Coronavirus
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I want to thank the Senator from New York and thank him for the negotiations he has engaged in.
It is nothing short of amazing that the Republican leader of the U.S. Senate comes to the floor of the Senate every morning and criticizes Senator Schumer and Speaker Pelosi, who are sitting in a room day after day after day, trying to hammer out an agreement to help America in this time of need, while there are two empty chairs at that table. Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, does not attend the meetings, and sadly, the Republican leader of the Senate is also boycotting these meetings. I can't remember a time when this has occurred, ever--no time in history when there was a critical national decision to be hammered out between the parties and the leaders of the Republican Party in Congress refused to attend the meetings.
Senator McConnell gives polished speeches on the floor criticizing Senator Schumer and Speaker Pelosi. They should be polished--he has time to practice them all day instead of going into the negotiations that can actually make a difference in the future of America.
Americans are genuinely concerned, and they should be. We face a national health emergency with this pandemic, sadly, where the infections are spiking across America. It is still amazing to consider two numbers: the number 5--the United States has about 5 percent of the world's population; and the number 25--the United States has generated 25 percent of the COVID-19 infections in the world. Five percent of the population and 25 percent of the reported COVID infections in the world.
How did we reach this point where this great developed, civilized, and strong Nation has been brought to its knees by this pandemic? We have reached this point by lack of leadership. The American people know that there have been leadership failures at the top. They know this President refuses to listen to experts. If the experts say something he doesn't like to hear, he banishes them, as Dr. Fauci has found.
We also know that this President is downplaying the threat that sadly is taking American lives in the thousands by the day. Just yesterday or the day before, he branded this pandemic as all but over. Really? There is hardly anyone in America who would agree with that statement-- certainly no one who is paying any attention to the sad realities facing families.
This President has failed to tell the truth. He has been engaged in medical quackery. This hydroxychloroquine that he clings to has been discredited by the sources that test it. It just isn't an answer. The President should know better. For goodness' sake, he doesn't have the competence to make a medical judgment along those lines, but that won't stop him.
But many people across America are just fed up with it, whether it is Lysol cocktails or ultraviolet insertions. Lord only knows what he will come up with next. At a time when people are literally sick and dying, when our healthcare heroes are risking their lives every day, this President goes off on these flights of medical fantasy, and the American people are fed up with it.
This President has failed to take the action that America desperately needs. We cannot reopen this economy, we cannot consider reopening schools until we dramatically invest in better, quicker testing. That is a reality.
As Senator Schumer said earlier, Americans wonder how the President manages to test everyone who crosses the threshold of the White House over and over, every single day, and how Major League Baseball and the National Football League can get test results in a matter of hours while Americans are standing in line and waiting for results that are largely irrelevant when they are delivered 5 or 6 days after the test. What good is a test if it tells you that you are safe 6 days ago, when you want to see your grandchildren today? That is the reality of testing in America.
And what has this President done about it? He has made statement after statement that there are all the tests we could possibly want available to every American. We know better. All across America, we know better. Testing has improved and increased, but it is not where we need it. That should be the highest priority of this administration, but they failed when it came to providing personal protective equipment, and they failed when it comes to providing testing.
The biggest failure is the attitude of the Senate Republican leader and the President when it comes to the crises America faces--first, the coronavirus crisis and, second, the economic crisis. The biggest tragedy is the fact that they believe we should do little or nothing-- little or nothing when we are facing some the greatest challenges of our time, some of the greatest challenges in American history. The American people expects us to take it seriously and to aggressively go after this coronavirus and its spread and aggressively help this economy back to its feet.
We have come up with a plan, which Senator McConnell has come to the floor and mocked every single day. It passed the House of Representatives 11 weeks ago. Eleven weeks ago, Speaker Pelosi passed it and sent it to the Senate. What has happened in that 11-week period? Speech after speech after speech, deriding the efforts of the House of Representatives and, literally, nothing on the other side to show for it.
Finally, last week, they started trickling out a few ideas here and there, and they weren't very good. They refused to participate, will not even attend the negotiation sessions with the White House, and come to the floor each day and mock and criticize Democratic efforts to deal with the issues before us.
As far as a recovery is concerned, it is essential that we dedicate ourselves to it, but, first, coronavirus--first, get the infections under control and save the lives of those who have already been infected. That is the first thing that needs to be done.
The Republican approach is too little and too late. We have come up with a $3 trillion plan. They have come up with a $1 trillion plan and said: We may not even spend that much.
Particularly troublesome for me is this attitude toward the unemployment compensation being paid to Americans. I couldn't believe the Senator from Kentucky when he came to the floor today and tried to pit our healthcare heroes against the unemployed, saying: They are going to work every day. Why should we give any money to those who don't go to work every day?
Really? We have four unemployed Americans--four unemployed Americans--for every single job opening. I don't believe the doctors, nurses, and medical professionals who are fighting COVID every single day resent those who are unemployed. I think they understand full well the devastation of this pandemic, not only on the individuals they treat but on the economy at large.
When it comes to these healthcare heroes, the Democrats have stepped up and called for hazard pay. Will the Republicans join us? We think these healthcare heroes deserve it--that and more, our gratitude and more, for all they have given to the United States.
Let me say a word about those who are receiving unemployment benefits. I met with five of them in Chicago last week, heard their stories, asked them a few questions, and learned a little bit about their lives. I wasn't surprised at the hardship they face. Many of them have been out of work for 4 or 5 months already. It is no surprise that almost half of the people out of work have exhausted all of their savings at this point, even with unemployment benefits.
You ask those who are unemployed: Well, what do you do with these checks that are sent to you each week?
It is pretty obvious to them what you do with it. You pay the mortgage, if you have one. You pay the rent, the car payment, so it is not repossessed and taken away from you. You try to keep food on the table. You try to keep the people issuing the credit cards at bay. These are the basics that people face every single day. But the Republicans don't seem to get that. They don't understand it because they don't get to know these people or even ask them what life is like. They are not on any bed of roses with $600 a week when you consider the debts they face, when you consider the expenses they face, and you consider the fact that many of them are struggling to pay for their own health insurance at this point. A family trying to pick up the cost of their health insurance, that their employer once provided half of, finds themselves spending $1,400 to $1,700 a month on that alone. That is the reality.
For the record, of those who have returned to work in America, we are grateful that they are back to work. We are happy that they are back to work. Seventy percent of them were making more money on unemployment than they made returning to work. Well, why would they do that? Because they are not lazy people. They are people who take pride in work, believe there is dignity with work, and are prepared to return even if they made more on unemployment. They know that unemployment is a temporary help. They want to get back to work, a place where they can prove their worth as individuals and feel some satisfaction that they are going to work and doing their best. That is part of the reality
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source