Mr. President, 100 days is a significant period of time--significant, particularly, because it involves the health of our children, which has been neglected over the last 3 months plus. How is it that this Chamber managed to go more than 3 months and not get in place a permanent expansion or a 5-year expansion of healthcare for our Nation's children? Well, I can tell you why. It is because my colleagues on the majority side of the aisle here in this Chamber had a different bill that they were immersed in and that was a healthcare bill that would be better termed a health destruction bill because it would have wiped out healthcare for somewhere between 20 and 30 million Americans, and eventually version No. 5 of that bill died here in the Senate. Then my colleagues across the aisle said: Well, we have another beautiful idea. We are going to do a tax bill that will deliver trillions of dollars to the richest Americans. Well, our Constitution was crafted around the vision of government of, by, and for the people, but my colleagues across the aisle like a different version of governance. They like governance by and for the powerful and the privileged. So here they have this tax bill, and this tax bill has provisions like eliminating the dynasty loophole so wealthy families can pass their dynasty inheritances from one generation to the next without ever paying capital gains. They had a provision that they wanted to change the tax brackets for the wealthiest Americans.…
Share & report
More from Jeff Merkley
Mr. President, our Constitution starts out with the three words ``We the People,'' and they are written in supersize font to tell you that that is what the core of our democracy is all about-- or, as Lincoln so well summarized, government…
Mr. President, throughout these 25 hours of debate, there has been one theme that no Member of this body should forget, that no American should forget because it is the heart of this bill. And what is the heart of the bill? Families lose…
this is very dangerous for the separation of powers, the checks and balances.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that my interns be granted floor privileges on their shadow days for the following dates: Michael O'Rourke on April 8, 2025, Ji Reichle on April 9, Lainey Chi on April 10, Langston Phan on April 29…





