Harry Reid

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Is what right?

Mr. REID. No, it is not right, because what the amendment of the Senator from Ohio does is hurt people who are disabled. Part of Jack Reed's amendment stops people from drawing both benefits at the same time.

Mr. REID. I would be happy to.

Mr. REID. I don't know the exact number, but there are always a lot of proposed amendments around. What I would say is this: Rather than continually denigrating our economy, our President, and, frankly, I believe, our country, I think we should have some more constructive things around here. For example, we had today a conversation for 1\1/2\ hours with Chairman Bernanke. He is going to be there until the first of next month. It was a very good discussion. He talked about the vibrancy of this economy now. He said, as we have been saying here, it is not as good as it should be, but with a little bit of help, it would be on fire. Now, why isn't it on fire? Because of the obstruction over here. As the Presiding Officer knows, the new Fed chair, Chairman Yellen, has also said unemployment benefits are a great impetus in helping the economy. For every $1 put into the economy in unemployment benefits, we get $1.50 back. This bill recognizes that these benefits don't go on forever. That is why we make structural changes. We would be happy anytime to sit down and have a good discussion with the senior Senator from Texas and anyone else to talk about things we can do. We have had a lot of programs that deal with job retraining. In 1998 when we did that, it wasn't a bad deal. Here it is all these many years later, and of course we need to sit down and talk about ways to improve retraining. This whole country needs that. That is also something Chairman Bernanke said today. So I repeat, let's start being constructive around here, and instead of talking about how terrible things are, let's talk about how things are improving. We have had 8 million new jobs since Obama has been President. We have a lot of good things that have happened. Has it been perfect? Not even close to perfect.

Mr. REID. Of course.

Mr. REID. On what?

Mr. REID. This is Thursday. We have been waiting since Monday to get a proposal from the minority, the Republicans, as to what they believe would be a good way to pay for this. Nothing, other than whack ObamaCare. So the answer is that we are where we are now. We have tried a number of different ways on many different pieces of legislation to say, OK, let's just do germane amendments. No. How about relevant amendments? No. How about having a specific number of amendments and giving the minority more than the majority? No, can't do that either. We want unlimited amendments on everything. As a result of that, we have continued obstruction which has taken place in this body for 5 years. It is time we get back to legislating the way we used to.

Mr. REID. The answer to the Senator's question is no.

Mr. REID. Would my friend yield for a question?

Mr. REID. Does the Senator also understand that in the President's budget, he calls for revenue, does he not?

Mr. REID. And my friend would also acknowledge that when Presidents submit these budgets, don't they propose a budget rather than nitpicking different pieces of the budget one at a time?

Mr. REID. Yes.

Mr. REID. If he will just withhold--and he can offer his amendment--I do want to say this. We get nowhere with dueling amendments. We have learned that in the past. Dueling amendments don't do the trick. The issue is pronounced, it is here before us, and we went a step further. In the past we haven't paid for this. Five times, President Bush signed bills extending unemployment benefits not paid for. Again, we have done a good job reducing the debt. We have a lot more we can do, but we have reduced it almost $3 trillion already. The issue now before us is are we going to extend benefits for people who have been unemployed for a long time. That is the question. We bent over backward to try to come up with a compromise, a bipartisan piece of legislation. I repeat, it is paid for with a Paul Ryan pay-for. There are structural changes. It is a pretty good deal. I am very disappointed we are at a point now where we have been for 5 years. Nothing is ever quite good enough. They always want more amendments. They always want more amendments. But the issue is before us. Is this body going to vote to extend unemployment benefits paid for with Paul Ryan's pay-for and with structural changes or are they going to turn their back on people who are desperate?

Mr. REID. Sure.

Mr. REID. My friend, the Senator from Indiana, is of those Senators who used to be here when the good old times were here. We didn't have ``gotcha'' amendments. Every amendment offered, with rare exception, is a ``gotcha'' amendment. That is not what we do here. I have been waiting since Monday to get pay-fors as to how we can extend unemployment benefits for people. They come up with stuff that doesn't even pay for 3 months' worth of extensions. Amendments are important, but I think we have to go back to the time when Senator Coats was here the first time and start working together to get things done in this body.

Mr. REID. I was there, just like my friend. Things were different then, they certainly were, because we did not have hundreds of filibusters that would take place. Filibuster was something that was used rarely. In those days would you ever filibuster the Secretary of Defense or all the other Cabinet officers? Of course you would not. That is why action had to be taken. But what my Republican friends have to realize is that filibuster is not a right, it is a privilege. It has been abused. My friend can lecture me, and I am happy to listen to his many lectures, but I was here. I know how things used to work and what has gone on in the last 5 years would never have taken place in those days.

Mr. REID. Yes.

Mr. REID. No, he was only delayed while we had two wars going on in this country.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, in response to the question of my friend, in fact what has happened--and we find this with the judges--they stall for weeks, months, and sometimes years. When the vote comes it is pretty good, but in the meantime they have done significant damage to this institution and our country by stalling and making it so the President of the United States has a very difficult time doing his job because he doesn't have his people there when he needs them.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, of course that is a question that is a great big softball--of course not. We need debate. We need good, strong debate about nominations and everything else. But what we don't need is hours and days and weeks and months of obstruction. That is what we have here. My friend, the Republican leader, is picturing to everyone within the sound of his voice something that doesn't exist. There has been obstruction that has been carried to an extent that no one ever dreamed would happen in this great Republic. That is what the objection is. The objection is to obstruction. Was it only a debate when my Republican colleagues decided the DC Circuit-- some say the most important court in this country, even, some say, more important than the Supreme Court--when they decided there were vacant seats there and for 5 years held up filling those seats? Is that a debate? No. It is obstruction. If we turn to the dictionary and look up ``obstruction,'' they would point right over here.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, during the time we have been a country, and I don't know exactly long it has been, more than 230 years--I can't come up with it this second--there have been 23 district court nominees filibustered. Twenty of them have been during the 5 years of the Obama administration, and that example is throughout the government. The American people know what is taking place in this body. They can try to paint over a picture that things are just fine, all we are doing is wanting a little bit of debate. There has been stalling, obstruction that is untoward and never considered. I just can't imagine how my Republican colleagues can justify what they have done. But they do. I accept that. But we have an issue before this body. Again, they are trying to divert attention and go to how many amendments, what are the rules. The issue before this body is whether the long-term unemployed get an extension of their benefits. As we speak, there are people all over this country who are desperate to be able to get $300 a week to be able to survive for another week, hoping they will find a job. The sad part about that--my friends say we need to do something about making sure these people fill these vacant jobs. There are lots of places people find work. For every job opening there are three people unemployed trying to find a job. I have answered the question to the best of my ability.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, my friend from Indiana had a consent request? Oh, I wanted my friend from Indiana to know I was not trying to object to something he has a right to do.

Mr. REID. I now move to proceed to the motion to reconsider the vote by which cloture was not invoked on the nomination of Robert Leon Wilkins to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which cloture was not invoked on the Wilkins nomination. I ask unanimous consent that the next votes be 10 minutes in duration.

Mr. REID. This will be the last vote today. The next vote will be Monday, January 13, 2014, at 5:30 p.m.