American Rescue Plan Act of 2021
Floor Speech
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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, some of our Republican colleagues say that America doesn't need President Biden's COVID rescue plan because ``the pandemic is nearly over.'' Funny. I have never heard them say we shouldn't spend money to help tornado victims in their States after the tornadoes were gone.
Let me say it clearly. We are not out of the woods yet. I wish we were. There are 510,000 Americans--maybe more now--who have died. The United States has 5 percent of the world's population. We have 20 percent of the COVID infections and deaths. Why? Because of poor leadership during the first year of this pandemic.
We had a President then, who is now gone, who would announce it was a hoax, and it was going to disappear by Easter, downplaying the seriousness of the situation with his fanciful flights about certain chemicals that were going to save us or whether or not we should all be gargling Lysol every morning. It made no sense, and the American people came out of that experience confused and infected, with deaths in their families. That was the reality of the first year of the pandemic.
There was also another reality, which the Republican leader just alluded to in that, 12 months ago, we passed something called the CARES Act. It was historic--the largest Federal expenditure in the history of the United States of America. Who designed that bill? Well, it was Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, whom I didn't know well but who, apparently, had some skill as a negotiator because he managed to not only speak for President Trump but to negotiate a bipartisan package in March of last year, called the CARES Act, for $2 trillion. It came to the floor of the Senate, with a vote of 96 to nothing. Every Democrat voted for the COVID rescue plan of the Trump administration a year ago--every Democrat.
The second major bill occurred in December, that of $900 billion, designed to help us through the first 3 months of this year--again, with Treasury Secretary Mnuchin at the table on behalf of President Trump, negotiating with Democrats and Republicans. It came to the floor of the Senate, and, this time, there were 92 votes in favor of it, including every Democrat, and 6 Republicans voted no.
So, you see, when it came to COVID rescue plans under the Trump administration, the Republicans were happy to ask us to join them, and we did. Oh, some people said we were giving them a political advantage here or there or the other place, but those arguments didn't prevail on the Democratic side. The Nation came first. The pandemic came first. Unemployed people and businesses that were struggling came first, and we voted that way.
Then came a new President: Joe Biden, elected November 3, despite the denial of some. It was a reality. He took this pandemic and faced it squarely--no excuses about hoaxes or ``it is going to go away'' or ``I have got a favorite chemical that will save everybody's life.'' He faced it squarely. He accepted the responsibility, as President of the United States, to tell the American people the truth.
The first thing he told them was that we cannot, we should not, stop in our efforts to end this pandemic and put America back on its feet. So he made a proposal, a proposal with at least $160 billion in it, for buying vaccines, administering those vaccines, and distributing them across the United States. I would think that everybody would agree with that as a starting point. It wasn't the end point.
As for the cash payment promised by the Trump administration and agreed to by most Democrats, he wanted to keep his word on that--$1,400 more for families all across America.
He talked about State and local aid. I can tell you that this is more than a theoretical exercise in my State of Illinois. We need help. The expenses of COVID-19 and the lost revenue by our shrunken economy have taken their toll in my State and in the cities across the State.
I just got off a Zoom call with a dozen small towns in Illinois. They are all down from my neck of the woods. They are great folks, doing their best, struggling under COVID-19.
They asked me: Are you going to send us any help?
I said: President Biden has made his American rescue proposal. If we can pass it, help is on the way.
Assistance won't just go to Springfield, our State capital, or to Chicago, which does need help, but to cities across our State and across our Nation. That is included in this bill too. Help for our schools is included in this bill too. The list goes on, and it is an important list because it really highlights the priorities of recovery in the United States.
President Biden and all of us heard the news a day or two ago when the Governors of Texas and Mississippi, in full-throated denial of the reality of this pandemic, basically took off all the limitations on businesses and on individuals. No more mask requirements. Let's open up everything all the way. The President was right. That was not a smart choice. It was not a wise choice. We are up against it, and we have to remain united in our effort to defeat this coronavirus.
So this week, in a day or two, President Biden's American Rescue Plan will come to the floor. Will we have another bipartisan rollcall, 96 to nothing, 92 to 6? I am afraid not. As of this moment, and I hope it changes, no single Republican Senator has expressed an interest in voting for this bill. Not one. I hope it changes, and it could. Some Senators at the last minute, I think, will realize this is the right way to go.
Meanwhile, the Republican leader comes to the floor every day and mocks this plan--a Democratic wish list, a liberal wish list, Nancy Pelosi's wish list. This is the American people's wish list. Eighty percent of the American people support what President Biden is trying to do, and the leading economists have told us we have to do this. If we don't inject money into this economy to restore its energy and future, we will pay for it not just for months to come but far beyond.
It is a situation that every parent knows, when they go to the doctor, to the pediatrician, with their little boy or little girl with an earache, and he says: I am going to give you some antibiotics. Now, this is a 5-day prescription. This little boy is going to start feeling better on the second day, and by the third day, he is going to be playing as usual. You are going to think, well, he doesn't need the rest of these antibiotics. Don't make that decision. Keep giving him the full dose of medicine to get well completely, or he may lapse back into it again and get sick all over again.
So you stick with it even when your little boy is running rings around you or the little girl is getting ready to get on her tricycle, because that is what the doctor said, and that was the right thing to do.
That is the same thing with this. If we accept the Republican argument that this pandemic is really over; if we accept the argument of the Governor of Texas--that was yesterday; we don't have to worry about it tomorrow; if we take that approach, we could have a disastrous result. We could be back in trouble again in just a few weeks.
I hope we don't. I hope we come together in the Senate, preferably on a bipartisan basis, and help the President get us through this pandemic. This is our chance. We have no greater responsibility than to put an end to this pandemic, put the economy on its feet, get the kids back in school, and let grandparents visit those grandkids again. That is part of getting America back where it needs to be.
We need bipartisan support. As Democrats, we provided that support to a Republican President. Now that we have a Democratic President, will our Republican Senators do the same?
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