent more for his plan and his deductible is $12,000. He cannot afford $156 a week for health insurance if he wants to be able to provide for his two children and pay his bills.

Here is one from Janet in Titusville. Janet is a single mom who is losing insurance for herself and her children in January. This is not Janet's first challenge with the economy, by the way. She has been unemployed for 3 years. She took an underemployed job to provide insurance for her kids but only to lose it 1 year later. She just wants insurance that doesn't cost nearly 10 percent of her income so she can provide for her kids.

David in Lakewood Ranch has an insurance plan that will be canceled as of April 1, 2014. His current policy costs him about $291 a month with a $6,000 deductible. The new policy his insurance company suggested raises his monthly premium over 60 percent to $466 with a $12,000 deductible as well. David also looked at the silver plan for the exchanges but the monthly costs would be $525, with a $7,500 deductible. David's other problem is if he waits until his current plan is canceled on April 1, 2014, any other costs he has leading up to his deductible did not count on the new policy so he will be spending even more trying to reach a deductible that will increase along with his much higher monthly premiums. As he wrote to our office: I just want my old plan back.

Colleen in Winter Park is self-employed. She chose to have a plan that costs her $60 a month because that is all she can afford. She says that while she knows if she had to use her policy there would be hospital costs, she is more than willing to accept the risks.

Guess what. Her policy has been canceled. The new option is a $600-a- month plan and there is no way she can afford that plan. There is no way she can afford it.

How about Sarah in Live Oak. Sarah had an individual policy for herself with a $2,000 deductible that ran $68 per month. Her plan has been canceled. Now she is looking at a $288-a-month plan with a $5,000 deductible. She feels she has been lied to by the President and by Congress and who can blame her for feeling that way.

How about Warren in Sanford. Warren in Sanford had health insurance for his family, four members of his family, with a monthly premium of $533 and a $10,000 deductible. While he would have preferred a lower deductible because his family is healthy and he was willing to take that risk, now that plan is gone. So Warren went on the exchanges to look for a new policy. His new monthly price was $1,300, more than double his old plan, with a $13,000 deductible. As Warren noted: ``Bottom line is I will be paying more and I will be getting less.'' He will be forced to do things like skip vacations or miss out on his children's activities.

Then there is Joe in Melbourne Beach. Joe had a health care plan that was canceled because of ObamaCare. He liked his plan. He told our office that he ``took great care in selecting my plan that I felt was right for me and for my needs.'' Now he has to shop for a new plan and all he sees are more expensive options. He tried the ObamaCare Web site, but it did not work for him, and on top of the Web site not working he is nervous about security risks when it comes to submitting his information to these Web sites.

There is Kenneth in Land O Lakes. He and his wife had a private insurance plan for over 11 years, but they do not anymore. They received a letter in the mail canceling their plan, telling them that ``due to the recent ACA legislation this policy is no longer available.'' The new option that is available to him, by the way, is from an insurance company that had a premium that was double the price of his current plan: $2,400 more a year. He doesn't know how he is going to cover this additional expense.

I don't think anyone disputes that we have a health insurance problem in America. But this is a disaster. Of course they want to do this judge thing. Of course they want to trigger some sort of fight about judges, Republicans objecting to judges and nominees. If you supported this, if you had voted for the law that does this to people, you don't want to talk about this. If you are responsible for the passage of this law, if you have gone around the last 2 years bragging about this law, if you are the one who went around telling me if you have a policy you like you can keep it, why would you ever want the world focused on this?

The problem is people are going to be focused on this because this is no longer a theory. ObamaCare is no longer some theoretical thing that is going to happen at some point in the future to someone else. ObamaCare is happening to real people right now. Right now, all over this country, people are feeling these impacts. These are real people. This is not some outside third-party group running a commercial. This is not someone here giving a speech about what they think is going to happen. This is what is happening now and there are going to be more of these and it is going to impact Republicans and Democrats and conservatives and liberals, red States and blue States. Everyone is going to be impacted by this. They already are being impacted by this. This is going to have a dramatically negative impact on our economy, on our people, and our country as a whole.

That does not mean we do not have a health insurance issue that should not be addressed. We could have addressed it and we still can by, for example, giving people more options in a truly vibrant, private, personal marketplace. Allow people to buy insurance from any company in America that will sell it to you. Allow people to buy it with money that is not taxed, just like when your employer buys it for you. Incentivize, encourage people, make it easier for people, make it more rewarding and more flexible to put money in a health savings account so you can have tax-free money you can use to pay your deductible, to pay your copayments, to pay out of pocket, to pay for your kid's braces. These are real options that are available to us, none of which were pursued.

Instead, what was pursued is this big government solution, one-size- fits-all plan rammed down the throats of the American people just like the judges, just like the nominee tonight. She is being rammed down our throat. Because when what you stand for cannot withstand scrutiny, when you have a judge such as the one before us tonight who is so outside the mainstream, you don't want a process that examines their record and requires consensus. You have to ram it through. When you have a law that so fundamentally alters the makeup of American health care, you don't want this thing being analyzed. You have to ram it through. They did it on ObamaCare and they did it on judges.

There is a reason our Republic was set up this way. There is a reason the system of checks and balances was set up this way. There is a reason the Senate was built this way, with people who serve 6-year terms, two per State. Because they wanted a Chamber that would slow things down and look at them carefully and weigh them.

But you cannot do that when you are changing the rules to ram things through. What you are going to get are radical lifetime appointments to the bench such as what we are on the verge of doing tonight in the Senate and what you get are these damaging changes to the law on health care which leave people with fewer choices, with more expenses and, here is the kicker, with less access to the quality health care that is second to none in the United States.

We have the best health care providers in the world. When rich and powerful people around this planet get sick, do you know where they come? They come to the United States. They come to our centers of excellence. Other places around the world have quality places similar to that too, but they are only available to people who have money to pay out of pocket. Their government-run insurance plans don't allow you to do that. They socialize you. They force you to wait in line behind other people until your turn is up. The only people who can go to the front and get the highest quality health care in many places on Earth are the richest people in the world who can afford to pay for that out of their pocket. This law brings us a little closer to that because many of these quality providers, the Sloan-Ketterings, the Mayo Clinics, the MD Andersons, these extraordinarily high-quality health care centers, many of these are not on the health care plans at all. In order to fit under ObamaCare, you have to cut people out of the plan so we get closer to the day when the only people who can afford to go to these centers are people who can afford to pay for it out of their pocket and everybody else, people on ObamaCare, they are just going to get whatever the plan covers. That is what you are stuck with. That is what we are headed toward.

We are going to deny the American people access to the highest quality health care system in the history of the world, not the best health insurance marketplace--there are reforms that need to happen there--but qualitywise, second to none. We are going to deny people access to that.

The other reason, by the way, this whole debate on judges is very bad for the country is it distracts us from the fundamental issue of our time, the central issue that faces our people and our country. It is one that I wish we spent more time focused on around here. I think both parties are a little guilty of not focusing on it enough.

When I was a child, when I was younger, I had all kinds of ideas about what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was blessed with parents who taught me that every single one of these dreams are within my reach. From my earliest memories, my parents instilled in me the belief that even though my family was not rich or powerful or connected, I could grow up to be anything I set my mind to because I was in America. Because I am an American. My parents knew America was special because they knew what life was like outside of it.

My parents were born into a society that most people are born into-- where the success you have in life is predetermined by the family you were born into. By the grace of God, my parents were able to come here--the one place on Earth where that isn't true--and the promise of America changed their lives.

My parents never made it big. My mother worked as a cashier, a hotel maid, and even a stock clerk at Kmart. My dad was a bartender who primarily worked at banquets. Through hard work and determination, my parents made it to the middle class, and they gave us, their children, the opportunity to do all the things they were never able to do--to be anything we wanted to be. As I said, they were never rich, but my parents achieved the American dream.

That phrase, the ``American dream,'' is a phrase we use all the time, but it is a phrase that is often misunderstood. The American dream has never been about becoming wealthy or famous. Instead, it is about people, like me, who were born and raised here. It is about things I sometimes think we take for granted.

The American dream, what is it about? It is about a happy and stable home life where you can live without fear for your safety or the safety of your family. It is about the freedom to worship any way you want. It is about having the chance to get a good education and find a job that rewards hard work with financial security. The American dream is about being able to send your kids to college and being able to retire comfortably. It is about the opportunity to pursue happiness without being limited by your social status or your background. Perhaps most of all, the American dream is about being able to give your kids the chance and the opportunities you never had. This is the true American dream. It is not just a phrase. It is our identity as a nation. It is what it means to be an American.

We are still a country where the American dream is possible. We are still a place where, if you work hard and are determined, you can earn a better life. But we have to be honest. Over the last 10 years it has gotten harder to achieve this. It has gotten harder to find a good job and get ahead financially. It has gotten harder to save for retirement and send your kids to college. It has gotten harder to pay for health care, childcare, and the monthly payments on your student loan.

For the last 5 years we have been told that a bigger government that does more and spends more is the answer to this problem. Do you know what that has left us instead? It has left us with about $17 trillion in debt and millions of Americans chronically out of work. The result is that despite all of this news we get from time to time about how the economy is getting better or the stock market is climbing, for many people across this country there is a sense that recovery is not reaching them. That is creating true uncertainty and even fear about the future. There is the constant worry that you could lose everything you worked so hard for. There are doubts about whether you will ever make enough and have a few extra dollars after payday or be able to save for the future. Even for those who are enjoying the life they always wanted, you find a growing sense that their children may not get that same chance.

It is not surprising that some are starting to wonder whether the time has come for us to lower our expectations. Maybe the time has come to downgrade the American dream. This doesn't have to be the new normal. We have a choice. If we go in a new direction that gives us a government that creates less debt, an economy that creates more stable middle-class jobs, an education system that trains our people for the jobs available now and in the future, strong families who teach the values of success, and a financially healthy Social Security and Medicare system for retirees--if we are responsible enough to courageously and boldly fight to do these things, we can save the American dream. We can restore it. Actually, we can expand it to reach more people than it has ever reached before.

Our first priority here should not be ramming through rules changes to get liberal judges appointed. Our first priority should be more stable middle-class jobs. That should be our first priority. Stable middle-class jobs are the cornerstone of the American dream.

Let me break it to everybody here in Washington: Politicians don't create jobs. Politicians don't create these stable middle-class jobs. These stable middle-class jobs are created by everyday people when they start a business or grow an existing one. That, my friends, is the reason the American free enterprise system is the single greatest engine of prosperity the world has ever known. The key to our success as a country has always been a thriving free enterprise system, not a thriving bigger government.

What we need from our government are policies that foster a free enterprise system, that provide opportunities for everyone who is willing to work hard, and a government that stops spending money it doesn't have. We have to bring our $17 trillion debt under control.

We need to address our broken Tax Code. We need one that creates more taxpayers, not more taxes. The current one we have is a major obstacle to the American dream. Why? Because our current Tax Code is expensive and complicated. Our current Tax Code is rigged. It is rigged to help those who are politically connected. It is rigged to help them at the expense of everybody else.

We need to reform the runaway regulations we have. They are destroying job creation. By the way, they too favor the well connected. They too favor the people who can afford to hire lobbyists to help write these rules and lawyers to help write the loopholes.

We need government policies that remove unreasonable restrictions on energy exploration here in this country so we can be freed from our dependence on foreign oil and create more jobs in the energy sector but also in manufacturing.

As I mentioned earlier, we need to get the cost of health care under control but not through the big-government solutions, such as ObamaCare, that were rammed down the throat of the American people but by encouraging the development of an individual health insurance market that gives people more choices, not more mandates.

The middle-class jobs of today and in the future will require more education and skills than ever before. That is why one of the most important investments of our time and our resources that we can make-- instead of wasting time on all of these distractions on changing the Senate rules to force through radical judges like the one being proposed here tonight--is in a quality and affordable education system that gives our people the unique skills they will need to succeed in a new global economy. To do that we need to take the power out of the hands of Washington, DC, and give it to the State and local school boards so they can undertake innovative reforms.

We need to pursue policies that expand access and interest in science, technology, engineering, and math because that is what the jobs of the future are going to be based on.

As mentioned a moment ago, we need to get the cost of college under control. I know. I graduated with over $100,000 in student loans. We need to give working Americans trapped in low-paying jobs access to college or a career education that is affordable and flexible so it meets within their busy lives. If you are a working parent-- particularly a single parent who is working--you can't just quit your job and move to the nearest college town to go to school for 4 years. We have to create programs. We have to reform our existing programs so they are accessible and affordable for people who are in this position. It will give a receptionist at a law firm the ability to become a paralegal. It will give a mail clerk at a medical office the ability to become an ultrasound technician. We have to meet this issue. There is an extraordinary need.

By the way, we have to give all of our students more access to career and vocational education. You can still make a good middle-class living as an airplane mechanic or as an electrician. Why have we stigmatized these? Why have we told children in this country that if they go into these fields, they are not successful? These are good, stable, and necessary middle-class jobs. You know what happens when a kid wants to work with their hands but they are not learning it in high school. They drop out. We have to address that--not just at the Federal level but across the country.

In addition to a good education, the American dream was built on a set of

fundamental values such as hard work, discipline, honesty, and self- control. Teaching these values is the responsibility of our families. Government can't impose these values, and, quite frankly, it can't teach them. Government policies should encourage and reward them.

I think we should empower parents by giving them the ability to send their kids to any school they choose. There is no reason why a parent should not be able to put their kids in the best possible educational setting just because they are poor. There is no reason why we should force people to send their kids to failing schools just because that happens to be the school right down the street. That is not fair. If you are rich, you can send your kids to any school you want. You know what. They do. Do you know who can't do that? The people who can't afford to pay for that. That is wrong, and we should change it.

We should strengthen our charities and our churches, which make an extraordinary contribution in helping the less fortunate and reinforcing values that are so important to success. We should reinforce them by making important changes to our Tax Code that will encourage and reward Americans for donating more.

We need to have safety net programs. The free enterprise system doesn't work without a solid safety net. It needs to be a safety net that helps people who cannot help themselves or to help people who have fallen to get back up and try again. We don't need a safety net that is a way of life.

We need to reform our existing safety net programs--welfare, unemployment insurance, disability, and Medicaid. They should all be reformed so that in addition to providing for those who are in need, these programs should also be promoting work and education and self- reliance.

Last but not least, I think the American dream means the ability to retire with stability and security. That is why having a financially healthy Social Security and Medicare system is so important. We can bicker around here all we want about how many votes it takes to get a judge in or who is obstructing what. Here is a fundamental fact: Social Security is going to run out of money in 20 years, which happens to be right around the time I will be getting close to being eligible for it. Medicare is going to run out of money in as few as 8 years.

The good news is that if we act and start to take steps to address that now, we can fix these programs, and we can fix them without disrupting the lives of people who are on those programs now--like my mother. I would never support any changes to these programs that would hurt people like my mother, who is on Social Security and Medicare. We can fix it, but to fix it, people like me--decades from retirement--are going to have to accept that while our Medicare and Social Security will be the best in the world, it is going to be different than it was for our parents, but it is going to exist.

By the way, beyond this, we should do some other things. We should make it easier, through changes in our taxes, for people to work beyond their retirement years. We should expand access to tax-advantage savings accounts for those who don't have access to a 401(k). We should incentivize people to save for their retirement.

I think what has bothered me the most in the 3 years I have been here is the lack of urgency about any of this. People talk about it. They propose laws called good things that maybe they polled and it sounded good. But in terms of moving on any of these things I just talked about, there is not a lot of urgency about it. We need to have more urgency about it. We need to stop wasting time around here changing the rules of the Senate to get a couple more of the President's radical appointments to the bench confirmed and spend a little bit more time figuring this out.

For most of the history of the world, almost everyone who was born was poor, without power, and without wealth. That only belonged to a select few. For most of the history of the world, your future was determined by your past. If your parents were poor, you would be poor too. If a person was born without opportunities, so were their children. What makes our country special is that hasn't been true here. What makes America special is we are a people not united by a common race or a common ethnicity; we are a people united by a common value: The idea that everyone has the God-given right to achieve a better life without being held back by the government or by one's social standing.

Right now, I work here. Washington is broken. It was broken when I got here and it still is. It is a process that is unable to function. With all due respect, it is a process that is plagued with people--in both parties, by the way--who are more interested in being someone than in doing something. I am telling my colleagues that if we continue on this road we are on right now, if we continue on the road we have placed this country on, we are going to lose the things that make America special. That is what we should be focused on, because there is another direction we can take. If we can find the political courage to boldly and responsibly confront and solve the challenges before us, we can restore the American dream. Actually, we can expand it to reach more people than it ever has before.

Every generation of Americans before us has had to do this. Every generation before us has been asked to do something to keep America special. Each has been asked to make sacrifices and take bold steps to preserve what makes us exceptional, and now it is our turn.

I remember a few years ago, there was a moment that reminded me of what is truly at stake here. I have shared this story many times. I was about to give a speech in a hotel ballroom. I think it was in New York City. There was a bartender there who had heard me speak before about my father, who was also a bartender, and he approached me with a gift. The gift he gave me was a name tag that said ``Rubio, banquet bartender,'' a name tag the same as they give in hotels. At that moment, I was reminded of how this country literally changed my family's very life. Not so long ago, it was my father who stood behind a bar, just like the one that gentleman stood behind, in order to give me the chance to earn a better life, and America made that possible. It was never easy. Both of my parents worked well into their retirement years.

I remember when I was in high school, well past midnight, on many nights, I would hear my father's keys jingling at the door as he came home from another long day of work. When we are young, the meaning of moments such as that escapes us. But now, as I get older and my children get older, I think I understand that moment a little bit better. Like the man who gave me that name tag that night in New York, my father was coming back from more than just another day at work; he was coming back from a day of fighting, so that the doors that had closed for him would be open for me.

This is still one of the few places on Earth where a person can do that. That is what makes us special.

Before us is the question of whether this generation of leadership is up to the task of keeping this country that way. I don't personally have any doubt that we are up to the task. Despite our many differences, I believe our people are much more united than our politics would lead one to believe.

Every single one of us, every single American is the descendant of a go-getter, of an immigrant or of a slave or of someone who overcame extraordinary odds to stake their claim in this American dream. Every single one of us comes from someone who refused to accept the life they lived and always desired to have something better for themselves and for their families. Every single one of us is a descendant of someone who insisted that their future must always be better than their past.

This is who we are as a people. This is who we come from. I believe that is still who we are. All we need now are leaders that reflect that in their policies and in their priorities.

So I still have more faith in this country than perhaps the political coverage might lead us to have because we are free people, and we are always going to vigorously debate the best way forward. Sometimes, because of the nature of our Republic, it takes us a little longer to get it right, but we always have. I believe we will again. In the end, there is no such thing as the Republican dream or the Democrat

dream, there is only an American dream. Despite all the challenges this country faces and despite some of the skirmishes on the floor of the Senate--at times unnecessary, such as this debate with the judges and the rule change--despite all of that, I know for a fundamental fact that the American people are not willing or prepared to give up on this American dream.

That requires us to act. That requires us to stop wasting time around here and to focus on the issues. We have this golden opportunity to restore this American dream and to bring it within reach of more people than ever before. We have an opportunity before us to claim our heritage as a people who always leave behind a Nation better than the one that was left for them. We have a chance to usher in a new American century and to write the latest chapter in the story of the single greatest Nation that man has ever known. So I hope as we conclude these debates on issues such as this, we will somehow find a way to begin to work together on what really matters, on matters of importance, on what impacts Americans now and those yet to come.

That leads me to one final point. I see my colleague from Wisconsin is on the floor, as well as others who wish to speak. I will close with one more point, one more issue I think we are being distracted from because of the silliness of breaking the rules to change the rules so we can impose on the American people out-of-the-mainstream judges and cabinet appointments that are less than qualified, and that is the issue of American leadership in the world. Look around the world today. Look at the impact of uncertainty about our foreign policy and what effect it is having across the planet.

I am going to be honest and straightforward about this issue especially: This is an issue for both parties to reflect on for a moment. We all understand why we are wary--and we should be--of international engagement. We have gone through a decade of two conflicts in the Middle East. We turn on the television and we see people we have spent money and sacrificed lives on behalf of burning our flag and celebrating our tragedies, and we wonder, Why are we involved in the world. Why are we engaged in these places? But I hope everybody understands that in the absence of American leadership a vacuum is created, and that vacuum leads to chaos, and chaos ultimately impacts our national security and our economic well-being.

Take a brief tour around the world with me for a moment and my colleagues will see what I am talking about. Turn on the news and see what is happening in Ukraine where a country is being increasingly intimidated into going back into basically what looks like an effort to reconstitute the former Soviet Union, being torn between that and choosing modernization in the West with the European Union. There are people in the streets protesting against that and riot police going in there to force them out.

