107 percent of the benefits goes to the top 1 percent by 2017.

Which one is more important to you: the heating program or the tax cut to Wells Fargo, which has defrauded so many people?

Isn't that kind of a shameful thing to do to the next generation of Americans?

So here is my frustration.

But you acknowledge that the budget has a decrease of $240 billion in infrastructure?

I think most Americans would feel that if you have a plan designed for working America, the vast bulk of the benefits would go to working America, not to the richest Americans.

I had difficulty getting the numbers on the individual tax provisions, what they would have costed, to better understand individual policies.

As I am standing here, I am in support of the proposal the Senator put forward, and I think every Member on this side of the aisle is. We are ready to open it up for 3 days, just as we were determined not to have a shutdown in the first…

And is this not essentially the same consent request that was put forward by our colleague from Montana, Senator Tester, just on Friday night?

I thank the Senator very much for laying out the history of some of the key elements of how we got here. If your unanimous consent request had been agreed to by the Republicans, we would have a vote to reopen the government; is that the…

I ask unanimous consent to address some questions with my colleague from Virginia. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Without objection, it is so ordered.

I thank the Senator. I appreciate his speech and proposal. Certainly, so many of us are ready to vote right now, as we were before, to have a 3-day period in order to force intensive negotiations, because what we have seen, when the…

So the whole reason we have a Trump shutdown right now-- as you pointed out, the President wanted it, but it is also because the majority leader, on behalf of the majority, also wanted to keep us shut down and refused to entertain the…

So the President, the House, and then the Republican leadership launched this plan to shut down the government. They succeeded. They rejected at least three times the Democratic effort to have a bipartisan proposal to keep the government…

No matter how important it is to keep the government open, the majority refused to entertain any proposal toward that effect, even if it had bipartisan support.

So the citizens of the United States anticipate or expect that this body--once referred to as a great deliberative body-- would have a chance for different ideas to be put forward and different proposals to be considered. But that has not…

So, repeatedly, the majority that controls this Chamber and has locked up the amendment box--the opportunity for anyone to put forth any proposals--they have locked it up. We have asked unanimous consent to essentially unlock that and put…

They really want to see us reopen our community health centers and get those funded because they are so important.

I thank my colleague from Missouri for sharing Frankie's story with us today, the fight for progress, and the life she lived. I was thinking last night as we were debating here on the floor about one of the ways that Martin Luther King…

I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. Reviewing Last Year's Senate Agenda

our Constitution starts out with three beautiful words: ``We the people.'' This was the whole mission statement for the development of our form of government--not a government that would deliver benefits by and for the privileged, not a…

here we are at the start of a new year. Last year, the Republican majority decided to dedicate the year to government by and for the powerful and the privileged, but how about this year, 2018? We pay attention to our Constitution, which…

It just seems like there is no real traction toward the vision laid out in 2254.

Eighteen months has long expired.

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…