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Floor Statement: Energy, Trade, Fiscal Responsibility

Energy, Trade, Fiscal Responsibility - Tuesday, September 09, 2008 View video | Can't view the video?

Mr. President, as we return from the August recess, we return to the same problems that Congress left unresolved when we left in July. As I traveled around the state of Texas, I continued to hear people express concerns not only about high energy prices but high food prices and their concern that Congress is not doing enough to deal with this crisis. And, frankly, I have to say that, as I've talked to Republicans and Democrats and Independents in my state, it was hard to find anybody who felt like Congress was doing its job.

That's right. I don't care whether they were Republican or Democrat or Independent. There is a reason why Congress has an historically low Congressional approval rating, according to most public opinion polls. That's because people look to Congress and they see not a genuine attempt to roll up our sleeves and try to solve problems but too much partisanship, too much point-scoring, too much posturing before the upcoming election. And I don't know any member of this Senate who actually ran for election and hoped to serve in this distinguished body who anticipated coming up here and being stuck in the same old -- same old replay day after day, month after month, where Congress has essentially become dysfunctional in dealing with the concerns of the American people. Rather, I think most of us hope to come up here and actually make a difference, actually get something done.

Now, I know that there's concern that, you know, if something gets done, somebody is actually going to get credit for having solved the problem. But I think that's a risk we ought to take because I think if actually Democrats and Republicans were working together to try to solve problems that, you know what? I think both sides would get credit and the American people would feel better about their elected officials and feel like Congress and Washington maybe is somehow a little less disconnected from the rest of the country.

Well, we know that, for example, we left here in August and one of the things that we had hoped to do is to get a vote on more domestic drilling. That's right, to produce American energy rather than depend, as we do, on $700 billion worth of importing that energy from other sources. I'm glad that there's been some discussions, continuing discussions, and I'm hopeful that ultimately we will be able to actually do something, do something relevant, do something responsive, do something significant to deal with these high prices, and we know that there are several things we can do. And, yes, conservation is part of it. Using less. But also producing more American energy so we are less dependent on importing oil from dangerous and unfriendly regions of the world.

Now, you know, it's interesting, because I think the vast body of the American people look at Congress and they don't necessarily distinguish between Republicans and Democrats and who's in charge and who's not in charge. But I have to say -- and congratulations to our Democratic friends who won a majority in the United States Senate and in the House in the 2006 election; that's the good news. But the bad news is you're actually in charge of setting the agenda. And when Congress is stalemated over something as important to the average American and Texas family as high energy prices and we're unable to get it teed up so we can actually have a meaningful debate and vote, an up-or-down vote on more domestic production of American energy, it's because our friends on the Democratic side control the agenda and they so far have refused to allow us that vote.

I hope after traveling their states and listening to the American people after this month, they will have -- their position will have softened a little bit and they will be open to this idea of producing more American energy so we are less reliant on imported energy from other countries. Now, we're going to have a couple of chances to do this. If presumably there were an energy bill that were allowed to come up, that would be one chance. But there's another chance we know we're going to have because this is -- this is basically the vote we're going to have before we leave that's going to decide whether the Federal government is going to continue a moratorium on offshore drilling, because for almost -- almost 30 years now Congress has imposed an annual appropriation rider on appropriations bills that have banned exploration and production of oil from offshore sources. And we're going to have a shot at that regardless of what happens because we're going to have to renew that to keep the government going forward.

But my hope would be we'd be a little more farsighted than that. And do what the American people are desperate to see Congress do, and that is to actually work together to solve the country's problems on a bipartisan basis and not to continue to turn a deaf ear to people who are in some distress because of high energy prices and all of the consequences associated with it. Now, we know the economy has moved to the top of the nation's priority list in the upcoming election now, some 60 days from now. And of course there's more to the economy than high energy prices but I submit that's a significant, a very significant part of it.

We need to deal with issues like obstructing free trade. We've had the Colombia Free Trade Agreement which actually would create markets for American-produced agriculture and manufactured goods in a country that now my state alone sells $2.3 billion worth of goods a year to that country. But you know what? They're put at a disadvantage because there is a tariff added to the cost of those goods when they're sent to Colombia. Not so when their goods are sent to the United States. Wouldn't it make sense when people are concerned about jobs, as we all are, to say, yeah, we need to have more markets for American agricultural produce and for manufactured goods because that would create jobs here at home. To me it just makes common sense but we've seen nothing but obstruction there.

And then when it comes to suggestions about how to deal with so many issues, our friends on the other side of the aisle and including frankly some Republicans in the so-called Gang of 10 energy bill have proposed raising taxes on domestic oil and gas production by $30 billion. Now, we tried that before and there's going to be some division, some difference of ideas on both sides of the aisle, but we tried that before during the Carter Administration when, because of a windfall profits tax, rather than increase our independence, increase our self-sufficiency we actually depressed domestic production of oil and gas because those taxes were put disproportionately on American-based, shareholder-owoned companies when in fact we cannot impose those taxes on Saudi Arabia or Canada or Mexico. But by Congress in a discriminatory fashion imposing those on Americans, shareholder-owned oil companies, it actually depressed domestic oil production which is opposite of what we all said we wanted to do, which is to increase our dependence on foreign oil.

So we've got some huge, huge challenges. There's no doubt about it. And the American people are crying out for a Congress that is actually going to respond to those. We also know that in the national security debate that's so much a part of this Presidential race, but ought to be part of what we focus on -- job number one: national security of the American people -- they want to make sure there is responsible leadership in place dealing with an ever-dangerous world. If there was any doubt about it the Russian invasion of the Democratic Republic of Georgia should have reminded people that this is a dangerous world, we cannot let our guard down, and we need to remain strong. Because only from a position of strength will the United States be able to maintain peace. When our enemies see us let our guard down, do things like try to micromanage the troops and set an arbitrary timetable on when they come home rather than based on conditions on the ground, they see that not as a sign of strength; they see that as a sign of weakness that emboldens the bullies and emboldens nations that would like to take advantage of that.

So the last thing I want to just mention in my 10 minutes, Mr. President, is the American people want fiscal responsibility. They want to see Congress actually doing the job we get elected to do and get paid to do. And, you know, for us to be here now in September, having not yet passed a single appropriation bill out of 13 appropriations bills, is not fiscal responsibility. It is simply kicking the can down the road and more of the same, and frankly what the American people do not want to see is more of the same. They want change, all right. But I would submit to you they want the right kind of change. And they'd like to see a Congress that is actually functioning, is actually addressing their concerns and is actually working together to solve problems. And so far with this Congress that is controlled by our friends on the other side of the aisle, we have been unable to tee-up many of these important issues and I hope in the short period of time we have in the month of September where we're actually going to be in session that we'll have a productive session and work together to try to solve some of these problems.  Because frankly our record so far under the Democratic leadership is dismal.