Look at the Middle East, where Iran proceeds full speed ahead with weaponizing, towards creating a nuclear weapon and the impact that would have--and not just on arming the one country in the world that most uses terrorism as a tool of statecraft. We had testimony today from the administration. No country in the world uses terrorism more than Iran does, and they are going to get a nuclear weapon. It won't just be Iran getting a nuclear weapon. If Iran gets a weapon, so will Saudi Arabia and potentially Turkey. Look at what is happening in Asia. The Chinese have announced that a certain area belongs to them and their airspace, that others have to get permission from them and notify them before anyone flies through there. South Korea and Japan and others, they are starting to wonder whether America will live up to its commitments to provide for their defense and to assist them or maybe they need to strike out on their own and provide their own defense capabilities.

Look at the opportunities in the Western Hemisphere we have abandoned because we have taken our focus elsewhere. I could go on and on.

Are we a strong enough voice on behalf of religious liberties? Meanwhile, religious minorities around the world are being oppressed in unprecedented ways. In particular, Christians in the Middle East are facing persecution that is reminiscent of the early days of the church.

How about human rights? How about human trafficking and modern day slavery? All of these things require American leadership.

We can't solve every problem. Foreign aid isn't charity. It needs to further our national interests and the funds need to be accountably spent. But this is something we should be more focused on and we are not. Why? Because we continue to get involved in these sorts of skirmishes here and, in particular, undermining the ability of this body to function by changing the rules by breaking them.

So I hope this will serve as an opportunity to reevaluate all of this, because the challenges before our country are real and the consequences of not acting appropriately are dramatic. I hope we will take this seriously, because we still have time to get this right, but we do not have forever.

With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

One of the things I have discussed is the impact ObamaCare is having on Medicare and Medicare beneficiaries. Obviously, being from Florida, we have a significant number of Medicare beneficiaries and, in particular, people who are under something called Medicare Advantage. This is the only program in Medicare where seniors get to choose the type of coverage they want and things of that nature. My mom is a Medicare Advantage patient.

I wish to read a letter I received from a constituent of mine named Michelle Hatley, who lives in Destin, FL, which is in northwest Florida. This is a letter she received regarding her existing doctors. She also received a letter from one of her providers that talks about the changes that are happening. She sent this document attached to it. She states:

Here is a copy of the letter that I received from White

Wilson Medical Group. As I indicated in our conversation,

Sacred Heart might also be affected. My Medicare Advantage

plan was the Medicare Completer through AARP and United

Health Care. I have multiple chronic conditions which require

treatment and consultation through several doctors. Three of

my doctors are with White Wilson and 3 are with Sacred Heart.

My rheumatologist, who directs my care for treatment of 2

autoimmune conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, is

with Sacred Heart and the only Rheumatologist in Destin. I am

also legally blind, so transport to another doctor out of

town is both difficult to arrange and expensive.

Of the plans that are available that will allow me to keep

my doctors, the annual out of pocket is significantly higher

as well as the co-payments and deductibles for patient

visits, prescription drugs, and inpatient care. My choice has

been reduced to finding ALL new doctors or enrolling in a

different Medicare Advantage plan, which will cost more.

I wanted the Senator to be aware that Medicare clients are

experiencing negative consequences from the ACA as well.

Since that time, after this experience, she has been able to find a plan that will help her avoid losing all six of her doctors, including her five specialists and the primary care physician. This is the catch: The new plan's out-of-pocket costs are now going from the $4,000-to- $4,500 range up to an expected $5,900. It was a tough decision for her to make, but she ultimately decided to pay more money in order to keep seeing all of her doctors who have been treating her for the past 4 to 6 years.

This is a real-life story of a Medicare Advantage recipient in this country whose out-of-pocket costs are going up because of ObamaCare. It is wrong. It is unfair. It should not stand.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, we have all now been aware over the last few days in the news about the problems being faced with the Web site upon which people are supposed to go in order to sign up to be on one of these exchanges. That is important, because next year Americans are going to owe money to the IRS if they do not have health insurance by a certain date.

One of the ways people are supposed to get health insurance is by going on one of those Web sites and logging on, registering, and being able to see what their options are for insurance, and then signing up. If you do not do that, then you are going to owe money to the IRS next year.

The problem is those Web sites are not working. In fact, just today as the Secretary was testifying before a House committee, the Web site crashed again. There are a lot of different reasons why that is happening. I am sure eventually, with all of the experts who are involved in it, they will be able to set up a Web site that functions, because this is the 21st century. The ability to go online and buy something, frankly, is something people do every single day with all kinds of things. So to me, it is inexplicable that they are not able to do that when it comes to health insurance.

But in the meantime, people are struggling not just with the Web site, by the way, there are problems now with the 800 number and the paper application.

I believe the prudent approach is to say we are going to delay, that we are going to put off punishing people, that we are going to put off the individual mandate until the Web site works. I will admit, I do not think the law works at all in its totality and it will eventually have to be repealed. That is what I favor. But in the interim, what I am proposing is something that I think is pretty reasonable; that is, the notion that until these Web sites are working, how can we punish people for not buying health insurance? Why are we going to punish someone for not buying health insurance if the Web site they are supposed to buy it on, by the administration's own admission, is not properly working?

This is creating a lot of anxiety for people. That is why I filed a bill to do that. That is why I come on the floor today for the purpose of making a motion.

As if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 225, S. 1592, which is a bill to delay the individual mandate until the health exchanges are functioning properly. I further ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I do not intend to offer another motion since the objection has been heard. I do want to point out a couple of things. First of all, this notion that ObamaCare is the law--it is true it is the law. It was passed by Congress in the years before I got here. This is called the Calendar of Business. This is the Executive Calendar. Basically every single bill that is in here is an effort to change existing law, for the most part. That is what we do around here. That is what the legislative process is about. Virtually every bill that is filed is either an effort to create a new law, but usually it is an effort to change existing law. So if we begin to argue around here that once something is existing law it can never be changed, we might as well close up shop, because that is what we do. That is what the legislative process is about.

The second point that was made was that this law will prevent people have having health insurance. That is not true. Let me say this: No. 1, I am in favor of people having health insurance. I do think we cannot ignore the health insurance problem this country faces.

No. 2, admittedly, I am in favor of repealing ObamaCare and replacing it with a better alternative. But that is not what this bill does. All this bill says--this is the only thing it says: The only thing it says is you cannot enforce the individual mandate, you cannot tell people next year that we will fine you, that the IRS is going to impose a fine on you. You will not be able to do that until the Web site is fully working.

In terms of this preventing people from getting health insurance, that is simply not accurate. This does not prevent anyone from going onto the Web site and signing up. If the bill I am proposing is adopted, it would not keep

anybody from signing up for health insurance under ObamaCare. The only thing it would do is keep the IRS from fining you if you are unable to do it. The reason why that makes sense is because the way we are supposed to do it on a Web site simply is not working.

So it is not accurate to say this will somehow prevent people from buying health insurance. It does not. It does not prohibit you from trying to get it on the Web site. It is just the recognition that the Web site is not working well and there is a consequence to it. The consequence to it is if they cannot get these Web sites up and running, there are people who will not be able to buy health insurance and they are going to get fined for it. That does not sound fair to me.

So while I continue to want to repeal ObamaCare, I think for the good of our people it is unfair to continue to hold over their head the threat of an IRS fine when the method of compliance we are asking them to follow is not fully functioning. That is all this would do.

I would point out this is not a theoretical concern. I get letters and emails every day. But I want to read one I got. I will paraphrase it. It is from Barbara in Ruskin, FL. She is 63 years old. She tried to apply to the health insurance marketplace on October 1. As of the writing of this email, she is no further along. She sought the services of a certified navigator on October 14. After spending hours on line trying to get an account established and making the application, the navigator, with her on speaker phone, after many hours finally assisted her in making an application. She was told she would receive additional information via email. Ten days later she has still heard nothing. She is worried because she is currently covered, but that is being terminated at the end of the year because of ObamaCare. It is going to end on December 31. According to the information provided to her, she has to be enrolled in another insurance plan or she is going to face the fine.

This is just one example. I could go on and on. I do not want to burden the time of the Senate. But there are thousands upon thousands of people who are dealing with this problem.

Here is the last point I would make. I have now heard on a number of occasions the administration say with full confidence that by the end of this coming month, by the end of November, the Web sites will be up and running. If that is true, then there is no reason to be against my bill. If, in fact, you are so confident the Web sites are going to be up and running by the end of November, then this problem will be taken care of. If, in fact, you are right, and the Web sites are going to be up and running at the end of November, then the mandate will be back in effect.

The only thing my bill does is say: As long as the Web site is not working and until it is working, you cannot enforce the ObamaCare mandates on people through a fine from the IRS. That is it. That is all it says. That is why I think this makes all the sense in the world. I am surprised that we somehow believe we should continue to hold the penalty over people's heads when the way we are asking them to comply with the law, by the admission of the administration, by the admission of the Secretary today, is simply not working well enough.

I hope in the days to come my colleagues will reconsider, because I think our people, irrespective of how you feel about ObamaCare, deserve better. To that end, I would read to you one email I got from someone who actually supports ObamaCare. Nicholas in Palm Bay, FL, wrote an extensive email. He talked about how he submitted an application to the Web site. It took hours to complete because of Web issues. They finally finished the application 23 days later. The application is still in progress, but it will not let him go any farther to choose the insurance. So while he does not agree with me about defunding or repealing ObamaCare, he agrees with me that we should suspend the individual mandate penalty until this Web site issue is fixed.

I think there are a lot of people who are going to feel that way. I think there are a lot of people who would be shocked that the government is going to punish them for not buying insurance when the Web site they are being sent to buy it on does not work.

Again, I think it is a commonsense approach. I am surprised there is objection to it. I suppose I should not be, but I am. I hope in the days and weeks to come my colleagues will reconsider, because in my opinion, and I think in the opinion of many Americans, it is simply unfair.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, it now appears that at some point this evening we will reach the end of the latest Washington-manufactured crisis of the month. But, unfortunately, the real crisis facing the country remains, and that real crisis is the growing sense among our people that we are losing the American dream.

Why do people feel this way? Because more than 4 million Americans have been out of work for 6 months or more, because millions more find themselves stuck in jobs that do not pay enough for them to live the way they are used to, and while their paychecks aren't growing, their bills are. Ask the young couples and single parents how much they are spending every month to provide childcare for their children. Ask the students, young Americans who are stuck with thousands of dollars in student loans they are now struggling to pay.

This is the real crisis facing America; that our status as a land of opportunity seems to be eroding and that so many of our political leaders seem oblivious to it. And now, as we emerge from this latest standoff, we have done nothing to address it.

There were two issues at play in this showdown. The press coverage mixes them together, but there are two distinct and separate issues, and they should be examined that way.

It started with ObamaCare--a law that was sold to people as something that would help them get affordable health insurance. But that is not what it is going to be. We have all heard the news of what a fiasco the rollout of the exchanges has been. But as bad as the rollout of the exchanges and the Web site has been, we need to realize that was supposed to be the easy part. The most difficult and disruptive parts of that law are yet to come.

In the months to come, a new insurance fee--a new tax on hard-working Americans--will be added to insurance policies. People will be required to give up existing coverage they are happy with if it doesn't meet the standards created by ObamaCare. And if they don't buy the insurance, they eventually will have to pay a tax that goes up to $695 a year or 2.5 percent of their income. Employers with more than 50 full-time employees will be required to offer a certain type of coverage to their employees. So many of them are moving people to part-time work. And full time, by the way, is no longer defined as 40 hours; it is now 30 hours. So many employers are moving employees to under 30 hours a week.

Today, for many Americans, ObamaCare is just a Web site that doesn't work, but in the months to come this law is going to hurt millions of people. It is going to cost them hours at work and maybe even their job. It is going to cost them the insurance they have now and are happy with. It is going to force them to leave their existing doctor. It is going to raise rates for people who buy insurance for themselves.

What do we tell these people who are being hurt by this law? To deal with it because it is the law of the land? Is it not our job to fight for them? Is it not our job to be their voice and to protect them from the harmful effects of this law? That is why I continue to believe we should not waste a single penny more of taxpayer money on this damaging law.

One of the most important powers and responsibilities that we have as Members of Congress is the power of the purse. It is under our Constitution, which gives the Congress the power to decide what to spend money on and what not to spend taxpayer money on.

I know of no one in my party who supported shutting down the government. On the contrary, we argued that we should fund the entire government except for one thing, ObamaCare. In fact, the House of Representatives passed a law that did just that.

But the Democrats took the position that either we fund ObamaCare or we fund nothing at all. They took the position that funding ObamaCare was more important than funding the government. They were willing to put our country through this government shutdown just to save their pet project. Within days of the showdown, by the way, a second issue was added, the Federal debt limit. The press portrays the debt limit as simply a law that allows us to pay our bills, and therefore they fall for the argument that failing to raise the debt limit equals a default on our debt. But the debt limit is a lot more than simply permission to pay our bills.

Every year, our government is spending more money than it takes in, a lot more money than it takes in. As the years go by, that annual deficit adds up to what we call the national debt. It is growing at an alarming rate. The debt limit is a law that limits the amount of money the government can have as debt at any single time. But we depend on borrowed money to pay our bills. So if we do not raise it again, eventually we will not have enough money to pay all of our bills. That should scare us.

Reaching the debt limit is like this. When the bank calls on you to collect the monthly mortgage payment, if you don't pay them, your home is going to be taken away, your credit is going to be ruined, and your ability to borrow money in the future is going to be hurt. But what if, because you don't make enough money, the only way to pay your mortgage is by using your credit card? You can't do that forever, but you also can figure out what other expenses to cut so you don't have to keep using your credit card to keep paying the mortgage. That is what real people in the real world do.

But that is not what we are asked to do here. They are asking us to just pay the bill and keep using the credit card and let tomorrow worry about tomorrow. We cannot do that forever because at some point even the credit card is going to stop working.

Yet that is what has happened here again. So the debt will keep growing.

With each passing year, we will get closer to the day that we face a real debt crisis--not one caused because the Congress cannot pass a bill, but one caused because no one will lend us money anymore.

That is how we arrived at the point we find ourselves today. We have a President and a majority in the Senate that would rather face a default before seriously dealing with the debt. We have a President and a majority in this Senate that would rather shut down the government before they would shut down ObamaCare or even make any meaningful changes to it.

Tonight the government will be reopened and the debt limit will be lifted, but our real problems are still here. In the months and years to come they are only going to get bigger and harder to solve. For those of us who realize this, who clearly understand that the direction in which we are headed threatens the American dream and all of the things that make our country special, this is the time to reflect on the way forward. Because if we do not figure out how to change course around here, if we do not figure out the way to change the course our Nation is on, we will forever be known as the generation that ushered in America's decline.

History is not going to distinguish between Republicans and Democrats. It will judge us all harshly for our failure to act. To avoid this fate we must once and for all begin to address the national debt, not with accounting gimmicks but with real and measurable steps. It does not have to be solved in one sweeping measure, but we must begin the work of moving toward a sustainable level of spending. This will take time because we are still saddled by too many leaders unwilling to address the issue in a meaningful way.

Let's do what we can while they are still here, and at the same time let's work to replace these irresponsible leaders on the left with leaders who will finally step up and save our Nation from the real debt crisis that awaits us.

As for ObamaCare, it too will be harshly judged by history. That is why I am personally so disappointed that we were not able to achieve any meaningful changes to it. But this fight is not over. It has only just begun. In the months to come, millions of Americans will begin to confront the costs and the consequences of this law. It will be the reason why they are now working part-time. It will be the reason why they lost the insurance they used to have. It will be the reason why they cannot see the doctor they have been seeing for all these years. It will be the reason why their insurance premiums have gone through the roof.

We have been warning people about this for years, and we have done everything we could to keep this harm from reaching our people. But now ObamaCare is going to start hurting real people in real ways, and when it does this there is going to be a mad scramble in this town to fix it or get rid of it.

This has happened before. In June of 1988, Congress passed a bill called the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act. It promised new medical benefits for the elderly, a cap on hospital and doctor bills, and it provided prescription medicine. Then the true cost of the program began to reach the American people and, as seniors began to learn the true cost of this new program, it fueled a revolt.

At first, the politicians minimized it. They minimized the protests, and they refused to make any changes to it at all. But before long, the onslaught of calls and mail to congressional offices became so much it was impossible to ignore. Before long, Congress was in full retreat, and by 1989 it was fully replaced.

For ObamaCare the day of reckoning is also coming. In the last few days I have been startled by the number of people who have told me they are ready to give up. They are ready to give up on the idea that we can make a difference. They are ready to give up on the idea that things will ever get better. But we cannot give up on America, and we cannot give up on the American dream. We cannot give up, because where are we going to go? If this country declines, if we lose what makes it special, what is going to replace it? So no matter how long it takes, no matter how many disappointments lie ahead, we must never give up, and we must never accept that this life today is the new normal.

For those around the world who look at the events of the last few days and weeks as evidence that America's best days are behind her, you don't understand our people. Our politics does not define our country. We are a unique people, a collection of men and women with sharply different views, with different backgrounds and beliefs. We share a free society, and everyone has a right to express their views, to argue and battle and debate.

Sometimes our differences bring us to points of great conflict, when the Nation appears on the verge of being ripped apart at the seams. Yet for over 200 years we have been held together because, while we are divided by many things, we are united by a powerful and timeless idea.

Before I describe that idea I ask unanimous consent for 1 additional minute to conclude.

For over 200 years we have been held together because, while we are divided by many things, we are united by a powerful and timeless idea, the idea that every single person has the God-given right to determine the course of their own life, the God-given right to go as far as our talent and our work will take us. So we argue about the best way to achieve that, and we have a tendency to put off difficult decisions before we absolutely have to make them.

But we have faced greater tests before. We have not always rushed to meet the challenge, but in the end we have never failed to do so. And let there be no doubt that we will do so again. The day is coming when our people will realize that the time has arrived once again to confront the challenges before us. The day is coming when our people will do what must be done to keep the American dream alive. I know it is hard to see right now, but we are one day closer to the moment when Americans will do what we have always done. We will confront and solve the challenges of our time, and we will make any sacrifice and undertake any task to make sure that we leave for our children what Americans of yesterday left for us: The single greatest nation in the history of the world.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, clearly the issue we are facing with regard to the budget, ObamaCare, the debt ceiling is a very important issue. In the hours and days to come I will have a lot more to say about it. I waited over the last few days, because of the urgency that confronts us domestically, to reserve my comments on the issue of Iran. At this point I believed I could no longer wait to speak out on it, so if my colleagues can indulge me for a few moments, I wish to talk about it because, as serious as the domestic challenge may be with regard to the budget, the spending, the debt limit, ObamaCare, we have another crisis brewing, one that goes to our national security interests, one that quite frankly for the most part unites us across the aisle; that is, the issue and the threat Iran's nuclear ambitions pose to the world.

The reason I believed I could no longer wait to address this is because I believe, as many of you do, that the world is entering a crucial time in the international efforts to stop Iran's nuclear program. On September 24 of this year, I, along with a group of other Senators, wrote to the President and we expressed our concerns about reports that the administration was contemplating making a fresh, new offer, fresh new series of offers to Iran. In that letter, we said Iran must not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon; that is, if, God forbid, it becomes necessary, we could support the use of military force to prevent an Iranian bomb and that Iran must not be allowed to maintain any indigenous enrichment capability; and that now is not the time to suspend sanctions but to increase them on the Iranian regime.

All of us would like to wake tomorrow to the news that the Ayatollah has decided to abandon his nuclear weapons ambitions, but it is especially imperative on matters of national security that we not be guided simply by our hopes. We must be guided by reality. This is true in life in general, but it is especially true and important on issues of national security that we be guided by reality. That reality is that no matter how much Iran's political leaders say they do not have plans for a nuclear weapon, their actions say something else. They have dramatically increased their ability to enrich uranium and they continue to spend millions of dollars to expand their nuclear program and to develop long-range missiles which threaten not just Israel and Europe but eventually the United States.

The only reason you put so much money and time into developing long- range missiles is to put a nuclear weapon on them. That is what they have been doing. They have been developing this missile capability.

Recently, we heard all this new talk about there is a new President in Iran and he might be a reformer. We hope so. But this is also the same person who in the past has bragged about how he has fooled the world before and bought time for Iran's enrichment capacity to increase. In the end, by the way, even if he is a reformer, he is not the ultimate decisionmaker, nor is the Foreign Minister or any of these other civilians in their government. The ultimate decisionmaker is Iran's so-called Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. So far no one has accused him of being a reformer.

Iran's leaders are making noises about negotiating with the world now because over the last few years the United States and the European Union have imposed very significant sanctions on Iran and these sanctions are starting to hurt the Iranian regime. It is hurting, although it has not stopped, their ability to export terrorism around the world. It is hurting, although it has not stopped, their ability to buy parts for their nuclear program and for their missile program.

Do you want to understand why they are doing all this now, what their plan is? It is not that hard to understand. What they are trying to do, they are trying to get us and the world to agree to weaken the sanctions without them having to agree to any concessions that are irreversible, to any concessions that irreversibly block their ability to one day build that weapon. This ambition of theirs, this plan they have is clear as day. They are trying to figure out if they can get these sanctions suspended or lifted without giving up too much. Then at some point in the future, when the world has moved on, when we are focused on other things, they can then make their move to build their bomb.

