Agree Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. RUBIO. Let me point out a couple of things before we begin; that is there are a lot of issues in this process we are not going to agree on. There is an ideological divide about a lot of major issues--the role of government, how do we get the economy growing again, and what government can do about it. The people of America recognize that. They recognize that issues of that magnitude ultimately are solved at the ballot box. You elect people. People run for office on their competing visions of government's role, and you decide those elections. We are going to have one in November of 2012.

But what do we do over the next 12 months? Do we stand around and do nothing and continue to bring up pieces of legislation from both sides of the aisle that we know are going to fail, just to make political points, or do we actually begin to act? There are a lot of reasons why I think we need to act.

I want to share with you an e-mail I received from Stephanie, who lives in Vero Beach. It breaks your heart. I think it is very typical of the ones Senator Coons probably has gotten, and I bet you all of the other Members of this institution have gotten.

She writes: I am not sure who to turn to with this question. I am a true Floridian. I was born and raised in Florida. As you know, the unemployment rate is horrible and I had to file for unemployment benefits for the first time ever. And I was just informed that I exhausted my benefits. Where do I turn for help? There are no jobs available. I have searched for a job daily and get excuses such as: You don't have enough experience, or you are overqualified, or I am suggested to go back to school. How am I going to go back to school if I have no money to pay for school or have no job and no money to pay my bills.

It goes on to outline other problems. But at the end it says: Many people like myself have nowhere to turn. Hopefully you can help me or at least suggest what I can do. Thank you for your time.

There is the voice of real desperation, of real people in the real world who want to work, have always worked, and cannot find a job. This is the No. 1 issue in America. There are a lot of issues floating around here and they are important issues. But this is the No. 1 issue in America of

everyday, hard-working people who cannot find a job.

Can government create jobs for them? In government. But, by and large, there are things government can do to help create an environment for job creation. So what we have done is we have sat down and we have analyzed what things we have agreed on. There are things that are the President's plan, that are also in the Republicans' plan that the House has passed, that our colleagues have filed. What we came up with is this piece of legislation that Senator Coons is going to describe in a moment.

It is literally sitting down. It is a collection of bills we have agreed on. What people want to know is, I understand you are going to have arguments about the things you disagree on, but why are you arguing about the things you agree on?

Maybe this is a good segue for Senator Coons to start describing some of the measures that are in this bill, the things we agree on, the things we can act on and do right now to help people such as Stephanie and people in your home State and people in every one of the States in this country who are struggling to find a job and are looking for some ray of hope that this process here in Washington has an understanding about what they are going through and are actually willing to do something about.

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Mr. RUBIO. It has been a very positive response, and I will tell you why, for a couple of reasons. No. 1 is, every time people open a newspaper or turn on the television, what they get from Washington is bad news. A week ago, in a speech I gave, I said it resembles professional wrestling to them. It seems as though there are people from the Republican side and Democratic side who go on TV and scream at each other about what is happening. People watch it. And they get it, that there are differences between us. But is there anything--don't we all live in the same country? Are we not seeing the same economic conditions? What are the things we can work together on? Why are we not hearing that?

Let me tell you the impact in the real world of all of that bad news. The impact is that people get scared. So imagine for a moment, you are a job creator. You have got some money to invest this year. You have to decide, do I leave it in the bank or do I take this money and use it to grow my business?

Well, the safe thing to do is to leave it in the bank. But what job creators and entrepreneurs want to do is to create new jobs. They want to grow their businesses. Who does not want to grow their business? Who does not want to add customers? Now you have to make a decision. Is now the right time to grow my business or the wrong time?

One of the things people look at is the political climate. Are the people in charge of government--in Washington especially? That is the one that gets the most attention. How are they working? Are they getting things done? Is it positive or negative things that are happening?

As much as the measures here are meaningful--and we are not claiming this solves all our economic problems, but they are meaningful--if you are a small business looking to invest next year in buying capital investment for your business, there is an incentive to extend the tax credits to help you do that. More importantly, they will be able to open the newspaper and read that Republicans and Democrats came together and passed a piece of legislation on which they agreed.

I don't think you can underestimate or, quite frankly, really measure the kind of psychological impact that could have on job creators--to actually have some optimism that the future will be better, that tomorrow may be better than today. That, as much as anything else, is critical. All of us in public service, particularly those of us who serve in this institution--the Senate is a big deal. People pay attention to what we say here, to the good stuff and the bad stuff. They pay attention to what we do here and to what we fail to do here. I think it is important for all of us to recognize that our actions have consequences and the way we speak and comport ourselves in these debates. I think we need to recognize that some of the rhetoric and noise that has been made over the last 6 months to a year has hurt job creation because it has created negativity around the economics of this country.

We have an opportunity, with the passage of legislation such as this, to send a message on the things on which we agree; we can get things done. That is the impression I have gotten from people, which is a little bit of a surprise, but it is a sense of optimism that before this year is out, we will be able to pass legislation that is meaningful and bipartisan. Is that the same reaction the Senator from Delaware has gotten?

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Mr. RUBIO. The next step is to get as many people in this Chamber and in the House to sign on to this legislation and to get this done. We are open to suggestions about how to improve it. Maybe there are some things that should be in there. Maybe there are questions involving particular measures. We are open to suggestions. We need to get the ball rolling. Our time is about to run out.

I want to recognize that one of the ways to lose credibility is to exaggerate. The differences between our parties about the role of government, about the Tax Code, and about the debt situation are real. We will debate those. To my friends on the right and left--both sides--we have real differences, and this is the place to deal with it. We are blessed to live in a republic where we can debate our points of view as to the role of government. We do agree on certain issues, and we should work on that.

Today is an open invitation to our colleagues to join us, look at this bill, analyze it, and see if there is something you would like to add or maybe that we left out that should be in there. The more the merrier. To those who think there are things that maybe should be changed or improved in this bill, we are open to that as well. We want to get this done and deliver something to the American people as soon as possible that shows that here in Washington, DC, we can agree. I believe that would be a positive first step in the right direction.

Our time has expired.

With that, I yield the floor.

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