Economic Stimulus

Floor Speech

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I wish to talk about the stimulus package and I wish to talk about our economy and I wish to talk about the Senate.

I am very frustrated with the Senate. We spent a week maneuvering and twisting over parliamentary procedure. Our processes are slowing us down in meeting the day-to-day needs of the American people and the long-range needs of our country.

Our country is at risk. We are fighting a global war against terrorism. Our dollar is worth a box of Kleenex. We need an economic stimulus and an economic recovery package, and we are fooling around on motions to proceed and clotures and backward and forward, and so on. The American people wonder what are we doing. They believe that when all is said and done, more gets said than does get done. And guess what. Put me in the column with the American people.

I am very frustrated with this institution. The rules were designed to make sure the minority party could always be able to express their view. That should happen. But it was not to bottle up progress. It was not to stifle the opportunity to get our economy back on track. It was not to tie up the Senate so we could not help 250,000 vets, 20 million senior citizens, and actually get money in the pocketbooks of people so we can start getting our economy back on the track.

Everyone agrees we need to jump-start our economy, everyone agrees we need to do it now--everybody but the other side of the aisle who is sitting on their hands and sitting on parliamentary procedure and sitting on you know what. I think it is time they get up, and I call out to the people: Flood our phones, get them off this, and get this economy going.

We know we are being very hard hit. Last month, we lost 17,000 jobs in the service sector. That was supposed to be job-loss proof. Families all over the country are losing their homes to the subprime crisis. The price of food, gas, and health care is going up.

We voted last night on a parliamentary procedure that would have moved this legislation on the economic stimulus forward. It lost. It lost by one vote. But did it lose on a majority? No. Under the rules of the Senate, we need 60 votes to win a majority or we need 67 votes to win a majority. I thought a majority used to be a majority. Now we find that one vote--one vote--is standing in the way of moving the economic stimulus package.

I say to America: You watch cable TV, you listen to the chattering class, you read the newspapers. You know where that one vote lies. You see those empty chairs over there? One vote lies there. Flood our phones with calls, flood our Internet, flood our fax machines so we can get moving.

Last night what we had was a plan to move the economy forward. It was a well-thought-out plan of tax rebates to help families. We included not only that but 250,000 disabled veterans and 20 million seniors. At the same time, we extended unemployment insurance for an extra 13 weeks because for people who lost their job, it is now taking a longer time to find another job. And we help small business.

Last night, we Democrats voted to stand up for those disabled vets, for those senior citizens, for those people who have lost their jobs to make sure they will have the opportunity to benefit from the stimulus, and as they benefit from the stimulus, because they have such modest incomes, the money they get will go right into the economy. It will not go into paying the bar bill for somebody who has a fifth home in the Hamptons. It will go into the economy.

This bill helps 250,000 disabled vets. They say they did not qualify; they did not have earned income. My God, my God. I have a veterans advisory board. I meet with the disabled vets. Some of them belong to the Purple Heart Association, some come in wheelchairs, some come with canes because they bear the permanent wounds of war.

We always say a grateful nation never forgets, but we forgot them in the stimulus package. We forgot 250,000 of them. If a grateful nation never forgets, let's say we think you earned that. We think you earned that at Iwo Jima. We think you earned it at Normandy and Porkchop Hill and the Mekong Delta. If you have worn the uniform, you have earned it.

Now we want to help 20 million seniors who are left out because they said those Social Security benefits are not earned income. You pay your Social Security based on your wages. I think that is earned income.

Every day there are people out there working, or who have worked every day. They have spent their whole lives building our economy, building our Nation, and they are ready to do it again. All they need right now is to qualify for what they should be entitled to.

People say: Well, there she goes again. You know, BARB has a master's degree in social work. Well, you bet I do. And that social work took me into the neighborhoods and families of our constituents, and as a Senator I often try to think that way. While everybody here likes to talk about the macroeconomics and they take codels to Davos to hang out with the rich and famous, who want to be even more rich and more famous, I worry about the macaroni and cheese issues. And the macaroni and cheese issues that we have to focus on are what is happening in our economy.

But I just don't want to be a bleeding heart--though I am happy to be a bleeding heart. I am happy to be a bleeding heart, but I know that something called Moody's Economy.com--Moody's Economy.com--tells us where we get the most stimulus from the techniques used to do the stimulus, and what do they tell us? They tell us to give it to the people who need it the most--to extend unemployment benefits and to extend other benefits, such as LIHEAP, which helps people with their energy costs.

Now, 41 Republicans blocked this bill. They called it a Christmas tree. They said it was loaded with pet projects. Well, yes, disabled vets are a pet project with me. I stand guilty. Disabled veterans are a pet project with me. Clean up the mess at Walter Reed, clean up the compensation system, and include them in the stimulus package. You bet. But I also resent that. Disabled veterans are not ornaments or decorations, they are heroes, and they are the backbone of our country. So one vote stands between the American people and some help during these tough times.

I thank the eight Republicans who voted with us last night to move the bill forward so we could vote up or down on amendments. We need one more Senator to join us, one more Senator who will stand up for the people, for families, for seniors, for wounded warriors, one more vote against politics as usual. I say over there to those empty chairs: Will one of you come forward and join this very important effort?

Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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