By the way, this is the model North Korea employed over a decade ago. They used a combination of belligerence and pretended negotiations to buy the time and the space. Now they are a nuclear power and they continue to develop their rocket technology--which does not just threaten South Korea and Japan but the west coast of the United States and potentially one day the entire country, our entire country.

This is why, as these talks between the so-called P5+1 group of nations and Iran restarted, we are at a critical juncture. We should talk to Iran. We should see if they are serious. But we cannot, under any circumstances, put at risk the hard-earned leverage that took so long to put in place and assemble.

First, we need to remember whom we are dealing with. We are talking about a regime that has earned the distrust of the entire world through its secret nuclear program, a regime that admits foul play only when they are caught red-handed, a regime that supports terrorism, killing of Americans, and has an active hand in fueling conflicts that destabilize its neighbors. This is a regime that brutalizes its own people and denies them their basic freedoms. This is the regime, by the way, that plotted to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador in this city, in Washington DC.

Given this record, the erosion of trust in Tehran is simply too great, so the United States must look long and hard at what Iranian actions could qualify as what the administration likes to call credible confidence-building measures.

I say this because of whom we are dealing with. Sanctions on Iran should not be lifted or suspended until they agree to completely abandon any capability for enrichment or reprocessing. Iran has a right to a peaceful civilian nuclear energy program. But they do not have the right to enrich or reprocess. Holding this line is especially important in light of Iran's repeated and blatant disregard for international obligations in the past and even to this day.

Even a limited enrichment program and possession of sensitive reprocessing technologies is unacceptable because of the risk that such a program would once again be abused by Iran in the future for nefarious and dangerous purposes. Suspending sanctions before Iran not just suspends but abandons enrichment would give the Iranian regime exactly what they want, an eventual path to a nuclear weapon. Sanctions relief at this time would allow them to make advances on their broader strategic objectives in their region such as propping up the Assad regime in Syria, such as continuing to destabilize Iraq, such as supporting terrorist groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.

We cannot allow the No. 1 exporter of terrorism in the world this opportunity. Until Iran agrees to abandon enrichment and reprocessing, not only should we keep the current sanctions but the Congress should move to implement a new round of additional sanctions without delay. I would say that at some point Congress should consider making it very clear that if it becomes necessary, the President of the United States should reserve the right to take military action to prevent Iran from continuing to advance its nuclear weapons program.

The United States and the international community have succeeded in bringing Iran to the negotiating table through firm action, not through half measures. Personally, I hope, as do all of my colleagues, that there is a diplomatic solution to this problem. But Iran does not have forever to prove they are serious. We cannot allow them to use these talks to continue to buy time and space as they have for the last decade, as North Korea did before them, to buy time and space so they can continue to develop their nuclear weapons capability. We cannot allow them to use these talks to continue to spread terror, to undermine their neighbors, and to threaten our country or our allies in Israel and around the world.

We cannot fall into their trap. Yes, we should be willing to talk. But talk alone should not slow down our actions. Until they act, we should continue to increase pressure and speak forcefully about what these people sitting across from us have done internationally and to their own people; otherwise, I truly believe at some point in the future we are going to awake to the news that Iran has tested a nuclear weapon and we may find ourselves stuck with the reality that they have the ability to put that weapon on a missile that can reach the United States. If that day should ever come, God help us all.

I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, may I inquire, under the previous order, how much time remains for the minority?

I ask unanimous consent that 5 minutes be added to that total, for a total of 13 minutes.

Madam President, with all this focus on the fighting going on in Washington these days, I think we are losing focus on the biggest issue facing this country, and that is the pervasive and growing sense we are losing control of our country; that we are losing the American dream.

Why do people feel this way? Because millions of them have been out of a job for months, and maybe even years, and because millions more find themselves stuck with jobs that don't pay enough for them to live on or certainly for them to live as they used to.

When people hear news that the economy is recovering, that unemployment is down by .1 percent this week or this month, that the stock market is up and that the recession is over, it makes people angry. And rightfully so. Because the recession might be over on Wall Street, but it is not over for millions of people who are out of work or stuck with jobs that do not pay enough to live on.

What makes all this worse is that while their paychecks aren't growing, their bills are growing. Ask the young couples out there, the single parents, how much it is costing them every month or week to provide childcare for their kids. Ask the young Americans who are saddled with thousands of dollars in student loan debt.

How are people making it through these times? Well, I am reminded of a few years after we got married, when my wife and I hit a rough patch in our finances. What we did was we got rid of one of the cars and we moved in with her mom for 6 months. That is what many of us have had to do at some stage in our life, but it was usually temporary. Now people are doing that with the feeling it might not be temporary; that this might be the way it is for a while. And they ask themselves: Is this the new normal? Is this the way it is going to be from now on?

This is what millions of people across this country are feeling these days; that maybe the American dream--if you work hard, you can improve your life--isn't what it used to be; that maybe the American dream is actually even slipping away.

But why is this happening? Whose fault is this, is the normal reaction some people have. Well, there are a few reasons why this is happening. One is the economy has changed. The nature of our economy has changed. Globalization, for example, has sent thousands of middle- class jobs overseas. Information technology and advances have replaced many of our middle-class jobs with machines. Another reason why is that we simply have too many people who never get the education or the skills they need for the better paying jobs this new economy is creating. And we can't ignore, for example, the breakdown of our culture and our families and what that is doing. It is trapping people in a cycle of poverty and of dependence. These are all contributors to what we face today.

But one of the major reasons why this is happening, why so many people are trapped in dead-end jobs, why so many people have been unemployed for so long, is because our economy is not creating enough jobs to live off of. One of the reasons why that is happening is because our country is headed for a debt crisis. The real debt crisis is not the looming debt limit. The real debt crisis is that every year our government is spending more money than it takes in. And, by the way, one day we are not going to have to worry about raising the debt limit because no one will want to lend us money anyway.

Too often around here we talk about the national debt as if it is simply an accounting problem. The national debt is a lot more than that. How does the economy create good jobs? It creates good jobs in two ways: No. 1 is through innovation--when people invent a new product or service. The other is through investment--when people risk the money they have to start a new business or when a business reinvests its profits into the business to grow. The fact we are headed for a debt crisis and that we have no serious long-term plan in place to address it is discouraging innovation and that is discouraging investment.

Who wants to innovate in an economy that is headed for a debt crisis? Who wants to risk their money to start a new business in an economy that is headed for a catastrophic disruption? And who wants to reinvest their profits to grow their business in a country where the government is going bankrupt?

Having people trapped in low-wage jobs, having people unemployed for months or years at a time, having people unable to afford to get married or start a family doesn't have to be the new normal. It doesn't have to be this way forever. We can turn this around. But to do so we have to stop chasing all these temporary gimmicks that promise us some sort of momentary boost to our economy. We have to stop ignoring the problems headed full speed at us. We have to return to the basics--to the basics that made us such a prosperous nation.

Our national debt today stands at close to $17 trillion. In the last 5\1/2\ years alone it has grown by over $6 trillion. So when you hear the President or the Democrats here in the Senate say they want us to pass what they call a clean debt limit increase, here is what they are really asking for: They are asking us to borrow another $1 trillion but not do anything meaningful to slow the growth of that debt.

Why would we continue to do this? When are we finally going to get serious around here about putting in place a serious long-term plan to bring this debt under control? In order to do that, the first thing we have to understand is what is causing this debt.

Look, we have a broken Tax Code. It is full of all sorts of special- interest loopholes. But the reason why we have this massive debt isn't because rich people aren't paying enough in taxes. Even if we taxed every millionaire every penny they made this year, it wouldn't make even a small dent in the debt. Yes there is some serious waste going on throughout our government. For example, we have to reverse the changes the Obama administration has made to these welfare programs that basically gut the work requirement and leave people dependent on government. We need to reform the way we give foreign aid. We must and should do all of these and even more. But even if we did all that, it is still not enough.

What is driving our debt is the way we spend money on two very important programs: Medicare and Social Security. They are spending more money than they take in, and that gap is growing rapidly every single year.

I warn you, anytime anyone talks about making changes to these programs, you get accused of trying to hurt the elderly. So speaking for myself personally, let me set the record straight. I come from a State with millions of people--millions of retirees--who depend on these programs, and one of them is my own mother. She worked hard for her entire life and paid into these programs so they would be there for her when she retired. I would never support any changes to these programs that would hurt my mother. But these programs are going bankrupt, and anyone who is in favor of doing nothing about them is in favor of bankrupting them.

The good news is this: The good news is we still have some time to save Medicare and Social Security, and we still have time to do these changes without making any changes to the benefits of seniors such as my mom. But to do so is going to require younger workers, like myself, to accept that

when we retire, our Medicare and our Social Security is going to be different than our parents.

So instead of spending all of our time around here trying to figure out how to raise the debt limit, we need to spend more of our time trying to figure out what we can do to put in place a serious long-term plan to bring this debt under control so that our economy can start creating more of those good-paying, middle-class jobs, so that people can start building for themselves the better future they always dreamed of.

The American dream is under assault. That is the real crisis. When are we going to get serious about solving it? This dream of earning a better life is the universal hope of people everywhere. But we are reminded that for much of human history most people found themselves trapped by the circumstances of their birth. That meant no matter how hard they worked, no matter how talented they were, they were only going to go as far as their family went. They could only do whatever it was their parents did. One of the things that made America so special is that here that has been different. Here, through hard work and sacrifice, people from all walks of life, from every corner of the world, have had the real opportunity to earn for themselves a better life.

This is what we call the American dream. As Americans, that is our identity. It is what holds us together as a nation. It is what holds us together as a people, and it is what has made us exceptional.

I know people are discouraged about how tough times are. I know some people are very disappointed about how the last election turned out. I know many people are angry and, quite frankly, disgusted by the way this process is working or failing to work these days. But no matter how bad things may seem, we cannot give up on America and we cannot give up on the American dream. We have to do everything we can to make sure this country remains a place where anyone from anywhere can accomplish anything.

So despite how ugly Washington looks right now, I actually remain confident that, in the end, that is exactly what we are going to do. I have no doubt that, in the end, our children will grow up to be the most prosperous generation that ever lived. Despite all the challenges we face right now, when all is said and done, I believe with all my heart we will still go down in history as the generation that saved the American dream and left our children what our parents left for us--the single greatest Nation in the history of the world.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, despite all the noise going on, despite the fight we are having, I think one thing we can all agree is the most important thing for our country is to restore and save the American dream.

With all this talk of an economic recovery, it would shock people around this country who are struggling to find a job or perhaps have a job but the job is a dead-end job and it doesn't pay enough that they can't live off of what they are making--there are a lot of reasons that is happening, but one of the reasons that is happening is because in the 21st century, the jobs we need in order to make it to the middle class require a higher level of skill and education than they did in the past. This is particularly chronic and is hurting people who are growing up disadvantaged, especially children growing up in dangerous neighborhoods, with little access to education and broken families. They are struggling to get ahead, and we are seeing the impact of the societal breakdown every day.

We have a program called Head Start. This program helps children 5 years of age and younger. There are about 1 million kids a year who benefit from this program. It helps them get meals, it helps them get access to medical screenings, physical therapy for children with disabilities, and access to quality prekindergarten education for these children. This is not a perfect program. I would like to see reforms. I

would like to see this program become portable so that children and their families can access the best provider possible. But now is not the time for this debate. Now is the time to do everything we can to protect this program in the short term because as we speak there are thousands of children around this country already being impacted. In my State of Florida, almost 400 children have already been cut off from these services.

The reason I think this issue is different from the other ones that have been debated here is because the one thing you can't get back is time. Every day that goes by is one less day of education these children get. You can never give them back the time. You can always go back and pay somebody the money you owe them, but you can't give them back time.

So I would like to make a request that I hope will be accepted. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.J. Res. 84, which makes continuing appropriations for the Head Start Program, which was received from the House; I further ask that the measure be read three times and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

First, let me also start, Madam President, by thanking the men and women of the Capitol Police and the District of Columbia and the Secret Service. It reminds us they are the thin blue line standing between us and danger. This is a moment to extend our thanks to all law enforcement and first responders around the country who, on a daily basis, are on that thin blue line as well. So we are all grateful for what you do for us and how you keep us safe.

I wanted to talk, of course, about this week. It has been an interesting week, to say the least, beyond the events of yesterday. When we turn on the cable news, it features these countdown clocks leading up to the government slowdown. Now, in the aftermath of it, we see the countdown about how many days we have been into this thing.

Look, there is no doubt this impasse we are at is a problem for the country. This is not the best way to run the most important government in the most important country in the world.

There are people around here who all they do is focus on politics. For them, every day is election day. They are focused on who is winning, who is going to get the blame, and who is this going to help in the next election. I suppose that has a place in politics and in the governing process. But let me answer the question: Who will get the blame? We all are. Every single one of us in the House, the Senate, and in the entire Federal Government will get the blame.

And let me tell you why. Because there are people who woke up this morning who didn't get enough sleep last night. Maybe they were up late helping their kids with their homework. They got up, guzzled a bunch of coffee and forced themselves to work. They didn't want to work. They were tired. But they had to. And they are going to work today, and they are going to get home and go through all that again. And they are wondering: Why can't you guys do that? Why can't you do your job? I think that is a very valid frustration that people have with this process and with those of us here today.

I am not happy about some of the things we have seen this week or over

the last couple of weeks. I think it is very unfortunate--some of the rhetoric that has been used around here, both in this Chamber and in the public domain. But each day that goes by, what I am more and more worried about may not be what everybody else, or at least too many people here, are worried about. See, I think it is wrong that those of us who stand on principle, who believe, for example, ObamaCare is going to badly damage our economy--I think it is wrong we have a Congressman from my home State who compares us to the Taliban. We have a spokesperson for the White House who says we are like people with bombs strapped to our chests. I think that is wrong.

I think it is wrong too by the way, that the President has used the megaphone of the Presidency not to bring Americans together but to deepen these divisions. Mr. President, you are not the chairman of the Democratic party. You are the President of the United States. Act like the President of the United States. Rise above that stuff. Your job is to bring this Nation together. I know people are going to say things about you that you don't like. It comes with the territory. You have to rise above it. And I hope he will.

But those are not the things that concern me the most. What I am most worried about is that this country faces a very serious crisis, and we are running out of time to fix it. There is no doubt this government slowdown is not good, but it is not the crisis I am referring to. This issue about hitting the debt limit is a problem, but that is not the most serious crisis we face either. The single most important crisis we face in this country is that for millions of Americans the promise of the American dream is literally slipping through their fingers. With all the focus around here on whatever the crisis of the day may be, I fear we are simply not spending enough time focusing on that reality.

It reminds me of a story I know. A few years ago, a friend of mine in Florida was on a twin-engine airplane flying from one part of the State to another. At some point during that flight, a fire broke out in the cockpit. That fire was a problem. But the bigger problem was that both of the pilots started to put out the fire, and no one was flying the plane. Within a few seconds, the plane began to plunge, and it lost hundreds of feet of altitude. Luckily, they figured it out quickly and were able to correct it. But they were so focused on the fire in the cockpit, they weren't flying the plane. Luckily, they realized in time if they didn't start flying that plane that fire was going to be pretty insignificant for them in just a few seconds.

So we have a government slowdown, and this government slowdown is a problem, yes. We have the upcoming debt limit issue, and that is a problem, yes. But the fire in our cockpit and the one we need to address is the erosion of the American dream.

If we think the slowdown of government is problematic, that is a vote away from being solved. All we have to do is take a vote in either Chamber and we can solve that problem. But the slowdown in government is going to be a big problem when this government no longer has enough money to pay its bills, and if we keep doing what we are doing now, that is going to happen.

We think this debt limit situation is a problem? That is one vote away from being solved. When it is going to be a real problem is when no one wants to buy our debt anymore because they don't think we can pay them back.

We think all this division and dysfunction in Washington is bad for our economy? Yes. But what is worse is a tax code that kills jobs, regulations that on a daily basis are killing jobs, and a national debt that is killing jobs. By the way, one of the greatest destroyers of jobs in America today is ObamaCare, and that is why we are so passionate about it.

The American dream--which people throw around so loosely as a term-- is basically the notion that no matter where you start out in life, no matter how many obstacles you have to overcome, you have the God-given right, through hard work and perseverance, to achieve a better life and leave your children better off than yourself. But it is being eroded on a daily basis, and not nearly enough attention is being paid to that. I don't see any countdown clocks on cable television about the American dream.

The most dangerous thing happening in Washington today is that everyone is so busy fighting about the problems before us today that there doesn't seem to be enough focus on the crisis we are headed to pretty soon; that we are on the verge of losing the American dream. I say that because, to one extent or another, we are all guilty of misplacing that focus.

So my speech here today as much as anything else is a reminder to me of why I wanted to serve here. The reason I wanted to serve here is because I know--I don't think; I know--that America is special. I know this partially because I was raised by and around people who know what life is like in places other than America. In places other than America, you can only go as far as your parents went. You are trapped. Whatever your family did is the only thing you are allowed to do by those societies.

But we have been different, and I have seen it with my own eyes. Both in my neighborhood and in my family, I have seen people who came here with little education and no connections and through hard work and perseverance achieve a better life, achieve a meaningful life, and leave their kids better off than themselves. I also see how every single day there are millions of people out there now trying to achieve the same thing, and they are finding it harder and harder to do that. We are on the verge of losing that. If we lose that, every day that is eroded, so too is the exceptionalism of this country. People love to use that term, an ``exceptional nation,'' and I believe it is exceptional, but it is exceptional primarily because of the American dream.

Many countries in the world have powerful militaries. Every country in the world has rich people and big companies. What makes us different is that here, if you are willing to work hard, if you have a really good idea, you can be rewarded for it with a better life. That is eroding. If we lose that, we lose what makes us special and different, and no one seems to be fighting enough about that.

The only reason all these other issues matter is because they relate to the American dream. The reason the debt really matters is because it undermines the American dream. The reason our Tax Code, which is broken, matters is because it undermines the American dream. The reason I am so passionate about ObamaCare is because for millions of people it is undermining the ability to achieve the American dream.

The reason I ran for office is because as a country we are headed in the wrong direction because we are losing the American dream. We still have time to fix this, but we don't have all century. We don't even have all decade. We have to begin to take these issues seriously or we will be known as the first generation of Americans who lost the American dream and left our children worse off than ourselves.

We still have time to refocus ourselves. With all this noise about politics and who gets the blame and who is responsible for what, I hope we can use these challenges before us as a catalyst to begin to focus on these issues and why they matter. They matter because they are hurting people, and they are hurting people who are trying to achieve a better life. If we do that, if we focus on that and if we solve the problems before us with an eye toward that, then I think we will have the real opportunity to do what every generation of Americans before us has done: to leave our children better off than ourselves and to leave for them what our parents left for us--the single greatest Nation in the history of the world.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

I thank the Senator for his efforts here today and in the weeks that led us here. I ask the Senator from Texas--let me preface this by saying so much of the focus--if you read the coverage, all the focus is on what is going to happen, the process, the votes, who is going to vote what. I think that is important and I think we will have a conversation about that in the moments to come.

What I am most enthusiastic about in the last few hours is there is an increasing focus on why. Why are people so passionate about ObamaCare, particularly those who are opposed to it? Why is there a growing number of Americans coming out and saying ObamaCare is a bad idea? Why are Republicans united against ObamaCare?

Let's be clear. We do have a tactical debate going on in the Republican Party about the right way to stop ObamaCare. What there is no debate about among Republicans is this is a bad idea for the country. Why are we so passionate about that? I only speak for myself in what I am about to say, and I think it speaks for others. I will ask the Senator from Texas to comment in a moment about that. I think sometimes when you are born and raised, as I have been, your whole life in this country, speaking for myself, sometimes it is easy to take for granted how special America is because this is all you have known, this is all we have ever been around so we take that for granted a little bit.

I had a blessing, similar to the same one the Senator from Texas had. I actually grew up around people who knew what life was like somewhere else. They knew what America had is special because they lived somewhere else and they knew what the world was like outside of America. It is a reminder that what makes America different and special from the rest of the world is that it is one of the few places in human history where no matter where you start out in life, no matter how poor you were, no matter how poor your parents were, no matter how disconnected they may be from power, if you are willing to work hard and you are willing to sacrifice, you can have a better life.

For us Americans, that seems, of course, right. That is the way it has always been. It is not. In fact, for almost all of human history that has not been the case. In much of the world that is still not the case. For almost all of human history almost everyone who has ever lived is basically trapped by whatever they were born into. If your parents were poor, you were poor. If your parents were farmers, you were a farmer. I want you to think about what that means for a moment. Imagine for a second--because all of us have dreams and hopes, when you are young, especially. Imagine for a second if you are someone with talent and dreams and aspirations and ambitions but knowing that in the society you live in, none of that matters because you are not from the right people. You don't come from the right family. Imagine how frustrating that must be.

