Debt Ceiling Negotiations

Floor Speech

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, there is nobody in the Senate I respect and admire more than my counterpart, the Democratic leader. But we have been subjected, last night and again just a few moments ago, I would say to my colleagues from Wyoming and Idaho, to some Orwellian discussion about what is a filibuster. Most Americans, when asked the question ``What is a filibuster?'' would believe it was delaying something--delaying something.

So we have the astonishing development here that my good friend the majority leader is delaying a vote on something he wants to pass. We were prepared to have this vote last night. We are prepared to have this vote momentarily. We are prepared to have this vote at any point.

I want to disabuse my good friend of the notion that somehow it is going to pass. We just--he has not seen it yet, but we just delivered a letter to his office with 43 of my colleagues on it saying they are not going to vote for it. The House of Representatives is going to speak at 2:30 on this issue. They are not going to vote for it.

With regard to the 60-vote threshold, let me quote my good friend the majority leader:

March 5, 2007: ``In the Senate, it has always been the case, you need 60 votes.''

January 30, the same year: ``60 votes are required for just about everything.''

Now, look, we know that on controversial matters in the Senate, it has for quite some time required 60 votes. So I would say again to my friend, it is pretty hard to make a credible case that denying a vote on your own proposal is anything other than a filibuster.

We know that August 2 is Tuesday. The American people are frustrated with us. They want us to come together and reach an agreement. The measure my good friend is offering is not acceptable to the Senate, is not acceptable to the House, will not pass. I think the American people would appreciate it if we go on and get that out of the way and get serious about talking.

With regard to talking, let me say who ought to be in the talks. The majority leader, myself, the Speaker, and the minority leader of the House spent most of last weekend talking to each other. In fact, we were called down to the White House for a meeting around 11 o'clock on that Saturday, and I suggested the President give us a chance to go up to the Hill and see what we could work out together. We came close enough together to where my good friend, the majority leader--while I understand he believes he didn't fully endorse it but at least went down there to advocate what we thought we could agree to on that Sunday afternoon. The President said no.

I became convinced that even though my friend, the majority leader, and I would love to work this out, we can't do it by ourselves. It has to have the only person who can sign something into law. There are 307 million Americans, but only 1 can sign something into law.

My suggestion to my good friend, the majority leader, is let's vote on his proposal. It is not going to pass. Let's get to talking to the administration again in the hopes that we can come together behind something that can pass both the Senate and the House and be signed into law before Tuesday.

I don't blame anybody for being confused about what has been going on in Congress this week. I will take a moment to explain what is going on right now.

Last night, the Democrats, who control the Senate, proposed a bill that would lead to the largest debt ceiling increase in the history of the United States and which completely ignores the roots of this crisis. This bill has one goal: to get the President through his next election without having to have another national debate about the consequences of his policies. The President wants to make sure this kind of debate doesn't happen again, even as he gets Democrats in Congress to give him permission to add trillions more to the debt. That is what the Reid bill does. It is not going anywhere, as I described. It will not pass the Senate. It will not pass the House. It is simply a nonstarter.

Senate Republicans refuse to go along with this transparently political and deeply irresponsible ploy to give the President cover to make our debt crisis even worse than it already is. Forty-three of us, as I indicated, have now signed a letter to the majority leader pledging that we will not vote for his $2.4 trillion debt limit amendment, which, if enacted, would result in the single largest debt ceiling increase in the history of the United States.

Moreover, as I indicated earlier, we will soon know with certainty that this bill can't pass the House of Representatives, as they will be voting on it shortly.

Since there is no possibility this bill will be enacted into law, I say again to my friend that he can hold the vote on his proposal here and now. We are ready at any point to go on and have that vote and not waste another minute of the Nation's time on this reckless piece of legislation we know will not pass.

Earlier this week, the majority leader told the Speaker of the House he was wasting the Nation's time by proceeding with a bill Senate Democrats pledged to block, which the majority leader himself helped put together but which he decided to oppose, as I indicated, after the President said he didn't like it.

The question now is this: Why would my friend, the majority leader, waste the Nation's time by refusing to vote on his own bill--his own bill--which we also know will fail? Why would he not take his own advice and get it over with? The answer seems to be obvious. The Democrats are running out the clock. They want to delay the hard work of negotiation until the August 2 deadline they have been warning us about all summer.

The Democrats' entire strategy this particular week, since last Sunday, has been to run out the clock so the Nation focuses more on the August 2 deadline than their own failure to do something about the underlying problem.

Republicans have now passed two pieces of legislation that would put us on a path to fiscal sanity--not one but two have passed the House of Representatives. Democrats spent the last few weeks figuring out how to avoid that particular bill.

Democrats have spent their time talking about the tea party instead of talking about a solution. They have done absolutely nothing but stand in the way of a meaningful solution to this crisis and criticize Republicans for having the audacity to suggest we might try to balance the books.

Now we are reduced to this. They would not even allow a vote on their own bill. They are delaying the inevitable so they can avoid doing anything responsible. It is simply indefensible.

Once again, I ask my good friend the majority leader to let us vote on his legislation. Let's get this irresponsible bill that we know will fail up for a vote so we can get down to the real work of negotiating a solution to the crisis with, as I indicated, the only person in America who can sign something into law, the President of the United States.

The lesson from last weekend is, anything two parties agree to here doesn't mean a thing if the President decides he doesn't like it and that the Democrats will abandon their own agreements if the President doesn't support them. Look, I don't blame them. I have been leader in the party when we had a Republican President. It is a tough spot. One is not a free agent. But we don't have time to go through that again. We have a couple days to work this out, and we cannot do it without the President.

Republicans have proposed solution after solution to this crisis. It is time for our friends on the other side, including the President of the United States, to figure out how we are going to come together and solve this problem.

I yield the floor.

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