Max Baucus

Mr. BAUCUS

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, February 5, 2009 at 2 p.m., in room 430 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. committee on indian affairs

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Indian Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, February 5, 2009, at 11 a.m., in room 628 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be authorized to meet, during the session of the Senate, to conduct a hearing entitled ``Implementing Best Patient Care Practices'' on Thursday, February 5, 2009. The hearing will commence at 10 a.m. in room 430 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. committee on health, education, labor, and pensions

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, February 5, 2009, at 10 a.m. in room 216 of the Hart Senate office building.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate, to conduct a hearing entitled ``the nomination of David W. Ogden to be Deputy Attorney General of the United States Department of Justice'' on Thursday, February 5, 2009, at 9:30 a.m., in room SD-226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on February 5, 2009, at 2:30 p.m.

Mr. BAUCUS

Mr. BAUCUS. Madam President, for the benefit of Senators, I would like to take a moment to talk about where we are in consideration of the bill. Today is the third day of Senate consideration. Yesterday was quite productive. We had a full debate and very little downtime, which I especially appreciate. The Senate considered nine amendments and had rollcall votes on four. One was adopted by voice vote. The Senate adopted a Republican amendment by Senator Coburn to strike a tax amendment related to film production. And with an overwhelming bipartisan 71-to-26 vote, the Senate adopted a Mikulski-Brownback amendment to allow a deduction for interest on the purchase of motor vehicles. By voice vote, the Senate adopted a Harkin amendment on which Senator Specter played a very important role, who worked very hard, Senator Specter did, on the Harkin amendment, to provide additional funding for the National Institutes of Health. So where are we now? Pending are a Murray amendment to strengthen infrastructure investments--these are all pending--a Vitter amendment to strike several spending items; an Isakson-Lieberman amendment to provide a tax credit for home purchases; a Feingold-McCain amendment to provide greater accountability of congressional earmarks; a Cardin small business bonds amendment; a DeMint amendment making a series of tax cuts in lieu of the pending substitute; a Thune amendment in the nature of a substitute; a Thune amendment on new programs in the bill; and a Dorgan amendment on runaway plants. I might add that the Democratic caucus is conducting an issues conference today, but the floor is open for business. We expect a number of Republican amendments and also Democratic amendments. We hope to have several votes on amendments this afternoon and evening after the Democratic issues conference concludes, perhaps starting about 5:30 today, although I cannot say that that is going to be an exact time. That is for the leaders to determine. For the information of Senators, let me say I expect that we hope to have as many as 12 amendments pending today, and we hope to stack votes on these at the end of the afternoon and into the evening. In addition to the Republican amendments that we expect to be offered, we also expect Senator Bingaman, who has expressed an interest in offering an amendment, as well as I mentioned Senator Dorgan's runaway plants. Senator Wyden also spoke to me about his amendment on bonuses that he intends to offer with Senator Snowe. Once again, I urge Senators, let the managers know of their intentions to offer amendments. We want to give Senators as much notice as possible. I reemphasize notice is efficient. It helps us get our amendments passed here. I thank all Senators for their cooperation. Amendment No. 168 I wish to say a word or two on the DeMint amendment. I remind Senators that the DeMint amendment strikes the whole underlying bill and replaces that language with his amendment, which reduces the corporate rate to 25 percent, and it makes permanent the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, including capital gains. That is a big item, as we all know. It further repeals, permanently repeals the alternative minimum tax provisions in the Code today. It changes the estate tax treatments by creating an exception up to $5 million per person. I do not know what he does with the rates, but it is an estate tax reduction below what estate taxes are today. I remind all Senators that next year, in the year 2010, the Federal estate tax is zero. If Congress does nothing, it reverts to quite a higher level. The DeMint amendment takes the current 2009 level and lowers it even further. I do not know this, but I suspect it also is permanent. The DeMint amendment further makes the child tax permanent. It repeals all itemized deductions currently in the Code which itemizers often take, except for the mortgage interest deduction and the charitable deduction; otherwise, all other deductions, if you itemize, are repealed; for example, State and local taxes, everything else in the bill before us. What is the effect of that? There are several effects. First, we are trying to begin to address our health care system, and the DeMint amendment strikes all the health information technology provisions in the bill. We are trying to get health information technology up and running. I think it is a bad idea to strike health information technology. We have to get that started if we are going to begin to lower health care costs in this country. It strikes the Medicaid provisions through aid to the States. It does not take a rocket scientist to know what effect that would have on the States. The States are in a recession. I think it was the Government Accountability Office that estimated about $230 billion is being cut by States because they are in recession, and that basically comes out of Medicaid and other low-income programs. The DeMint amendment says, oh, sorry, States, you do not get any assistance, which means all of those people getting cut are not going to have health care. It strikes the changes to TANF. That is the program we put in place years ago to reform the welfare program. It is a great program. It works very well. It gets people off of welfare in a very solid way. It also strikes provisions that extend unemployment insurance to people who have lost their jobs. I cannot believe it would do something like that, but that is what the DeMint amendment does. It also strikes the COBRA provisions. That is very important. I can't believe that is what he wants to do. In current law, when somebody works for a company and is laid off for reasons not of his or her own making, they are laid off and there are more than 20 people in that firm, that person is entitled to keep health insurance offered by that firm if that firm does offer health insurance, I think it is for 18 months. But that person who is laid off can keep that health insurance only if the person laid off pays 102 percent of premiums, that is, the person laid off has to pay for all of that health insurance, plus 2 percent administrative costs. Now, clearly not many people who are laid off, not working, can afford to pay 102 percent of the health insurance premiums, especially when the premiums these days are going up at such a rapid rate. We, in the underlying bill, say a person laid off in that situation gets a 65-percent subsidy so that person can keep health insurance for 18 months. I think that is the right thing to do, given the current circumstances. But, no, the DeMint amendment says you have to pay 102 percent, because we are not going to help you in these dire times. I also say, these are permanent tax cuts in the DeMint amendment. The 1-year deficit effects of this amendment are staggering. They are ugly, because basically this is a huge, big tax cut amendment is what it is. Last night, Senator Coburn spoke eloquently about growing deficits in the future, how fast they are growing. It begins to maybe put our currency in danger. Other countries might be not as interested in holding dollars, might not be interested in buying Treasuries. Countries such as China come to mind, other countries come to mind. Obviously the DeMint amendment would make the concerns of Senator Coburn balloon. I mean, if Senator Coburn is concerned about the deficits today, Senator Coburn, I am sure, would be dramatically concerned about the effects of this amendment, which would balloon the deficits to an even greater amount. So I think the underlying bill is important, it is crucial. The estimates are, between either passing the underlying amendments or not passing them, a difference of about 3 to 4 million jobs, 3 to 4 million jobs in this country. We could choose not to pass this underlying bill. That would mean no economic stimulus recovery package. That would also mean about 3 to 4 million further jobs lost. If we pass this legislation, it would begin to create and bring some jobs back into this economy. Let's face it, banks are not lending for lots of reasons today. But one reason is because they are having a hard time finding creditworthy borrowers. It is hard to get creditworthy borrowers, when the borrower is having a hard time finding demand, because people are not buying the borrower's products. There are many parts to the overall solution. But one of them is helping create some demand, and this underlying bill does create demand. If, on the other hand, we do not pass the bill and pass these big tax cuts, it further balloons the deficit to a staggering amount. It is not going to have nearly the stimulative effect that the proponents might say. It will not. Our goal here, in representing our constituents in our State, is to take this kind of bad situation we find ourselves in--we kind of inherited this. This is where we are, these are the cards that were played, that is the hand we have right now. So let's do the best we can with what we have got. My judgment is, and I think it is the judgment of most Members of this body, this economic stimulus package may not be perfect, but it is pretty good. It will help create some jobs. It is certainly better than the alternative, which is nothing. Let's get on with it and keep improving upon it as we proceed. I strongly urge my colleagues not to adopt the DeMint amendment, which is a full repeal of the program and replaces it with a massive increase in debt. I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I think the pending amendments would have to be set aside.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, reserving the right to object.

