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

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRAMER. Mr. President: ``This is a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.''

This is an opportunity to fit our vision.

That is a quote--not from some Communist activist leader somewhere in the United States, not from some Third World general. No, that is from the third ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives. Let that sink in for a minute.

Read it again: ``This is a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.''

I thought a bogus impeachment was shameful enough but clearly not. People in this country are dying. They are dying, literally. People are losing their jobs every day, literally. More and more people are getting sick every day. And that is why Senators rushed back here. We rushed back here to pass the House bipartisan legislation that was negotiated between the President and Speaker Pelosi.

Then we let both sides work on the next steps. We passed that bill within less than 24 hours of receiving it from the House. As imperfect as it was, we passed it with 90 Senators voting for it. That is how bipartisanship works. We worked around the clock to craft a plan, and we succeeded.

Here we sit, listening to our Democratic colleagues pretend this is a partisan plan, as if they weren't sitting in the room as it was being negotiated, and many of their ideas are in this bill.

Why are they doing that? I will tell you why they are doing it. When we see a rising body count, they see a political opportunity. Shame on them. The Trump derangement syndrome is accelerating the coronavirus. They should be ashamed of themselves. They see a chance to impose their vision--their leftwing, radical vision on our country because they think they can force it past us during this crisis. Their extreme partisan obstruction has blinded them.

What has happened to this place? Why are they even here?

Attempts to work across the aisle--honest attempts, attempts by rank- and-file Republicans and rank-and-file Democrats--have resulted in our Democratic colleagues having created a revisionist view of what we have been doing, and it has resulted in blind, political opportunism just to advance their extreme leftwing agenda--an agenda that includes things like the Green New Deal, which is something that actually had a vote on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Guess how many of them voted for it-- none. It was that nutty--none. Yet, now, that is the agenda. That is their vision. That is the opportunity they see.

How about socialism for the entire economy? It was not enough just for the energy sector. It was not enough just for the healthcare sector. It was not enough just for the manufacturing sector. Let's just have socialism. Let's debate which Democratic Presidential candidate is the best Socialist. How about hurting our farmers, our ranchers, our oil workers, our truckdrivers, our restaurant owners, our manufacturers, or our welders--everybody?

We are not even asking them to vote on this plan. The vote last night was not on the bill, and the vote this afternoon was not on the bill. It was simply a procedural vote to begin the debate, to continue the negotiations on the bill. Not one moment would have been lost. Guess what. Now over a day has been lost while we have dithered. We are asking--when we do finally agree to help the American people--that instead of killing the economy and the jobs, as they have been doing, that we be ready to act on the bill. No, that is not good enough for them.

Many of my colleagues have talked about what is in the bill. There is $4 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Do you think it could use it?

How about $9 billion for child nutrition? Do you care, Democrats, about child nutrition? We have often heard you talk about it. Where is it now?

How about $20 billion for veterans? Do they not care about that?

How about $50 billion for our farmers? I spoke about it. How about $75 billion for our healthcare providers? Do you think your healthcare providers could use a little more assistance, Democrats? I think they could, and they need it now. They needed it yesterday.

How about $350 billion for the small businesses that employ all of those people who are now getting fired because they can't keep their doors open? Yet that is not even worth a debate to our Democratic colleagues. Oh, no.

Apparently, it is now all back open for debate. The reports today are that the minority leader is holding the $50 billion for farmers hostage so they can get more of the opportunity to restructure things to fit their vision.

Apparently, the majority leader either forgot or he never knew that food doesn't come from the deli.

Mr. Minority Leader, food comes from the farmer. There is no sandwich in the New York deli without the farmers' growing the grain. There is no meat in that sandwich without the ranchers' raising the livestock. No, they don't make that food in the deli, Mr. Minority Leader.

Who started all of this? It was not he. He tried to be helpful for a while or at least it appeared so. No, it was not he. It was not even an uprising of the rank-and-file Democrats who have been filing in, occasionally, into this Chamber. It wasn't even the breakdown in negotiations between the Republicans and the Democrats. It was the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, who flew in here on an airplane that was powered by fossil fuels. Maybe those fossil fuels were even made by some oil from Alaska or North Dakota or Texas. She demanded an expansion of--what?--the renewable energy tax credits and other parts of her extreme leftwing, radical, partisan agenda.

What in the hell does that have to do with the coronavirus?

The absurdity of it speaks for itself. That is what we have learned to expect from the majority of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle and in the other Chamber of Congress--ever since the freshman Democrat from New York became the de facto Speaker of the House. That is the House. We are not the House. We are the Senate. We are supposed to be the adults in the room. Some of our colleagues are here, acting like petulant children when there are people who are suffering and who don't know what to do or where to turn for help. They are turning to us. We are it. We are the help. We are driving the ambulance. All the while, the Speaker of the House tries to steer us into the ditch while the minority leader of the Senate hangs on for dear life in the passenger's seat.

Why would those people come to us for help anymore? The House Speaker doesn't care about them. For crying out loud, she cares about renewable fuel tax credits. Where is rural America supposed to go? The Democratic leader sees them as, simply, political pawns. Being held hostage is $50 billion for farmers. Let's hold that one up. Maybe we could get more of what fits our vision, our radical agenda.

Apparently, helping these people doesn't matter to them. Well, I have news for him. I have news for the minority leader. While the Democrats dither, Americans are dying. That is a real fact. Let's get back in here tonight, and let's pass this legislation.

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