Jim Bunning

Mr. BUNNING

Mr. BUNNING. I object.

Mr. BUNNING. I have a question for the Senator from Illinois.

Mr. BUNNING. The press release you read from was about an unemployment insurance extension that was fully paid for. So don't compare apples to oranges.

Mr. BUNNING. I understand that. I have voted for that occasionally. But this one you read from was fully paid for.

Mr. BUNNING. Will the Senator from Illinois yield?

Mr. BUNNING. Would the Senator from Illinois give me a chance to respond? You have had the floor for an hour and a half.

Mr. BUNNING. A question. OK. If all the things that have been said on the other side are true, all of the programs you have talked about could have been extended and for much longer periods if Senator Reid, your leader, had not blown up the bipartisan jobs bill agreed to by the chairman of the Finance Committee and the ranking member, Senator Baucus and Senator Grassley, and jammed through his own bill which we talked about; and all the spending forces of that compromise, of those programs that you are talking about, were paid for in that bill. Explain that to the American people.

Mr. BUNNING. Oh, he has.

Mr. BUNNING. They were paid for.

Mr. BUNNING. That is your interpretation.

Mr. BUNNING. It has been brought up during this debate that the balanced budget amendment and the balanced budget is a product of the Clinton administration. The Senator from Illinois knows that to be false.

Mr. BUNNING. Well, do you know anything about how the balanced budget bill was brought to the floor of the House of Representatives?

Mr. BUNNING. I was serving.

Mr. BUNNING. Yes.

Mr. BUNNING. That is only because Representative John Kasich and the Budget Committee that he chaired in the House, for 3 years in a row, brought a balanced budget bill to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. I was a member of that Budget Committee. The first 2 years, the Clinton administration rejected the balanced budget bill. In the third year, instead of getting run over by the train, President William Jefferson Clinton got on the train and agreed that the balanced budget bill should be passed. Then the Senate concurred and we balanced the budget. It took a little bit, but we did it. That is where the surplus came from--a Republican's idea, John Kasich, of Ohio, who brought a balanced budget to the floor.

Mr. BUNNING. The questions I have are--I wanted to straighten out my good friend from Rhode Island.

Mr. BUNNING. Even the fact that our President--somebody who talked about extending tax cuts to the wealthy and talked about extending tax cuts, and the fact that nobody on the floor of this Senate--explain to me, with 60 Democrats and 40 Republicans, why someone on the Democratic side of the aisle didn't make a bill that would rescind those tax cuts? Your President--our President--wants to extend 85 percent of those same tax cuts without paying for them. He has a bill in his budget to do just that. Explain that. I have one more. Your President also wants to pass a $250 billion estate tax bill, also without paying for it. That is right. Well, it is right. Look it up. I am on the Budget Committee, so I see these bills. Is the Senator on the Budget Committee?

Mr. BUNNING. The Senator in the chair is, so he knows what has been proposed.

Mr. BUNNING. The question I asked about the 60/40, I didn't hear anybody answer that. The Senator from Oregon is gone. He was the guy who posed the question.

Mr. BUNNING. Will the Senator yield?

Mr. BUNNING. You said you would yield to me.

Mr. BUNNING. Reserving the right to object.

Mr. BUNNING. There are so many things that I would like to say in response to so many Senators. Before I do that, I want to straighten a few things out. First of all, the prescription drug Part D--I want to help out my good friend from Missouri and my good friend from Rhode Island. I want them to know that the $400 billion that was spent has not been spent. Just for their information. And the Democratic alternative proposed by Representative Pete Stark on the Ways and Means Committee in the House of Representatives cost over $1 trillion to fund. That was the alternative to the Republican $400 billion. I know the Senator from Missouri was not here. She probably doesn't know Representative Stark. I served with him for 8 years on the Ways and Means Committee. The same thing goes. If you don't like Part D of Medicare, you have 59 Senators and you can repeal it anytime you want, or at least try to, if you think it is misspent money. Somebody complained about HHS negotiating drug prices. Our own scorekeeper, CBO, said we would have--I was on the committee--we would have no savings if they negotiated directly with the drug companies. Those profits that my good friend from Illinois talked about are not profits that go to the drug companies because any of the Medicare facilities we use, whether it be a hospital or a doctor or Medicare Part B or Part A or Part D--all of those moneys go to doctors, hospitals, and people who get prescription drugs to pay for those prescription drugs. You have to look at the benefits and see if they outweigh the complaints. I object.

Mr. BUNNING. I object and would like to make a unanimous consent----

Mr. BUNNING. No.