The Budget

Floor Speech

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, my colleague has talked about the disease in Washington, but I want to talk about another disease that seems to be running rampant in the House Republican caucus, and that is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy. The reason I say that is they say one thing and they mean another. They say one thing and they deceive the American public.

Ordinarily, I would not comment on the behavior or the tribal mores of the House Republican caucus, but they have had a field day on TV ridiculing the Senate, ridiculing the Democratic Senate, essentially doing a lot of name calling. I am not doing name calling. I am going to do fact describing.

The reason I call it hypocrisy is this: What they say they want to do, which is reduce government spending, they do not. They only do it on particular groups of people.

The other is something called the consequences of the shutdown. Let me say this: They want to cut spending, but they are unwilling to cut their own pay. Sure, I am for a government that is more frugal. I am for cuts. But I am not for their cuts. What they propose is reckless and radical, and when they do not get their own way, they say: Cut it or shut it.

However, I take this position: If there is a government shutdown, I do not think Members of Congress should be paid. If there is a government shutdown and we tell dedicated Federal employees that they are not going to get paid, that they are nonessential, the fact that we could not stop a shutdown shows we are not essential. I believe if there is a shutdown, Members of Congress should not get paid.

I not only want to express that as a sentiment, I did that backing Senator Barbara Boxer's bill which passed the Senate that said if there is a shutdown, Members of Congress do not get paid.

What did the House Republicans do? They passed a bill, I will not go through the details, but on this relevant section they said Members of Congress and the President do not get paid. But guess what. They allow for retroactive payment. The Senate bill does not do that. So they would be the only ones in a shutdown who can come back and pick up that little paycheck they have stuck in a corner. Talk about hypocrisy. That is called bait and switch. It ought to be under some kind of consumer protection law.

Even the title of their bill is wrong. Their bill is called the Government Shutdown Prevention Act. Their bill doesn't stop a shutdown. It doesn't even help with the sitdown. What is a sitdown? We would come to the table as grownup Americans, and we would try to arrive at how to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government that recognizes not only debt but that there are certain aspects of the government programs we need to be able to fund.

My constituents were outraged when Wall Street executives got hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses. They should be outraged when, as Members of Congress, we are going to get paid when they do not.

Here is what I don't get. My home State is the home of the National Institutes of Health. Right now I have thousands of people working as a team to find the cure for Alzheimer's, for AIDS, for autism, for cancer. We race for the cure, and we should, but we are going to tell those researchers they are nonessential.

Right now there are thousands of Federal employees processing the claims of Social Security, making sure someone who is disabled qualifies for their benefit. They are going to be told they are nonessential.

Let me tell you, on any given day, if somebody, in whatever town they live, goes to their Social Security office and finds it shuttered and they cannot apply for a benefit for which they believe they are eligible, I think they would rather shut us down than that Social Security office be shut down.

Ask anybody in the United States of America who they think is more essential, Members of Congress or the researchers working on a cure for cancer or those people working to defend our borders. I could give example after example; you know where they are.

It is very clear people know they depend, for the functioning of the Federal Government, on a civil service that is honest, that has integrity, counseling us to make sure we keep government doors open while we negotiate the numbers. Numbers do matter. I am ready to come to the table. I believe all Democrats are ready to come to the table. But we will not come to the table to engage in meaningless discussions and pursuing a way that is reckless.

I will discuss about the recklessness more, but I want everybody to understand Democrats in the Senate passed a bill that said if there is a shutdown, we don't get paid, no way, no day, and no backpay. So no way, no backpay. The House, in the meantime, did this sham scam that says: Yes, we will pretend we are not getting paid, but we are going to pick up a backpayment.

I don't get these guys. They want to take away Medicare and turn it into a voucher program, but they are sure happy picking up government health care. They love getting federally subsidized health care. They want to take away other people's pensions, but they sure like getting their Federal employee pensions. I am going to put an end to the hypocrisy, and I am going to put an end to the CR dangling.

I think we need to come to the table and pass a responsible budget that recognizes we are in a frugal era and we need to make sure the American people know we are on their side. At the same time, the American people need to know that many of us are willing to say if a shutdown comes and Federal employees get no pay and contractors get no pay, we get no pay and no backpay.

I will have more to say about this as this week unfolds, but before I sit down, please, lets sit down rather than shut down.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source