Thank you very much. Senator Reid has told me I have 30 minutes, so I will start that at this time. We are in a very difficult time right now because we are getting out of the deepest recession since the Great Depression. If we go back and look at the headlines when our President was inaugurated, we see the pace of job loss and we see what happened to credit and we see what happened to the auto industry and we see what happened to the stock market--we eventually lost about 50 percent from its highs. We are now in a situation where we have this economic recovery starting, but the jobs are not coming as fast as we want. We don't want to do anything which threatens that economic recovery, which threatens our families and threatens the middle class. This is not the time to hurt the middle class. What we see in Wisconsin is the middle class finally saying to the Governor there: Look, be fair to us. We are willing to give up pay, we are willing to pay more for our benefits, but don't destroy our ability to have a say in our lives. So as this economic recovery plays out, we have to deal with deficits that have come about because of this terrible recession, fewer revenues coming in to the Federal Government, more people calling on programs to help them with unemployment insurance and food stamps and things they need to stay alive. We have to deal with our deficit, there is no question about that. We have to do it like grownups. We have to do it with common sense.…
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Madam President, I call on Senator Merkley for as much time as he wishes. Before Maria Cantwell leaves the floor, who is suffering mightily from laryngitis, I have another editorial hot off the press from the Los Angeles Times: ``A water…
My friend is very knowledgeable and very smart. People tend to look at a provision, I say to my friend, in a very narrow way. They say: Oh, what is the difference? It doesn't matter. But my friend is right on the bigger picture. If all the…
The request would be to strip the rider out. My colleagues look perplexed. We have been talking about a 98-page rider that was added to the WRDA bill, and we have filed an amendment to do that. The PRESIDING OFFICER. It is not in order.
Right. I would say this: I did hear, along with my colleague, Elizabeth Warren describe it. She described it a little bit like this. You take a beautiful bill like WRDA. For the most part, it is not perfect, but it is a pretty darn good…





