Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday regarding the need to pass a sensible CR rather than a 2,000-page omnibus spending bill:
“Yesterday Democrat leaders unveiled an Omnibus spending bill that some have described as one last spending binge for a Congress that will be long be remembered for them.
“The Senate should reject it.
“It appeared to some of us that we were making good progress on the economy when lawmakers in both parties agreed Monday to let taxpayers keep more of their own money.
“But yesterday, Democrats unveiled a 2,000 page spending bill that repeats all the mistakes voters demanded that we put an end to on Election Day.
“Americans told Democrats last month to stop what they’ve been doing: bigger government, 2,000-page bills jammed through on Christmas Eve, wasteful spending.
“This bill is a monument to all three.
“It includes more than $1billion to fund the Democrat health care bill.
“For those of us who’ve vowed to repeal it, this alone is reason to oppose to Omnibus.
“It’s being dropped on us with just a few days to go before the Christmas break, ensuring that no one in Congress has a chance to examine it thoroughly before the vote.
“And ensuring that Americans don’t have a chance to see what’s in it either.
“This too is reason enough to oppose it.
“For two years, Republicans have railed against the Democrats for rushing legislation through Congress. But this is, without doubt, one of the worst abuses of the process yet.
“The voters made an unambiguous statement last month: they don’t like the wasteful spending, they don’t want the Democrat health care bill, and they don’t want lawmakers rushing staggeringly complex, staggeringly expensive bills through Congress without any time for people to study what’s buried in the details.
“This bill is a legislative slap in the face to all those voters who rejected these things.
“For the first time in the modern era, Congress hasn’t passed a single appropriations bill.
“Democrats have been too focused on their own left-wing wing wish to take care of the basics.
“And now, at the end of the session, they want to roll all those bills together, along with anything else they haven’t gotten over the past two years, and rush it past the American people just the way they jammed the health care bill through Congress last Christmas.
“I think a more appropriate approach is to pass a sensible, short-term CR that gets us into next year, when the new Congress will have the opportunity to make a determination on how to best spend taxpayers’ money.
“The government runs out of money this Saturday. Congress should pass a short-term CR immediately.
“We need to pass the tax legislation we voted on earlier this week.
“And we should accomplish the most basic function of government — we can at least vote to keep the lights on around here.
“I mean, the deadline for funding the basics of government was October, and here we are on December 15th proposing treaties.
“Pass the tax legislation and keep the lights on.
“Everything else can wait.”
####