Budget Negotiations

Floor Speech

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I just listened with great eagerness to the discussion between the majority leader and the Republican leader, and I would like to make two points here and then several subsidiary points.

We need to do two things before we leave: We need to fund the government in a reasonable and rational way, and we need to help the middle class get tax relief because the middle class is suffering. We need to do both. As Leader Reid said, to do both, you need both Democrats and Republicans to agree. If you try to do one without the other, you will not get anything done.

So last night Speaker Boehner sent a bill on middle-class tax relief that was such a Christmas tree that we knew it could not pass. And he knew it could not pass. We know why he did it. He did it because he could not get enough Republican votes in his caucus without all of these killer amendments to get it through. He could not get it through without those amendments.

So the Republican leader says: Well, if we know it cannot pass, why don't we start negotiating? There is one point here. We do not have to convince Speaker Boehner to start negotiating. He knows that. But we have to convince the hundred votes in his caucus who do not believe we should give middle-class tax relief, who are wedded to these amendments that will kill the bill here in the Senate because they are so unpalatable. It is not 1 or 2 amendments; it is 10 or 12 or 15 amendments. We need to show those hundred that this bill cannot pass.

We have to give middle-class tax relief, and we have to

fund the government. So why wouldn't we vote on it now, dispose of it, and move on with the ultimate negotiations which will talk in tandem about funding the government long term and middle-class tax relief?

Now, why don't our colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to vote on that proposal? Is it because they fear embarrassing defections from their own side--defections that would show once again how too many Republicans in the Senate do not want to extend middle-class tax relief no matter what is attached to it? That is not a good reason.

What are we waiting for? The House bill is on a road to nowhere, so let's let the air out of the tires, and then we can move on. We all know how it is going to end--not with either Chamber imposing its will on the other but with a negotiation. So let's remove this bill from the floor, give Speaker Boehner some of the freedom he may need to negotiate, and get this all done.

As, again, Leader Reid said--and he said it so well--we cannot pass the bills without both Democratic and Republican votes in the House and the Senate. Negotiating to come to an agreement makes ultimate sense.

I heard the Republican leader say: Well, the government runs out by Friday. There is an easy way to deal with that, which Leader Reid asked for in a unanimous consent request and was rejected: fund the government for a short period of time.

So the logic here is to do three things: Vote on this bill. Put it aside. Fund the government for another short period of time. And then negotiate in earnest and produce both things America needs: an omnibus funding resolution that funds the government that has been worked on very hard by the Appropriations Committee--deal with the outstanding issues in that proposal. There are still serious outstanding issues. Anyone who has been around here knows that issues such as Cuba and the environment and abortion in DC are not easy to settle and have not been settled yet.

So we kill the bill the House sent to us--we vote on it. It will die. We know it does not have the votes. It probably does not have even the unanimous support on the Republican side. I would bet that is pretty likely. We do a short-term CR. We fund the government for a period of time. And we have earnest negotiations that will produce both middle-class tax relief and a funding resolution for the government. We should negotiate the two measures together because, as the leader said, you cannot pass them without both Democratic and Republican votes in either Chamber. Obviously, in this Chamber, there are not 60 votes without Republican support. And in the other Chamber--because too many people are against even the agreement, too many on the Republican side are against the agreement we had for $1.04 trillion in spending--they will need Democratic votes.

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Mr. SCHUMER. Agreed. The Senator from Missouri is exactly correct. If we voted, it would move the process of both funding the government--very important--and getting middle-class tax relief--also very important--forward.

Mrs. McCASKILL. Well, I would certainly urge every single Senator, be they Democrat or Republican, to come to the floor and ask the question: Why are we not voting today on the bill that was passed by the House? We are ready to vote. You know, the American people do not get this game. The bill was passed in the House. Why are we not voting? Why is the Republican Party blocking its own bill?

Mr. SCHUMER. The Senator from Missouri is, as usual, thoughtful, politically astute, and right down the middle moderate. It makes no sense to block it. It is holding up progress, particularly because the Republican House has to be shown that this bill is not going to be the answer. The only way to both fund the government and provide middle-class relief is for Democrats and Republicans to get together, as the Democratic leader has said, almost until he is blue in the face.

Mrs. McCASKILL. With all due respect to my friend and colleague from New York, I thank him for the answers, because I was confused that the Republicans are keeping us from voting on a Republican bill. But it is not the House we need show anything. We have a tendency around here to get focused on the back and forth among ourselves. It is the American people we need to show that we are capable of standing up, casting a vote, seeing whether it passes or fails, and then negotiating and finding a way forward.

I would say to my colleague from New York, if the Republicans in the Senate are not willing to vote on their own legislation, then you have got to scratch your head.

I thank the Senator for the opportunity.

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