Senate Floor Debate on Coronavirus, March 3, 2021 — Congressional Record, Senate

Summary

A page of the Congressional Record, Senate, dated March 3, 2021, at page S1016, in the Senate floor debate on the American Rescue Plan. The Presiding Officer recognizes the Senator from Pennsylvania, and Mr. Toomey speaks under the heading Coronavirus, saying that 10 Republican Senators offered to negotiate a bill of about $1 trillion and that President Biden did not take up the offer. Mr. Toomey says new daily cases of the coronavirus peaked at around 250,000 and were down to about 60,000 the day before, and that the unemployment rate fell from 14.8 percent in April of 2020 to 6.3 percent in January. He says the Congressional Budget Office thinks the economy will grow almost 5 percent in 2021, and that he cannot support the bill.

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“Senate Floor Debate on Coronavirus, March 3, 2021 — Congressional Record, Senate.” Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/crec-crec-2021-03-03-crec-2021-03-03-pt1-pgs1016-e6b0e712a8/, SHA-256 f9492226fff6d760fca28af9f7e14f37e60532a36aa30694bac782ac2402a69a.

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S1016 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE March 3, 2021
This one is different. I am not op- Now, I don’t happen to agree with coronavirus, of COVID–19, peaked at
posed to discussing what role govern- those 10 Republican Senators, as it around 250,000 new cases in a single
ment should play in providing actual happens. I don’t think even that is ap- day. We were running at that pace. By
relief from the pandemic. We can and propriate, but they did. And the reason the time we got to the inauguration of
should have that debate. I welcome it. that is significant is that there were 10 President Biden, we were down to
I would love to have it right now. In of them, which just so happens to be 185,000, and yesterday was about 60,000.
fact, that is a question that I think exactly the minimum number needed So we are less than a quarter of the
merits its own debate. This bill is not of Republican Senators to join with the number of new cases on a daily basis
about that, not anything close to that. Democrats to pass anything they want that we were experiencing at the peak,
It is riddled with poor economic rea- on a bipartisan basis. So there, handed and it continues to drop. It is going to
soning and rank political favoritism. It to him on a silver platter, to the Presi- continue to decline probably very rap-
will only worsen our debt and our eco- dent, was the opportunity to do a bi- idly as we continue to roll out these
nomic health in the long run. It doesn’t partisan bill to figure out where that vaccines. That is terrific.
help America’s small businesses and common ground was. The Republicans There is a sort of parallel recovery of
families in the short run. It doesn’t do were offering to negotiate from there. the economy underway. If you go back
anything to materially advance the This probably could have ended easily to April of 2020, when it was at its
cause of getting our children back to at $1 trillion or so after just weeks be- worst, the unemployment rate was al-
school at a time when they have suf- fore passing a $1 trillion bill. The most 15 percent, 14.8 percent. That is a
fered so greatly, not only academically President could have gotten so much of terrible, terrible unemployment rate.
but socially and in so many other what he wanted, but President Biden As of January of this year, just a few
ways. That is where we ought to be fo- didn’t want any part of that. You have months ago, the unemployment rate
cused. to ask yourself, why is that when he was 6.3 percent, less than half of where
This bill comes nowhere close to ad- campaigned as the guy who is going to we were. We are not back to the fan-
dressing that issue, and, instead, it di- unify America, and he had every Re- tastic economy we had a year ago just
rects itself in other directions that are publican vote he needed sitting in his before this pandemic broke, but we are
not only helpful, but in many cases office, asking him to work this out? He getting there. Eighteen States across
they are the opposite of that. said: No, not interested. Effectively, the country have unemployment rates
It is sad. It is disappointing. And on that is what he said. below 5 percent, so we are going to get
that basis, I can’t support this bill but Well, when you look at the bill, it is there.
would urge my colleagues to figure out clear why President Biden chose this The economy is growing. After a col-
ways to make it better. We don’t have path, because there is no justification lapse in the second quarter of last year,
to do it this way. It doesn’t have to be for this bill. There is no medical jus- the third quarter came roaring back,
a deeply partisan vote. We can still tification. There is no pandemic jus- and the fourth quarter grew. The Con-
choose a different path. I, for one, hope tification. There is no economic jus- gressional Budget Office thinks that in
we will. tification. This isn’t about coming to- this whole calendar year of 2021, our
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- gether and doing something about a economy will grow almost 5 percent.
