The text of a speech given today by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). While I don’t agree with him on some points (he believes marriage should be between a man and a woman), I agree with him that Bush is using the issue to divert our eyes away from more important and relevant problems in this country.
In Nevada today, gas prices are over $3.00 a gallon. Fill-ups at the tank cause emptiness at the bank. This Administration, the most friendly-to-oil Presidency in our history, refuses to buck Big Oil or the auto manufacturers. Our citizens are literally choking on the lack of alternative fuel. Few incentives for energy created by the sun, the wind, or the Earth’s geothermal reserves has this Administration endorsed.
Raging in Iraq is an intractable war. Our soldiers are fighting valiantly, but we have Abu Ghraib and Haditha—where 24 or more civilians were allegedly killed by our own—and no policy for winning the peace. However, Secretary Rumsfeld continues in his job with the full backing of the President. Not a reprimand, not a suggestion that his Defense Secretary is at fault.
We have a national debt that President Bush won’t acknowledge, but our children, their children, and their children’s children will have to acknowledge the generations of debt created by President Bush’s economic policies. Federal red ink as far as one can see. America is becoming continually more dependent on loans from China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and England.
Our world is changing as we speak as a result of global warming—a condition our President does not acknowledge, let alone attempt to reverse.
Today nearly 46 million Americans have absolutely no health insurance. Millions more of our countrymen have inadequate health insurance. This Administration has come forward with nothing of substance to address this national emergency.
Seniors in Nevada and each of the 50 states are struggling to survive. Some physicians refuse to take Medicare patients. The President’s Medicare prescription drug plan has been a gift to HMO’s, insurance companies, and drug companies and a nightmare for seniors.
Education for many of our graduating high school seniors has become a goal too far. Student loans and Pell grants are not a priority of the Bush Administration. The ability to obtain a college education is becoming more and more based on how much money your parents have instead of how much academic potential our youth have.
Crime remains a national worry, but money from the federal government to our states for crime fighting and crime prevention is being drastically cut. Successful anti-crime programs such as the COPS program are being eliminated by President Bush, much to the consternation of police officers across America.
A trade policy that is continually eroding America’s favorable balance of payments seems to be the watchword of the Bush Administration. This trade policy causes America to be less and less globally competitive.
The scientific community cries for help. They believe dread diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Lou Gehrig’s, Parkinson’s, and diabetes could be moderated and prevented, but President Bush emphatically says NO to allowing scientists to study and research the healing powers of stem cells. He refuses to keep hope alive for the suffering people of our great country.
In spite of the many serious problems we have just discussed, what is the United States Senate going to debate this week?
A new energy policy? NO.
Will we debate the raging war in Iraq? NO.
Will we address our staggering national debt? NO.
Will we address the seriousness of global warming – NO
Will we address the aging of America? NO.
Will we address America’s education dilemma? NO.
Will we address rising crime statistics? NO.
Will we debate our county’s trade imbalance? NO.
Will we debate Stem Cell Research? NO.
But what we will spend most of the week on is a constitutional amendment that will fail by a large margin, a constitutional amendment on Same Sex Marriage—an effort that failed to pick up a simple majority, when we recently voted on it. Remember, an Amendment to our Constitution requires 67 votes.
I believe marriage should be between a man and a woman. I believe in our federal system of government, described to me in college as a central whole divided among self governing parts. Those self governing parts—the 50 states—have already decided this on their own in state after state. For example, in Nevada the constitution was amended to prevent same sex marriage. Congress and President Clinton passed a law that gave the states the guarantee that their individual laws regarding marriage would be respected. The Defense of Marriage Act creates an exception to the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Constitution so that no state can force its laws of marriage on another.
So why are we being directed by the President and this Republican majority to debate an Amendment to the Constitution, a document inspired more than two centuries ago? Why would we be asked to change this American masterpiece?
Will it next be to constitutionally dictate the cause of divorce, or military service, or even what America’s religion must be?
So for me it is clear the reason for this debate is to divide our society, to pit one against another. This is another one of the President’s efforts to frighten, to distort, to distract, and to confuse America. It is this Administration’s way of avoiding the tough, real problems that American citizens are confronted with each and every day:
High Gas Prices.
The War in Iraq.
The National Debt.
Health Care.
Senior Citizens.
Education.
Crime.
Trade Policy.
Stem Cell Research.
Each issue begging the President’s attention, each issue being ignored—valuable time in the Senate spent on an issue that today is without hope of passing.
These issues are not Democratic issues. These issues are not Republican issues. There must be bipartisan efforts to address America’s ills.
I will vote no on the Motion to Proceed, as it is not a measure meant to bring America together. Rather, it is an effort to cover and conceal the issues necessary to make America more competitive, caring, considerate and stronger.
Together, America Can Do Better.