That is the story of humanity up until about 200 years ago when the American experiment began, based on something very powerful the Senator from Texas talked about a moment ago, the idea that every single one of us has a God-given right to go as far as our talent and our work will take us.

The result is the most extraordinary story in all of human history. I point that out today because I remember growing up knowing my parents wanted me to clearly understand that I would have a chance to do things they never had a chance to do because I lived in an extraordinary place unlike any that had ever existed before.

Fast forward to today and the challenges we face as a country. The one thing that most worries me as I analyze American politics and the state of our country is there is a growing number of people who are starting to doubt whether that dream is still true; a growing number of people who are starting to wonder is it still true that if you work hard and you sacrifice, you can get ahead. Do you know why they are doubting that? Because they are working hard, they are working harder than they ever have, they are sacrificing, and not only are they not getting ahead, they are struggling to keep from falling behind.

There are a lot of reasons why this is happening. Globalization has changed the nature of our economy. So have advances in information technology. We have an emerging skills gap in this country where unfortunately many Americans have not acquired the skills needed for these new jobs in the 21st century. We have to address these things. Societal breakdown is real. It is having an impact. In fact, it is one of the leading causes of poverty in the United States, and that is troubling too.

But for those of us who are in the Federal Government and in the policymaking branch of government, I think it is time we realize that one of the leading threats to the American dream is the policies that are being pursued at the Federal level, policies that are undermining the free enterprise system. Here is why that is important--because the only economy, the only economic system in human history that rewards hard work, sacrifice, and merit is the American free enterprise

system. The evidence is all over the world. Look all over the world at people whose families have lived in poverty for generations, who now have joined the middle class. They live in countries that are trying to copy the American economic example. They don't live in countries that embrace socialism, they don't live in countries that embrace big government. They live in places that are trying to move toward free enterprise. Free enterprise has eradicated more poverty than all the government programs in the world combined. That is the story of free enterprise. That is why it is startling that over the last few decades, Federal policies have contributed steadily to undermining the free enterprise system.

We talk about all those policies, but ObamaCare is an example of that. You ask yourself how does ObamaCare undermine the free enterprise system? There are a few examples. First, because of the disruptive costs and rules created by ObamaCare, there are thousands of middle- class jobs that will not be created. These are jobs that were going to be created that someone wanted to create. I met a restaurant owner. I think he was from Louisiana. He testified before the Small Business Committee. He wants to open new restaurants. He has specific sites in mind. He knows he can make it work. He is not going to do it and he cites ObamaCare as the reason why. Those are jobs that were going to be created that do not now exist because of ObamaCare. That undermines the free enterprise system.

ObamaCare has a mandate. It has already been discussed here on the floor. It says if you have more than 50 full-time workers, you have to live by a bunch of mandates that it creates. Do you know what the result of that has been? Businesses close to that number are deciding I don't want to have 50 employees, I want to have 48 or 49 so that doesn't apply to me because I can't afford for it to apply to me. Do you know what that means? That means those were jobs that were going to be created or those are jobs that were there but now they are part time. That means you lost money out of your paycheck.

It also has redefined, ObamaCare has redefined what part-time work is. An American economic reality is that part-time work is anything less than 40 hours, except for ObamaCare, anything less than 30 hours. So what is happening? People working part time are losing their hours.

Real world example. Sea World in Florida just announced it is moving over 2,000 of its part-time employees from 32 hours a week to 28 hours a week. That is not just a statistic. These are people who are losing 4 hours' worth of pay a week.

The very people that this bill is supposed to be helping, the working class and middle class--the people who are trying to get ahead--are the people it is directly hurting. That is just one example. There are multiple examples. Senator Cruz and I could cite examples all night of real people who will be hurt in this way.

I have one more point that has not been talked about enough. Medicare Advantage is a program that gives seniors choices. It has competition. There are different companies that provide Medicare Advantage benefits, and they compete for the business of seniors by offering additional benefits.

My mom is a Medicare Advantage recipient. She is heavily marketed every year because--like all seniors are in that area--they want her business. How do they compete? They offer transportation, free pharmaceuticals, or whatever it may be. Well, guess what. ObamaCare takes money out of Medicare Advantage, not to save Medicare but to fund ObamaCare. Later this year--in early January--these seniors are going to get a letter in the mail saying that their Medicare Advantage plan no longer offers X, Y, or whatever some of these benefits are. That is just another example of who is hurt by this.

Why are we passionate? Why are we here about this? Look, we have an ideological objection to the government being involved in such a widespread way in health care, but now it is beyond that. We are passionate about this opportunity that we have to stop ObamaCare because of the impact this is having on real people. At the end of the day, that is what we are fighting for. We are not fighting against ObamaCare, and we are fighting for these people.

By the way, the people we are fighting for includes people who voted for the President. This includes, by the way, people who didn't vote for me or the Senator from Texas or the Senator from Utah. We are fighting for them because they are going to be hurt by this.

If your dream is to open your own business one day and to grow it, ObamaCare will hurt you. It is going to make it harder for you to be able to do that. If your dream is to do what my parents did, which is to work a job so your kids could one day have a career, ObamaCare is hurting you too. It could cost you the insurance you have now that you are happy with. It could cost you hours out of your paycheck. It could cost you your very job.

What about if you are working part time while you go to school at night? If you are paying your way through school as a part-time worker, ObamaCare is going to hurt you. You are going to lose hours at work potentially because of ObamaCare. What if you graduated from college? You finished college and have done everything that has been asked of you.

What do we tell young people in America who go to school, get good grades, a degree, and dream of having a career and better life? What do they want to do? They want to graduate from college, get married, buy a house, and start a family. A lot of people are having to put that off for a lot of reasons. ObamaCare will be one of the reasons. You know why? Because that job or career you wanted to start may not be created now because of ObamaCare.

What if you worked your whole life--like the 3 million seniors who live in Florida--and are living with dignity, security, and stability, and can finally sign up for the Medicare Advantage plan, but now ObamaCare is hurting you? That is the irony in all of this. The very people they said this plan--this bill, this idea--would help are the very people it is hurting the most. That, by the way, is the experience of big government.

I know that big government sounds appealing sometimes when you are hurting and struggling to make ends meet and then a politician comes along and says: I'm going to create a new program called jobs for Americans and health care for everybody. When you are struggling, this stuff sounds enticing. The problem is it never works. Anytime and anywhere it has been tried, it has failed, and it will fail again. It doesn't work.

In fact, big government hurts the people who are trying to make it. If you are a multibillion-dollar corporation or a millionaire or billionaire, you may not like big government, but you can afford to deal with it. If you are a major corporation in America, you can hire the best lawyers in America to navigate whatever complex rules the government throws at you. If you really don't like it, you can hire the best lobbyist in this city to write the laws in your favor or try to get them written in your favor.

However, if you are trying to start a business by using the free wi- fi at Starbucks or you are using the spare bedroom in your home to start a business, you can't navigate all of that big government stuff. You can't afford to hire a lobbyist to get a waiver from ObamaCare. That is the irony of this. The very people that big government promises to help are the people it hurts the most, and we are seeing it again with ObamaCare.

Who is getting waivers from ObamaCare? The people who can afford to influence it. That is the experience of big government. It is the experience of ObamaCare, and that is unfair. That is just not fair. It is not fair that in America the people who are willing to work hard and sacrifice are not able to achieve a better life. That is wrong.

The only way to assure that those opportunities are there is to embrace the free enterprise system, not to undermine it or try to replace it with an expansion of government that in the end will collapse under its own weight. But that is the direction we are headed in right now.

You want to know what the biggest issue facing America politically is? It

is not whether Republicans or Democrats win the next election, it is whether we will continue to be an exceptional country where anyone from anywhere can accomplish anything or whether we will become like the rest of the world, just another powerful, rich country with a big economy, but no longer the place where hard work and sacrifice is enough. That is the choice we are being asked to make on issue after issue that comes before this body, and especially on this one.

I will yield back to the Senator from Texas by just saying this: My parents were never rich. I told this story before, but I tell it, not so much to talk about me, but to talk about us, because this is our story, not just mine. My parents were never rich. When they came here, they didn't know anybody. They had no money or connections. They barely spoke the language. When they first came here, they struggled. They were discouraged. Sometimes they wondered if they made a mistake. Sometimes they thought that maybe they should have stayed back in Cuba. Ultimately, they persevered and hung in there.

Ten years after they had been here, my dad was working as a bartender and my mom worked as a maid and a cashier. They bought their first home in 1966. In fact, by 1971, they were so optimistic about the future, that after both of them were over 40 years of age, they had me, and then my sister a year and a half after that. Talk about optimistic about the future. America fundamentally changed their lives because of free enterprise.

My dad had a job at those hotels because someone had access to money and risked it. They took a risk and said: I am going to invest this money into opening up a hotel because I believe in my idea. Because someone took a risk, my dad and my mom had a job. They weren't rich. We never owned multiple homes. We never had a yacht. We never traveled to Europe. There is nothing wrong with any of those things.

My parents lived the American dream. Why? Because they lived a life no one in their family history had ever lived in terms of stability and security, and they were able to provide opportunities for their children they themselves never had. That is the American dream. It is about being able to fulfill your God-given potential, whatever it may be, and it is what is at play right now.

There are millions of people in this country who are trying to achieve their American dream. There are millions of people across America who are trying to do what my parents were able to do for me and what Senator Cruz's parents were able to do for him. Our job is to make it easier for them to do it, not harder. Our job is to do everything we can to ensure that this is the one country on Earth where that is still possible.

When we pass bills such as ObamaCare, which claims to help people like this, we are not helping them. We are hurting them. If we hurt them, we hurt the country because there cannot be an America without an American dream. We can't be special and exceptional without the American dream, and that is what is being undermined by big government and by ObamaCare.

At the end of the day that is why we are so passionate about this, and that is why this is an issue worth fighting for.

The Senator from Texas was reading stories and cases earlier today that he heard from around the country, and that is what these people are telling us. That is what they are saying to us. They are saying: All we want is a chance to turn our dreams into reality. All we want is a chance to be able to work hard and sacrifice so we can achieve a better life. All we want is for you guys to give us a chance.

I ask the Senator from Texas: Isn't that what this issue is all about?

Would the Senator from Texas yield for a question without yielding the floor?

My first question is, What did the Senator do last night?

Would the Senator from Texas yield for a followup question without yielding the floor?

First an observation. It is interesting how much times have changed around here. If a decade ago you were to tell someone you were tweeting on the Senate floor, that would not be a positive thing. People would think that meant something else.

The world has changed a lot, and I think the Senator highlighted earlier in some of the speeches given here what a positive development that has been. It wasn't so long ago that in order to be able to do something in politics, to make a difference, to mobilize people to take action, you needed the benefits of the formal organizations that existed. You needed groups or the establishment--or whatever term people want to use--to get things done. But one thing that has really completely changed American politics is that anybody can become a political activist now. Because of access to social media, because of access to Facebook and Twitter and Vine and Instagram and all these other programs, anyone can now take action and speak out. Anyone can now connect with like-minded people halfway across the country or halfway around the world and begin a cause.

In many respects, that is what I think you see happening in this country now. There is a lot of talk about how Washington has changed, how there are things happening now that didn't used to happen before. I am convinced that one of the reasons is because people now have access to things that are happening in real time and they have the ability to speak out on these things in real time.

It used to be that you had to turn on the TV at 6:00 in the evening or 6:30 to watch the evening national news. Not anymore. News is reported on a minute-by-minute basis. Even as I speak now, there is someone out there covering it, there are people out there saying something about it. By and large, it has been a positive development because it has empowered individual Americans from all walks of life not just to be aware of what is happening in this Capitol but to engage in it, to speak out, and to be heard. At the end of the day, this Republic depends on that--on an informed citizenry who is also able to speak out on the issues of the day and communicate with the people who work for them.

Let me tell you what I hear from the people I work for in the State of Florida. I hear tremendous concern about the future. We focus a lot around here on specific issues, and we should. The national debt is a crisis. Our Tax Code is broken. Our regulations are out of control. We are talking about ObamaCare right now, which has been hugely detrimental to the American economy and to the aspirations of individual Americans. But overriding all of this is the central concern that I find increasingly on the minds of people. Let me describe it.

I know that as a country we are divided on a lot of issues. Look at the polls. Look at the elections. I know the country is divided on a lot of important issues. That is why this body and Congress are struggling to find consensus on many of the major issues we confront.

But let me tell you what I believe is still the unifying principle that holds our Nation and our people together. That unifying principle is the belief that anyone who is willing to work hard and sacrifice should be able to get ahead, the idea that if you are willing to work as hard as you can and make sacrifices, you should be rewarded for that with a better life.

By the way, when we talk about a better life, it is not a guarantee that you will ever be a millionaire or a billionaire, but it generally means the ability to find a job that is fulfilling, helps you feel like you are making a difference in the world, a job that allows you to do something you love for a living, and a job that pays you enough money to do things like buy a house, provide a stable environment for your family, and save so your kids can go to college and so that you can retire with dignity and security.

As a people, we are unified in the belief that it is unfair that people who are willing to work hard and sacrifice, as the vast majority of Americans are--it is unfair when people who are willing to do that cannot get ahead, when those people are held back. We have been told our whole lives that if you work hard, if you sacrifice, if you go to school and graduate, if you do all these things, you will get ahead, that this is that kind of country.

But now people are starting to wonder if that is still true. Across this country increasingly people are starting to wonder, that which we know as the American dream, is that still alive? They want to believe it still is. They believe in America, but they are starting to wonder if that formula I have outlined--hard work and sacrifice lead to a better life--if that formula still works. Why are they wondering that? It is not hard to understand. They are working hard. They are working harder than they ever have. Look at median incomes in America. Look at the people who feel as if their lives have stagnated. They are working hard. They are sacrificing. Not only are they not getting ahead, sometimes they feel as if they are falling behind.

Put yourself in the place of someone who is 56, 57, 58 years old and worked their whole life at some company or industry. Suddenly, they are laid off and they can't find anyone to hire them. They were getting ready for retirement. Now they don't know when that is ever going to happen.

Put yourself in the place of a student. You graduated high school. While

your friends were out playing around, you were studying so you could get good grades and get into a good school. You did that. You went to college. While your friends were out partying, you studied. You graduated with a 3.5, 4.0. You went to grad school and graduated from there as well. You did everything that was asked of you. Then you graduated, and you couldn't find a job in your career field. And here is what is worse: You owe $30,000 or more in student loans.

By the way, that is an issue I know. I know Senator Lee has confronted that as well. I had $100,000 in student loans when I graduated. I grant you, it was a wise investment in my education, but it was an anchor around my neck for many, many years. My parents were never able to save enough money to provide for our education, so I had to do a combination of grants, work study, and student loans. When I came to the Senate, I still had those loans. There were months when my loan payments were higher than our mortgage.

So you look at these things and you understand what people around the country are facing.

Think about the small businesses. You used to work for someone. You were an employee, and then one day you decided: I can do this job better than my boss can, so I am going to quit this job and I am going to risk it. I am going to take every penny I have access to, I am going to max out my credit card, I am going to take out my life savings, and I am going to open a small business because I believe in my idea. And I will guarantee that for most people who did that, those first years were tough. This idea that you open a business and tomorrow you are on Facebook is usually not the case. Usually you struggle those first few years. Oftentimes, people fail in business two or three times before they finally succeed.

Interestingly enough, as part of this process one of the most rewarding things I have been able to do is travel the country and meet and interact with very successful people in business and in life. It is amazing how many people you meet who--when you ask them how they got started and how they achieved, they usually focus on all the times they failed before they achieved. They take pride in the struggle because it means that they earned it, that they earned what they have. They take pride in that.

But put yourself in the position of someone who went through all that, someone who started this business by taking out a second mortgage on their home and literally came upon one Friday when they didn't know how they were going to make payroll or stay open but somehow they persevered and made it through, and now that business is open and functioning and yet it is struggling. And they are wondering--after all these years of hard work and sacrifice, they feel as though they are slipping backward instead of moving ahead.

There is a growing sentiment in this country about these things. Let me tell you why that is so dangerous. What I just described to you is what we have come to know as the American Dream. There is this idea among the minds of some that the American dream is a material thing, that the American dream is about how much money can you make so you can own more things. That may be an element of it for some people, but the American dream is largely about being able to earn for yourself a better life.

You can only understand the American dream by viewing it from a global perspective. For those of us who were born and raised in this country, who have lived here our whole life, who don't know anything else, sometimes it is easy to take what I am about to tell you for granted. In most countries around the world, for almost all of human history and even today, it doesn't really matter how hard you are willing to work and how much you are willing to sacrifice. If you don't come from the right family, if you are not well connected, you don't get into the right schools and then you don't get into the right jobs.

Put yourself in that position for a moment. Imagine now that you have big hopes, big dreams, and big talent, and your hope is to do something with it. By the way, it doesn't have to mean making a lot of money. Maybe you want to serve in philanthropy. Maybe you want to make a difference setting up a foundation. Maybe you are an artist or a musician. Whatever it may be, imagine now being trapped with all that talent and unable to put it into use. You would say that is unfair, and I would tell you that was the human condition up until 200 years ago everywhere in the world, and it is still the human condition in many parts of the globe today. The American dream is that here that is not true. Here, we believe that is wrong. Here, we believe that is unfair. Here, we believe all Americans--Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, Conservatives, everyone--we all believe it is unfair and it is wrong that someone should be prevented from achieving a better life because of where they come from, whom they come from, or where they started out in life. We believe that is unfair. We believe that is wrong. That is the American dream. That is us--the notion that you should be able to achieve whatever you were meant to be, to be able to fully utilize your talents in whatever way you find meaningful, the ability to have a career instead of a job, all these sorts of things.

That is what we are on the verge of losing, in the minds of many Americans, and that is supremely dangerous to the country. Why? Because I personally do not believe there can be an America as we know it without the American dream. Without the American dream, America is just another big powerful country, but it is no longer an exceptional one. That is what is at stake in all these debates we are conducting in this body.

What are the impediments? What is creating these problems we are facing? There may be more, but I have identified three that I hope we will focus on more.

The first, by the way, is societal breakdown. It is real. This idea that somehow you can separate the social well-being of your people from their moral well-being is absurd. The social well-being from the economic well-being--the idea that you can separate those is absurd. If you are born into a broken family, the statistics tell us that the chances that you are going to struggle significantly increase. The destruction of the family structure in America, the decline of it, is a leading contributor to poverty and educational underperformance.

The question for policymakers here in Washington is what can we do about that? Can we pass laws that will make people better parents? Can we pass government programs that will make families better? The answer is usually not. But I can tell you what we can start doing. We can start recognizing this is a real factor. This is not about moralizing. This is not about imposing our religious views or values on anyone. This is a free country. You have the right to believe in anything you want or believe in nothing at all. But you better believe this: It doesn't matter how many diplomas you have on the wall. If you don't have the values of hard work and sacrifice and respect and perseverance and self-discipline, if you don't have those values you are going to struggle to succeed, and no one is born with those values; no one. Those values have to be taught and they have to be reinforced.

One of the things that made America exceptional, one of the things that allowed the American dream to happen is that in this country we had strong families and strong institutions in our society that helped those families instill those values in children. Today there are millions of children growing up in this country who are not being taught these values because of societal breakdown. We refuse to confront it at our own peril. We better recognize it and start acting on it as a nation because I am telling you, children who are born into broken families, living in substandard housing, in dangerous neighborhoods, with no access to health care and with difficulty accessing good schools, these kids have five strikes against them. They are going to struggle to make it unless someone addresses that, and we are losing an entire generation of talent because of it. We better address it in a way that is good for the country and also good for those families.

The second issue, I would tell you, that is contributing to this is we have a significant skills gap in America. What that means is 21st century jobs

require more skills than jobs ever have. Here is a graphic example. Go to the grocery store. I was there Saturday. There used to be 12 checkout lines. That meant 12 cashiers, right? Twelve cashier jobs. Now there are eight checkout lines and the other four are these machines where you run the card over the scan. That means those four or five cashier jobs are gone, right? Yes, but those jobs have been replaced by the jobs of the people who installed those machines, the jobs of the people who built those machines, the jobs of the people who maintain those machines. A graphic example of the 21st century. The job has been replaced by a new job, but the new job--to be a cashier you have to be trained on the site. My mom was a cashier. But to build, fix, and maintain those machines you have to have a higher level of skills you have to learn in school somewhere. Too many people don't have those skills. We have to fix that. For the life of me I don't understand why we stigmatize career education in America. There are kids who don't want to go to Harvard or Yale. They don't want to go for a 6-year degree or a 7-year degree program. They want to fix airplane engines. They want to be electricians and plumbers. Those are good-paying jobs. We need those people. We should be teaching kids to do that while they are still in high school so they can graduate with a diploma in this hand and a certificate that makes them job ready in the other. We should do that.

