Working Together

Floor Speech

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I am glad to see that Senate Democrats have finally ended their obstruction of the bipartisan student loan bill. It has been weeks since the Democrats blew past the July 1 deadline they kept warning about, and it has been even longer since the House passed a bill similar to the one they are actually now agreeing to. But at least Democrats have finally stopped obstructing and arguing. At least now they are ready to put their partisan political fix aside and join President Obama and congressional Republicans in enacting real permanent reform for all students--the only real reform on the table that is designed to help every middle-class family.

I would like to thank the sponsors of this bill for their hard work: Senators Manchin, King, Alexander, Burr, and Coburn. They may come from different political parties, but they all really care about students, and this bill certainly proves it.

There is something else this bill proves too: that Democrats can work with Republicans when they actually want to--when they check their partisan take-it-or-leave-it approaches at the door and actually talk with rather than at us.

That is why it is really disheartening to hear about the partisan speech President Obama plans to give today, the one the White House can't stop talking about. With all the buildup, you would think the President was unveiling the next Bond film or something, but in all likelihood it will be more like a midday rerun of some 1970s B movie because we have heard it all before. It is really quite old.

These speeches are just so formulaic, and they are usually more notable for what they leave out than what they contain. Here is what I mean. We all know the President will bemoan the state of the economy in his speech, but he won't take responsibility for it. He will criticize Republicans for not rubberstamping his policies but will leave out the fact that for 2 years Democrats did just that, and yet the economic recovery is still stagnant.

He won't talk about the fact that since he lost control of the House and his ability to have things exactly the way he wanted, he has refused to engage with seemingly anyone in Congress on ways to get the economy moving. A perfect illustration of that is the fact that instead of working with us on solutions, he is out giving speeches. And here is the kicker: Instead of taking responsibility for his failure to lead, he will probably try to cast this as some titanic struggle between those who believe in ``investing'' in the country and those who supposedly want to eliminate paved roads or stop signs or whatever ridiculous straw man he invents this time.

Give me a break. There is a real philosophical debate going on in our country, but it is not anything like how he imagines it. I would say it is more of a debate between those who believe in a government that is smarter and more efficient and some who seem to believe in government against all the evidence; between those who draw the obvious lessons from human tragedies in places such as Greece and Detroit, and some who cannot face up to the logical endpoints of their own ideology, who cannot accept the terrible pain their own ideas inevitably inflict on the weakest in our society.

It is between those who understand the necessity of empowering of private enterprise if we are ever going to drive a sustained recovery for middle-class families and some who can't seem to let go of ivory tower economic theories, even after 4 1/2 years of an economy literally treading water.

Speaking of ivory tower theories, here is another difference. Some of us believe it is actually possible to act as good stewards of the environment without declaring war on vulnerable groups of Americans. I know a lot of people here in Washington who think of Appalachia as fly-over country, but many in my State have another word for it. They call it home. When these struggling families hear one of the White House climate advisers say a war on coal is exactly what is needed, can you imagine how that makes them feel? It makes them feel as though they are expendable, as though Washington does not understand them or, frankly, simply doesn't care. ``[It is] like going to some of these big cities and shutting Wall Street down,'' is how a coal worker from eastern Kentucky recently put it.''See how it affects everything,'' he said. ``Coal is our Wall Street.''

This is just one of the many reasons Republicans have long called for an ``all of the above'' strategy. We understand that traditional sources can be developed in tandem with new alternative energies and technologies and that there is no other sane strategy anyway, since it is basically physically impossible, even putting the catastrophic economic consequences aside here for a moment, to even come close to meeting our energy needs with renewables today. We cannot even come close.

What are we going to do in the meantime, power our country with foreign energy or American energy? This should be a no-brainer, but then again we are talking about Washington here. That is why it is so frustrating when the administration drags its feet on projects such as the Keystone Pipeline. The North American oil that Keystone would bring is basically going to come out of the ground whether we take it or not. So will the administration take it and the jobs that would come along with it or surrender it to places such as China? The White House will not say. The President's spokesman was asked for a decision again yesterday. You know what his answer was? Don't look to us.

Look, this pipeline has been under review for years and years. It is basically being held up for one reason and one reason only: because the President is afraid to stand up to some of the most radical elements of his base, the kind of people you will find at one of those meetings of the Flat Earth Society he likes to talk about.

It is time for him to choose between his political friends and the middle-class families who stand to benefit from the jobs, growth, and energy that Keystone would bring. Keystone is just one example of a project the President could work with both parties to implement right now, that would help our economy. There is a lot more we can get done if he would actually pick up a telephone and try to work with us every once in a while. I know Democrats would love to hear from him every now and then as well, because every time he goes out and gives one of these speeches, it generates little more than a collective bipartisan eye roll.

It is such a colossal waste of time and energy, resources that would actually be better spent working with both parties in Congress to grow the economy and to create jobs. I know that is what my constituents in Kentucky expect and, frankly, they should expect that.

I yield the floor.

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