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Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, today, as the Senate prepares to leave town for the August State work period, the Democratic leader has decided to squeeze in one more vote that isn't ready for prime time. To our colleagues on the Finance Committee--and to anyone paying attention in recent months--it has been clear that the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act that Chairman Wyden wrote with the House needed some serious revisions in order to earn 60 votes here in the Senate.

We don't need a vote today to tell us that is still the case. Colleagues on this side of the aisle have serious unresolved concerns. They don't like how more than 90 percent of the supposed benefits of the bill, as written, come as a $30 billion expansion of cash welfare, instead of relief for working taxpayers.

They are concerned about how it would weaken the work requirements tied to those benefits under current law. For a bill with the potential to so seriously impact working Americans, one might expect its proponents to engage seriously on resolving obstacles to bipartisan support.

You might have expected the chairman of the Finance Committee or the Democratic leader to provide regular order, to schedule a markup, to give this bill a shot at actually passing the Senate, but, alas, you would be wrong. Of course, months without progress on this front aren't for lack of effort from Ranking Member Crapo, and I am grateful for his dedication to addressing Republican concerns.

Today's vote doesn't seem to be intended to produce a legislative outcome. In fact, the Democratic leader himself admitted this week that even losing the vote would still be a political benefit for vulnerable Senate Democrats running for reelection. Well, I am not so certain the American people are impressed by message votes, and I don't think they give out points for incomplete work.

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