ator from Pennsylvania. crisis; this is about a partisan leftwing Most private economists think it will
f wish list. And, of course, Republicans be more than that. There is a lively de-
aren’t interested in that kind of polit- bate about whether we will even reach
CORONAVIRUS ical gesturing that is going to do eco- 6 or 7 or more percent growth. We were
Mr. TOOMEY. Madam President, the nomic damage. told never again to expect to see 3 per-
circumstances that we face today in I am reminded of the words of Rahm cent. But that is how strong this eco-
the Senate are so disturbing. This is Emanuel, who famously said: ‘‘You nomic recovery is because of the resil-
really, really unbelievable. I mean, never want a serious crisis to go to iency of the American people, the tre-
there is so much good news out there waste.’’ Rahm Emanuel must be very mendous ingenuity of the private sec-
on the healthcare front, on the pan- proud of our Democratic colleagues and tor to come up with vaccines that are
demic front, on the economic front. President Biden because what they incredibly effective—several of them—
But what we are going to do in this have done is they have taken a crisis and do it in a record time, I mean a
Chamber is absolutely, absolutely ap- that is rapidly receding—let’s be hon- fraction of what was the previous
palling. est—and they decided this is their record time. It is amazing.
The Members of this Chamber came chance to make one last mad dash to And yes, you know what, we played a
together five times last year and the door with a staggering amount of role in this too. I think we did. The bi-
passed overwhelmingly bipartisan bills money and presumably claim credit for partisan cooperation of Congress to
to deal with this pandemic, to deal the recovery that is already well un- pass one bill after another on a huge
with the economic crisis that came derway. scale—like I said, five bills. The big-
from the lockdown that we experi- The good news is—there is a lot of gest was without a single dissenting—
enced—five times, about $4 trillion, good news, right? We went through one actually, I am not sure any of them
completely unprecedented in scope and of the most trying times we have been had a dissenting vote in the Senate.
scale, the nature of it. Never imagined through in a very long time in this And there was almost a trillion dollars
before, but we did it. We did it because country. This pandemic was dev- in December, leaving tens of billions of
we needed to, and we came together. I astating. It was deadly, it was scary, dollars that we approved that haven’t
think it was the biggest of the bills and the economic crisis was very, very even been spent yet. The intended
passed—the biggest by far—without a real. But now we have over 100 million beneficiaries haven’t gotten the money
single ‘‘no’’ vote in this whole Cham- doses of vaccines that have gone into yet. It takes a little while to get the
ber, completely bipartisan. people’s arms. You figure that we money out the door.
So President Biden gets elected, might very well have 100 million Amer- Given this context, given this his-
gives a great speech, a great inaugural icans who have had the disease and re- tory, this is why it is so dispiriting to
speech, about uniting the country, covered. We have to have well over half see our Democratic colleagues insist-
coming together: We don’t have to be of the American population who has ei- ing on a bill that has almost nothing to
divided the way we have been. We can ther recovered or been vaccinated and do with COVID. That is the truth. It is
work together and find common

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is therefore no longer at risk to this not about reopening the economy; it is
ground. disease—not a significant risk. That is a partisan leftwing spending binge.
So 10 Republican Senators go down fantastic news. That is what it is. Let’s take a look at
to the White House and say: Well, Mr. By the way, the vaccine administra- some of the individual items.
