Posted on 11/08/2014 10:45:13 AM PST by mdittmar
Washington, D.C. – Nevada Senator Harry Reid spoke on the Senate floor today regarding the transportation jobs bill and legislation to repeal subsidies for big oil companies raking in record profits. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:
Tens of thousands of bridges and millions of miles of roadways across the country are in a state of disrepair.
But, rather than putting Americans to work fixing those roads and bridges – and repairing crumbling train tracks, highways and sidewalks across the nation – House Republican leaders are pandering to the Tea Party.
As if putting the Tea Party ahead of efforts to repair our nation’s crumbling infrastructure wasn’t bad enough, House Republicans are risking 2.8 million jobs in the process.
I was disappointed to hear last week that House Republican leaders will pursue a three-month extension of the Highway Bill. They should be voting on the two-year transportation bill passed on an overwhelming, bipartisan vote by the Senate.
Their short-term Band-Aid bill is no solution. Communities and contractors need certainty – especially going into the summer construction season – that their projects won’t grind to a halt in three months because the House once again refuses to act.
The American people will know who to blame if chaos in the House Republican caucus costs us almost 3 million jobs. One week remains until thousands of projects around the country lock their gates and lay off their workers.
It is time for House Republican leaders to do the responsible thing: take up the Senate-passed transportation bill, which is strongly supported by Senate Republicans.
The American people are watching, and time is wasting.
While House Republicans are squandering precious time and risking American jobs, the Senate will move forward with a bill to repeal billions in subsidies to big oil companies.
Last year, Big Oil raked in $137 billion in profits – more than ever before – but still received billions in taxpayers-funded giveaways.
Even with domestic oil production at its highest level in almost a decade, prices at the pump are rising.
Oil companies are making money hand over fist. When the price of a gallon of gas goes up by a single penny, quarterly profits for the five major oil companies go up by $200 million.
Yet this country continues to give taxpayer dollars to some of the most profitable corporations in the world – corporations that don’t need our help. It’s time to end this careless corporate welfare.
The only real way to bring down prices at the pump is to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. That will take additional responsible, domestic oil exploration anhgd smart investments in clean energy technology.
The Senate will vote this evening to advance the Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act.
This legislation ends more than $2 billion a year in tax breaks for Big Oil. And it invests the savings in the clean energy industry, where it will grow our economy and create jobs.
Repealing wasteful subsidies won’t cause oil and gas prices to rise. But reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil will cause prices to fall.
I hope my Republican colleagues will join Senate Democrats and repeal subsidies for Big Oil. It is time we worked together to move this nation toward its clean energy future.
But if Republicans continue to stand up for oil companies making record profits, one thing will be obvious: Republicans care less about bringing down gas prices than about helping big oil companies that don’t need the help.
Congress should pass this legislation quickly, before another taxpayer dollar is spent on wasteful handouts to Big Oil.
The Senate must also move quickly to reform our postal system. And in the coming weeks the Senate must reauthorize of the Violence Against Women Act, pass additional job creation measures and take up a crucial cybersecurity bill.
The Pentagon says passing cybersecurity legislation is the single most important action Congress can take to improve national security. That’s why I will bring a bill to the floor very soon.
Bipartisan efforts to craft comprehensive cybersecurity legislation have been ongoing for several years, but the time to act is now.
It is time for Republican colleagues who have been involved in this effort from the start to sit down at the negotiating table and help us settle on a final approach. The next few weeks will set the path ahead.
Both parties agree this legislation is a priority. And Senators interested in getting involved should act now, before time runs out.
As always, I hope Democrats and Republicans will be able to work together to forge a path forward.
The American people will know who to blame
The American people are watching,and time is wasting.
Blah blah blah, Koch brothers, blah blah, tea party, blah blah..
Shut up, Harry!
You know, it strikes me as interesting the comment that the Republican party and the Democrat party have too much in common these days.
And when you think about it, the fear of and the hatred of the Tea Party is a solid case in point.
These two parties are two peas in the same pod.
We’re about to experience two years where this will become crystal clear, or the Republican party will do an about face and join those of us who still give a damn about our nation.
The Chamber of Amnesty owns McConnell & Boner. Good luck with that.
I agree.
The Republicans are great at throwing up their hands, falling on the floor, and acting like they’re having a seizure.
“Oh, it’s not our fault. It was out of our hands.”
B. S.
They agree with what’s going on. We all know it.
The republicans SHOULD work for the American people not
KStreet. No matter what and then would we see solutions.
YEP
While I agree with what Reid said concerning subsidies to big oil companies, Reid wrongly ignored a MAJOR constitutional problem with the feds putting people to work to fix roads and railroad tracks.
More specifically, not only have the states never authorized the feds to tax and spend to repair crumbling infrastructure, but "history never repeats itself, but it rhymes" as Mark Twain is alleged to have similarly said, as evidenced by the following.
President James Madison had vetoed a public works appropriations bill intended to build roads and canals, noting in his constitutionally required veto letter that, while agreeing that such things would help commerce, there is no clause in the Congress’s constitutional Article I, Section 8-limited powers which would justify such a federal spending program. Here’s a reference to the text of Madison’s veto letter.
Veto of federal public works bill
So instead of Reid doing his job to lead Congress to propose an amendment to the Constitution to the states which would grant Congress the specific power to tax and spend for repairing the nations infrastructure, I suspect that he was preoccupied with trying to win votes from the 2.8 million people who would benefit from the bill.
And with all due respect to the family of President Eisenhower, Eisenhower wrongly signed the bill that established the nation’s interstate highways imo, without first leading Congress to win the support of the Article V state majority for an amendment to the Constitution which would authorize such a project.
What subsidies? Any specifics, or are you just repeating silly lib talking points?
“Tens of thousands of bridges and millions of miles of roadways across the country are in a state of disrepair.” Sen. Hypebole
There are approx. 4 million miles of public road in the U.S., about 3/4 of which are paved. There are nearly 600K public bridges in the U.S., of which one in nine are deficient.
Dingy Harry is pulling numbers out of his @$$ again.
Hyperbole. Sticky keys.
When I saw that Headline, I thought it was either McConnell or Boehner who had made that statement.
Sad.
What does “the tea party” even mean to Harry and the press??? It isn’t even a party. A lot of us conservatives don’t care what you call us: we want freedom and a light, representative republic of a govt. We hate statism and on all the rest we might not even agree!
Why isn’t anyone warning the Democrats that they must stop putting the Koran and the communist party ahead of America?
KOCH BROTHERS! KOCH BROTHERS!
The Rat party has tourretes syndrome.
As if the “progressives” of either party give a flying toot about America or its economy.
Harry...Harry...Harry; Tea Party methods would put the economy, and the Middle Class, on solid footing, make businesses easier to form and run and solve most of the problems the Democratic Party has caused over the last century.
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