Beyond that, our students today, many of them are nontraditional students. They are not just 18- or 19-year-olds who just graduated from high school. There, for example, a single mom is working as a receptionist at a dental clinic somewhere and she is the first one to get laid off every time things go wrong. How can she improve her life? By becoming an ultrasound tech or becoming any of these other paraprofessions you find in medicine. But to do that she has to be able go to school. How is she going to do that if she has to work full time and raise her kids? We have to answer that. Whether it is online programs or flexibility in study or programs that give you credit for life experience and work experience, we have to answer that.

We have to also address workers who in the middle of their lives have lost their job, a job that is never coming back. They need to be retrained. By the way, the traditional college route will still be the ticket for upward mobility for millions of Americans but better figure out how to pay for it because right now you have kids graduating with $30,000 and $40,000 around their neck and that is going to prevent them from starting a family, buying a house, and moving ahead. We had better figure out why it is that every time more aid is made available to these students it gets gobbled up by these tuition increases. We better address that problem and we better address the skills gap.

Here is the third, and it goes right to the heart of what Senator Cruz from Texas is dealing with here. The free enterprise system is the single great eradicator of poverty in all of human history. Free enterprise, American-style free enterprise, has eradicated more poverty than all the government programs in the world combined. You want to wage a real war on poverty? Encourage free enterprise. Why? Because free enterprise is an economic system that rewards people for hard work, sacrifice, and merit. Free enterprise does not ask what did your parents do for a living? Who do you know? Where do you summer? Who do you hang out with over the summer? What clubs do you belong to? Free enterprise doesn't ask that. Free enterprise wants to know what is your idea? Is there a market for it? Are you willing to work hard and sacrifice and persevere? If you are, there is no guarantee, but if you are, you have a real opportunity to make it. You want to know proof that that works? I have 200-some-odd years of American history to show you. It works.

In fact, it works so well that other countries are trying to copy it in their own version. Why are there millions of people in China today that just a generation ago lived in deep poverty and now are consumers in the middle class? Why? Is it because they headed even more in the direction of communism or because they opened their economy to free enterprise principles? The same is true in Brazil, Mexico, India, all over the world. What are the countries that are finding increased prosperity and growth in the middle class doing? They are inching toward free enterprise, not away from it.

Does that mean there is no role for government? No, of course there is a role for government. There is an important role for government. It provides for our national security. It is hard to grow your economy when you are under attack. It provides for internal security. You know, it is hard for people to invest in an economy if they don't know there is a court system that is going to enforce property rights, if they believe crimes will go unpunished.

We believe in a safety net. Free enterprise doesn't work without a real safety net--not as a way of life. You cannot live your whole life on welfare and food stamps and disability unless you are truly disabled. That is what the real safety net is there for. It is there to help people who cannot help themselves and it is there to help people who have fallen to stand back up and try again. We believe in a safety net--not as a way of life but as a backstop to make people feel the confidence that they can invest in the future.

What else should government be doing? As I have talked about-- national security, infrastructure, the roads and bridges we build in this country. It is not a jobs program but it does create the backbone for the economy to function. The problem is the most important thing government should do in all of our policymaking decisions is we must ask ourselves, before you do anything--you pass a law, you create a new program--ask yourself: Will this foster the free enterprise system or will it undermine it?

To answer that question, you have to first recognize how the free enterprise system works. What creates prosperity and opportunity? Here is what creates it. When someone invents something new, a new product, idea, or service, when someone starts a new business or when someone grows an existing business, that is what creates opportunity and middle-class prosperity in the free enterprise system, that is what makes upward mobility possible, that is what allows people to climb out of where they started in life and improve it and leave their kids even better off--when people innovate, when they invest by starting a new business or expanding an existing one.

As policymakers, every time we make a decision around here, if you want to help the middle class, the people who are trying to make it, make America the best place in the world to innovate, to start a new business or to expand an existing business.

Do you want to know what is wrong in America today with our economy? Look no farther than a series of government policies--by the way, pursued by both political parties, although my opinion is I have not seen anything like the last 6 years--but a series of policies that have undermined the free enterprise system, policies that make it harder, not easier, to start a business, to expand an existing business, and to innovate.

Chief among them right now before us is what the Senator from Texas has been talking about all night--ObamaCare. That is why we are passionate about this. If you watch the news a little bit, you would think this is all because it is President Obama's idea and the Republicans are against it because it is his idea and that is what is happening here. That is absurd. I certainly have an ideological objection to the expansion of government. But my passionate objection, at least why I am on the floor here today and why Senator Cruz is on the floor all night, it is not because of ideology or theory, it is the reality that this law is going to hurt real people. It is going to hurt real people. I have met those people. I have talked to those people. If you have been to a Walgreen's lately you know those people, too.

Why? Because Walgreen's has announced that because of ObamaCare it has to get rid of its insurance program that its employees are generally happy with. That is why they are still working there, right? Now they get thrown into the great unknown.

Here is the problem with that. Imagine if you are chronically ill or imagine if you have children and you have this preexisting relationship with a doctor.

They know your history. You can call them when you need them. They are responsive. That is why you are going there all these years. Now you get thrown on this new insurance program and the doctor is not on the plan anymore. In fact, what we are hearing from these new exchanges that are being set up is one of the ways we are going to lower costs is limit our networks: less doctors, less hospitals. That is how we are going to save some money and make these things affordable. That is what we are going to put people into? So all of a sudden these doctors you have been going to these years, you cannot go to them anymore? That is wrong. That is hurting real people.

How about this for an example. Imagine now these small businesses I have met. I know the Senator talked about this, Senator Cruz. I met a restaurant owner--we had a small business meeting here a couple of months ago--from Louisiana. He testified. He has great ideas. He has calculated that there is a market for him to open a new restaurant. He owns a chain. He wants to open one more. He is not going to because of ObamaCare, because the costs create uncertainty about the future for him, because he is worried about triggering mandates he cannot calculate for.

You may say he is a business owner, he already has X number of restaurants, why does he need anymore? Some people would actually say that. It is not him we are going to worry about. He would be the first to tell you I am going to be OK. Who is not going to be OK? If you open that new restaurant, he was going to hire 20 or 30 new people. There are 20 or 30 people in Louisiana right now who could have had a job, a job that could have helped them to provide for their family, a job that could have helped them to pay for their school. Those jobs are not going to be created. That is just one example. There are multiple examples.

How about this one? How about if you are a part-time worker now. The backbone of our economy can never be part-time work, but there is always a place for part-time work. I worked part time before. I think the Senator has talked about when he had to work part time before. Others have. There is a place for that in our economy. Primarily it helps young people and retirees. For young people, it helps them to work their way through school. Imagine, now, if you want to work your way through school because you don't want to owe $50,000 in student loans and you are in central Florida and you work for Sea World and right now maybe you are working 32 hours a week part time and using the rest of the time to go to school. But here comes ObamaCare so now Sea World has announced instead of 32 hours we are going to move you to 28 hours. That is real money. That is real money. That is hurting real people.

Here is one that doesn't get a lot of attention. Medicare Advantage is a great choice program. It is not perfect. There are ways to improve it, but it is a program on Medicare that basically allows patients on Medicare to sign up in a managed care system that manages their care but for that, it adds additional benefits to their package. My mom is a Medicare Advantage patient. I can tell you the outcomes are generally better than for people who are in the fee-for-service system and the services they offer are valuable.

In my mom's case she needs transportation to and from doctors' visits. That is one of the services the Medicare Advantage Program provides. ObamaCare takes money out of Advantage. You would think they are taking money out of Medicare Advantage to shore up the finances of Medicare because it is going bankrupt. No, they are taking the money out to fund ObamaCare.

So what is going to happen practically is that at some point here over the next few months, beneficiaries on Medicare Advantage are going to get letters in the mail and those are going to inform them of services they were once receiving and are no longer receiving.

With all the uncertainty created by ObamaCare, is it making America the easiest place, or an easier place, to start a business? No. Does ObamaCare make it easier to grow an existing business? Absolutely not. Does ObamaCare encourage innovation in the marketplace? Of course not. On the contrary, it undermines innovation in medicine. It undermines advances in medical technology that have added years and quality to the lives of millions of people.

This thing is a complete disaster, and now we are being asked to take the taxpayer dollars and pour more money into this broken thing? Of course we are passionate about being against that. So I go out across the State of Florida, and everywhere I go I have people who voted for the President telling me this thing is hurting them.

This is not a partisan issue. There are Democrats who are hurt by this. There are supporters of the President being hurt by this.

Earlier this evening--I lost track of when it was--Senator Cruz read letters from the Teamsters Union and from other unions across the country. We received news that the union representing IRS workers who are in charge of enforcing this law through the fines or the tax--or whatever they decided to call it--want to be exempted from it. They don't want it to apply to them.

By the way, all these exemptions that people are begging for--whether it is Members of Congress or IRS employees or unions--is shining a light on this reality. Big government always benefits the people who have access to power. That is true everywhere in the world. Why? I will tell you why. Big government always writes a lot of regulations, rules, and has a lot complexity.

So if you are a multibillion-dollar corporation, a powerful labor union or a billionaire, you can come and hire the best lawyers in America and they will help you figure out the loopholes in those laws. Let me tell you what else you can do: You can hire the best lobbyists in Washington to help you get those loopholes written in.

You may not be shocked to know this, but in politics, sometimes businesses use government regulations and laws to give them an edge over their competitors and to keep other people from coming into their industry and competing against them. It happens because in big government that is possible. Big government always helps the people who have access to power because they are only ones who can afford to navigate it. So if you are a major corporation or major labor union, you can either deal with the impacts of ObamaCare or you can work to get an exemption or a waiver or what have you from it.

Who can't? I will tell you who can't. The person trying to start a business out of the spare bedroom of their home. By the way, I met someone like this. They weren't at a Starbucks, they were at a Dunkin' Donuts. They were using the free wi-fi, and that was their business. They were in the corner of the Dunkin' Donuts, and that is where they started their software business. Do you think they can comply with the complicated rules and regulations? They can't.

ObamaCare will force people either to go underground in their operations or not do it at all. It is not a question of why ObamaCare will fail, it is an example of why big government fails, and it is not fair. It is not fair for people in this country who are willing to work hard and are willing to sacrifice. It is not fair that we are making it harder on them through government policies being pursued.

By the way, ObamaCare is not the only one. We have a broken Tax Code. If I asked you: Please design for me a Tax Code that discourages people from investing money and growing their businesses, you would give me the U.S. Tax Code today. We have to fix that.

Our regulations are completely out of control. There is no cost- benefit analysis at all. These people write regulations here in Washington, and no one ever asks the question: How many jobs will this destroy? How many jobs will not be created because of this? No one asks those questions. They measure the theory behind what it might do, such as the environmental benefit and the societal benefit, but no one ever does the cost-benefit analysis. There is no employment impact statement attached to these laws. Think about the absurdity of that.

Here we are with a huge number of people dropping out of their search for jobs, a huge amount of underemployment, a vast majority of the new jobs being created are part-time jobs, and we are passing regulations that make

it harder for people to create jobs and opportunities. It is crazy. The regulations are out of control.

We are going to deal with the debt. In about 6 or 7 days the debt limit debate is going to come up. They want to raise it again. The President said: I am not negotiating on this. Let's just raise it again. Never mind the fact that he stood on the floor of this Senate less than 10 years ago and said that raising the debt limit back then was a failure of leadership.

Now things have changed because a $17 trillion debt is no longer pressing in his mind, and that is problematic. Why? Is the debt just an accounting problem? That is how they talk about it on the news. They talk about the debt as just an accounting problem. They say: They just spend more money than they take in, but if they only raised more taxes on richer people, they would pay off the whole thing. That is not true, guys.

If we took every penny away from people who made over $1 million this year, it doesn't even make a dent in this. Any politician who says: All we have to do is raise taxes and the debt is under control is lying to you--period.

The sooner we confront the debt, the better off we will be as a people. The debt is growing because we have important government programs that are structured in a way that is not sustainable. They spend a lot more money than they take in, and it only gets worse from here.

Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are important programs. My mom is on two of them. I would never do anything to hurt her benefits or people like her and that is why I am so passionate about reforming them. Those programs are going bankrupt, and we are going to have to deal with it. We cannot continue to spend $1 trillion more than we take in and not deal with it. The problem is the longer we wait to deal with it, the harder it is going to be to deal with it.

It is no different than medical conditions, right? Think about this for a second: Is there any disease or medical condition that you know of that is easier to treat the later you catch it? Is there? Is there any medical condition that is easier to fix the longer you wait to deal with it? Of course not. What are doctors always talking to us about? Early detection.

It is the same with the debt. The longer we wait to address this issue, the harder and more disruptive it is going to be to solve it, and that is what is driving our debt. People want to focus on other things such as foreign aid. They say: Cut foreign aid. That is less than 1 percent of our budget. That is not what is driving our debt. It is not even defense spending.

Are there ways to save money in defense contracting, of course there is, but that is not the driver of the debt. The driver of our debt are these unsustainable programs that if we want to save them, we must fix them. The debt is not an accounting problem. Why? First of all, it is a moral problem.

Never in the history of this country has a generation of Americans said to their kids: Guys, we are going to run up your tab and you figure out how to pay for it later. We have never had that happen in the history of the United States, but that is what they are doing. It is wrong. But it is more than that. This is not just about what taxes will be 50 years from now on our kids, this is about the jobs that are being destroyed right now.

Let's go back to the simple equation of how jobs are created. Jobs are created when someone invents something or when someone starts a new business or expands an existing business. People look at this debt and say they are going to have to deal with that debt one day through a debt crisis. They are going to have to raise taxes, make disruptive changes in the government in the future. They are not encouraged about investing in the future now because they are fearful about the uncertainty provided by the debt. They are fearful.

So there are jobs right now that are not being created. Right now there are jobs in America that do not exist and were not created. They were going to be created but were not created because of the national debt.

We are going to have a debate in a few days about it. The attitude from a lot of people around here is: Of course, we have to raise the debt limit, and we should not do anything about it. I stood on the floor of the Senate--my chair was back there in 2011--and I said: When are we finally going to deal with this thing? Well, 2\1/2\ years later and we are still not dealing with this thing.

This complaisance and lack of emergency about these issues is puzzling. You know what my fear is? My fear is that we fast forward 50 years into the future and historians are going to write that the country was falling apart, they were destroying the free enterprise system, the American dream was crumbling, and these guys stood by and did nothing.

That is what I feel is happening right now. It feels like the horror movies where you scream at the screen: Don't go in that room. Don't do it. But they do it anyway. In some ways, everything we are facing with the debt and ObamaCare is similar to a horror movie. We know how it ends if we stay on this path. We know what happens in the horror movie if they open the door. The bad guy is on the other side.

It is the same thing with the issues we are facing. We know what happens if we continue on the path we are on now--we decline as a nation. The sad part is that doesn't have to happen.

There is no reason the 21st century cannot also be an American century. There is no this reason the next generation of Americans cannot be the most prosperous people who ever lived, but it requires us to act. It requires us to reform our Tax Code, not as a way of raising taxes but as a way of creating new taxpayers through economic growth. It requires us to deal with regulations.

By the way--and I think the Senator from Texas would agree with this--ObamaCare, as much as anything else, is a massive authorization to write a bunch of rules. It is not just a law, it is a bunch of regulations that are hurting job creation, discouraging investment, and discouraging people from starting a new business or expanding an existing business. We have to fix that, and we have to deal with the debt.

All of these issues have to be dealt with. None of them get easier to fix as time goes on. They all get harder and more disruptive.

I don't know how the Senator from Texas did this for 18 hours. I am already tired.

I guess I will just speak personally. The one issue that makes me so passionate about all of this in its sum total--I often wonder what would my life would have been like if America had never existed. What if in 1956 there wasn't a place my parents could go to where people like them had a chance for a better life? I doubt very seriously whether I would be standing on the floor of the Cuban Senate. There isn't one now.

I can't imagine what my life would be like if America never existed. If God had not given my parents the opportunity to come to the one place on Earth where people like them--born into poverty and little formal education--actually had a chance to build a better life.

I think about the millions of people out there trying to do what my parents and Senator Cruz's parents did--what so many of our parents did, by the way. The great thing about this country is when you tell your story, everybody has one just like it. We are all the descendants of go-getters.

Every single one of us is the descendant of someone who overcame extraordinary obstacles to claim their stake on the American dream. They overcame discrimination or poverty. In many cases they overcame this evil institution of slavery. This is who we are as a people. We are all the descendants of go-getters.

I think about how that has changed the world. There is literally no corner of this planet that you cannot go to where you will not find people who feel frustrated and trapped. I cannot tell you how many times I meet people from abroad who disagree with all sorts of things that America does. Yet they have a begrudging admiration for it. You know what that admiration is rooted in? That someone just like them who came from where they come from, is doing extraordinary things. They are doing things they never could have dreamt of in the Nation of their own birth.

I think we should all ask ourselves: What would the world look like if

America was not exceptional? What if America was another rich country in the world with a big military and some power, but it wasn't special? What would the world be like? The answer is: The world would be more dangerous, less free, and less prosperous. So when we debate the future of our economy--and in many ways we are debating the future of the world.

If America declines, I want you to ask yourself this: Who replaces us? The United Nations replaces us? Really? Who replaces us? China? China doesn't even care about the rights of their own people. Why would they care about the rights of people anywhere else? Who replaces us? Russia? Who replaces us on the world stage?

If America declines, who will inspire people around the world to seek not just freedom but economic opportunity? Who will stand as proof that it is a lie to tell people they can't achieve? Who will stand as an example that that is not true if America declines?

The one thing that will lead quickest to America's decline is not simply the debt or taxes or these unconstitutional violations we see on a daily basis. The quickest way to decline is to undermine the American dream and lose our identity as the one place on Earth where anyone from anywhere can accomplish anything. That is the fast track to decline. That is why we are so passionate about ObamaCare. It is a direct threat to the American dream.

The irony of it is that ObamaCare was sold as a way to help the people who are trying to make it. How was it sold to people? Here is how it was sold to people: If you are working class, if you are poor and you can't afford health insurance, the government is going to provide you with health insurance. Tell me the truth. That is what a lot of people perceived this to be. If they don't have insurance now, this is going to allow them to now have insurance--maybe for free, if not at a very low cost. By the way, anyone who already had insurance, this wasn't going to hurt them at all. That is how it was sold. That is how it was sold to people: This is going to be cheap, easy-to-get insurance for people who are struggling.

I understand why someone who is struggling to make it would look at it as something that is appealing. Guess what. That is not what it is. People who have existing health insurance right now, many of them are going to lose it. When they told us we could keep what we had, they were not telling us the truth. People who were told this is going to provide them access to cheap, quality health insurance, guess what. I can't tell people what they are going to get because it doesn't exist yet. But theoretically, on October 1, people are going to have a chance to sign up for one of these exchanges and here is what I predict we will find: less choices, a higher price than we anticipated, perhaps higher than we can afford, and less choices in hospitals and doctors included in those exchanges. This is a disaster all the way around. By the way, while these exchanges are being set up, people may ultimately be getting a notice from their employer that they are going to reduce their hours or maybe even their job. So that is why this is a fight worth having.

It is interesting to see it--Senator Cruz has not had a chance to see it because he has been here--but it is interesting how the news covers all of this. Political reporters--and they have a job to do--always cover this through the political angle: Who is going to win? Who is going to lose? If this is a college football game, who is the winner and who is the loser on the scoreboard and all of that kind of thing? They love to talk this up, and there is a place for that. People aren't shocked to know there are politics around here.

This issue is so much deeper than that, though. It really is. There is not a lot of attention being paid to that. I think we should, because it is having an impact on real people in a real and powerful way. All of this attention being paid, if we watch the news among the political classes, the process: When are they going to vote? Who is going to win the vote? Who is going to vote which way?

That is fine, guys. I understand that is part of this process and we all enjoy watching it from time to time, right? What they are missing is the why. Why is someone willing to stay up all night--two people, basically, willing to stay up all night to speak about this? Why are people willing to fight on this issue? Why are so many Americans against it? The why. No one is asking the why. The answer is because it is undermining the opportunity for upward mobility. That is why. We are not fighting here against the President; we are fighting for people-- for people who voted for us and people who will never vote for us; for people who voted for Mitt Romney and for people who voted for Barack Obama--for real people; people who may never agree with us on any other issue, but they are going to be heard about ObamaCare. People who, as we speak here, are about to wake up, get their kids ready to go to school, put in 8 to 10 hours at work, come back home, try to make dinner while they make sure their kids are doing homework, put them to bed. By the time all that ends, they are exhausted, and they have to get up and do it all over the next day and the next day and again the next week. The last thing these people need is another disruption in their life. The last thing these people need is to go to work tomorrow and be informed: I am sorry, but we are cutting 4 hours out of your work week. I am sorry, but we are changing your insurance plan, so that doctor you have been taking your asthmatic child to or that doctor you have been going to for your pregnancy, you are not going to be able to see them anymore because this new insurance plan does not include them. That is the last thing people need, and that is what they are going to get. That is wrong and it is unfair.

