Bipartisanship
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I applaud the remarks of the Senator from South Dakota about bipartisan cooperation on health care reform. We have been trying all year, and unfortunately there has only been one Republican Senator, Senator Snowe of Maine, who has voted to report a bill from committee; not a single Republican Congressman--none--and no other Republican Senator.
In fact, when the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee considered this health reform bill--and it is a big one because it affects $1 out of $6 in our economy and virtually every American--there were over 500 amendments. Over 150 were offered by the Republican side of the aisle and adopted. There were 150 Republican amendments, and not one single Republican Senator would vote for the bill. That is frustrating.
Senator Max Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, determined to get bipartisan support, sat down with three Republican Senators literally for months--Senator Grassley of Iowa, Senator Enzi of Wyoming, and Senator Snowe of Maine--and said: Let's do this together. Let's do a bipartisan bill. Eventually, one fell off, the other fell off, and finally Senator Snowe was the only one who would vote for it.
I applaud the Senator from South Dakota calling for bipartisanship. We have tried. And the notion that we are going to throw out all we have done and start over--what, another 500 amendments in the HELP Committee? Another 150 Republican amendments, and then they are going to vote against the bill?
We have a bill moving forward. It is a painful, difficult process, and the other side has nothing except criticism. They basically tell us what is wrong with our bill, and when we ask them: What will you do to significantly change health care in America, they have nothing. The current system is unsustainable. The cost of the current system is going to break the backs of individuals and families and businesses and governments.
Just 2 weeks ago, the insurance industry told us: If you pass health care reform, we guarantee you we will raise premiums. And they will. Trust me, they will. How do I know that? They have done that consistently every year. They just announced a 15-percent increase in health insurance for next year for businesses. Fewer businesses will be able to offer health insurance. How can they say this with certainty? You would say it is like guaranteeing that the price of a certain commodity is going up.
What about competition? The fact is, there is little or no competition in health insurance. First, this is one of two businesses in America exempt from antitrust. That means the heads of the insurance companies selling health insurance can legally sit down together and collude and conspire on the premiums they are going to charge people across America. They can decide how much they will charge and agree among themselves that they are going to charge the same thing. And they can allocate markets in America and say, well, this particular market in Los Angeles belongs to this health insurance company, this market in Chicago belongs to this health insurance company, and it is legal--the McCarran-Ferguson law. It is legal.
When they threaten to raise health insurance premiums, mark my words,
they can do it. The only thing that stops them is competition. If there is some other entity out there offering health insurance that is competitive, at a lower price, then we have competition. What do we call that? The public option.
The people who come to the floor and criticize the notion of a public option--I have yet to hear the first person come to the floor and criticize Medicare. We created Medicare over 40 years ago and said: If you are over the age of 50, we are going to give you peace of mind. You won't go to the hospital and lose your life savings because of medical bills. That is what Medicare is all about. It has worked. Seniors live longer, they get better care, they have their independence, and they can live by themselves longer, which is exactly what they want to do. And they are not exhausting their savings.
When I was a child growing up, it was not unusual for grandma or grandpa to come and move in with you because they reached a point in their lives where they didn't have anything, and their families brought them into that spare bedroom. It happened in my family and a lot of others. Then came Social Security, then came Medicare, and then came independence, where they could have the kind of independence they enjoy and want to have.
How many people have come to the floor criticizing the public option in government health insurance and calling for the abolition of Medicare? None. Not one. Maybe somebody will. I have yet to hear it.
I am all for bipartisanship, but I hope we put it in context. If we are going to deal with cost, if we are going to make sure Medicare is financially sound for years to come, if we are going to make sure the abuses of the health insurance companies come to an end--whether preexisting conditions or caps on payments for medical care--then we have to pass legislation. Merely coming here and saying what is wrong with the existing bill is not enough.
There is also a need for bipartisanship when it comes to the unemployed in America. Here is something on which you would think we could all basically agree. If you are one of the unfortunate millions of Americans out of work, if you have reached the point where you do not have a regular paycheck and you are trying to keep the lights on in your house, trying to pay the rent or the mortgage, put food on the table for your kids and some clothing and basic needs of life, gasoline in the car, we have always said in that situation, the American family--that is all of us, the collective Nation of America--will come and help.
