Coronavirus
Floor Speech
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Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I came to the floor to talk about some other things, but I just want to say in response to our friend, the Democratic leader, it sounds to me that he has got a case of ``do as I say, not as I do'' when it comes to COVID-19 relief bills.
If my memory serves me correctly, he has led the effort to block the Senate's consideration of five different COVID-19 relief bills.
Speaker Pelosi has made the incredible statement that ``nothing is better than something'' when it comes to COVID-19 relief. That is easy to say when you are still getting a paycheck, when you have a job you can go do, and you can provide for your family, and you have access to healthcare.
But for the millions of Americans who have suffered through this pandemic, those are words that sound a lot like Marie Antoinette: ``Let them eat cake.''
I mention this because I have been around this place long enough to know that, unless you tell people the whole story, too often they believe the talking points and the half story or the incomplete story, like we heard from the Democratic leader.
It is shameful that, after passing four separate COVID-19 relief bills, including the CARES Act, through the end of March on a virtually unanimous basis, that Speaker Pelosi chose to pass a partisan bill out of the House, the Heroes bill, for another $3 trillion, including things like tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires in New York and San Francisco, unrelated to the COVID-19 relief bill that we needed.
So I applaud the group of bipartisan Senators who have been working now, after the election, to try to come up with the relief rather than kicking this can down the road and leaving people in the lurch during the Christmas holiday season.
And then when it comes to a vaccine, I have no doubt that the incoming administration is going to claim complete credit for producing a vaccine and getting this virus in the rearview mirror.
I understand why they would be tempted to do so, but it is because of the bipartisan action that Congress has taken with this administration through Operation Warp Speed that we have seen our world-class scientists come up with safe and effective, I hope, soon-to-be- certified vaccines by the Food and Drug Administration, and people can begin to start getting vaccinated by the middle of this month. That is a modern-day miracle. We should all be proud of it, but it should not be part of a partisan campaign now after we have had an election on November 3.
I wish our friends would get out of the campaign mode and get into the governing mode. We have got important work we need to do here.
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