Capitol Words a project of the Sunlight Foundation

Sen. Richard J. Durbin

Mr. President, I listened to the speech just given by the Republican leader of the Senate. He expresses a sentiment Americans share; that it is time for us to work together in the Senate and the House, across the board in Washington, and solve the problems which American families face every single day.

I agree with him completely. Unfortunately, the record does not reflect the level of cooperation which the American people are expecting. It was hardly a month or two into the Obama administration when the Republican leader announced that his highest priority was to make certain Barack Obama was a one-term President.

It is difficult to establish a working relationship when the first words out of a Republican leader's mouth are: We are going to defeat you. Then, as we addressed the largest issues of the day, time and again, we found little or no bipartisan cooperation. I think back to the important, historic debate on health care. If there was ever a moment when we should have come together with a bipartisan solution, it was that moment.

Despite the best efforts of Senator Baucus, the Democratic Finance chair and others, we were unable to even get a core group of Republicans to join us in this conversation about containing the overwhelming increase in the cost of health care. At the end of the day, after one of the most painfully long and rancorous debates in Senate history, not one single Republican Senator would vote for health care reform--not one.

The same thing held true when it came to Wall Street reform. Many of us felt the recession we are currently coming out of was created by mismanagement and greed at the highest levels of our financial institutions. Many of us were angered by the fact that we were called on, with a political gun to our heads, and told, if we do not pass a bailout program for the biggest banks in America, our economy will crater and the weakest, poorest people in America will suffer the most.

That was our choice, our Faustian choice given at that moment. Many of us were determined to never let that happen again. So we put together a Wall Street reform bill. Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, now retired, led the effort on the Democratic side, and we tried to come up with a bipartisan bill. We worked to do it. He was masterful in his day and did everything in his power to make it a bipartisan bill. Yet at the end of the day, not one single Republican would vote for Wall Street reform--not one.

Now, on the campaign trial, we hear from Republican candidates that they are going to repeal Wall Street reform. They are going to repeal health care reform. They are not creating an environment that is conducive to the level of cooperation of which Senator McConnell earlier spoke.

I hope he is right; that even in this Presidential election year, we can find some common ground. There are several items which are immediately before us which require it: First, the extension of the payroll tax cut. This is a cut that helps working families across America and helps the economy. It will expire at the end of February if we do not reach a bipartisan agreement to extend it, along with unemployment benefits.

Secondly, postal reform. Many of the suggestions that have been made by the Postmaster General about saving money at the post office create real hardship in States such as Illinois, where some nine different mail processing facilities would be closed, closed in areas where I, frankly, could never justify it because they do a volume of work, do it well, and perform a valuable function. We have a chance. By May 15, the deadline which the Postmaster General agreed to in my office--by May 15, if we enact legislation signed by the President to save money and keep the post office running in the right direction, then we can avoid some of these onerous cuts and choices we have heard about.

But the burden falls on Congress, Democrats and Republicans, to achieve it. I hope we can.