MIDDLE CLASS HEALTH BENEFITS TAX REPEAL ACT OF 2019--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I am pleased to follow my friend and colleague and fellow Marine from Alaska. We are separated by about as far a geographical distance as there can be in this Nation: Alaska and Connecticut. I am also pleased to be followed by a colleague from Colorado who is almost smack in the middle. And we are united despite our geographic differences and despite our political differences.

I want to assure the American people that the contention they have seen on this floor in no way reflects the reality of our hope and desire to move quickly and to move big to address this unprecedented, historic crisis--a healthcare emergency and an economic emergency in this country.

The reality is that right now, less than 25 yards from us, the minority leader, the Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer; and perhaps the Secretary of the Treasury or his representatives; and also representatives of the White House are literally working on a better bill, a bill that better protects workers.

Workers and families should come first, not corporate interests. Small businesses should be a priority. They are the economic backbone and major employer in our country.

It will be a better and a bigger bill in addressing the medical surge that this country must confront: the imminent soaring of numbers of cases; the potentially fatal infections that are about to deluge our hospitals and healthcare facilities; and the need for ventilators, masks, tests, gowns, all kinds of equipment that will help to save lives.

I think all of us could do well by listening to the American people about the need for a bigger, better, bolder bill.

I have been inspired by how resolute and resilient the people of Connecticut have been. Over the last 2 or 3 weeks, I have talked to them around the State of Connecticut before we were restricted in our meetings, and then by talks on the telephone, by teleconferences, and conversations.

I have spoken within the last few days to the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce and small businesses that they assembled and large ones, the Northwestern Chamber of Commerce, meetings of small businesses from the Hartford area, the Federally Qualified Health Centers of Connecticut, hospital executives, doctors, and professionals who are dealing with this crisis now on the frontlines, and, of course, local officials.

Just today, I spoke with the South Central Council of Governments, with mayors and local officials from up and down the coast of Connecticut, great nonprofits like Americare and food banks like Food Share.

What they are telling me is do it urgently, do it big, but do it right. We need to do it quickly, but we need to get it right. That is why this additional time is absolutely the right thing when we are talking about almost $2 trillion in taxpayer money and a crisis that demands careful and deliberate thought.

I was a critic of the last bailout because it insufficiently protected workers and consumers. We know that we can do better than they did then, and we will because we are putting workers first.

What I have heard, in listening to the people of Connecticut, talking to small businesses who are fearful about closing their doors and going broke, workers who are scared about losing their jobs, and nonprofits who are frightened about failing in their missions for lack of resources--they are hurting and are fearful about being crushed by this healthcare and economic crisis.

That is why we need to work together to protect the men and women who own those small and medium-sized businesses with a generous loan and grant program. We should take care of their workers with an expanded unemployment compensation program and guarantee that those small businesses will, in fact, maintain their payrolls.

If we are going to provide money to big industries like the airlines, we must include conditions, strings attached, that put workers first-- no layoffs, no salary cuts for workers or salary increases to the corporate executives and no stock buybacks, and treat consumers fairly. That should be the set of principles.

Right now, all across America and in Connecticut, working families are worried about whether they are going to see another paycheck. They are worried about how they are going to pay their rent and utility bills, put food on the table, clothe their children. Small businesses are watching years of hard work--years of risk-taking and entrepreneurial energy--potentially teeter on the brink of absolute collapse. We face calamity and catastrophe--not the fault of any of them or workers or large or small executives, but we must respond to the magnitude of this moment.

I spoke on a radio program this morning, Chaz and AJ on WPLR, and I was asked: Will it be bipartisan? Can you be bipartisan? The answer is, clearly, yes. We have been on two relief packages, and we will be on this one, as early as tomorrow or the next day because no partisan plan will pass as a creation of one party or another.

Storefronts and inventory lists aren't the backbone of our economy; it is the millions of men and women who go to work every day and, even tomorrow, will do their job, even in the face of the uncertainty and the fear that they confront. Doing right by our economy means doing right by them--the working families of America.

There is much the President could do if he uses, for example, the Defense Production Act or similar kinds of power that, so far, he has resisted invoking. He could provide the medical tools we will need to confront the coming crisis by taking advantage of the offers he has received from GM and other major companies to produce the ventilators or the private protective gear that will help to save lives.

There is much that we all must do in continuing to observe the restrictions that will help save lives--not only restrictions physically in our homes but also the perspective we must have that we are in for a long fight against this invisible foe. And it will be much longer than 15 days. It will be a matter of months, not weeks, and we must have the resilience and resoluteness that I have heard from the people of Connecticut in their voices as I have spoken to them.

We live in no ordinary time, as Eleanor Roosevelt said about her era. We must muster the same kind of determination, grit, and courage to face it.

I know there is that transcendent sense of urgency to do it quickly and to do it right and a shared sense of purpose that ultimately will get us to the other side of this crisis. We will be better and stronger and a bigger nation, not only in our economy; we will be a bigger nation because we have come together in meeting this crisis.

Shared sacrifice must mean truly sharing the benefits with workers, with families, and with small businesses that will ultimately help us to save our Nation and our economy. My hope is that we will do it quickly, but we will do it right.

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