Cord Byrd: “our country is facing record budget and trade deficits. We are in a war of our President's choosing that is not, to put…”

“our country is facing record budget and trade deficits. We are in a war of our President's choosing that is not, to put it mildly, going as well as had been expected. Millions of Americans are without health care and millions more worry about the security of their jobs. These are troubled times and many issues clamor for the attention of the Senate. Yet what is the response of the Senate, the world's greatest deliberative body? Are we debating strategies to quell the violence in Iraq and bring our soldiers home? No. Are we considering plans to shore up Social Security and Medicare? No. Is the Senate deliberating on how to make America's workforce more competitive? No. Is the Senate grappling with reauthorizing welfare reform or the highway bill? No. This great deliberative body which was forged by the Founding Fathers in the Great Compromise of July 16, 1787, has become a factory that manufactures sound-bite votes that make great fodder for 30-second political ads but which do very little to address the many challenges facing this country. If this continues, I fear that the Senate will be little more than an insignificant arm of the political parties, and we may as well lower the flag that flies over this Capitol and wave the white flag of surrender in its place. Have we lost the will to legislate? Is the current leadership afraid to allow the Senate to work its will?”