Unemployment benefits will be the first thing we will help you with so you have something, a check, to get by on while you are looking for another job. Sadly, this recession has been very deep and has gone on for a long period of time. Millions of Americans have exhausted their unemployment benefits, and we have extended their benefits, realizing we have not turned the corner as we hoped we would, and we still have to realize a lot of people will not be able to find jobs quickly.
It used to be this was done automatically. We said: Well, we may bicker and squabble over economic policy. We may disagree on a lot of issues, but we will agree on this issue. The safety net in America should be there for unemployed people. Unfortunately, that has not been the case when it comes to the unemployment benefits we need today.
We have tried, more than once, to bring to the floor of the Senate a bill to extend unemployment insurance for Americans who are still out of work and need help. As I said, it should not be a partisan issue. The unemployment rate is close to 10 percent across the Nation. In many areas of the country, including my home State, it is even higher. Each day that goes by more people are running out of their benefits.
Here is story from a man who has written me from Mt. Vernon, IL, in Jefferson County, southern Illinois:
I have been unable to find a job. I have been unemployed since May 2007. My employment benefits exhausted in September. I am 54 years old. I have worked in factories most of my adult life. Therefore I have gone back to school. I still need a job. I realize I am not the only one. Please help us. I have no health care insurance. I have no life insurance since I lost my job. I am praying for our country. God bless you.
A woman from my hometown in Springfield, IL, writes:
Mr. Durbin, I lost my job when the economy went south at the end of last summer. I am 54 years old, and at that awkward age, cannot retire, and not as attractive to employers as a younger job candidate, no degree and not enough work years left to pay back a student loan to get a degree. I have two kids. I am trying to help them get through college. I went from earning $30 an hour in telecom to $8.25 hour an hour in retail. Without my unemployment benefits, even my modest house payments are going to become difficult. Can anything be done to move the extension through the Senate? I am down to my last couple of weeks of benefits. I have lots of office skills and experience but cannot quite compete in this tight job market. Thanks for being our voice in the Senate.
The unemployment rate in Illinois now is 10.5, in Peoria it is 11.1 percent, in Decatur it is 12.4 percent, in Kankakee it is 12.8 percent, and in Rockford it is 15 percent. Our State is not alone with these numbers.
In the 19 days since Republicans in the Senate blocked our move to pass a strong unemployment insurance extension bill, another 130,000 Americans who cannot find work have lost their benefits. If we did not pass the extension of unemployment insurance this week, we will put 200,000 families in a position of not being able to put food on the table. It is that stark. It is that real. Some 20,000 of those families live in my State.
How do I explain to my constituents why the Senate has not acted on this bill that we obviously need and need desperately? Well, we cannot pass it because on the Republican side of the aisle they want to offer amendments.
Do the amendments have anything to do with unemployment or the payment of unemployment benefits? No.
One amendment from a Senator from Louisiana is to, once again, for the fourth or fifth time in the Senate in the last few months, flog an organization known as ACORN. How many times are we going to take up the time in the Senate to go after this organization? I do not know. But as long as it is Exhibit A on rightwing radio and TV, Members will come to the floor and say: Well, let me do something that might be mentioned tomorrow on one of these talk shows.
Well, that might be an interesting political exercise if it was not at the expense of these people who are basically unemployed and running out of money. The Senator from Louisiana wants to offer this amendment the fourth or fifth time. By the end of this year, nearly 9,000 families in Louisiana will lose unemployment insurance benefits if we do not act; 38,000 families in Alabama; 4,000 families in Kentucky will have lost their benefits during the month of October alone; 5,000 families in Arizona will have lost their assistance this month.
I would like to believe, at some point, even though we like to give speeches on the floor--and I am doing it right now--that you might step back and say: It might be more important that we pass this bill and then give the speech afterward. I hope we can. We should not be surprised families need our help. Unemployment has jumped across America. We need to do more than just help Americans find work. We need to provide small businesses better access to credit so they can grow and create jobs. We need to think about what other incentives we can put in place to help all employers, large and small, create jobs. In the meantime, we need to fix the safety net.
I would like to ask my colleagues who come to the floor and ask for bipartisanship, can we be bipartisan when it comes to unemployment benefits? It is not just the Democrats who are out of work, it is Democrats, Republicans, Independents, folks who do not vote, folks who do not think much of us, and folks who may have thought a little bit more of us before we got into this mess. This is a time for bipartisanship. In about an hour we will have a chance to vote. Let's hope Members from both sides of the aisle will come forward and stand up for these families who are so desperate.
I yield the floor.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source