U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin Delivers Floor Speech Calling For an End to Political Games

Washington D.C. – U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin today delivered a speech on the floor of the United States Senate focused on the importance of putting an end to the political games being played in Congress that are creating crisis to crisis governing, uncertainty for our economy, and economic insecurity for Wisconsin families and businesses who are working hard to move our recovery forward. Baldwin also called for both parties to work across party lines to pass a responsible budget that creates jobs, invests in middle-class families and builds an economy that produces shared prosperity.
 
“Some here in the Senate are committed to playing the same political games offered by the House. And here are the rules of the game they are playing. Crisis to crisis governing, uncertainty for our economy, and for families and businesses - economic insecurity.
 
“Instead of working together across the party aisle to create jobs and move our economy forward, a minority of extremists are intent on threatening our economic recovery with brinkmanship meant to appeal to narrow political interests, namely their own. Instead of working together to pass a responsible budget that invests in the middle class, this political game calls for locking in the sequester cuts and putting up a road block to economic growth. Instead of working together to do what’s best for middle class families - moving health care reform forward - this political game of drama and division insists on shutting down the government unless health care is repealed for millions Americans.
 
“And instead of working together to do what’s best for businesses and the economy, they are creating yet another manufactured crisis that threatens the full faith and credit of America with a government default. Knowing full well that would hurt economic growth and the families and businesses who are working so hard to move our recovery forward.”
 
Watch Baldwin’s speech here.
 
Below, full remarks as prepared for delivery.
 
Budget Debate Floor Speech
Thursday, September 26, 2013

M. President:

I have come to the floor today to stand up and speak out about the divisive and irresponsible path down which some members of Congress wish to take our country.
 
Last week, my former Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives continued to put their own personal, partisan, politics ahead of progress for the America people.
 
Some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle here in the Senate have voiced support for a responsible approach and rejected this path. For that, I applaud their independence.
 
But some here in the Senate are committed to playing the same political games offered by the House.
 
And here are the rules of the game they are playing. Crisis to crisis governing, uncertainty for our economy, and for families and businesses - economic insecurity.
 
Instead of working together across the party aisle to create jobs and move our economy forward, a minority of extremists are intent on threatening our economic recovery with brinkmanship meant to appeal to narrow political interests, namely their own.
 
Instead of working together to pass a responsible budget that invests in the middle class, this political game calls for locking in the sequester cuts and putting up a road block to economic growth.
 
Instead of working together to do what’s best for middle class families - moving health care reform forward - this political game of drama and division insists on shutting down the government unless health care is repealed for millions Americans.
 
And instead of working together to do what’s best for businesses and the economy, they are creating yet another manufactured crisis that threatens the full faith and credit of America with a government default. Knowing full well that would hurt economic growth and the families and businesses who are working so hard to move our recovery forward.
 
Let’s be clear about how they would like to see their game end.
 
According to independent economists, the damaging cuts from the sequester are slowing down the economy and killing jobs.

Locking in these devastating sequester cuts will gut investments in economic development, innovation, and education.

The House Republican budget would cut the National Institutes of Health by $8 billion compared to the Senate budget. This would cost 25,000 jobs, compromising the next generation of research in our country, and holding back the development of treatments for cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and chronic diseases.

Repealing the Affordable Care Act would mean that children with pre-existing conditions can be denied health care by insurance companies.

Repealing America’s new health care law would mean that young people will not have health care coverage because they can no longer stay on their parent’s health insurance until the age of 26.

Repealing Obamacare would mean that women will no longer have free preventive health care and we will go back to the day when women can be charged more than men for their health coverage.

They will shut down the government unless we agree to increase the out of pocket costs for seniors on their prescription drugs and deny them wellness programs.

They are threatening a government default, which would weaken our economy when we should be doing everything we can to strengthen it.

They don’t seem to care that even the hint of defaulting on our obligations by a minority of Republicans in Congress had severe consequences for our economy when it last happened in the summer of 2011.

The stock market plummeted and the U.S. credit rating was downgraded for the first time in our nation’s history.

Businesses froze hiring in August of 2011 and that was one of the lowest months of job growth over the last two years.

Consumer confidence dropped and widespread uncertainty was created for middle class families.
 
The last thing we need right now is more political games.

The last thing we need right now is to create another self-inflicted economic wound in Washington that will hurt middle class families and small business, those that are working so hard to get ahead.

We need to create jobs, invest in middle class families and build an economy that produces shared prosperity.

Instead of protecting tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and tax loopholes for big corporations, it’s time for Republicans to join our efforts to ask those at the top to pay their fair share.

And it’s time for Republicans to join our efforts to continue making smart spending cuts that reduce the deficit without shortchanging our future.

It’s time for Republicans to join with us in passing a responsible budget that strengthens the middle class, while also giving American businesses the certainty they need to grow our economy.

It’s time to break this destructive pattern of bringing the country to the brink and instead return to making Washington work for the American people.
 
Chairwoman Mikulski has called for the return to “regular order” so that Congress can pass individual appropriations bills every year.
 
She is 100 percent correct and I support her efforts because regular order allows us to prioritize key investments that support the middle class and avoid these annual shutdown showdowns.
 
As I’ve traveled the state, Wisconsinites have told me that the powerful and well-connected seem to get to write their own rules in Washington, while the concerns and struggles of middle class families go unnoticed here. They feel like our economic system is tilted towards those at the very top, and that our political system exists to protect those unfair advantages instead of to make sure that everybody gets a fair shot.
 
Last week, an economic report was released that showed that income inequality has been worsening and expanding, with almost all, in fact 95 percent of the income gains since our economic collapse five years ago, going to the top one percent of income earners.

The American people would be right to expect that both parties work together to offer solutions that addresses the challenge of closing this gap.

But it has been ignored by those playing the game of threats and “divided we stand” politics.

They are wrong to ignore the gap between the economic security that Americans work so hard to achieve, and the economic uncertainty that they are asked to settle for.

They are wrong because if we can’t close that gap, we might someday talk about the middle class as something we used to have, as opposed to something every generation can aspire to.

Unfortunately, the “divided we stand” crowd in Congress refuses to be governing partners committed to meeting this challenge and advancing our common good.

But worse yet, the threats of a government shutdown and government default are immensely disrespectful to the hard work of people who get up every day and through shear grit and determination have helped to move our country forward.

The American people deserve better. They deserve to have their hard work respected.

And our economy demands better. It demands that hard work is rewarded.

Senate Democrats have a plan to keep the government running while ensuring that millions of Americans don’t lose access to affordable health care.

Republicans should join us so that we end this shutdown crisis and the irresponsible political game of division.

It is my hope that those who choose divisive politics over progress for America’s economy reconsider and join us on this bill and work with us to once and for all, end the drift from one crisis to the next.

This is not a political game, and those who continue to play these games need to stop and get to work. And get to work with us moving our country forward.

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