I will close with this, and I alluded to it earlier. I hope we will do everything we can to keep America special, to keep it the shining city on the hill, as Reagan called it, because as I outlined earlier, I think the future of the world depends on it, the kind of world our children will inherit depends on it.

I think it is important to remind us that America has faced difficult circumstances before. In fact, every generation of America has faced some challenge to what makes us exceptional and special--every single one. They were different, but they were challenges. This country had a Civil War that deeply divided it. This country lived through a Great Depression. This country lived through two very painful world wars. This country had to confront its history of segregation and discrimination and overcome that. It had a very controversial conflict in Vietnam that divided Americans against each other.

In the midst of all that, it had to wage a Cold War against the expanse of communism. We forget, but there were many commentators in the late 1970s and early 1980s who would ask Reagan, Why don't you accept the fact--not just Reagan, but anybody--we have to accept the fact that Soviet expansion is here to stay. That was a real threat. Again, it is easy to forget that, but that was the way the world was just 25 years ago.

Every generation of America has had to face challenges and confront them, and every generation has. Not only have they solved their problems, every generation has left the next better off--every single one. Now it is our turn.

We have a very important choice to make, and it is a pretty dramatic one. We will either be the first generation of Americans to leave our children worse off or our children will be the most prosperous Americans who have ever lived. It is one or the other. There is no middle ground, in my mind, on that. When we debate the future of this health care law and ObamaCare, we are debating that question.

I am reminded of the story of the Star-Spangled Banner and how it was written. I was reading it this morning. During the attack on the fort, it was hard to imagine that after that bombardment the United States could survive. After that bombardment the notion was there is no way they are going to make it through the night. But that next morning when the Star-Spangled Banner--when that flag was hoisted, when it was raised, it was a signal to the British and the world that this idea of freedom and liberty had survived. It is interesting how time and again that idea has been tested, both in external and internal conflict. My colleagues may not realize this, but when the Senate is in session, the flag is up. So, usually, when I am walking in early in the

morning to the Capitol, there is no flag up at 5 in the morning because there is nobody here. I didn't have my TV on this morning, but I looked over at the Capitol and I said, My goodness, the flag is still up; these guys are still talking. I am glad they are, because what is at stake is the future of our country, economically in ways just as dramatic as those challenges we faced at the inception of the Republic. This debate is not just about whether a program named after the President will stay in law; this debate is about a program that undermines the American dream, about the one thing that makes us special and different from the rest of the world, and if there is anything worth fighting for, I would think that is. If there is anything worth fighting for, I would think the American dream is worth fighting for. I think remaining exceptional is worth fighting for.

I think after its history of poverty eradication, the free enterprise system is worth fighting for. I think as someone who has directly benefited from the free enterprise system, I personally have an obligation to fight for it. I hope we will all fight for it not just on this issue but in the debate to come next week. This is what this is all about.

I will close by asking the Senator from Texas, as I highlight all of these challenges we face, is this issue, at the end of the day, about us fighting on behalf of everyday people who have no voice in this process, who can't afford to hire a lobbyist to get them a waiver, who can't afford to hire an accounting firm or a lawyer to handle all of this complexity? At the end of the day the rich companies in America are going to figure this out. They may not like it, but they can deal with it. They shouldn't have to, but they can. The people we are fighting for are the ones who cannot afford to navigate this.

I ask the Senator from Texas: Isn't this what this is all about?

Will the Senator from Texas yield for a question without losing the floor?

I heard the rhetorical question the Senator posed to the body, and it involved a direct question about how my family would have confronted those challenges, so let me back up and talk about that for a second because while it is my family--and I always refer to it--the reason why I got in politics and my view of the issues of the day are all framed through my upbringing, as all of ours are. You cannot escape where you come from or what you were raised around. It influences the way you view the world and the way you view issues, and the experience my family had has influenced me.

I earlier talked about the student loans I once had. I paid them off last year, by the way, with the proceeds of a book, which is available now in paperback, if anyone is curious. But anyway, all joking aside, when I wrote that book, it required me to go back and learn a lot more detail about my parents. Because like anybody else, when you grow up you listen to your parents talk and you kind of repeat it to other people, but when you are growing up and you are in a hurry, you do not always have time to sit down and listen to the details. This actually forced me to go back and learn details about their lives.

What ended up happening is I ended up meeting and discovering two people whom I never knew. I knew something about them. I had grown up with them. But I knew my parents in their forties and fifties. I did not know them in their twenties and thirties. Sometimes when you are young, you forget your parents used to be young too. Sometimes you forget that when they were your age, they had their own dreams and their own hopes and their own aspirations. And they certainly did.

It reminds me, as I learned about these stories, I learned that when they came to this country, it was not an instant success. The immigrant experience rarely is. You do not just get here and a week later you are running a very successful company or whatever. It does not work that way. My parents struggled. They were very discouraged those first few years. My dad bounced from temporary job to temporary job. My mom was hurt in an accident making aluminum chairs at a factory. She cut her hand.

They struggled. Those first years were tough. But they persevered, and what ended up happening was my father found a job as a bar assistant, basically, on Miami Beach. Then eventually, through hard work, he was promoted to bartender, and then one of the top bartenders at the hotel. It was not going to make him rich, but it made him stable.

By 1966, 10 years after they had arrived, they felt so confident in the future they bought a home. Five years after that, they were so confident that even though they were both over 40 years of age, they had me and then my sister a year and a half after that.

The Senator asked the question rhetorically to the Chamber--and I am going to answer it--what would it have been like if a program such as this would have been in place? But it is not just a program such as this. It is not just ObamaCare. It is all the other things the government is doing. To answer that question, I have to focus on why they had opportunities to begin with.

Why was my dad able to raise our family working as a bartender at a hotel on Miami Beach, and then in Las Vegas, and then back in Miami? Because someone who had access to money risked that money to open that hotel. That was not a government-run hotel. That hotel existed because people who had access to money--I do not know if they borrowed it; I do not if it was their own; I am not sure of the history behind it--but someone with access to money said: Instead of leaving it in the bank or investing it in another country, I am going to risk this money and open and operate this hotel. The result is the jobs my parents had existed.

But that is how you open a business. How does it continue? How does that business survive? It survived because Americans--after they were done paying their taxes and all their other bills--had enough money left over in their pocket to get on an airplane and fly to Miami Beach or to Las Vegas and stay three or four nights at the hotel where my parents worked.

The answer to the Senator's question is, the reason why my parents were able to own a home and provide us a stable environment in which we grew up was because free enterprise works. Free enterprise works. It encouraged someone with access to money to open those hotels, and it left enough money and prosperity in people's pockets after they paid their bills and their taxes so they could take a vacation and go to hotels where my parents worked. Without people in those hotels, there is no job for our parents. They were able to achieve for us what they did because of free enterprise.

To answer the Senator's question about the impact of ObamaCare, anything that would undermine free enterprise would have undermined those hopes and those dreams. And ObamaCare is undermining it.

I cannot say for certain what would have happened. But here is a possibility. ObamaCare could have encouraged the hotel they worked at to move employees from 40 hours to 28 hours, hire two bartenders part time instead of one. That would not have been good. ObamaCare could have led them to hire two cashiers at the Crown Hotel in Miami Beach instead of one--two part-timers like my mom. That would not have been good. Even beyond that, because ObamaCare is cutting people's hours all over the country, because ObamaCare is keeping people from getting hired all over the country, because ObamaCare is costing people their jobs all over the country, I suspect the number of visitors to that hotel would have been diminished.

When you lose your job, when you get moved from full time to part time, the next move you make is not to get on an airplane and go on vacation. The next move you make is to scramble to make up the difference. That is called personal discretionary spending, and people do not do that when they are uncertain about tomorrow. ObamaCare would have made many Americans uncertain about tomorrow. It is going to make many Americans uncertain about tomorrow. The bottom line is, it would have directly and indirectly harmed my parents' aspirations for themselves and our family.

Here is what is troublesome. There are millions of people in this country today trying to do what my parents did. If you want to find them, walk out of this building and walk three blocks to the nearest hotel and you will meet them there. They clean the hotel rooms. They serve food at the restaurants. They cater the banquets, as did my dad or the gentleman or the lady standing behind that little portable bar serving drinks at the next function at which we speak. They are right down the street.

They are in the halls of this building. You will meet them. They have a little vest on. You will see them with a little cart, cleaning the bathrooms and the floors and providing an environment where we can work. These are people who are working hard to achieve a better life for themselves and oftentimes for their children. These are folks, many of whom have decided: I am going to sacrifice and work a job so my children can have a career.

I cannot tell you how many of the people who work in this building I have talked to, such as the company that caters our lunches or are in the cafeterias here. I cannot tell you how many of them have said to me the reason why they are working these jobs is because they hope one day their children

can do something such as stand on the floor of this Senate.

I say to Senator Cruz, that happens to be our story. That happens to be the American story too. We forget that some of the greatest heroes in the American story are not the people who have been on the cover of magazines. Some of the greatest heroes in the American story are not people who have had movies made about them. Some of the greatest heroes in the American story are not the famous people who are on CNBC being interviewed all the time about how successful they are. They are heroes too. But some of the greatest heroes in the American story are people you will never learn about, about whom books will never be written, whose stories will never be told. Some of the greatest heroes in the American story are people who have worked hard at jobs--back-breaking jobs, difficult jobs--so their children can have careers.

I want you to think about what that means. Think about reaching a point in your life when you realize, you know what, for me, this is about as far as I am going to be able to go--because of age, because of circumstances--but now the purpose of my life will become making sure all the doors that were closed for me are open for my children. Imagine that. Because that is what millions of people are living right now.

It is not that they are not talented, it is not that they are not smart, except they are 45 or 40 or 46, and time is running out on them. But what America is going to give them a chance to do is, it is going to give them a chance to open doors for their children that were closed for them.

They are not going to be able to leave their children trust funds. They are not going to be able to leave their children millions of dollars. They are not going to be able to leave their children a home even. But they are going to be able to allow their children to inherit their unfulfilled dreams and fulfill them.

There are millions of people in this country who are trying to do that right now. There are people who work in this Capitol who are trying to do that right now. There are people working within blocks of here who are trying to do that right now. ObamaCare is going to make it harder for them to do that. It is ironic because ObamaCare was sold as a plan to help people like that. Instead, because it undermines the free enterprise system, it is hurting them.

Many of those people who are being hurt may not have realized it yet. I think the job of leadership is to explain the consequences to people. But in the end, I feel as though we have an obligation to fight on their behalf. I feel as though we--especially those of us who are a generation removed from that experience--have a special obligation to fight for that.

The American story is not the story of people who have made it and then say: Now everyone is on their own. The American story is the story of people who have succeeded and want others to succeed as well. That, by the way, is one of the fundamental differences between the view of big government and the view of free enterprise. Big government believes that the economy cannot really grow, and so what we need government to do is divide it up among us. Right? The economy is a limited thing. There is only so much money to go around, so we need the government to step in and make sure the money is distributed fairly. That is what we are going to use taxes for. That is the view big government has.

What makes America different is we rejected that. We said that is not true. We believe in free enterprise, and free enterprise believes the economy can always continue to grow bigger.

That means if you are successful you can stay successful, and other people can become successful as well. What makes America special is that free enterprise believes you do not have to make anybody worse off in order to make someone better off. That is different from the rest of the world, and it works.

I remember growing up, especially when I lived in Las Vegas. There were not a lot of--back then, especially, there were not a lot of family friendly things to do on the weekends. One of the things we used to do--my parents liked to do this--they would drive us through the nice neighborhoods with the nice houses. I remember Liberace's house was in Las Vegas. It was one of the nice houses.

They would drive us through these neighborhoods and they would show us these houses. When we looked at these houses they would not say to us: Look at the people living in those houses, look at how much money they are making. That is unfair. Right? They are making all that money, and that is why we are struggling. The reason why we live in a small house is because people like them live in big houses.

They did not teach that to us. On the contrary. Do you know what they used to say to us. Look at what these people accomplished through hard work and sacrifice. That can be you if that is what you want. Look at what these people were able to do. That can be you.

That is the difference in some ways between us and the rest of the world. We have never been a place of class envy and class warfare. We have always pointed to these stories as an example of what you can do as well. We celebrate success in America. It inspires us because we know it is not a zero sum game. We know that you can be successful and I can be successful. We know that you can have a successful business and I can have a successful business.

We know that in order for me to be more prosperous I do not have to make anyone less prosperous. That is a big deal, because that is not the way the world has functioned for most of its history. For most of its history, governments did not view it that way and peoples did not view it that way. They always viewed that there had to be a winner and there had to be a loser. One of the things that made us really unique is that we never viewed it that way. In America we have viewed it as you can be a winner and I can be a winner. We can both benefit from each other, because that is how free enterprise works.

In free enterprise you need your customers to be well off. You need your customers to be doing well economically. You cannot afford to bankrupt people by raising your prices because then they cannot buy stuff from you. It is all interrelated. Last year during the campaign there was this big debate about job creators, whether or not you realize it. Every time you go shopping at a department store you are a job creator. Every time you order something on the Internet you are a job creator. Every time you spend money in our economy you are a job creator.

Some people open a business. But every American is a job creator because in the free enterprise, the better off you are the better off we are. And we can all be better off. That is not the direction we are headed. That is one of the things that they are trying to influence in this debate on ObamaCare. They are trying to argue that this is an effort to deny people something. Not true. This is an effort to protect people from something, especially people that are vulnerable to this. I repeat; I am telling you that I have talked to a lot of successful people, people that are making a lot of money or have made a lot of money. They do not like ObamaCare but they are going to be fine with it. They are going to deal with it. They can afford to deal with it. They do not like it. They are going to have to make decisions in business that they do not want to make. But they are going to figure out how to deal with this one way or the other.

At the end of the day, they are going to be fine with whatever we do. They are not going to be the ones who are going to be hurt by this. The ones who are going to be hurt by this are the people who are trying to make it, the people whose hours are going to be cut, whose jobs are going to be slashed, who are going to lose benefits that they are happy with.

Sadly, because they are so busy with their lives, working and raising their kids, they may not realize why all of this is happening until it is too late. So the question the Senator posed to the body was a very insightful one. It goes to the heart of what this debate is about: Who are we fighting for? What are we fighting about?

I fear that too many people that are covering this process think this is all about an effort to keep the President from accomplishing something that he feels strongly about. Not true. This is an effort to fight on behalf of people who are going to be hurt badly. This is

an effort to fight on behalf of people who do not have the influence or the power to fight here for themselves. That is why we are here. This is an effort to fight on behalf of people who are trying to do what my parents did. This is an effort to fight on behalf of the people who are trying to start a business out of the spare bedroom of their home-- probably in violation of the zoning code, but they are trying to do it.

This is an effort to fight on behalf of the people who are working every single day to achieve their full potential. This is an effort to fight on behalf of people who are working hard at jobs that are hard to get up for in the morning to go do. But they are going to go do it, because the purpose of their life is to give their kids the chance to do anything they want.

Do you how many people I know like that? You cannot walk 10 steps in my neighborhood without running into people like that. The whole purpose of their life, the singular focus of their life, is to make sure that their kids have a chance to do all the things they never got the chance to do. Do you know how many people there are like that around this country? They depend on the jobs that are being destroyed by ObamaCare. They depend on the opportunities that are not being created because of ObamaCare. That is wrong. I hope we will be successful with this effort.

Now, people are going to focus on how the vote is going to go down. This is not going end here, guys. We are not going to stop talking about this no matter how the vote here ends up. We are going to continue to do everything we can to keep this from hurting the American people because it undermines the essence of our Nation.

The reason why I am so passionate about this goes right to the heart of the question the Senator asked, because ObamaCare and big government in general make it harder, not easier for people that are trying to do what my parents did to achieve their dreams.

I think the question of Senator Cruz goes to the heart of what this debate is all about. I would yield back to the Senator to encourage him to continue to highlight the impact that this law is having on real people and their real lives, because I think it is going take some time to break through the narrative that this is all a big political fight, that this is between the President and his opponents.

Whether this law was called ObamaCare or not, we would have to oppose it, because it is hurting real people who are trying to achieve the American dream.

Would the Senator from Texas yield?

The Senator asked actually a great question. We talk about people who are trying to make it. We talk about the people who are working hard to sacrifice and to leave their children and families better off.

A disproportionate number of people who are trying to do that find themselves in minority communities. You asked about the Hispanic community. I live in a Hispanic neighborhood even now. I live just blocks away from the famed Calle Ocho, 8th Street, in Miami.

If you have never been, I encourage you to come. The President visited an establishment about 4 blocks from my house, I think back in 2010 when he was in town campaigning for one of the candidates. Literally, I mean literally, every business, one after another after another is a small family-owned or family-operated business.

Every single one. It is the bakery, next to the dry cleaner, next to the liquor store, next to the grocery store, next to the uniform shop that sells uniforms next to the gas station, next to the banquet hall. It goes on and on and on. I invite you to come down and see it. There is a Popeyes there, and you will find a McDonald's. But even those franchises, by the way, are owned by families.

Literally, every business on 8th Street, on Calle Ocho, just blocks away

from my house, one after the other after the other, is a small business. So are all of my neighbors.

I have a neighbor who runs an electronic alarm company and another neighbor who runs a pool-cleaning business. I am just speaking about my neighborhood. That is the story of the country.

Listen, there are very successful people, Americans of Hispanic descent, who started out as a small business and now are a big business and have been very successful too of course. It is sort of like the rest of the population. It reflects the concerns of whatever challenges they are facing.

But an enormous percentage of Americans of Hispanic descent also happen to be people who are trying to accomplish the American dream. Perhaps the strongest burning desire you will find in minority communities in general--and in particular the one I know best, the Hispanic community--is that burning desire to give their kids the chance to do everything they couldn't. Maybe by the time you got here you were already into your late twenties or early thirties. Because you could succeed, there are many stories of people who have come here at that age and have accomplished extraordinary things. They started in small business, and before you knew it they were being publicly traded. That is a great part of the American story. We celebrate that.

But there are also countless people who worked jobs their whole life. That is what they end up doing. They worked those jobs so their kids could have the opportunity to get ahead. That is a very prevalent story in the Hispanic community.

Interestingly enough, the Hispanic community is very diverse on a lot of different things. Obviously, we have a strong Cuban-American presence in South Florida, but we also have a significant presence from South America. My wife's family is from Colombia. We have a very vibrant Venezuelan community, by the way, coming to the United States to escape Big Government gone horrible.

They just posted--if you read this yesterday--posted military officers at the toilet paper factory in Venezuela because they are not producing enough toilet paper. They think it is some sort of capitalist, imperialist plot to deny the people of Venezuela toilet paper. They have now stationed troops at the toilet paper factory.

This is a country where many of those who find themselves on the American left love going down and extolling the virtues of Chavez, about how great a country it was. They can't--well, let me not say on the Senate floor what they cannot do anymore--but they are struggling to provide toilet paper for their people.

That is how Big Government works. If you want to see another socialist paradise, go to Cuba. The infrastructure is struggling and people are trying to get out of that economy. There are no political freedoms in Cuba, but the economic freedoms are a disaster.

It is because Big Government does not work. Compare that to Chile, to Panama, to Colombia. Compare Colombia to Venezuela, two countries living next together.

A decade ago Colombia was caught in a deep struggle with drug lords and drug cartels. They still have problems with the guerrillas and the FARC, things such as that, but Colombia has turned things around. Why? Two things; one, real leadership at the political level; and, two, free enterprise. They embraced free enterprise.

We have a free-trade agreement with Colombia. There is prosperity in Colombia. Compare that with next-door Venezuela, an energy-rich country, a country that is rich with oil, a country that has natural resources and advantages that Colombia doesn't have, Venezuela. They can't even produce toilet paper because Big Government failed.

In fact, there has been a massive migration of experts in the oil industry leaving Venezuela and moving to Colombia. Compare to Mexico. Mexico still has some challenges, but Mexico has a vibrant middle class. There is a real middle class in Mexico, and it is growing. Look at the moves the new President is making. They are not going to open the oil industry there the way we would do it in the United States, but they are going to make changes to the oil industry because they want to grow and they want to create prosperity.

This holds great promise for our country. Stronger integration between Canada, the United States, and Mexico is very promising. We can cooperate on all sorts of things from energy to security issues. I think that holds great promise. North American energy has the opportunity to displace energy coming from unstable parts of the world such as the Middle East.

But how is Mexico growing its economy? What is Mexico thinking in order to grow its economy and provide more prosperity for its people. They are thinking about embracing more free enterprise.

Look at the countries in Latin America that are succeeding: Peru, Chile, Panama, Mexico, Colombia. I hope I am not leaving anyone out. These are countries that are moving ahead.

They have struggles and challenges, and it is not a clear upward trajectory because there are challenges in the global economy, but they are moving ahead.

Look at the countries that are a disaster: Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Nicaragua. What is the difference? What is the starkest difference between these countries other than perhaps the individual lunacy of some of these individuals in this country. What is the difference?

