Press Conference - The Past Year in Congress
Statement
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SEN. SCHUMER: Well, thank you, Speaker Pelosi. And I want to thank you and Harry Reid, our leader, my leader, for the great job you have done.
You know, this is a year of significant accomplishment. If you just look at what we accomplished in the omnibus bill, it is very significant. We did accept the president's number, but it's our priorities. And every one of those changes is going to affect millions of people.
More money for research into death-causing diseases, more money for education programs, more money for job training programs -- these are significant things. This is what it's all about here. The problem is, and we have a long list of accomplishments that we're proud of capped, as Speaker Pelosi mentioned, by the energy bill. And so on a normal year of Congress, this would be an incredible list of changes: the ethics reform and the 9/11 and the minimum wage and best college proposal since the G.I. Bill.
But you know, the world is changing dramatically. Technology, globalization, agglomeration of wealth to the very top and middle class squeeze demand more. We're ready to do more.
We are united on both the Democratic and Republican sides to do more, but we have been thwarted in our move for change by the Republicans, particularly in the Senate. And I want to tell my House colleagues we are even more frustrated than you are. We live with it every day.
And the fact that the filibuster rule has now been made quotidian, daily, on every single piece of legislation, has changed the Senate.
They are against change. They cling to the status quo. They are happy with everything that's happening. We are not. We think the war in Iraq has to end. We think we need much better health care and education systems. We think we've made a great step on energy, but there's much more to be done. They block it, with filibuster.
The House, they've been able to get a lot of things done, because of the way their rules work. We have not been able to get all the things that the American people want us to do.
But I want to assure you that what has happened this year has paved the way for much more dramatic change, because the Republican senators are filibustering themselves out of their seats. They are so out of touch and so standing in the way and so sticking with the president, who is unpopular and leading America in the wrong direction, in the views of 70 percent of all Americans, that when the elections come up next year, and a Democratic presidential candidate goes to states like Oregon and Minnesota and Maine and says, "Give me enough senators so I can produce the real change you want," you're going to see dramatic change.
So this strategy of blockage may make them feel good at the moment, but it's a strategy that will cause them to lose and lose and lose, and give us the ability not only next year but in future years to bring the real change that America demands.
Senator -- Representative Hoyer. (Laughter.) Sorry.
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