Sports Medicine Licensure Clarity Act of 2017

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, if you stop and listen, you can practically hear the Democrats trying to move the goalposts on Judge Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. Remember, before Judge Kavanaugh was even named, several Democrats on the Judiciary Committee indicated they would oppose whoever the nominee might turn out to be.

The junior Senator from California, for example, explained on television that whomever President Trump chose would bring about ``the destruction of the Constitution of the United States as far as I can tell.'' That was, incredibly enough, from a member of the Judiciary Committee.

Of course, mere hours after Judge Kavanaugh was announced, my friend, the Democratic leader, made the announcement that has now become famous. ``I will oppose him with everything I've got,'' he said.

Not long after that, another Democrat on the Judiciary Committee proclaimed that anyone supporting Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation was-- listen to this--``complicit in the evil.''

These statements are the context for every action the Democrats have taken during this entire process. These statements remind us: Democrats may be trying to move the goalposts every 5 minutes, but their goal has not moved an inch. They will not be satisfied unless they have brought down Judge Kavanaugh's nomination.

It started with straightforward political maneuvering. None of it worked, of course, but there were whatever issues they could find to delay, delay, delay.

First, back in June, the Democrats tried to argue that the Senate shouldn't confirm a Supreme Court Justice in any even-numbered year. Then they were reminded that Justices Kagan, Breyer, and Souter were all confirmed during midterm election years, and that argument evaporated.

Next, the Democrats said the process should be delayed because too few documents were available from Judge Kavanaugh's past public service. Well, then they received the most pages of documents ever produced for a Supreme Court nomination. So guess what came next. The goalposts moved down the field, and the Democrats called for a delay because there were too many documents for them to read.

I wish this fight could have remained in the realm of normalcy, but when none of these tactics worked--when Judge Kavanaugh demonstrated his widely acknowledged brilliance, openmindedness, and collegiality at his confirmation hearings--some chose a darker road. The politics of personal destruction were willfully unleashed.

I have spoken at length about the underhanded way the Democrats have treated Dr. Ford and her allegation. In brief, for 6 weeks, Dr. Ford's confidential account passed from one Democratic Member of Congress to the Democratic side of the Judiciary Committee, to the Washington, DC, lawyers whom the Senate Democrats handpicked for her. Then, well after Judge Kavanaugh's hearings had wrapped up, the supposedly confidential letter found its way into the press-- shoving aside proper procedure, shoving aside the accuser's plea for privacy.

This is not politics as usual because let us not forget that Dr. Ford's allegation is not the only uncorroborated allegation that has been breathlessly paraded around. Oh, no. Shortly after Dr. Ford's confidential letter made its way into the press, the floodgates of mud and muck opened entirely on Brett Kavanaugh and his family. Out of the woodwork came one uncorroborated allegation after another, each seemingly more outlandish than the last.

A tabloid lawyer organized a red carpet rollout for someone who wanted to accuse Judge Kavanaugh of masterminding some kind of high school drug and serial sexual assault ring--of hosting one wild party after another, filled with sexual violence, for which there conveniently happen to be zero witnesses but plenty of people to refute the claims. This didn't stay in the tabloids, by the way. This fantastic story was effectively read into the record of the Judiciary Committee by the ranking member, who decided it deserved a mention in her remarks during last Thursday's hearing. Then every Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee seized on this outlandish tale in a formal letter in which they called on Judge Kavanaugh to withdraw his name from consideration.

This is how desperate some became for any way to stop this stunningly qualified nominee. I guess upholding any standards of any kind was just too much to ask.

We heard of another anonymous, unattributed, and now thoroughly debunked account--this time of an anonymous accusation from Colorado that alleged physical abuse 20 years ago. A sitting Federal district court judge quickly stepped up to bat down that anonymous smear.

We heard that Judge Kavanaugh was supposedly responsible for a sexual assault on a boat in Newport, RI, until the accuser recanted the story completely, but it was not before many in the media had begun eating it up.

In short, the Democrats' mishandling of Dr. Ford's letter opened the floodgates for this deluge of uncorroborated, unbelievable mud, and the mudslide was cheered on and capitalized on at every turn by the far left, which has been so eager to stop this nomination.

Just politics? I don't think so.

On the other extreme, some of the other lines of attack have been completely trivial. Last night, the New York Times unleashed this ``major'' story. Get this--Judge Kavanaugh may have been accused of throwing some ice across a college bar in the mid-1980s. Talk about a bombshell. One can only imagine what new bombshell might be published today or tomorrow.

Here is what we know--one thing for sure: The Senate will vote on Judge Kavanaugh here on this floor this week.

Our Democratic friends will try to move the goalposts yet again. Just yesterday, they submitted a list of 24 people whom they want the FBI to interview. So I am confident we will hear that even the very same supplemental FBI investigation the Democrats had so loudly demanded will now, magically, no longer be sufficient.

Well, after the FBI shares what it has found, Senators will have the opportunity to vote. We will have the opportunity to vote no on the politics of personal destruction. We will have the opportunity to vote yes on this fine nominee. Tax Reform

Madam President, on an entirely different matter, the U.S. economy continues to deliver very good news. My home State of Kentucky is, certainly, no exception.

Yesterday morning, I had the opportunity to take part in the announcement of a major new investment in my hometown of Louisville. GE Appliances unveiled its plan to create 400 new jobs and to invest more than $200 million in Kentucky. It is expanding its laundry and dishwasher production facilities and is upgrading its capacity for innovation.

GE's Appliance Park--where nearly 6,000 currently work--has been a manufacturing landmark in Louisville for more than six decades. The facility has meant a great deal to my community. At its height, it employed some 20,000 workers. However, following the sluggish economy of the last decade, the workforce has shrunk to just one-fifth of its previous strength. So yesterday's announcement marked a step in a very new direction--aggressive expansion, doubling down on American workers. It is the same story that is being written all over America by job creators, large and small.

Where did the new direction come from? What changed? Well, for one thing, the policy climate here in Washington changed.

GE Appliances' President and CEO Kevin Nolan said, ``The changes in rates and favorable tax treatment of investments in machinery and equipment play a big role in our expansion plans''--more jobs for Kentuckians, more prosperity for local communities.

I would like to ask the men and women who will get one of these new jobs what they make of the fact that every single Democrat in Congress voted to block the tax reform that is helping this happen.

The Republicans got it done anyway. We delivered sweeping tax cuts for workers and families. Now, thanks in part to our policies, the economy is thriving. Just last month, consumer confidence reached its highest level in 18 years. In other words, American families are feeling better about spending and investing in their communities than they have felt since September of 2000.

In September of 2000, the Senate pages serving here on the floor hadn't even been born yet, but as these young folks continue their studies and enter the workforce, they will be participating in an American economy with more opportunities, where workers keep more of their hard-earned paychecks. That is the economy Republicans had in mind when we voted to enact generational tax reform and to lift the regulatory burden on investors and job creators. It is the economy we are continuing to work for every day. Recognition of the Minority Leader

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