Restoring American Finacial Stability Act of 2010 - Motion To Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mrs. McCASKILL. Mr. President, I have a favorite President and it is not President Obama. It is, in fact, President Harry Truman. I still cannot quite get over the fact that I am sitting at Harry Truman's desk on the Senate floor and that I hold the seat in the Senate that Harry Truman held.

Tomorrow, when I attend the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and as we see a parade of Wall Street executives justifying their behavior, I will be asking questions at the committee that Harry Truman made famous when he took war profiteers to task many years ago.

Harry Truman said:

If you can't convince them, confuse them.

Well, I am confused. I read today that the ranking member, from the Republican Party, of the Banking Committee said the following at a meeting of community bankers. I am quoting exactly what he said:

I think we basically know what went wrong. We had a lot of hearings. We've been working on it 15, 16 months now.

That is not Chairman Dodd who said: ``I think we basically know what went wrong.'' It is not Chairman Dodd saying: ``We had a lot of hearings.'' It is not Chairman Dodd saying: We've been working on it for 15 or 16 months. It is the Republican ranking member on the Banking Committee.

I am confused. Is it that they do not realize it is a huge problem?

Well, of course they realize it is a huge problem.

Is it that they are not prepared, that they do not have enough information? Well, of course not. Senator Shelby said today: We basically know what went wrong. We have had a lot of hearings. We have been working on it for 15 or 16 months.

Senator Dodd has sat here this evening as many Members of my class and the freshmen class have come to the floor to express regret and confusion about why we cannot debate this bill. It is admirable he has sat and listened to all these speeches tonight. He did not have to. He could have gone home. He is invested in this legislation for all the right reasons: Because he cares deeply about this country. He understands we have an obligation as Senators to address this problem. He sees it as his duty to see this through.

So why--why--did this happen today? Why did we not move forward to debate? It is just politics, raw, bare-knuckled politics--the kind of stuff Americans are so sick of they want to throw up. They are so sick of this game playing, they want to throw everybody out of this place. Frankly, right about now, I do not blame them. What in the Lord's Name are we doing delaying the debate on this bill?

I do believe the leader of the Republican Party thinks his success as a leader can only be defined by my party's failure. It is like it is a football game. I was confused when 41 people signed the letter saying they did not want to go forward. All 41 Republicans signed this letter.

Then I got confused because Senator McConnell came to the floor and said black is white. He literally said that. He said: We cannot be for this bill because we want to stop bailouts. Well, of course this bill is about stopping bailouts. That is why we are doing the bill, to make sure we do not have any more taxpayer bailouts. He knows that. But he honestly, I don't think, believed the American people were paying close enough attention.

Then we had the announcement that the SEC had come out of a coma and was going to do something about Goldman Sachs and what had happened. Then, as Senator Dodd said so well on the floor the other day, it is like the rooster taking credit for the morning. They said, Well, we wrote that letter and now we are back at the negotiating table. What hogwash. What hogwash. The negotiating table has always been open. The door has always been open. Senator Dodd has been out working the floor of this building and every building within a mile trying to find Republicans to sit down and negotiate and find what is the problem we need to solve to make sure we never have this kind of financial meltdown again in America.

Here is another thing that is very confusing. It is time for the markup in the Banking Committee. I believe the number is over 400 amendments were filed by the Republicans for the markup. The Friday before the markup, all of these amendments were on file. Many people worked all weekend long getting ready for the markup on Monday, for the markup of this bill. The chairman of the committee, assumed--as anybody would who has spent as many hours working in this august body as he has--that on Monday Republicans were going to offer amendments. In fact, the Democrats worked all the way through the weekend trying to figure out how many amendments filed by the Republicans they could easily accept without any debate or contention.

So what happens when the committee starts? The ranking member on the Republican side says they don't want to offer any amendments. What? Now I am really confused. They don't even want to try to change the bill in committee. They make no effort to offer any substantive changes, and then they all vote no.

If the American people don't realize that a game is being played here, they need to pause for a minute and think about that. Why on Earth would the members of the Banking Committee from the Republican Party fail to offer one amendment to this legislation, unless there was some kind of plan, political plan: Don't participate. Don't vote for it. Stop it. Obstructionism, saying the Democrats are doing something they are not trying to do: taxpayer bailout.

It would be so easy to stand here and say there are ulterior motives about helping big bankers or helping Wall Street and campaign finance issues. I don't know. I just know I am confused. I am confused as to why the Republicans would march lockstep away from the debate on an issue that is of paramount importance to this country. I am confused why the Republicans would fail to offer one amendment at the committee level. I am confused why debating this bill is a problem for them politically. I am confused.

Ronald Reagan is cited for this quote often, but it wasn't Ronald Reagan who first said it, it was Harry Truman: It is amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit. Man, oh, man, do some people need that advice in this body. We need to quit worrying about whether the Democrats are getting credit or the Republicans are getting credit and realize all the American people want us to do is get to work. Get this thing done. Quit fooling around with this game that is being played. Tomorrow I think the leader may have a motion to reconsider. I would implore my colleagues on the other side of the aisle: Reconsider what you are doing. Many of my colleagues are such fine, upstanding people who also care deeply about their country. They are just wrapped up. They have been convinced this is some political Tic-Tac-Toe match and if they hold on for a couple more turns they are going to be able to draw the line through the series of squares.

This is about whether we fix a serious problem. I am a big fan of how hard Senator Dodd has worked. I think he is trying with every bit of intellect and passion he has to get this across the finish line, because he knows we need to do it for the American people. The games need to stop. The American people need to pay attention and realize they have a very good reason to be confused. Let's debate this bill. Let's debate it beginning tomorrow. Let's debate our differences. Let's try to amend it. Let's vote on amendments. Let's agree to disagree on some of it and decide who has the most votes to move forward a piece of legislation, the way our Founding Fathers intended. I guarantee they didn't intend this. They did not intend this, a refusal to even debate.

So let the debate begin. If the Republican Party wants to lockstep and say we don't even get to debate it, then the American people are going to have to draw their own conclusions, and I have a feeling it won't be a good one.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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