Making Continuing Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2013
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Ms. AYOTTE. Madam President, yesterday I came to the Senate floor to discuss two amendments I had filed to the budget agreement that would have addressed an egregious part of this agreement, which is the cuts to military retiree benefits. In particular, I think the most egregious part of it is to those who have been disabled. We have all been to Walter Reed and seen and met our brave heroes, some who have lost limbs, serving our country in Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet in this agreement we are cutting their cost-of-living increases for the retirement they earned on behalf of our country.
So yesterday I came to the floor to talk about what I think is an appalling part of this budget agreement, but also to say, Why can't we amend the budget agreement and fix this now?
I offered two possibilities of how we could do that with two amendments I filed on this budget agreement. I am sure others could find in the trillions of dollars CBO has said we are going to spend over the next 10 years--$47 trillion--we can find $6 billion rather than taking it from our military retirees.
What happened yesterday on the floor was there was a motion to take down the tree so we could actually amend this budget agreement and fix provisions such as that, and it was voted down. So now we have no ability to amend this budget agreement, so I cannot bring the amendments I talked about yesterday to help our military retirees and ensure they do not get singled out in this agreement, which I think is appalling and wrong.
But I also cannot bring an amendment that I also filed that addresses an issue that is very important to the State of New Hampshire. That deals with an objection I have to a particular provision in the budget agreement that would make it easier for the Senate to pass legislation requiring online retailers to become the tax collectors for the States and the rest of the Nation--this so-called Marketplace Fairness Act that the Senate passed earlier this year.
Within this budget agreement there is what is called a reserve fund that allows the chairman of the Budget Committee to bypass certain procedural limitations that are normally allowed and procedural objections you have and all Members have to these types of legislation--budgetary objections--and these procedural objections are waived when these types of reserve funds are passed.
This provision, which I fought on the Senate floor on the Senate's budget--it did eventually get passed--is included in this agreement, even though since this body passed the Marketplace Fairness Act, the House has refused to take it up. The House has wisely found that there are major objections to this piece of legislation, which would require businesses--many of these businesses around the country that we see thriving on the Internet--to become the tax collectors for the rest of the Nation.
In fact, my State of New Hampshire does not have a sales tax. What it would require is that businesses in New Hampshire--online businesses that have written to me--it would place tremendous burdens on them. They would have to become the tax collectors for nearly 10,000 tax jurisdictions in this country, trampling on New Hampshire's choice not to have a sales tax, and also putting a tremendous burden on businesses to do the jobs of the States in becoming tax collectors for the rest of the Nation.
This legislation is bad for the economy, and I think it is bad for businesses, and particularly businesses in my home State of New Hampshire. So I object to the provision, the reserve fund, that is in this budget. I have filed an amendment that would strike that provision. But, again, no amendments are going to be heard on this budget agreement because the majority leader has filled the tree and said there will be no amendments heard, no matter the merits of the amendment, no matter how important the amendments are, including amendments I talked about that impact and help address the real egregious provision that impacts our military retirees.
This is just another example of an issue that is very important to the State of New Hampshire. Were I allowed to bring my amendment forward, I would have again expressed my opposition to this reserve fund that is within this budget, that is objectionable, that makes it easier to pass future legislation, a future version of the Marketplace Fairness Act, that will put a tremendous burden on businesses in New Hampshire. It is wrong to have online businesses become the tax collectors for the Nation.
I believe we should be allowed to amend this budget agreement, to vote on these amendments, and particularly on issues that are important to our men and women in uniform, as I have described. But not only that, this issue on the remote collection of sales taxes by online businesses throughout the country is a very important issue to the State of New Hampshire--which does not have a sales tax--but not just to the State of New Hampshire, to online businesses across the country that do not and should not have to be the tax collectors for States throughout the Nation.
With that, I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
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Ms. AYOTTE. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from South Carolina for his leadership on this important issue. What I want to ask the Senator is this. Some have come to this floor and said: Pass this budget agreement, and we will fix this later. Does the Senator think that is a good way to solve this problem?