President, I know you would like to do tion is accelerating. Following that, we We have these so-called stimulus
$1.9 trillion, whatever it is, but we are unsurprisingly seeing this terrific checks—I never heard anything more
think there is a good case for $600 bil- collapse in the number of new cases. inaptly named—$414 billion. The fact
lion. The daily count of new cases of the is, real, personal income in the country

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March 3, 2021 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S1017
today is higher than it was just before of our Democratic colleagues to con- lot of discussion about what do you do
the pandemic. Disposable, real, per tinue the endless expansion of about these grossly underfunded pen-
capita income rose at its highest rate ObamaCare. There is $45 billion in this sion plans and how do you fix this. The
since 1984. Personal savings rate hit an bill to pay insurance companies more conversation has always been, what
alltime record high in 2020. Why? Be- money to cover people who already kinds of reforms come with what kind
cause we more than replaced lost in- have health insurance. That is what of cash so that these errors of the past
come through all of the bills that we they are doing. Sixty-three percent of are corrected? There are no reforms
passed. What about that data suggests these new subsidies will go to people here. None. Nothing. Just a big pile of
we need another round of universal who already have health insurance cash. It is a clear message that you
payments to people? It is not going to through ObamaCare. By the way, it in- don’t have to fix anything. You don’t
stimulate the economy. Even the last cludes huge numbers of people who have to reform the flaws of these pro-
check—60 percent of that money went make over $100,000 a year. Never miss a grams that got us here. And by the
to savings accounts or paying down chance to make more people dependent way, it is the same message to the in-
debt. According to a Penn Wharton on government. solvent public pension plans of most of
study, about 75 percent of these checks It has policies, big policies, that will the major cities in many States: Don’t
are going to go into savings. absolutely slow the economic recovery. worry. Look what Congress will do if
Why in the world are we sending so Let me be clear. This bill will slow the Democrats have their way. They
many checks to tens of millions of peo- down the economic recovery underway. will just send you so much cash, you
ple who never had any lost income? Why do I say that? Well, the bill insists don’t have to worry about the insol-
Under this bill, the Federal Govern- on adding $400 a week on top of what- vency you are dealing with.
ment is going to send out $5,600 to a ever States are paying in unemploy- What a terrible message.
family of four—$5,600 to a family of ment benefits. Well, what does that There is $270 million for the National
four who makes $160,000 a year and mean? It means that more than half of Endowment for the Arts and Human-
never had a dime of income loss, no everyone who is unemployed is going ities. That is COVID-related. Thank
interruption of income, no loss of in- to get paid more not to work than they goodness that is there.
come. They are going to get $5,600. By get paid working. Who could even There is $91 million for ‘‘outreach’’ to
the way, that is on top of the $5,800 think this up? student loan borrowers. I don’t even
they already got last year, with no We have had unemployment insur- know what that means.
need, no demonstrated problem here. ance for decades in this country. We There is $50 million for environ-
So $11,400 of money that we don’t have, have never said: Let’s systematically mental justice grants. I have no idea
we are going to send to people who make sure that people can make more what that means.
never had a dime of lost income. That money not working than they can But this one is really rich. There is
is a big chunk of this bill. make if they go to work. about $4 billion for ‘‘socially disadvan-
It may not be the worst. It may be I hear some of my colleagues talk taged farmers and ranchers.’’ I say
that the worst is the $350 billion we are about the dignity of work. I think ‘‘about $4 billion’’ because it says
going to send to State and local gov- there is a lot of dignity in work. What ‘‘such sums as may be necessary.’’ Here
ernments to bail out the mismanaged is our message to people about the dig- is what the money is for. It is going to
blue States and cities. The amazing nity of work when we say: You are pay off 120 percent of the debt of these
thing is, you can’t possibly make the worth more to us sitting on the couch farmers and ranchers, 120 percent of
case that they need the bailout. They than you are at your job. That is what the borrowings.
don’t even need it. Why do I say that? this is. It is a terrible idea. So what in the world are the require-
Well, if you look in 2020—the books are How do you know for sure that no- ments to have 120 percent of your debt
closed now. We know what we didn’t body on the other side is even pre- paid off? Well, you actually have to
know early in the year of 2020. We are tending that this is really about the have debt. OK, so you have to have bor-
in 2021 now. We know what happened in economic recovery? Well, you know for rowed money from the USDA farm
2020. sure because the Congressional Budget loan. There are tens of billions of dol-
What happened was States and mu- Office has told us that only a fraction— lars out there. They lend a lot of
nicipalities in the aggregate brought in a small fraction—of this money is even money. And you have to be a member
more revenue in 2020 than they did in going to be spent this year. How long of one of the following groups: African
2019, which was a record year. So they do we think the pandemic is going to American, American Indian, Alaskan
set an alltime new record for tax rev- be with us as a pandemic? How long do Native, Asian, Hispanic, Pacific Island-
enue collected—alltime new record. we think we are going to have these ers, refugees, or immigrants.
