Budget Negotiations

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Georgia for those very moving and powerful remarks. I differ with him only in recognizing that the saying about digging a hole is not only a southern saying, but I think by now it is a national saying, thanks to my southern colleagues and others.

Let me just say about this debate that it has been very eloquent on both sides, but there is an unreality to it. In the real world, Americans are struggling to find jobs or keep them, striving to stay in their homes, working hard to keep their families together. In the real world, economic growth has to be a priority.

We are on the verge of a failure of action that threatens the fragile economic recovery that right now is a priority for most Americans, and it is unnecessary. We are truly in danger of distracting ourselves from what should be the main task and the central reason we should be seeking a budget, which is to fund the Federal Government for the remainder of this year and ensure that we continue economic growth and provide more jobs for the American people.

There is agreement on the numbers, on the dollars, on the figures for spending the remainder of this year. My colleague from Georgia has just confirmed what others have said on this floor repeatedly, what the majority leader said this morning. There is agreement on the cuts and the savings. The distraction is on an ideological war on women's health. A small minority--a very small minority--is holding this budget and this Nation hostage in this ideological war on women's health. That is a disservice to the American people who want us to go back to basics: jobs and the economy, get a budget done, avoid a shutdown that threatens that fragile recovery.

Again and again on this floor, my colleagues have made the point that uncertainty and unpredictability are enemies to small businesses and large in this country and elsewhere in the globe that count on American leadership, count on our leadership in achieving a budget.

This war on women's health care cannot be allowed to succeed. I have spoken about it, along with other Senators who have spoken on this floor, most recently the Senator from New Hampshire, who has been a leader on this issue, along with the Senator from California, Barbara Boxer, Senator Gillibrand, Senator Franken, Senator Lautenberg, Senator Mikulski, and others who have spoken out in favor of title X and Planned Parenthood funding.

The unreality of this debate reflects a failure to appreciate what these dollars mean to the women who depend on these services. They are women who cannot afford the kinds of screenings for cancer and cholesterol and other problems that are so vital to preventing those problems that cost us all larger dollars if they go untreated. These services are vital to the testing for other kinds of problems that may be more expensive to treat if they are not dealt with and, of course, contraception that prevents exactly the kinds of problems or issues on which many in this body have focused. In Connecticut alone, we are talking about more than 60,000 patients served by Planned Parenthood, including 30,000 title X patients, 18 health centers that are imperiled by this rider or the conditions that would be attached, and almost 100,000 preventive screenings that are vitally important to low-income women and men who need access--the key is access--to contraceptive services and preventive screenings, vital health care.

There is a silver lining to this cloud. This moment is teaching us something. In reality, it is a teaching moment. I think it will alert a lot of Americans to the importance of preventive services--testing, screening. If it draws one more woman or man to seek these kinds of testing services, it will have accomplished something.

The debate over these social issues will not be resolved in this budget and should not be resolved in the remaining few hours we have left. There will be other occasions when we can debate and resolve these social issues, the ideological divides that have been with us for decades and will remain after this budget, hopefully, is resolved in the next few hours.

My hope is that there will be other teaching moments but, most importantly, not only about health care but about the way the democratic process works.

In the short months I have been privileged--and I deeply mean privileged--to be part of this body and sometimes to preside in the very chair where the Presiding Officer is now, I have often looked around this Chamber and have seen the students and others who come to visit us and thought of the millions of Americans who are watching us and who hope that we will recognize we have more in common than in conflict as Americans; recognize that a shutdown of this government cannot happen consistent with our duties to seek what we have in common over what we have in conflict; that it would be devastating not only to American leadership around the globe but to the military men and women who are depending on our judgment and leadership, to the veterans, to the folks out there searching for jobs, trying to stay in their homes, keep their families together; recognize that the reason they sent us here is to do what is right for this economy now and to reach agreement and to do the kinds of things Americans do in their homes over that kitchen table when they disagree. They come together. They see what they have in common. They do not walk out of the house. They do not shut off the lights. They stay together, and they do what they think will best serve the common interest, which for us is to recognize that we have an agreement on the budget numbers, that we cannot be distracted by the ideological war on women's health, and that we should stay true to our principles.

I yield the floor.

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