Nomination of John W. Degravelles to Be United States District Judge for the Middle District of Louisiana

Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Madam President, here we are--another day in the Senate--facing another political gimmick. That is the way things seem to work in the Democratic Senate, and that is what is happening again this week.

Yesterday Democrats introduced their latest designed-to-fail bill, the Bring Jobs Home Act. It is a bill they know is not going to pass. The reason I say the bill is designed to fail is because it has already failed. It has been voted on here before in the previous Congress, but that is not stopping the Democrats.

The Bring Jobs Home Act would supposedly encourage American companies to bring jobs back home to the United States and to discourage companies from sending jobs overseas. But the bill completely ignores the real problem and the reason American companies are sending jobs overseas: America's broken Tax Code and our sky-high tax rate on business. America has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the developed world and many companies simply can't afford to pay it and stay profitable.

If Democrats were truly serious about solving the problem of American jobs going overseas, they would be sitting down with Republicans to hammer out reform of our Tax Code. We should be substantially lowering overall tax rates to allow American businesses to keep jobs here at home while remaining competitive in the global marketplace. Instead of serious reform, however, Democrats have chosen to take up a bill that would do nothing to address the real problem we are dealing with. Democrats are not bringing up this bill in the hopes of actually fixing problems. They are bringing it up in hopes of winning a few votes in the November election. This is not a secret.

When Democrats first brought this bill up 2 years ago ahead of the 2012 election, Reuters described it as an example of Members of Congress ``offering up measures they know will not pass but can be used to fire up their respective supporters in the run-up to November's elections.'' That was from 2 years ago, the last time this was brought up. That has been the Democrats' preferred method of operating in the Senate.

Back in March the New York Times reported that Democrats planned to spend the spring and summer on messaging votes ``timed to coincide with campaign-style trips by President Obama.'' Again, that is from the New York Times earlier this year.

The ``Democrats concede,'' the Times continued, ``that making new laws is not really the point.'' ``Rather, they are trying to force Republicans to vote against them.'' That is also a quote which was in the New York Times story a few months ago. Making new laws is not really the point. What we are talking about here is not fixing problems; it is just creating political opportunities.

So 5 1/2 years of Democratic policies have left American families hurting. Unemployment, which the President's advisers predicted would fall below 6 percent in 2012, is still above 6 percent 2 years later. Almost 10 million Americans are unemployed, and 3.1 million have been unemployed for 6 months or longer. Those numbers would be even worse if so many Americans had not given up on finding work and dropped out of the labor force all together.

Our current labor force participation rate is at lows we have not seen since the 1970s during the Presidency of Jimmy Carter. In fact, if the labor participation rate were today what it was when the President took office, the unemployment rate would not be a little over 6 percent, it would be 10.2 percent. That is how many people have entirely quit looking for work.

Household income has plummeted by more than $3,300 on the President's watch. At the same time, prices have risen. Food prices have increased. The price of gas has nearly doubled, college costs continue to soar, and family health insurance premiums have skyrocketed by almost $3,000, despite the President's promise they would fall. And what do you get when you combine high prices, fewer opportunities for employment and advancement and reduced income? You get a lot of struggling middle-class families.

Instead of spending this year taking up serious legislation to help those families, Democrats--by their own admission--have spent this year on political show votes they hope will win them a few votes in the November election.

Last week the Congressional Budget Office issued its yearly long-term budget outlet. The news on that front was grim. The Congressional Budget Office recorded that as early as 2039, under its baseline scenario, the Nation could see public debt reach 106 percent of GDP, which would be a level of debt seen only once before in our Nation's history.

By 2039, under an alternative fiscal scenario, the debt-to-GDP ratio could rise to more than 180 percent of GDP. By comparison, Greece's current debt-to-GDP ratio is 175 percent. In other words, our economy could go the way of Greece's in just a few short years if nothing is done.

We have to take up significant budget reform and reduce the size of government. We need to look for ways we can make government work more effectively and more efficiently by reforming programs that need to be reformed. Chipping away around the edges is not going to get the job done. It is not going to cut it.

