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

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I know there are a number of Senators here who wish to speak. So I will not be long.

It makes me angry that we are here, talking about a bill that will not only help to defeat this virus but that will also put money in the hands of people who are wondering: How am I going to pay the rent? How am I going to buy groceries? How am I going to buy food for my children?

We have our Democratic colleagues, who, on a party-line vote, blocked the very help for the people I am talking about. They are not worried about from where their next rent checks are coming or how they are going to pay their mortgages. They are getting paid. They are not worried about ending up like hourly workers or people who are working for tips, who are scared to death about how they are going to make ends meet.

First of all, they are worried about getting sick. Secondly, if you work for a restaurant or a hotel or are in some other service industry--heck, if you work for an airline and have been furloughed and are wondering how you are going to make ends meet--it should make all of us angry that our Democratic colleagues are using this national emergency in order to leverage their ideological wish list.

You have heard it talked about here many times, but let me just make a couple of points.

In addition to having the money go to individuals, there is enhanced unemployment compensation because people don't know how long this is going to last, and they will need to be able to sustain themselves. There is the assistance to small businesses so they can maintain their payrolls, perhaps, and keep their businesses alive for the duration of this crisis. People want to know how they are going to make ends meet today. They want to make sure there will be jobs waiting for them after we get on the other side of this coronavirus. That is what our help for the small businesses is designed to do

The third part, which really makes me angry, is to hear them talk about this bill as containing a slush fund for Big Business. In my State and in Senator Cruz's State, some of these businesses employ hundreds of thousands of people. I have never understood how you can claim to love the workers but hate the very person or the business that provides them with jobs. You can't separate those two. You need to have workers and those who have invested, who have created something, so they provide jobs.

This ideological division is designed for no other purpose than to mislead people into thinking this is some sort of bailout. This isn't a bailout. What we are talking about are businesses that, through no fault of their own, are going to have to lay off workers and try to make sure that, when we get on the other side of this virus--when we beat this virus--there will be jobs still available so our economy can come roaring back, as it will do, unless we mishandle our work here. So I am angry, and I am frustrated. I am not the only one.

I think about the mom and dad who are thinking: Hey, I work at a restaurant. The government shut the restaurant down. I don't have a paycheck. How am I going to provide for my family?

It is our Democratic colleagues, by their complete and unequivocal devotion to their ideological agenda, who are basically turning their backs on them, our fellow citizens. This is not a time for us to engage in partisan division. This is a time for us to give help where help is needed as soon as we possibly can.

As I said, I know the other Senators wish to speak. So I yield the floor.

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