Improving the Provision of Medical Services and Benefits to Veterans -- Motion to Procee

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I wish to say a word this morning about the President's State of the Union speech. Let me say that I think Congresswoman MCMORRIS RODGERS did a great job representing our party and the people of Washington State's Fifth District last night.

Frankly, I wish the President had laid out an agenda half as hopeful as the one she did because the State of the Union address is always an important moment for our country. It is an opportunity for the two parties to come together with the President, members of the Supreme Court, and other government officials to show a kind of unity even in the midst of the great debates we have here every single day. It is a worthy tradition.

Last night the President had a real chance to unite the Nation around a forward-looking agenda. He had a huge opportunity to reach to the middle and chart a new path--at a time when nearly 70 percent of Americans say the country is either stagnant or worse off now than when the President took office--that we are on the wrong path. It could have been a legacy-making moment. Instead, it was the same tired boilerplate we hear year after year.

When you peel back all the adjectives and the anecdotes, all the platitudes and nods to the left, what remains for the middle class? Largely, the same tired policies that led us to this point--the same failed agenda with its legacy of stagnant unemployment, lower incomes, growing inequality, and crumbling pathways to the future. The only difference is that now the President wants to keep doing the same old thing, but without as much input from the people's elected representatives in Congress.

It is basically all of the same policies, less of that pesky democratic accountability. The President didn't talk about embracing a positive new agenda last night. He didn't talk about reforming our Tax Code in a way that would drive private-sector growth and job creation. He didn't talk about finding serious ways to start reducing a massive $17 trillion debt that threatens to suffocate our economy and crush the dreams of our children. He didn't talk about saving Social Security and Medicare or about streamlining and slimming the size of government or about setting America's entrepreneurs and small businesses free to dream and to succeed.

As for energy, the President plans seems to boil down to more regulation and new taxes on energy production.

For all of his talk of phones and pens, he didn't even mention using his pen to sign off on the Keystone Pipeline. It is the single, simplest action he could have taken to create jobs soon, and it is actually a project which would create jobs right away. It still can, if the President will just lead. Unions support it; powerful members of his own party support it. The American people overwhelmingly support it. But there is one small group that doesn't support it: Special interests on the far left. The special interests on the far left won last night, and the middle class lost.

There is another big issue where the President turned his back on the middle class, and that of course is ObamaCare. The State of the Union was the President's opportunity to finally admit his mistakes and the painful consequences which have affected so many in Kentucky and around the country. It was a chance to call for a fresh, bipartisan beginning and to start over with true health reform that could really help middle-class families. Instead, he simply doubled down on failed policies.

I know he tried to paint a rosy picture of life under this law in his speech, and I suppose that is natural. But he must know it is not a picture that reflects reality. He must know that Americans suffering under this law aren't going to buy the spin, and he must know that trying to sell Kentucky's ObamaCare bureaucracy as some kind of success story is, to the thousands and thousands of Kentuckians being hurt by it--well, it is, frankly, insulting.

It is insulting to the quarter-million Kentuckians who have had their plans canceled because of this law. It is insulting to the families struggling to afford premiums that have on average increased by almost half across Kentucky. It is insulting to the taxpayers who have been forced to subsidize--to the tune of about $250 million in Kentucky alone--ObamaCare's restricted access to doctors and hospitals. It has a crushing effect on families and skyrocketing costs.

So look. It is clear. President Obama missed the mark last night.

On some issues he actually said the right things, such as on Trade Promotion Authority. That is a place where we can work together to create more American jobs, as long as the President can convince his own party to work constructively with us to do that. What he didn't say last night is that the only thing stopping us from creating more trade jobs is his own party. So we will see if he actually follows through on trade.

But overall, the President mostly refused to budge from his failed policies. He refused to reach across the aisle in a way that would lead to immediate job growth opportunities. That is distressing news for our country. It is especially disheartening for the middle class, and it is disappointing for those of us who actually want to get big things done for our constituents, for those who do want to work with the President, who want to collaborate on smart, bipartisan policies that could finally--finally--get Americans back to work after years of this failed Obama economy. But we cannot do it without President Obama. He has to lead on trade, jobs, energy, the economy--whatever the issue.

We are not going to give up. We are not going to stop trying to help him to see that Americans are calling for a new direction, for a forward leaning agenda that actually puts the middle class first and leaves tired leftwing ideas where they belong--in the history books. And when the President is ready to work with us, he should know we will be here waiting for him. We have always been here, actually, and many Members of his party, with other helpful ideas, have been here too, waiting for him--Democrats with smart ideas the President has not been willing to consider so far.

All he needs to do is pick up the phone. If he is willing to actually work in a serious way with Members of both parties, we will send him some things to sign with that pen too.

I yield the floor.

Source