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Floor Speech
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Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I want to talk about the American Taxpayer and Medicare Act, of which I am a sponsor. Cosponsoring this legislation with me are Senator Graham, Senator Hagerty, Senator Tim Scott, Senator Rick Scott, Senator Blackburn, Senator Hawley, Senator Cotton, Senator Boozman, and others who are likely to join.
I am going to make a few remarks about the bill, and a number of my colleagues would also like to comment about my bill, so I will be yielding to them. At the end of my colleagues' remarks, I will have a motion to make.
As a result of the American Rescue Plan, working in conjunction with the Budget Control Act of 2011, there are cuts scheduled to take effect in 2022 with respect to Medicare and with respect to our farmers.
Medicare specifically, unless my bill passes and unless this body takes action, will be cut $36 billion. Those Medicare cuts will include--but they are not limited to--they will include cuts to cancer treatments for our elderly. Those cuts would reduce laboratory fees and analyses that our seniors depend on every single day.
For the reasons I just referenced, our farmers are also going to get cut unless we take action--specifically, the crop insurance programs on which our farmers rely.
We are recovering from a pandemic, as we all know. Now is not the time, in my judgment, to put this burden on our seniors and on our farmers. Our seniors, part of the ``greatest generation,'' don't deserve them, and our farmers, the backbone of America, don't deserve these cuts either. In fact, America was born on the farm, and I think we ought to keep that in mind.
At this time, I would yield to the senior Senator from Arkansas, Senator Boozman.
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Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, Americans may be poor since President Biden took office, but they are not stupid.
They look around Washington, DC, and they see liars and they see frauds in every direction. Now, I don't think a single member of this body supports cutting Medicare or hurting our farmers, especially not at this moment. I don't. I don't.
And I don't think any of my Republican colleagues or any of my Democratic colleagues do as well. But a deal has been made. A deal has been made to give us--some of us see it this way anyway--a choice between voting for a heart attack or cancer.
You either have to give up your principles on the debt limit or you have to vote to cut Medicare and hurt our farmers, and no one wants to do that. I understand that people disagree over the debt limit, but there is no disagreement in this body over not cutting Medicare and not hurting our farmers.
Now, I am labor. I am not part of management. I don't want to be part of management. I wouldn't be good at management because I don't always fit in. It is not one of my best qualities. In fact, it is my best quality, and that is why I brought this bill.
As Senator Hawley said, much more eloquently than I could, the disagreement that reasonable people are having over the debt limit has been conflated in a cynical attempt to fool the American people by putting them both in a bill that we are going to shortly be asked to vote on. And we are going to be asked to give the American people either a heart attack or cancer. You have to choose. And I don't want to make that choice, and I am not going to make that choice. And that is why I brought this bill.
I do not agree with my Democratic friends about the debt limit. I don't support Build Back Better. I understand many of my Democratic friends do. I understand President Biden does. I understand Senator Schumer does. I understand Speaker Pelosi does. And I respect that, but I don't support it.
Now, they are going to try to pass Build Back Better, and they are going to try to implement it. But they can't do it without raising the debt ceiling. Now, if I don't support the Build Back Better bill, why would I want to allow them to borrow the money to implement the Build Back Better bill? I don't, and I am not going to break my word and vote to do that.
If my colleagues want to do that, that is their business. I don't tell people how to vote. If I am ever asked how to vote, I rarely--I almost always say, follow your heart, but just take your brain with you. And that is why I brought this bill. And I want to make it very clear, and you can write this down and take it home to mama, I do not support cutting Medicare, and I do not support cutting farmers.
I do support keeping my word to the American people. When I tell them I am going to do something, by God, I am going to stick. And I am not going to be scared away by some cynical deal that was made in Washington, DC.
Now, Madam President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 3344--the bill about which I have been speaking, and my colleagues, Protecting the American Taxpayer and Medicare Act--at this time, it is at the desk. I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
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Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I really appreciate my colleague's remarks, I do. I don't agree with his objection, but I appreciate it.
I just want to say a couple more words. I didn't make a deal. Now, let me say it again. Let me say it a different way.
I don't hate anybody. Lord knows I look for grace wherever I can find it. I like every one of my colleagues; I really do. The Senate is the most interesting group of people I have ever been around.
I am not part of management. I am labor, and I meant what I said. I belong in labor because I don't always fit in, and I do believe it is one of my best qualities.
The truth of the matter is--and this is what we are disagreeing over--President Biden, Senator Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, my other Democratic friends have proposed the Build Back Better bill.
Now, any economist with a pulse will tell you that it is going to cost about $5 trillion without the gimmicks. It is going to raise taxes a couple of trillion. We will probably end up having to borrow another 3 trillion to pay for it. We will have to borrow the money. We don't have the 3 trillion. We don't even have 5 percent of it.
Now, I think that the bill represents a spending taxation and borrowing orgy that we don't need, but I understand my Democratic colleagues disagree. I get that.
My Democratic friends can't pass and implement the bill without raising the debt limit. That is just a fact, because they won't be able to borrow the money.
Now, if I don't support the bill, why do I want to support allowing them to borrow the money, especially when Senator Schumer--my friend Senator Schumer--can do it on his own?
He can do it before the weekend is out. All he has got to do is do a simple amendment to the budget resolution.
What am I missing here?
And I know a deal has been made and some people are going to vote for it. You are not looking at one of them. And I respect their right to make a deal, but I didn't make a deal. But I have been put in the position of saying: OK, Kennedy, we are going to show you. You have got to choose between keeping your word to your people or cutting Medicare.
And we wonder why Congress polls right up there with skim milk. That is why they look around, they see frauds and liars in every direction.
I really regret that my bill didn't pass because it would have protected our elderly, and I do support protecting our elderly. And it would have protected our farmers, and I do support protecting our farmers. And this so-called deal puts them both at risk.
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