Mr. GRAHAM. That is a good question. The best way is to fix it before it passes, and we have until January 15. Nobody wants to shut the government down. Again, the budget deal is just about numbers. We have to actually appropriate. But I think we could. There are so many different ways. I have thrown out the idea of eliminating subsidies for people who make over $250,000 for their Part D premiums. It is $54 billion over 10 years. I am not asking my Democratic colleagues to go to food stamps and safety nets. I am not asking them to do that, and I am surely not going to ask the Republicans to raise taxes. There are better ways to do it.
So I could not agree more with the Senator from New Hampshire. With a little bit of effort here in the next few hours or days, we could fix this in total.
Ms. AYOTTE. Of all the people who deserve our effort, doesn't the Senator think we could stay here as long as we need to before the holidays--a little bit of inconvenience for us--to fix this? Because one thing I see from this is we are saying to our military retirees: Do not worry. Trust the politicians in Washington to fix something they voted for.
Here we are. We know the problem is here now. People yet have not had a final vote on this budget agreement. Yet they are still saying: Oh, we know the problem is there, but we are going to vote for it anyway. I do not understand this.
If you are someone who is serving our country, what kind of message does that send?
Mr. GRAHAM. In all honesty, the provision does not take effect for a year or two. But I think what the Senator is saying is so important. Why leave any doubt in people's mind? They have enough to worry about already. Life is hard for all of us. For some people life is just incredibly hard. I have lived a fortunate life. But for a military retiree who is not disabled, it matters to them.
So we should not create stress where none is needed. They have been stressed out enough. The last 10 years have been hard as hell for them--multiple deployments. Senator Warner and all of us would go overseas. You would see the same people. I would do small Reserve tours just for a few days in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am seeing the same people in Afghanistan who I saw in Iraq in my career field of being a JAG working on detention matters. I do not think the average American--they appreciate but I do not think they really understand how hard this has been on 1 percent of the American people.
So wouldn't it be nice if they did not have to worry and we could get this issue behind us? Because here is the truth of the matter: It may come as a shock to the body, but we are not in very good standing right now. That is a bipartisan problem. Here is the concern. The main things that have been fixed that are wrong? Not a whole lot. It is hard to fix things.
Ms. AYOTTE. Right.
Mr. GRAHAM. The unraveling effect is what people worry about. If you fix it for the military retirees, what about the civilians? I am willing to look at that. But the bottom line is they fought hard. They fought long. They have earned what they got. We should not retroactively diminish their retirement. They have worried enough. Let's do not give them anything to worry about for the holidays. Let's take this one off the table.
Ms. AYOTTE. I could not agree with the Senator from South Carolina more. I heard the chairman of the Budget Committee say the fact that disabled veterans are included in this, those who have had a medical retirement--we have talked about them; we have been to Walter Reed; we have seen those who have sacrificed so much for our country and are getting a cut to their cost-of-living increase in their retirement under this agreement--that this was somehow a ``technical glitch'' or something.
If it is a technical glitch that we know is there, why are we going home before it is fixed? I do not understand it and even putting one shred of doubt in their minds that we stand with them, and that we know this problem exists in this bill, and that it can be fixed.
Mr. GRAHAM. Just to respond, I think this is what happens when you are trying to get something done late in the year. We are all adults. We have had months to deal with these issues. I sort of hate the fact that you are dealing with important things like the Defense authorization bill a day or 2 before everybody wants to go home for Christmas. Eventually, that leads to $17 trillion in debt.
How do you get to $17 trillion in debt? It takes bipartisanship.
Ms. AYOTTE. Right.
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Ms. AYOTTE. Let me just say, we can do the right thing. We do not have to set our expectations so low that we cannot come together and find a pay-for that is acceptable to both sides of the aisle that says what we should say to our men and women in uniform; and that is: Thank you. Thank you. God bless you. The first responsibility of our Nation is to defend our Nation and to keep it safe. Of all the things that would keep us here--would keep us here till Christmas--I think this is one of the most important things we could do for the people who go in there first for us and ensure that we have the privilege of being on this floor, have the privilege of going home and spending the holidays with our families.
So of all the things, to say that this is not possible, I think it is very possible, and we should have the will to do it for our men and women in uniform. We should have the will to do it for those who have been disabled because of their brave service in the line of duty for this country. I would hope we would rise to the very best of this body and fix this and not go home for the holidays with any uncertainty for our military retirees or our men and women in uniform of where we stand, and we stand with them.
With that, I yield the floor.
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