The difference is the countries that are failing and embarrassing their people are the countries that are embracing Big Government and socialism. The countries that are providing middle-class opportunities and upward mobility are the countries that are embracing more and more free enterprise.

When you ask about the Americans of Hispanic descent, these are the countries they came from. They came here to get away from Big Government. Why is there a vibrant and growing Venezuelan community in Miami-Dade County where I live? Because Big Government is destroying Venezuela.

Why are there over 1 million Cuban exiles living in Miami, New Jersey, and concentrated in different parts of the country, including a sizable community in Houston, TX? Because they came here to flee, not just Big Government, but the oppression that comes from very Big Government, socialism and Marxism.

Why do people cross the border from Mexico and come into the United States in search of jobs and opportunities--because for a long time Mexico didn't embrace free enterprise policies. It is now increasingly--and what is happening in Mexico, a vibrant and growing middle class, a sense of upward mobility. Every country has challenges. They have challenges in Mexico, but they are trying to turn it around and they are doing some good things to try to do that because they are embracing free enterprise.

The unique thing about it, Senator Cruz, is that Americans of Hispanic descent, particularly those here in the first generation or the second, have come here to get away from Big Government policies, because in countries that have Big Government, you are trapped. You are trapped. In countries that have Big Government, the people that come from powerful families and powerful enclaves, they are the people who keep winning.

In places where the government dominates the economy, as is disproportionately the case, and the countries that immigrants come here from, those are the places where the same people keep winning.

The biggest company 50 years ago is still the biggest company. The richest family in the country is still the richest family. The President is the grandson and the son, over and over.

That is what Big Government does. It traps people in the circumstances of their birth.

What happens if you are a talented, ambitious, and hard-working person living in a country like that, frustrated and trapped? You try to get to the only country in the world where people like you even have a chance, the United States.

We have millions of people living in this country of Hispanic descent that experience that, that know what it is like to live in a place where you are trapped in circumstances of their birth. The reason why they love America is because here they are not limited by that.

I have said oftentimes--and I think you would share this perception in the

story of your father, Senator Cruz--it is true that immigrants impact America. It is true they do. Immigrants impact America, they contribute to America, they change America.

But I promise you that America changes immigrants even more. You find that in the Hispanic community, the impact that America has on immigrants once it opens opportunities for them. Long before my parents became citizens, they were Americans in their heart. That is still true. You will still find that out there in the Hispanic communities. You will still find people who understand how special this country is because of the opportunities it is giving them and their children. This is why I think they will and are starting to understand how damaging this law may be.

If you watch Spanish-language television, they are running these advertisements now, talking about sign up for ObamaCare, it is good for you. They are making it sound like this is going to be cheap and free insurance for people. When you are working hard 10, 12 hours a day and not making a lot of money, maybe your employer doesn't provide health insurance and along come these politicians telling you we are going to give you health insurance cheap and free. It is enticing, but it is not what is going to happen. When people realize that, not only are they going to be upset, they are going to be livid.

When they go to work one day and they tell them: Guess what. You are now a part-time worker, they are going to be livid. When they go to work because they are working part-time because of where they go to school and they lose hours, they are going to be livid.

When they go back to work one of these days, they may be working at one of these places where they have health insurance, as over 70 percent of Americans do, and they are happy with it. All of a sudden they found out: You know that health insurance you have, that is not our health insurance anymore. You have to go on this Web site and shop for a new one.

If they go on the Web site today they can't shop for anything. It isn't set up yet. They are going to be livid.

When we talked about defending people who are trying to make it, people who are working hard to persevere and move ahead, I think that is the epitome of what you will find in the Hispanic community in this country. That is the typical story of people who are here. They are working hard to get ahead and they want their children to have a better life than them.

There is only one economic system in the world where that is possible and that is the American free enterprise system. ObamaCare directly undermines it. If for no other reason we should repeal ObamaCare because it undermines the free enterprise system--the single greatest eradicator of poverty in human history, the free enterprise system. It is the only system in human history that allows people to emerge from poverty and into a stable middle class and beyond, the free enterprise system. It is the only economic system in human history that rewards hard work, sacrifice, and merit, the American free enterprise system. ObamaCare is undermining it.

As I yield back to the Senator, is it not the case that what we are doing is not to stand against ObamaCare. We are fighting against the only system in American history, American free enterprise, where upward mobility is possible for so many people.

Would the Senator from Texas yield for a question and a comment without yielding the floor?

First of all, that is a very inspirational letter that the Senator read, and it reminds us of our shared legacy as a nation. It also makes me appreciate the freedoms we have in this country, and the opportunity to stand here today and have this vibrant debate. I am reminded that around the world people don't have this opportunity. I am reminded that around the world people are still losing not just their freedom but their lives for the purposes of speaking out.

I will confess that I hope we can avoid the hanging part of the situation the Senator have outlined, and I am sure we will because we are so blessed to live in this Republic.

I do something every week where I take letters from my constituents, read them in a video on the air, and then I answer them. I call it the constituent mailbox. I have been doing that since I have gotten here. It is important because it allows us to answer the real questions of real people, and their comments.

They are not always nice letters, by the way, but we address those too because that is important. One of the benefits we have with the advances in technology is that the people we serve and work for can now reach us directly and speak to us in real time as opposed to the days gone by where people had trouble accessing their elected officials.

So, with Senator Cruz's indulgence--as you have given me time but have not yielded the floor--I would like to read a few e-mails I have received.

The first e-mail is from someone named Luis. He lives in Cutler Bay, FL, which is south Florida down where I live in Miami-Dade County.

Here is what he writes:

There are so many companies with a large number of part

time workers. The latest company Trader Joes in which I have

a family member will lose her part time health benefits

because of ObamaCare. She works as a substitute English

teacher in New Jersey and the job does not offer any health

benefits to part time substitute teachers. She has to be a

full time teacher in order to receive

health benefits. She decided not to leave her job at Trader

Joes because they offered her health benefits as a part time

worker. Put yourselves as present grandparents and parents in

her own situation what a hard pill to swallow. What is she

supposed to do now?

This letter talks about a family member of hers who is a part-time teacher in New Jersey, but also works at a restaurant called Trader Joe's. The reason why she works there is for the health benefits that she is offered, but now she is losing that. Unfortunately she is not alone.

This is an article from Bloomberg from September 19 of this year. It highlights all these upheavals that are going on by private employers. UPS is dropping coverage for employed spouses; IBM is reworking its retiree benefits. Let me explain that one for a second. They are going to send their retirees to the private exchanges. They said the move was made to help keep premiums low for the rest of their workers that are impacted by ObamaCare.

Walgreens, the largest U.S. drugstore chain, has told 160,000 workers that they must buy insurance through a private exchange rather than continuing to have it offered by the company, by Walgreens. They are not alone. Stanford University researchers voiced concerns in a study last week. They wrote that ``the rising premiums can drive workers from employer plans to coverage under the health law, boosting costs for the government by as much as $6.7 billion.''

There are other examples of businesses that are doing this. I talked about Trader Joe's. That is a closely-held supermarket chain. I said a restaurant. I apologize, it is a supermarket chain. It said it would end health benefits next year for part-time workers.

This is the real disruption in real lives. So one thing is to stand here and have people debate about the theory of ObamaCare and what great things it might do for some people, according to the supporters of this law. Another thing is to put a human face on the story. We already know, just from this e-mail alone, of one person in America, living in New Jersey, a part-time teacher and a worker at Trader Joe's who has lost her benefits and will now be thrown into this uncertain world of exchanges, because of this law, because of ObamaCare.

Here is another e-mail. This one comes from Kissimmee, FL. That is in central Florida. My colleagues may know that as the home of Walt Disney World. This is from Patty. She writes:

As mentioned in your letter--

She is referring to a letter I sent to Secretary Sebelius--

urging her to visit Sea World to discuss the impact of

ObamaCare that will be enacted in the near future, I--

Patty, the writer of this letter--

am a part-time employee at Valencia College in Orlando.

Valencia is a community college. By the way, I am a big fan of community colleges. They are the backbone of retraining, but also the only access point available to many of our people. So if you are out there trying to work to support your family--let's say you are a single parent trying to raise three kids and you have to work during the day-- community college is also one of the few places where you can get an advanced degree and the skills you need for a better job. One of the best ways to improve your pay and your economic security is to get an education. Community colleges are an access point for people all over the country. I am a huge fan of community colleges. We have great ones in Florida. She is a part-time employee of Valencia College in Orlando. She continues:

My hours too have been cut from 29 hours to 25 hours to

avoid any negative impact of the Obamacare health care act. I

have numerous e-mails from my supervisor and human resources

stating that my hours are being cut specifically because of

this.

I have lost the hours that made it possible to live in a

severely reduced income and know that I will never get those

hours back as positions have been created by the extra hours,

so we have more people working and earning less. I am not

really asking anything; I'd just like you to know what this

government is doing to my ability to survive.

This is not an e-mail from a millionaire or a billionaire. This is not an e-mail from someone who has made it and is making a ton of cash. This is an e-mail from a part-time worker at a community college with desperation that comes out in the e-mail: a part-time worker losing hours. Did we know what those hours mean, 4 hours a week of a pay cut to someone? She writes about it. She says: ``I would just like you to know what this government is doing to my ability to survive.''

Do we want to know why a growing number of Americans are starting to doubt whether the American dream is still alive? Read this e-mail.

Unfortunately, we are hearing stories about this all the time. Here is an article from CNBC published Monday, September 23, this week. It leads off with this line:

With open enrollment for Obamacare about to begin, small-

and medium-sized businesses are not hiring because of the

uncertainty surrounding the implementation of the new law,

the CEO of the Nation's fifth-largest staffing company said

on Monday.

Companies are really not interested in hiring full-time

people. ``That's really the issue with Obamacare,'' Express

Employment Professionals boss Bob Funk told CNBC's ``Squawk

Box'' on Monday.

By the way, Mr. Funk is the former chairman of the Kansas City Federal Reserve.

Now, someone--the former auto czar at Treasury, Mr. Steve Rattner-- disputes his assertions. He says:

I don't think with the approach of Obamacare you see in the

numbers people suddenly stopping hiring.

Mr. Funk argues--and he counters very persuasively--he says:

We're out there on Main Street and Obamacare is affecting

the job hiring picture. Whether it's in the numbers or not,

it is affecting small and medium-sized businesses. They're

not going to hire until they know what their costs are going

to be.

We don't know what the rules are going to be, but they

haven't written half of the rules . . . and it is affecting

businesses out there. That's why our industry is growing

quite rapidly.

So here we have a person tied to the government basically saying these guys don't know what they are talking about; the numbers don't bear this out. And then we have someone who reminds them that he is on the front lines. That is what Mr. Funk is doing. He is very clear. He says, ``We are out there on Main Street and Obamacare is affecting the job hiring picture.''

Listen again to what Patty from Kissimmee says in her e-mail. This is what she says:

I have lost the hours that made it possible to live in a

severely reduced income and know that I will never get those

hours back as positions have been created by the extra hours.

Do my colleagues know what she is saying? She is saying what they have done is reduced her hours and then just hired additional people to make it up. They have created another part-time job to make up for it. This is the impact of ObamaCare.

By the way, with all due respect to my colleagues, I will tell my colleagues right now in case people are wondering, every single member of the Republican Conference here in the Senate is prepared to repeal ObamaCare right now. The debate we are having in the party is about the tactics, the right way to do it. The one thing I would say, however, is what the last day has provided us, which is an extraordinary opportunity to tell these stories.

There is more. Here is an e-mail from Bill in Panama City, FL. That is in northwest Florida, a great place for spring break if you are in college and can afford to go. Maybe you lost your part-time job so now you can't. Bill says:

This is just a note to let you know that you can include me

as another one of your constituents who has seen my health

care cost go up by over $200 a month. I also just learned

that my girlfriend, who works for a major corporation, is

losing her health care after she retires because of

Obamacare. I hope you will continue your fight to defund this

disastrous bill.

I wish, Bill, that--I obviously feel terrible for the situation you are facing and certainly for the situation your girlfriend is facing. Unfortunately, you are not alone.

Let me read something to my colleagues that Jim Angle from Fox News published on the 24th of this month, I guess that was yesterday, right? He tells the story of Andy and Amy Mangione of Louisville, KY, and of their two boys. He leads off by saying:

These are just the kind of people who should be helped by

ObamaCare, but they recently got a nasty surprise in the

mail.

``When I saw the letter when I came home from work,'' Andy

said, describing the large red wording on the envelope from

his insurance carrier, (it said) ``your action required,

benefit changes, act now.'' Of course I opened it

immediately.

Guess what that letter that was in the mail said? It had stunning news. His insurance--the insurance for his family, his two boys, his wife and him--insurance they were buying on the individual marketplace--was going to almost triple next year, from $333 a month to $965 a month. In the letter, the carrier made it clear that the increase was in order to be compliant with the new health care law.

He goes on to say:

This isn't a Cadillac plan, this isn't even a silver plan.

This is a high deductible plan where I'm assuming a lot of

risk for my health insurance for my family. And nothing has

changed, our boys are healthy--they're young--my wife is

healthy, I'm healthy. Nothing in our history has changed to

warrant a tripling of our premiums.

His wife adds:

Well, I'm the one that does the budget. Eventually, I've

got that coming down the pike that I gotta figure out what

we're gonna do, to afford a $1,000 a month premium.

The insurance carrier, Humana, declined to comment, but the

notice to the Mangiones carried this paragraph: If your

policy premium increased, you should know that this isn't

unique to Humana--premium increases generally will occur

industry-wide.

Increases aren't based on your individual claims or changes

in your health status.

It continued:

Many other factors go into your premium, including: ACA

compliance--

which is ObamaCare--

Including the addition of new essential health benefits.

Robert Zirkelbach, who is the spokesman for American Health Insurance Plans, which represents insurers, explains that:

For people who currently choose to purchase a high-

deductible, low-premium policy that is more affordable for

them, they are now being required to add all of these new

benefits to their policy. That,

He says,

is going to add to the cost of their health insurance

premiums.

This is a real life story. It is not a letter from a millionaire or billionaire, and this is not the story of a millionaire or billionaire; this is the story of a husband and wife and two children who are buying insurance as individuals from the individual marketplace who will now have to cobble together another $700 a month and they have no idea how they are going to do it. This is the real story of ObamaCare. Here it is. These are the people we are supposed to be helping. These are the people who--when they passed this thing, they went around telling people, We are going to help you get insurance. These are the people it is supposed to be helping, but look what it is doing. I wish that was the only example, but I have an e-mail here from Florida that says that, too. Here is another one from Barbara in Palm Coast, FL:

I am a master's level RN who up until last week held a good

job with good benefits. Due to the many new restrictions on

employers, I have been reduced to part-time without benefits

at age 64.

It is starting to sound like a broken record.

Many healthcare workers are being cut in hours due to

Obamacare. My company tried to offer me an insurance plan

that I could afford to purchase, but I received a letter

stating that it didn't meet the standards of the Affordable

Care Act, and so I had until January 1st to purchase more

costly insurance or have consequences.

She writes:

This is a terrible, despicable law--

And I agree--

that has damaged many more people than just myself.

Then she closes with this extremely powerful sentence. This is not from a millionaire or a billionaire, from the infamous 1-percenters that we hear these protesters against. This is from a nurse in Florida, and here is what she finishes with:

I just want to live in a free country where I can work hard

and support myself. Repeal Obamacare.

Well, one may ask themselves: Is this really happening? People are losing access to their coverage? Let me read something from a conservative, rightwing newspaper, ``The New York Times,'' dated September 22, 2013:

Federal officials often say that health insurance will cost

consumers less than expected under President Obama's health

care law. But they rarely mention one big reason: Many

insurers are significantly limiting the choices of doctors

and hospitals available to consumers.

One more impact of ObamaCare.

. . . They have created smaller networks of doctors and

hospitals than are typically found in the commercial

insurance plans.

In a new study, the Health Research Institute of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the consulting company, says that ``insurers passed over major medical centers'' when selecting providers in California, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, among other states.

In New Hampshire, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, a unit

of WellPoint, one of the Nation's largest insurers, has

touched off a furor by excluding 10 of the state's 26

hospitals from the health plans that it will sell through the

insurance exchange.

Anthem is the only commercial carrier offering health plans

in the New Hampshire exchange.

What does this mean? Let me tell my colleagues what it means. ObamaCare says if you can't find insurance, we are going to set up these government exchanges. Theoretically, that is not a terrible idea. You go online, you shop between different companies, they compete against each other, you find a price that works for you, you find coverage that works for you, and that is where you are going to be required to go. That is where the people who got cut off from Walgreens insurance plans have to go now. It is where a bunch of other people have to go.

What are these companies doing? There are a couple of things happening. First, in States such as New Hampshire, only one insurance company applies. There is no choice. There is no competition. The exchange is one company: Anthem.

No. 2, what are these companies doing in order to offer these plans? They are basically narrowing the doctors and the hospitals that will see you. One may say, at least I get to go to a hospital or a doctor. Let me tell my colleagues where the problem is. Remember what they said when this passed? If you have health insurance and you like it, if you have a doctor and you are happy with that doctor, you can keep it? Not if you are on the exchange. If they are narrowing the number of people, the number of doctors and providers, that means chances are that you will no longer be able to keep going to the same doctor and the same hospital you were going to before.

So now let's work that out. Let's walk through this for a second. Put yourself in the position of this nurse who wrote to us. Let's say you are chronically ill. Let's say your child has asthma or some other condition. Let's say you have four healthy kids but you have to take them to the doctor at least once a year, right? You love the doctor you go to. They know your family and your history. When you have a problem you can call them on the phone at 2 in the morning and you get a call right back, avoiding emergency room visits, by the way; you can get your doctor on the phone. Now you wake up and all of a sudden your company comes to you and says the insurance plan you are on right now, we are not offering it anymore, go get it on the exchange.

So you go over to the exchange and you find two things: No. 1, it is more expensive, and, No. 2, your doctor ain't on the plan. That is a broken promise. That is specifically what they said this law would not do, and that is what it is doing.

This is the real-life story of what is happening. You want to know why there is passion about this issue? You want to know why every Republican Member of the Senate wants to repeal this thing? You want to know why privately some Democrats wish it would go away? Because of this. This is whom we are fighting for. This is not just a fight against a bad law. This is a fight on behalf of people across this country who are going to get hurt by this.

By the way, I have no idea--these people who have written me or others who are suffering, I do not know whom they voted for in the last election. It does not matter. I do not know if they ever voted for me in 2010. I do not know if they supported the law when it first came out. But I know they are being hurt by this, and I know they are being hurt by this in ways that will hurt all of us, that will hurt every single one of us.

I talked about it earlier this morning. I repeat it today: There is nothing more important than preserving, reclaiming, and restoring the American dream. It is the essence of what makes us special as a country. It separates us from the world.

What is the American dream? It is pretty straightforward. This is a country where if you work hard and you sacrifice, you should be able to get ahead and earn a better life for yourself and for your family. Does this sound like the story of a law that is making it easier for people to get ahead? Does being moved from full-time to part-time work make it easier to get ahead? Of course not. Does losing a doctor whom you are happy with make it easier for you to get ahead? Of course not. Does the fact that businesses are not hiring make it easier to get ahead because they are afraid of ObamaCare? Does it make it easier to get ahead? Of course not. Does having your hours reduced from 29 to 26--or whatever the figure was I read a moment ago--does that make it easier to get ahead? Of course not.

If for no other reason, this law needs to be repealed because of the impact it is having on the American dream. I will reiterate what I have said time and again on this floor and here as part of this process: You lose the American dream, you lose the country. What you have then--what you have then--is just another rich and powerful country but no longer an exceptional one.

The American dream is at the cornerstone of what makes us different and special, and it is being threatened by this. That is why I feel so passionately that we must do everything we can--everything we can--to call attention to what this is doing and try to change it.

I think if nothing else, Senator, the great service of these last-- what is it now? 19 hours, as your tie continues to loosen--if nothing else, I think people today across this country know more about this law and its impacts than they did 1 day ago. If nothing else, the people in this country are now increasingly aware of all the implications of this law on their lives, on their dreams, on their hopes, and on their families.

I believe this is just the beginning, and I hope we can prevent these harmful effects from happening. But it does not sound like it. It sounds like there are still people here who are willing to shut down the government unless this thing is fully funded, unless we continue to pour your hard-earned taxpayer dollars. The irony of it is, for Luis in Cutler Bay, for Patty in Kissimmee, for Bill in Panama City, for Barbara in Palm Coast, FL, for all the people who were cited in these articles, for the Mangione family in Louisville, KY, guess whose money is paying for this disaster. Yours. Your taxpayer dollars are paying for this catastrophe because of the stubbornness of saying: This is our law, and we are going to go through with it, no matter all these anecdotal things that are coming out.

By the way, the only way you can get relief from the negative impacts of this law is if you can afford to hire a lobbyist to come up here and get you a waiver. The only way you can avoid some of the disastrous impacts of this law is if you can somehow figure out a way to influence this administration to write the rules in a way that benefits you.

