American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Floor Speech

AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT OF 2009 -- (Senate - February 10, 2009)

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Mr. SCHUMER. Thank you, Madam President.

I thank my colleague from Maryland, who is doing a great job on the car amendment, and my colleague from Montana, the chair, who has led us extremely well on this legislation.

We are trying to deal with an economic crisis that grows worse day by day, similar to an economic 9/11 that ought to be bringing us together. The economy is hurtling southward. People are laid off every second and every minute. You get on the phone and talk to someone you know--I spoke to a friend of mine. Her sister had been laid off. I went to a local Italian restaurant. The waiter's wife had been laid off. The woman who cuts my hair, her husband has been laid off.

We are hemorrhaging jobs. The middle class is losing dollars. The country could edge over into a recessionary spiral downward that actually turns into deflation, which could, God forbid, turn into a depression. Yet while President Obama shows leadership, the other side is still adamantly sticking to policies that do not work. They are arguing for marginal rate cuts and choosing to ignore that the very purpose of a stimulus package is to spend money, to help fill the void left by a dramatic reduction in consumer and business spending.

This package certainly does not have everything I want or any single Member wants. But for the sake of this country, we all must give and come together and get it passed--not only passing on the floor today but getting this passed in conference quickly because every day we wait more are laid off.

In my judgment, this package should be more heavily tilted toward spending, jobs, putting money in the pocket of the middle class. This is a position supported by the vast majority of mainstream economists.

The President and Senate Democrats have bent over backward to accommodate views we do not feel accurately portray what needs to be done. People are criticizing President Obama for being partisan last night. But let me tell you, he and we have reached out and done our best to bring Republicans along. But as the President said last night, drawing the line at continuing the very policies that got us into this position in the first place is the proper place to draw that line. To pass a bill with 80 votes that would do nothing to help the average person would be a far greater failure than passing a bill with 61 votes that starts our economy moving again.

There are three criteria for this bill, simply put: jobs, tax cuts for the middle class, and rebuilding our infrastructure. Let me repeat that: jobs, tax cuts for the middle class, and rebuilding our infrastructure. Most every provision in this bill does one of those three things now. Lots of little porky things have been taken out.

So while some of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to cure the Bush recession with the Bush economic plan, the President was right to say no.

As for bipartisanship, we have been trying; Lord, we have been trying. The two largest amendments added to this bill--a total of $106 billion of the $840 billion in the bill--were added by Republicans. This isn't just allowing people to debate; this isn't just saying we will listen to you and not do what you want. Again, let me repeat: The two biggest amendments added to the recovery package were Republican amendments, Senator Isakson's at $36 billion and Senator Grassley's at $70 billion, and they didn't vote for the bill. What do you want out of us? This is not a small little bauble of $10 million in tax cuts or in spending. This is close to one-eighth of the entire bill, and it doesn't bring us a single vote. How can you say we are not being bipartisan when we have allowed major changes to be made to this bill, despite the President's wishes?

What has happened here is very simple. Our Republican colleagues want the right to add amendments but never will vote for the bill, except for three courageous Senators--two from Maine, one from Pennsylvania. What more can we do? There were 472 amendments filed, 48 considered, 27 offered by Republicans, a good bunch of those accepted. Many of us voted for them. What more bipartisanship do you want?

Here is the sad fact. The sad fact is this: Unless the bill is all tax cuts mostly for the wealthy and has virtually no spending, a large number on the other side will never vote for it. Never. So all the talk of bipartisanship is that: mere talk. We are walking the walk. We are adding Republican amendments. We are giving people a chance to offer amendments. We are not so-called ``filling the tree'' and blocking debate. We have to scrounge, beg, and plead, for three votes. Again, I salute those three who did it. They made changes in the package that I didn't want. I would rather see more money in education. I would rather see ours similar to the House bill, which has 34 percent tax cuts and 66 percent creating jobs and helping people keep jobs, but again we went from 34 percent tax cuts to 44 percent.

I wish to make one other point before I conclude. Many on the other side point to one little provision or another. They say, Well, there is money for STD; there is money for the Mall. Well, we took those out, but make no mistake about it, if we took them out, they still weren't going to vote for the bill. They were excuses. Let me say this to all of the chattering class that so much focuses on those little tiny, yes, porky amendments. The American people don't care. The American people care far more that there is a proposal in the bill--this one I pushed--that gives a $2,500 credit to families who pay tuition to put their kids through college. Great relief. They care far more about that than about some small provision in the bill that shouldn't be there, because the tax relief from tuition costs they are going to get means far more to them. They care more about a provision that keeps the teachers in their schools. They care far more about the provisions that will build roads and bridges and employ people in their communities. So to all of us, particularly on my side, let's not fall for the bait. Let's not make this a bill that is mostly things such as refurbishing the Mall or sexually transmitted diseases which should be out of the bill. It is a bill about jobs. It is a bill about tax cuts to the middle class. It is a bill about infrastructure. The American people know that. They know they are hurting. They know we have reached out, and they know we have to act.

So we will not be diverted. We will do our best to bring more Republicans over to our side, and I hope that happens this week. We will be open to new suggestions just as we were to $106 billion in suggestions that were added to the bill. But we will not sacrifice the focus of this bill: jobs, tax cuts for the middle class, and infrastructure for anything, because America demands that we get ourselves out of this mess.

I salute our President. He put together a great package. My colleagues in the House improved on it. We in the Senate reluctantly had to pull back on certain portions of the House bill to get the 60 votes necessary, and we did it for the good of the country, even though each of us would have written it differently. Now we must move forward. I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to reconsider, to acknowledge that we have been very bipartisan, to acknowledge that our country has a crisis, to acknowledge that they actually lost the election and can't write the whole bill, even though they will have some suggestions; and I urge that we all come together the way we did after 9/11 when there was another crisis and move this country forward.

I yield my remaining time to my friend from Montana and yield the floor.

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