On the recordDecember 20, 2011
This debate is in many ways surreal-- surreal. I learned in Civics 101 that the House is a coequal branch to the Senate. Members on the other side say, well, this is a compromise. It's a compromise in the Senate, not the House. The House has spoken. The Senate says, my way or the highway. Now, I understand that that's how it's kind of become around here, and I know there are friends on the other side of the aisle who are upset with the Senate when they've done it on other bills when they were in the majority. This is enough. The American people deserve better. We need to get back to regular order. We need to compromise between the House-passed bill and the Senate-passed bill. That's the way the Founding Fathers wanted it: compromise between the House and the Senate, not between the Senate and the Senate. Two months for the American people, that's outrageous. They deserve a year, a full year to have a payroll tax holiday, not 2 months. Come on, ladies and gentlemen, let's send the Senate a message: come back to Washington and do your work. Give the American people a year, not 2 months.