That is wrong. That is wrong. I hope we will do something about this. I think the last 19-some-odd hours have been a huge step in that direction.

I guess my question to Senator Cruz would be: I am sure he is getting letters such as these from Texas and across the country given the events of the last day. This is what this is all about, isn't it? This is not a fight just against a law; this is a fight on behalf of the people who are being hurt by it in the most fundamental way possible. It is hurting their hopes and dreams they have for themselves, for their families. It is undermining the American dream. Is that not what this is all about?

We are in morning business?

I wish to speak briefly about ObamaCare once again. This is an issue that is now coming to the forefront over the next few weeks.

As we get ready to start to implement portions of it across the country, we are starting to see the implications of it.

There is so much coverage given to this as a partisan fight between Republicans and Democrats or liberals and conservatives, but I actually think this issue goes much farther than that because it is impacting all Americans.

I understand the President was here yesterday and individuals from the White House as well. According to the press reports, they were here to reassure nervous Democrats about the implementation of ObamaCare and what it could mean.

I understand why people are nervous about this bill. They have the right to be. For example, the exchanges, health care exchanges which, if you can't get insurance, you are supposed to be able to go to them and buy health insurance, are not going as planned. Only yesterday there was a news report that in Georgia they have asked for an emergency extension because they won't be up and running by October 1.

There are more news reports of more people being pushed from full- time work to part-time work. The reason why is because ObamaCare says if a company has more than 50 employees at full-time status, there are certain rules to follow that are going to cost money. We are starting to see evidence that people are being moved from full time to part time. Some major companies are announcing that they are moving more people to part time. There are reports of impending rate increases.

In my home State of Florida 2 days ago, the insurance commissioner announced that the individual market rates, if you are buying as an individual, are going to go up 30 or 40 percent.

We know there are many people in the middle class, hard-working Americans who are happy with the health insurance coverage they have now. They are probably going to lose that coverage. They are going to have to go to an exchange or another company their company is now offering. This doesn't mean you lose only the insurance with which you are happy, it means you lose the doctor, potentially, because you can only go to a doctor that is in the network on your insurance plan. If your new insurance doesn't have that doctor, you can't keep going to that doctor. There are a lot of reasons to be nervous.

Add to this a lot of the original supporters of this; for example, the labor unions. The Teamsters came out 2 weeks ago saying they want this suspended or repealed because it is breaking the promises it made in terms of the 40-hour workweek and the whole argument I made about full time to part time.

Here is the irony. The labor union that represents the IRS workers is asking to be exempted from ObamaCare. This is ironic, because they are the very workers who are in charge of enforcing the law. The people who are going to be in charge of enforcing ObamaCare have asked to be exempted from ObamaCare. There are a lot of reasons to be nervous about it if you are a supporter.

One more reason is the impact it is going to have on our insurers. We haven't heard a lot of talk about this yet, but I will focus on one group of seniors in particular, and that is seniors who are on something called Medicare Advantage. Medicare Advantage is the Medicare Program where basically you contract with a private company to administer your benefits under Medicare. How these companies compete for your business is they add all sorts of value-added services.

One example is transportation. My mom is on Medicare Advantage. One of the reasons they get her business is that in addition to good doctors, they actually will pick her up from home, because she can't and doesn't drive. They take her to her doctors' appointments. These are the kinds of benefits Medicare Advantage offers.

The problem is ObamaCare cuts about $156 billion out of Medicare Advantage--not to save Medicare; it throws it into the overall budget on ObamaCare.

Who uses Medicare Advantage? This is an interesting statistic: Forty percent of African Americans on Medicaid use Medicare Advantage, 53 percent of Hispanic beneficiaries who are on Medicare use Medicare Advantage, and 38 percent of people on Medicare Advantage make less than $30,000 a year.

What is the impact of taking $156 billion out of Medicare Advantage? It is

about $11 billion this year alone being taken out of the Medicare Advantage Program.

This means--and the President would say we are going to pay less money to these insurance companies. Fine. What is the impact of that? Let me describe to you the impact of what it is going to be.

First, you are going to see reductions in benefits, meaning a lot of these companies are going to have to save that money somewhere. Where they are going to save it is by reducing the benefits they offer you on Medicare Advantage.

For example, maybe there won't be anymore transportation in my mom's Medicare Advantage plan. We don't know.

There will be increases in copays, the amount of money seniors are going to have to pay every time they go to the doctor or hospital. They are going to have to tighten physician networks, which means the number of doctors available is going to shrink. If you have a doctor now who has been seeing you, and he or she gets kicked out of the network because they are tightening the network, you may not be able to keep going to the same doctor. That is the disruption it has.

One study found that by 2017, seniors on Medicare Advantage could lose on an average about $1,841 a year. This is the impact.

I will say why this is pernicious, why this hurts. Medicare Advantage has some things about it that need to be fixed, but it is a good program. It has good outcomes. The fact is these companies want you to go to your doctors' appointments. They want you to be getting your flu shots and your vaccine against pneumonia and other things. Why? Because they want to you stay healthy. They need you to stay healthy in order for the plan to work. We see it in the results.

Medicare Advantage patients have 39 percent fewer hospital readmissions. When people leave the hospital, there is a 39-percent reduction in people who go back because something went wrong. There are 24 percent fewer emergency room visits and 20 percent fewer hospital days.

Medicare Advantage is the program that works. I say this firsthand because I see it in my mom's life, and I see it in the lives of thousands of seniors in Florida who are on Medicare Advantage.

You may ask yourself: Well, if this is so bad why haven't we heard any of this before? The reason is the insurance companies, because of a gag order, are prohibited from talking about any of this until you start getting your benefits letter, and they are coming. If you are a senior on Medicare Advantage, the chances are that soon you will open your mail to the bad news that the Medicare Advantage you have and are happy with has been changed in a negative way for you because of ObamaCare. They don't know that yet, because the companies have not been allowed to tell them yet, but they will have to tell them soon. When they do, this will add one more concern that people should rightfully have about ObamaCare and the impact it is going to have on our people, particularly on seniors. This is why, my colleagues, I have become so passionate about this issue, one more reason why it is so important that we stop ObamaCare.

One may say what can we do to stop it? It is already the law. It is already in place. A lot of people have told me this. The answer is there is something we can do and it comes as soon as September. In September, in order for this government to continue to function, we have to pass a short-term budget. I wish it were a long-term budget that was balanced, but it looks as though it is going to be a short- term budget.

We should pass the budget. We have to. We can't shut down the government. I am not for shutting down the government. When we do this short-term budget, let's fund the government. Let's make sure Social Security checks go out. Let's make sure we are funding defense to keep our Nation safe. Let's make sure we fund the government, but let's not keep funding ObamaCare. Let's not keep pouring money into a program that even the unions are now against. Let's not keep pouring money into a program that not even the IRS workers, who are going to enforce this, want for themselves. Let's not keep funding this program that is going to hurt seniors on Medicare Advantage. Let's not keep funding it.

I will say what the blowback is: Oh, you are threatening to shut down the government. No, I am not. I don't want to shut down the government. In fact, the only people who are talking about shutting down the government are the people who go around saying: We will not support a short-term budget unless it funds ObamaCare. Those are the people who are threatening to shut down the government. Their position, basically, is that ObamaCare is so important we can't possibly fund government without funding it.

So if the government is shut down--and I hope that doesn't happen-- because of ObamaCare, that is an unreasonable position, especially in light of all the problems we know this program has. And this idea that unless we fund ObamaCare we must shut down the government is a false choice. That is not true.

Let me just say every single Republican opposes ObamaCare. And I must share with you that there are a growing number of Democrats who are at least nervous about ObamaCare and would love for it to go away in some way, shape, or form. In fact, one of them is the President. The President has actually delayed a major portion of ObamaCare because he knows it is going to be a disaster.

I would just suggest to those who oppose ObamaCare to ask themselves this question: How can I possibly go back to the people who sent me here--to the people who are going to be hurt by this, to the people being moved from full-time to part-time employment, to the businesses that can't grow, to the individuals who are going to lose the coverage they are happy with and the doctor they have gotten to know, to the seniors on Medicare Advantage who are going to see their benefits reduced and their out-of-pocket costs go up--and say to them I did everything I could to prevent these things from happening? How can I possibly say that to them if I vote for a budget that pays for this?

This September gives us the last best chance to slow this down or to stop it. Once this law starts kicking in and starts hurting our economy, we will start crossing some points of no return.

To my colleagues on the Republican side, I would just say: Look, if we are not willing to draw a line in the sand on this issue, what issue are we willing to draw a line in the sand on? If we are not willing to fight on this issue, what issue are we willing to do it on?

Right now I can think of nothing that is hurting our economy and nothing that is hurting job creation more than the uncertainty and the fear this law is imposing on our small businesses, on our middle class, on our working class, and on our seniors. I hope we will not let this last best chance go by. I hope we will take this opportunity to stop this law from hurting Americans, especially the millions of seniors who rely on Medicare Advantage for their health care.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I understand we have 1 hour available in opposition.

Mr. President, I wish to speak in opposition to the pending nomination. I would like to take a few minutes to discuss the nomination of Ms. Samantha Power to be the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

Let me begin by saying that Ms. Power is an impressive person. She has an inspiring personal story, she is clearly very intelligent, and she has already accomplished much in her career. However, I do have three concerns I want to take a moment to highlight today.

The first has to do with a concern I have about her unwillingness to directly answer questions I personally posed to her during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I asked her about statements attributed to her in the past alleging that the United States had committed ``crimes'' that it needed to reckon with. I raised the question not to embarrass her but to give her the opportunity to clarify by either pointing out examples of these crimes or to clarify what she meant by those comments. Instead, she kept avoiding directly addressing my question. She kept saying that America was the greatest country in the world and that she wouldn't apologize for America.

I don't think it is unreasonable to be concerned about those statements, and I do not think it is unfair to be concerned about the fact that we are sending someone to represent us at the most important international forum in the world who thinks the United States has committed crimes that it needs to reckon with.

I believe I and members of the committee deserved an answer to the question. Instead, what we got in response was a rehearsed line. I believe it was a missed opportunity for her and for all of us. To me, these statements she made in the past and her inability to answer or address them raise questions about her judgment, although--let me be clear--I certainly do not question her patriotism.

Secondly, I have an even greater concern that she is being appointed by a President whose foreign policy is fast becoming an utter and absolute failure. From crises in the Middle East, to strategic uncertainty in Asia, to a country we were told was a partner but is now harboring a fugitive and traitor who has done great damage to U.S. national security, I believe the world is now more dangerous and more uncertain than when President Obama took office. It is increasingly apparent that our foes are more willing than ever to challenge us. Even more troubling is that those who seek to emulate us, who desire the freedom we all, as Americans, enjoy, are often left to fend for themselves with little American support.

A strong, engaged America has been good for the world and for the American people. When America fails to lead, the result, as we see in Syria today, is chaos--a chaos that allows others with goals other than our own to fill the void we leave behind.

History taught us twice in the last century that even if we put our heads in the sand and try to ignore the world's problems, those problems will not ignore us. I realize the American people are weary of war. We have paid a tremendous price in lives and money in the war on radical Islamic terrorism. But to follow the advice of those--including some in the Republican Party--who advocate disengagement from the world would be a terrible mistake. If we follow their advice, we will only pay a higher price in the long term.

Let me be clear. That does not mean America can solve every problem or get engaged in every civil war on the planet. I would confess that we also have voices here that are too eager to engage America in every conflict on the planet. We need to be careful about when, where, and how we engage American forces overseas. But isolationism on the one hand and hyperintervention on the other are not our only two options. Between these two choices we have a third option, and it is this--one based on the idea that while the United States cannot solve every problem in the world, there are very few problems in the world that can be solved without the United States.

If a problem can be solved by using an international forum such as the United Nations, that is fine, but more often than not the United Nations can not and will not confront the problem. In the end, the truth is that America is still the only Nation in the world able to form and lead coalitions to confront evil and solve problems. It is still the

only Nation on Earth able to keep the seas open for trade. It is still the only Nation capable of maintaining the safe balance of power in Asia and Europe and around the world. It is still the only Nation on Earth capable of preventing rogue nations from becoming nuclear powers. And it is still the only Nation on Earth capable of targeting and diminishing radical terrorist organizations that plot to attack and kill Americans here at home and around the world.

We should be careful when we get involved. Foreign aid is not a one- way street and should always be conditioned and based on our national interests. Military power should be employed judiciously and only where it can make a difference in defending our long-term goals. But we cannot pretend that if we ignore our enemies, they will ignore us. We must be involved, and when we get involved we must make sure not just that we are doing it the right way, we must make sure we are doing it at the right time because sometimes acting too late is worse than not acting at all. When we do get involved, it is OK to be motivated by humanitarian concerns, but the primary objective of our foreign policy must always be to protect our people from those who do or may one day want to harm us.

This is the kind of clear strategic view of America's role and of our interests that should guide our foreign policy. It is the kind of clear strategic thinking this President has failed to lay out. As a result, what we see all around us is failure.

The President dithered on Syria. We should have tried to identify secular rebels early in the conflict, and we should have made sure they were the best armed and the best trained group on the ground. Instead, the President decided to lead from behind and allow others to decide whom to arm, and the result is that today it is rebel groups linked to Al Qaeda--foreign fighters, not even Syrians--who are the best armed and best equipped groups within Syria. Now I fear Syria may be headed toward becoming another Afghanistan before 9/11, toward becoming the premier operational area in the world for global jihadists.

The President entered office with the naive belief that we could convince Iran to become a responsible nation by, quite frankly, being nicer to them. He wasted valuable early years in his Presidency not giving the Iranian threat priority, and now the Ayatollahs continue the march toward acquiring both nuclear weapons and long-range missiles that can one day threaten the United States.

I would be remiss if I did not point out that in 2009 he missed an opportunity to clearly stand on the side of those protesting a stolen election and instead chose not to because he didn't want to interfere in the ``sovereignty'' of another nation.

The President also wasted time thinking the cause of radical Islamic terrorism was partially because George W. Bush was hated in the Muslim world. But despite his speech in Cairo, despite his efforts to close Guantanamo, despite his elimination of the use of the term ``war on terror,'' Al Qaeda continues to hate America, and even as I speak here today they continue to plan attacks against America here and around the world.

The President is not alone in failing to confront these threats. I am afraid that because of the success we have had in preventing another attack on the scale of 9/11, some of our leaders in both parties have been lulled into a sense of false security. I certainly support the privacy rights and expectations of all Americans, but, my colleagues, I also know for a fact that the surveillance programs our government uses have prevented attacks and saved American lives.

I think it is a mistake to dismiss privacy concerns as crazy. After all, we have a government whose tax-collecting agency has targeted Americans because of their political views. But it is also a mistake to exaggerate them. After all, if a known terrorist is emailing or calling someone in the United States, we had better be able to know who and where that person is.

If Osama bin Laden had been calling someone in the United States on their cell phone, I promise you it wasn't a stockbroker. We had better know because these people are still plotting against us, and not if but when they strike again the American people are going to turn to us and ask: What has the Federal Government been doing to prevent this, we had better have a good answer.

We live in a very dangerous world, one, by the way, where our enemies aren't just other countries anymore. Our enemies are also rogue states, well-armed militias, and radical clerics. This kind of danger calls for a clear strategic vision on foreign policy, and this President, sadly, does not have one, which brings me to my third and primary concern about Ms. Power's nomination, and it is one that is related to the United Nations itself.

We need an advocate in New York who makes it their primary focus to ensure that the United Nations is more accountable, that it is more effective, and that it serves U.S. interests and is not just some multilateral ideal in which we invest all of our hopes.

If she is confirmed today, I hope Ms. Power does indeed become that type of Ambassador. But I have not been satisfied by the evidence thus far of this administration's willingness to be serious about tackling these issues over the last 4\1/2\ years that ensure that every American dollar going to the United Nations actually advances America's interests. I think Congress needs to play a more active role in forcing this very much needed change to occur.

What I would like to do in closing is spend a few minutes highlighting legislation that I recently introduced to this effect. I am pleased to have as cosponsors Senators Cornyn, Risch, and Flake, and I hope more of my colleagues will join this effort.

I am not the first person to raise concerns about the effectiveness and utility of the United Nations. Former Senator John Danforth, who was serving as our Ambassador to the United Nations in 2004, when the U.N. General Assembly couldn't even pass a resolution condemning human rights violations in Sudan, said at the time:

One wonders about the utility of the General Assembly on

days like this. One wonders if there can't be a clear and

direct statement on matters of basic principle, why have this

building? What is it all about?

Anyone who has followed the United Nations closely, especially in recent years as the Security Council has failed to respond to the crisis in Syria as more than 100,000 Syrians have died and hundreds of thousands more have been forced out of their homes, across borders, straining all of Syria's neighbors, leaving behind a failing state that is becoming a safe haven for global jihadists--all of the people who have shared these concerns and have seen this happen should be rightly asking the same question Senator Danforth asked back then.

In the midst of this horrific crisis, the United Nations has even been unable to achieve consensus on the issue of whether to allow international humanitarian organizations to provide cross-border support to tens of thousands of Syrians stuck in camps facing frequent shelling and attacks from the Assad regime.

Just as we are troubled by this inability to tackle the world's toughest problems, we should also be angry about the fact that for decades more human rights criticism at the United Nations has been directed against Israel than against actual human rights violators and that U.N. agencies and organizations have employed blatant anti- Semites; or that for decades recipients of U.S. foreign aid have only voted with the United States at the United Nations less than one-third of the time and such support, by the way, doesn't even currently factor into U.S. decisions about who receives our foreign aid; or the fact that the world's most notorious tyrants and human rights violators are allowed to serve on the Human Rights Council rather than being condemned by it; or by the fraud and the mismanagement that has pervaded the U.N.'s peacekeeping operations, including abuses and exploitation of the very people that those peacekeepers were sent to protect; or by the Security Council resolutions on Iran and North Korea that members of the U.N. willfully violate, as we recently saw with the Panamanian capture of a ship transferring weapons from Cuba, one rogue state, to North Korea, another one; or by the proliferation of mandates that have clouded the organization's mission and effectiveness.

The list goes on and on. But let me be clear. I am not here to argue that we don't need the United Nations. Ideally, we would have a United Nations where the nations of the world would come together and seriously deal with North Korea, Iran, radical Islam, and human rights. But the United Nations we have right now isn't capable of any of this. It has basically become a forum for nations whose interests are directly opposed to ours, to block our efforts using the United Nations as cover.

That is how North Korea and Iran continue to evade sanctions. That is how Israel's enemies continue their efforts to delegitimize the Jewish State. That is how Assad continues to massacre his own people with weapons built in and supplied by the Russians.

More than six decades after its creation, we still hope for a United Nations with resolve, a United Nations that acts with effectiveness and purpose. Sadly, the United Nations' persistent ethics and accountability problems are limiting its role. Until the organization addresses these important issues, it will continue to be ineffective and often irrelevant.

Americans should care about this more than any other people because we shoulder the primary fiscal burden of the United Nations' budget, and our patience is not limitless. We don't believe in continuing to throw money at programs and projects that fail to accomplish their objectives.

So my hope with the legislation I filed is to provide an incentive for the United Nations and the President and our Ambassador in New York to modernize that international body along a spirit of transparency, respect for basic human freedoms, and effective nonproliferation. This legislation would also attempt to address the anti-Semitic attitudes that have become so prevalent in certain corners of the United Nations and seriously diminish the effectiveness and credibility of the entire U.N. system.

At the core of these reforms that I proposed is an effort to instill a sense of transparency and competition at the United Nations by its adoption of a budgetary model that relies mostly on voluntary contributions. This legislation would also strengthen the international standing of human rights by reforming the U.N. Human Rights Council in a way that would deny membership to nations under U.N. sanctions, designated by our Department of State as state sponsors of terrorism or failing to take measures to combat and end the despicable practice of human trafficking. Other provisions of the bill seek meaningful reforms at the U.N. Relief and Work Agency that provides assistance to Palestinian refugees of the 1948 Arab-Israli conflict.

This legislation is needed because the structure and bureaucratic culture of the organization often makes it impossible or, at best, downright difficult to achieve meaningful reforms.

In closing, for more than six decades now the United Nations has served as an important multilateral forum to address peace and security issues throughout the world. But it has never been, and it is not now, a substitute for strong American leadership. When America fails to lead, the world becomes more dangerous.

The United Nations is badly broken. I hope we will work to force meaningful transparency and accountability reforms for the United Nations. But so far this administration does not seem very interested in doing so and, unfortunately, at least based on our conversations, neither does the nominee before us. Therefore, until we begin to take some positive steps in that direction, I will not be able to support Obama administration nominees who have not committed to significant reform of the United Nations.

Ms. Power has failed to make such a commitment. Therefore, that is why I am voting against her nomination to be our next Ambassador to the United Nations.

I yield back the balance of the time available to the opposition.