The Price of Obstruction

THE PRICE OF OBSTRUCTION

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I believe many in the press world and too many outside the beltway are observing the gridlock in the Senate and probably just dismissing it as "politics as usual."

The truth is, it is not politics as usual. It is politics at its worst. The result is Americans are getting the worst, the very worst from the Senate, when they deserve the best.

With gridlock jamming our Nation's highways, we get gridlock on the highway bill right here in the Senate. With our Nation's energy supply uncertain, the fate of the Energy bill in the Senate is equally uncertain. With a work-based welfare system doing wonders across America, we see no work allowed on welfare reform in the Senate. As backlogged as courtrooms are with lawsuits, so, too, is the Senate backlogged with sensible tort reform. As emergency room patients wait for a doctor's care, so, too, do emergency room doctors wait for medical lawsuit reform from the Senate.

Gridlock, uncertainty, inaction, backlog, and delay; that is all the Senate is serving up these days. Gridlock, uncertainty, inaction, backlog, and delay is all that is on the menu in the Senate these days.

There is a price for obstruction. It is real. It is painful and it is rising. Let me give a few examples.

For decades, now, congestion has been rising. According to the committee report on the highway bill, the extra time needed for a rush-hour commute has tripled over the past two decades. The resulting congestion costs every man, woman, and child in the United States $520 a year. About a billion gallons of gasoline are wasted every 2 months on U.S. roads.

Yet this highway bill we have could create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the next few years. This highway bill is being prevented from being written, right here in the Senate. This highway bill, which would prevent almost half a million accidents, save almost 2,000 lives over the next two decades, this bill is stalled on an open road to nowhere.

Why? Because of Democratic obstruction. The House version and Senate version of the bill are blocked by Democrats from going to conference to resolve our differences. It is the way we legislate in the Congress.

With gas prices rising this year, with wide-scale electrical blackouts last year, and with Middle East tensions every year, the Energy bill is again stalled, going well into its third year of delay. But a bill that will, according to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, create 650,000 new jobs, that will boost the economy and secure our energy supplies, is blocked by Democratic filibusters.

Do we have to have another blackout before we are permitted to act? Do we have to have total shutdown of our freeways before the highway bill will be freed?

The price of obstruction is real. It is rising. And there appears to be little relief in sight in our roads, at our pumps, in our courtrooms, our emergency rooms, and our employment offices across America, all due to obstruction by Democrats.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.