And that does not include the $500 bil- lockdowns? We are going to be out of As long as you are in one of those
lion we sent them anyway. I mean, the woods pretty soon here. categories of mostly racial and ethnic
these States are loaded with cash. I As I said, half of all Americans have groups, then the taxpayers are going to
don’t know what they are going to do already been either vaccinated or re- pay off 120 percent. It is not the whole
with it. covered from this. But the school num- loan but more than the whole loan—120
There is $60 billion in rainy day bers are a good illustration, the ele- percent.
funds. We heard: Oh my goodness, these mentary and secondary education. This The thing that is so disturbing about
States are going to have to cut essen- bill has $128 billion—$128 billion—and this is that the essential criterion is
tial services. All the teachers are going $6.5 billion is going to be spent in 2021. your skin color. The essential criterion
to be laid off. The firemen and the po- The rest gets dribbled out for years and is your race. This is unbelievable to
lice officers are all done. years. How long do they think before me. By the way, there is no income
How is that when they have taken in schools can reopen? Oh, by the way, test and no asset test for the under-
more revenue than they ever have be- this bill doesn’t require schools to re- lying loans. There is no requirement
fore in their history and then we sent open. You don’t even have to reopen. whatsoever that COVID caused any
them another $500 billion? Now we are Just throw billions and billions of dol- problem—caused any lost income or
going to send them yet another $350 on lars at schools whether or not they are any other problem. It is not mentioned.
top of this? How does this make any actually having kids in the school. So what is the effect of this?
sense at all? We are going to borrow or Some of these provisions are so bla- This means that, if you have a
print this money so we can send it to a tantly unrelated to COVID or the econ- wealthy Hispanic rancher who has a $1

SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with SENATE
bunch of States, many of which are sit- omy that it is really just hard to even million loan from the USDA, he is
ting on so much cash, they are going to read them with a straight face. going to get $1.2 million and pay off the
probably cut taxes. It is just unbeliev- There is $86 billion to bail out multi- loan—200,000 bucks with which to do
able. employer pension plans without any re- whatever he likes. Meanwhile, if you
Then there is the ObamaCare expan- form whatsoever. Look, we all know we are a poor White farmer in rural Penn-
sion. What does that have to do with have a multiemployer pension problem sylvania and you have a $100,000 loan,
COVID? This is just a decade-long goal in this country, and there has been a you get nothing, exactly nothing. How

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S1018 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE March 3, 2021
is that even remotely fair? I don’t even some cases, go well beyond the immediate chart here. It would take 11.6 days.
know how that could be constitutional. challenges of COVID. Some of the most ex- Again, with $1 per second, how long
It is, certainly, not in any way COVID pensive provisions are the least well targeted would it take to give her $1 million?
to help the neediest.
related. 11.6 days.
There was an amendment in the That is from a liberal Democrat who, The next question: How long would it
House that would have limited the pay- I think, supports the bill, but at least take you to accumulate $1 billion?
ment. It would have allowed the pro- he is being honest in his description of Again, when you do the math, you
gram, which I object to, but it would it. find out it would take 31.7 years. That
have allowed this repayment of debt So my suggestion, my plea, to my was back when the Chinese had their
but only for debt incurred during the Democratic colleagues and to the new protests in Tiananmen Square.
COVID crisis. The Democrats all voted President is to listen to some of the The next question: What about $1
that down. That failed. This is unbe- things you have said. Try an approach trillion?
lievable stuff. that is actually informed by the facts This is what becomes mind-boggling.