Even before the President came into office, our national debt presented a serious and pressing problem. But over the last 5 1/2 years of the current administration, the problem has gotten exponentially worse. If you look at our total debt--which includes the public and intergovernmental debt--when President Obama came into office, our national debt was $10.6 trillion. Today, just 5 1/2 years later, our national total debt stands at $17.6 trillion. That is a 66-percent increase on the President's watch. That is horrifying. Yet President Obama and his party continue to act as if our country is not hurdling toward a fiscal crisis.

Among the President's many fiscally irresponsible policies, ObamaCare stands out as one of the worst offenders. Former Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin has estimated that the President's health care law will increase the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars in its first 10 years alone and by more than $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years.

Politico reports that the Congressional Budget Office attributes the coming growth of the debt to--among other things--``rising health care costs'' and ``the expansion of subsidies offered through ObamaCare.'' So much for the President's claim that the health care law would be ``the largest deficit reduction plan in over a decade.'' But that is par for the course for the Affordable Care Act.

The President also promised that the law would reduce Americans' health insurance premiums by $2,500. Instead, as I mentioned, they have already risen by almost $3,000, and they are still going up.

I have a few headlines from this past week that I will read into the Record. Yesterday's Kaiser Health News reported: ``Florida's Biggest Health Insurer Signals Rate Hikes Ahead.''

The Nebraska Radio Network had an expert who said: ``Nebraskans' premiums may bounce 30 percent under ObamaCare.''

Last Wednesday, the Nashville Business Journal reported, ``Here come higher premiums: Tennessee's insurance providers request rate increases.''

Last Tuesday, the Associated Press reported: ``Delawareans Could Face Higher Rates Under ACA.''

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported: ``Some insurance carriers looking for double-digit increases for Affordable Care Act policies.''

Those are just a few of the most recent headlines from newspapers around this country last week. I could go on about the health care law's broken promises. I could also talk about the fact that the President promised that Americans would be able to keep their doctors and hospitals, but Americans are now finding the new health plans exclude doctors and hospitals they have literally been using for years

or the fact that the health care bill was supposed to give more Americans access to health care but that many Americans are struggling to find doctors who will take their ObamaCare insurance.

One doctor reporting on her patient's experience with the ObamaCare plan said: ``We are running into problems with coverage in the same way we were when they were uninsured.'' Let me repeat that. This is from a doctor talking about one of her patient's experiences with the ObamaCare plan: ``We are running into problems with coverage in the same way we were when they were uninsured.'' If that doesn't sum up the law's failure, I don't know what does.

Then there was the President's promise that shopping for health care on the exchange would be like buying a TV on Amazon or a plane ticket on Kayak. As
Americans quickly found out or are still finding out almost 10 months later, shopping on the exchanges is a lot more like the world's most nightmarish experience with the DMV.

ObamaCare is failing Americans, and so is the Obama economy. Instead of focusing on making things better, Democrats are focused on trying to get reelected in November.

Republicans have solutions to the challenges facing the American people--solutions such as approving the Keystone Pipeline and the tens of thousands of jobs it would support; repealing the ObamaCare 30-hour workweek provision, which is slashing employees' hours and wages; stopping the job-killing national energy tax which will eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs and drive up Americans' energy bills; enacting trade promotion authority to open new markets to American farmers, workers, and businesses; repealing the medical device tax which is costing American jobs and increasing the cost of health care; and passing real health care reform--the kind that will lower costs, increase choice, and put Americans back in charge of their health care. If Democrats were serious about helping American families, they would be working with us on these priorities instead of tying up the Senate with partisan legislation, and they would be taking up the 40 House-passed jobs bills currently gathering dust on the majority leader's desk.

Every day the Senate spends on designed-to-fail bills, designed-to-fail legislation--bills we know aren't going anywhere--is a day the Senate is not spending on bills to provide real relief to the American people.

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