WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Republican
Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate
floor calling on Majority Leader Reid to allow Republican
amendments that focus on job creation:
"Today is the nominal deadline for most people to sign up for
Obamacare. And while one Senator from the other side of the aisle
said yesterday that there's 'no such thing as Obamacare,' that will
come as news to millions of our constituents - the millions of
Americans facing higher premiums, cancelled plans and the loss of
doctors and hospitals they liked as a result of this law.
"Obamacare is definitely real to the Middle Class families we
represent. And if our friends on the other side want to make the
pain of this law go away, then they can work with us to replace it
with smart, bipartisan reforms. But trying to wish their own
Obamacare law away or simply pretending it's not there - well,
that's just insulting to the people we represent. The American
people deserve better than that.
"Now, on a related matter:
"We'll be having a vigorous debate this week in the Senate about
how to create jobs and rebuild the Middle Class.
"On the one side, Democrats will be offering more of the
same.
"They'll propose treating the symptoms instead of meaningfully
improving the prospects of people struggling out there.
"On the other side, Republicans will be proposing concrete ways
to break the cycle of unemployment and hopelessness that pervades
the Obama economy - ideas aimed at helping people reach their true
potential and build a better life for themselves.
"The Republican message is all about innovation and opportunity
- and making it easier for more people to join the ranks of the
Middle Class. It's about reforming the underlying causes of
unemployment, instead of just perpetually treating the symptoms and
it's about how we create the jobs of the future that will allow
Americans to do more than just pay their bills.
"Republicans will offer a series of jobs amendments this week
that underline our determination to reorient America's economic
trajectory. We want to lift our country from stagnation to growth,
from hostility toward enterprise to an embrace of innovation, and
from a system rigged by government elites for their own benefit to
one that can work for the Middle Class again.
"So Americans will hear about two competing agendas this
week.
"On the one hand: a tired, government-centered Democrat agenda
designed by, and for, ideologues of the Left.
"On the other: a modern, enterprise-oriented Republican agenda
designed around the hopes and the potential of the Middle
Class.
"This is a debate Republicans welcome. It's one we've been
wanting to have for a long time.
"And we hope Washington Democrats will actually be serious this
time when they say they want to focus on jobs.
"Because every time they say it, they keep getting distracted
and 'pivoting' to other issues.
"Here's something else we expect from the majority too: votes on
amendments for positive reform.
"The American people deserve at least that much. After so many
years of failure, the Middle Class deserves the chance for
something better.
"Remember: there are nearly 4 million Americans who have been
unemployed for six months or longer. These Americans deserve to
have a Congress that's committed to making it easier, not harder,
to create jobs.
"So let's have this debate. Let's vote on Republicans' jobs
amendments. And let's give some hope again to the Middle Class
families who've suffered for too long."
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