Recovery Rebates and Economic Stimulus for the American People Act of 2008

Floor Speech

RECOVERY REBATES AND ECONOMIC STIMULUS FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ACT OF 2008 -- (Senate - February 06, 2008)

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, in a few moments we are going to have an extremely important vote. Nineteen days ago, the President first proposed an economic stimulus package and implored the Congress to act. It was impressive to see the Democratic Speaker of the House, the Republican leader of the House, and the Secretary of the Treasury of the Bush administration all together having worked out an important stimulus package that we believe will help our economy.

Then in an apparent jolt of nostalgia from last year, Senate Democrats decided to co-op a bipartisan proposal produced by the House, to put together a carefully crafted political document coming out of the Finance Committee.

It may be a good proposal in some respects. I am sure it contains a lot of what is appealing to Members. But the point here was to try to do a targeted, temporary jolt to our economy, and to try to astonish the American people by doing it on a bipartisan basis, rapidly.

This package will not achieve that result. There is an opportunity, however, to do that. First, we must defeat the Reid proposal, and then there will be an opportunity to adjust the House proposal in a way that is acceptable to the Speaker of the House, the Republican leader of the House, and the President of the United States, thereby achieving an early signature.

So I will offer, along with Senator Stevens, after the Reid proposal does not achieve cloture, an amendment to the House-passed bill that will deal with Social Security, with veterans, and with the immigration problem. And with regard to the veterans piece of it, one of the deficiencies of the Finance Committee or Reid proposal is that it does not cover the widows of veterans. That omission will be corrected in the proposal I will offer.

So if we want to provide this stimulative effect for the widows of veterans, a way to do that, and the way to do it in a proposal that will be signed by the President of the United States, approved by the House of Representatives on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis, is to approve the McConnell-Stevens amendment.

Now, let me say, Senator Stevens and I don't have any pride of authorship. If it will help us get this job done, if it will help us get this job done, we can call it the Reid-Obama-Clinton proposal as far as I am concerned. The goal is not so much to claim credit as it is to astonish the American people and do something on a bipartisan basis and do it quickly--do it quickly.

People will be astonished, and we think the markets and others around the world will watch in amazement to see that, on a bipartisan basis, the U.S. Government can do something effective and fast. So I would be more than happy to change the name of the amendment if that would make it more palatable.

We have no particular pride of authorship. This whole path we are going down started out on a bipartisan basis; I was hoping we would end it on a bipartisan basis. As far as the credit part of it is concerned, we can all take credit, we can go upstairs to the gallery together, Senator Reid and I, side by side, and say: We came together. We did something for the American people.

The House can simply take this up--we know; the majority leader of the House said today, he implored us, the majority leader, not to load up this bill with too many extras that would imperil the bill.

He was referring, of course, to the package upon which we will be having a cloture vote shortly. So the way forward is clear. Let's defeat the proposal that we know will not be accepted by the House, we know will not be signed by the President. Let's modify the House bill--we can call it the Reid-Clinton-Obama bill as far as I am concerned--and get it back over to the House. We have their assurance they will take it up, pass it, and send it to the President for his signature. But first we must defeat the Reid-Finance Committee package.

I yield the floor.

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