Mr. BAUCUS. I ask unanimous consent that following the remarks by the Senator from Wisconsin, the Senator from Arizona, Mr. Kyl, be recognized.

Mr. BAUCUS. I ask unanimous consent the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. BAUCUS. Madam President, I first want to congratulate the Senator from Nebraska. I have known him as Agriculture Secretary. He served the people of his State as Governor and also as mayor. I compliment Senator Johanns for his service to his State and to his country. I very much look forward to working with him in the Senate. Again, I extend my congratulations. Amendment No. 200 to Amendment No. 98 On behalf of Senator Dorgan I ask unanimous consent the pending amendments be temporarily laid aside so we can call up Senator Dorgan's amendment No. 200 on runaway plants.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, we try to be evenhanded and fair and balanced here. We have had a gentleman's agreement that we alternate sides on speakers. Since the Senator from Illinois last spoke, I think it is only fair and appropriate that we rotate.

Mr. BAUCUS. We already have 16 amendments lined up in the queue. It is going to be a very late night tonight because of that great number of amendments. I was wondering, I would be more than willing to work out an arrangement where the Senator's amendment can be the next one available after our votes tonight, the first Republican amendment tomorrow. I have to draw the line somewhere here; otherwise, we would keep going. I renew my offer to make it the first amendment tomorrow.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I would prefer that you offer the amendment after we dispose of the 16 tonight. Then we can agree by unanimous consent that it would be the first one up.

Mr. BAUCUS. That would be fine.

Mr. BAUCUS. So far, I have to object, and I have to figure out why. I might say to my good friend, in order to get order here, they are telling me we are coming in at 9:30 tomorrow morning. I know the Senator, a former military man, is used to early hours.

Mr. BAUCUS. Thank you very much.

Mr. BAUCUS. Or whenever we come into session tomorrow morning. We expect to be in about 9:30. There may be some leader time.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, we have been going back and forth, so if someone from this side of the aisle does appear by the time the Senator finishes his remarks, we could either have a gentlemen's agreement or I could ask unanimous consent that the next speaker be a Democrat. Everyone is an honorable Senator here, so if a Democrat is here, after you finish, I say to the Senator--

Mr. BAUCUS. I thank the Senator.

Mr. BAUCUS. I have no objection.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, next is the Cardin amendment, No. 237. I understand the chairman and ranking member of the Small Business Committee agree to this. I don't see the chairman. I see Senator Cardin on the Senate floor. I urge him to speak to the amendment. Otherwise, I am prepared to accept the amendment.

Mr. BAUCUS. We are now going to vote on the Isakson-Lieberman amendment, No. 106, the housing tax credit. I am prepared to accept the amendment.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.