Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I would like to speak on this motion to confirm Casey Mulligan to be chief counsel of the Office of Advocacy. In the last 3\1/2\ months, we have seen an unprecedented assault by the Trump administration on America's small businesses. Elon Musk and DOGE have taken a chain saw to SBA. They have done away with 43 percent of its staff and an estimated 2,700 people, and I say ``estimated'' because SBA won't share who has been fired and who has been retained with the public or with the U.S. Senate. We don't know. We requested a meeting with DOGE in February and have yet to hear back. The little we do know about what DOGE is doing at SBA is gleaned through media reports rather than through their responses to our congressional requests. Because of this administration's utter contempt for accountability and its shameless lack of transparency, we don't know if SBA has sufficient staff on hand to carry out its day-to-day operations. We don't know which congressionally authorized and funded programs have been illegally shut down. We don't know which SBA field offices will remain open to serve small business owners where they live and work. And yet, the Senate Republicans want us to rubberstamp their slash-and-burn tactics and confirm this SBA nominee by unanimous consent with a total disregard from the Trump administration to tell the U.S. Senate what is going on inside of the SBA. They have the SBA inside one big ``witness protection program.'' We can't get them to tell us anything about anything. And they want us to come out here by unanimous consent and to start to confirm appointees to the SBA to further dismantle programs that are essential to small businesses all across our country? And let me say this: My Republicans do not see how the Trump administration is turning Main Street into ``Pain Street,'' and it is in their home States. Small businesses are being forced to absorb skyrocketing costs because of President Trump's destructive tariffs. They are terrified of losing customers, as consumer confidence levels take a historic nosedive. They are listening with shock and disbelief. Small businessmen and women across the country have to have their bottle of Pepto Bismol right next to them every single day, not knowing what the impact is going to be of the Trump tariffs on their small businesses across the country. And by the way, there are 34 million of those small businesses right now, and we have got a Small Business Administration that won't even talk to the U.S. Senate, much less to those small business people who are terrified right now. They, right now, are terrified. They are shocked, as President Trump tells American consumers that they are going to pay luxury prices to shop at mom-and-pop shops in the United States. Does anyone in this administration understand the harm they are causing to small businesses? I can tell you at least one entity that does: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce called on the Trump administration to develop a tariff exclusion process to prevent irreparable harm to small businesses and to stop the country from falling into a recession. The U.S. Chamber is speaking on behalf of chambers of commerce all across this country--every city and town. They are speaking for them. They are saying: Protect small businesses from the Trump tariffs. That is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. That is what we should be debating out here on the floor right now--a bill to protect all small businesses from the Trump tariffs. Instead, we are talking about confirming someone who absolutely should not be debated on the Senate floor at this time, because those little businesses don't have the protections that big companies with big margins have. They are very, very vulnerable, and Casey Mulligan, the nominee for Chief Counsel for Advocacy, has actually questioned the value of longstanding and widely expected worker protections, including sick leave and paid healthcare and the right to unionize. And, not surprisingly, not a single Democrat on the Small Business Committee voted to advance his nomination. So this is not the right time, and he is not the right person to have this job. Confirming Dr. Mulligan will only further President Trump's radical, damaging attack on small businesses and their workers. And with that, I object. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard. S.J. Res. 7”