Even the provisions that purport to on the ground—the health facts, the If I gave you $1 every second and I
be about public health are completely economic facts, the reality. Look at wanted to give you $1 trillion, it would
divorced from any reality. As I think I what the science is currently telling us take 31,688 years to give you $1 trillion.
mentioned earlier, we are admin- about the course that this virus has That takes us back to beyond the last
istering almost 2 million doses of vac- been taking. What about actually at- glaciation period, a period in time
cines every day now. That is terrific. It tempting to bring people together—the when Wisconsin was under a mile-thick
is actually the highest daily rate of path of unity—after we demonstrated glacier.
doses administered anywhere in the five times last year that we can work By the way, as a quick aside for my
world. The government has already together and do something on a bipar- colleague, the Senator from Rhode Is-
purchased 700 million doses. Now, we tisan basis? land, since that point in time, about
have fewer than 350 million Americans, I urge my colleagues: Don’t push 20,000 years ago, the water level in the
and not all Americans are going to through this radically partisan bill San Francisco Bay has increased 390
need two doses. You can do the math: that will probably, in the end, do more feet. Now, that is global warming—that
We have bought more vaccine doses harm than good. is a rise in sea level—but that is what
than we need to administer, and that is I yield the floor. happened through natural causes. That
fine. Yet how many more do you need The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- was an aside.
to buy when you have already bought ator from Wisconsin. How long would it take to accumu-
more than enough for every single f late $1.9 trillion? Over 60,000 years.
American? Again, put that in context. The human
CORONAVIRUS
That is not all we paid for. Through race began to develop language about
the previous bills that we passed, we Mr. JOHNSON. Madam President, let 50,000 years ago. So that is the time
paid for the research and development. me first say that I wish this Chamber analogy.
We paid for the production. We paid for were full of our colleagues who had lis- Another way of looking at this is
the transportation. We paid for all of tened to my Republican colleague’s de- through distance and volume. So here
the accompanying supplies, like the sy- scription—the Senator from Pennsyl- is the calculation. I should have
ringes, the vials, and the dry ice. We vania—of what this bill is and what brought a $1 bill to just demonstrate
paid for all of that, and we should have. this bill isn’t. It is not a COVID relief its thickness, but the thickness of a $1
That was the right thing to do. Insur- bill. Senator TOOMEY did an excellent bill is 4.3-thousandths-of-an-inch thick.
ance covers the cost of the admin- job. I am hoping that people are watch- To illustrate how much $1 trillion is,
istering of the vaccines. Between Medi- ing it on their TV screens. They really let’s start with $1 million. If you
care and Medicaid and private insur- can’t be reading the bill yet because it stacked a million dollar bills on top of
ance, it is free. What is left to spend is not constructed. I don’t want to re- each other, they would stack up to be
money on? I am all ears, but I haven’t peat all of the excellent points the Sen- 358 feet high. You can see the calcula-
heard what we need to spend money on. ator from Pennsylvania made, but I tion here. That is about a 30- to 35-foot-
So what do we have in this bill? wanted to come down because I think story building.
We have no justification for it in we have grown immune to these vast How big would a stack of a billion
terms of public health. We certainly amounts of money. dollar bills be? It would be 67.86 miles.
have no justification for it in terms of I always knew we were going to be in Now, there is something called the
the economy. We certainly have no jus- big trouble when we stopped talking Karman line. I think I am pronouncing
tification for it in terms of basic fair- about hundreds of billions of dollars that right. That is the point at which
ness. Frankly, it is going to do more and switched to talking about trillions the atmosphere ends and outer space
harm than good, but you don’t have to of dollars. When we talk about $1 tril- begins. That is 62 miles. So a stack of
take my word for it. We could take the lion or $2 trillion, it just doesn’t sound a billion dollar bills would actually ex-
word of prominent liberal Democrat like as much as $200 billion or $800 bil- ceed the atmosphere and extend into
economist Larry Summers. He was the lion, which was in the stimulus pack- outer space—62 miles.
Treasury Secretary under President age under the Obama administration. Then, the next question is: How big
Clinton, and he was the Director of the The fact of the matter is we have al- would a stack be of a trillion dollar
National Economic Council under ready authorized $4 trillion in COVID bills? Well, it would be 1,000 times that.
President Obama. relief. That is 18 percent of last year’s So it would be 67,866 miles high. That
He said about this bill: GDP, and, roughly, $1 trillion is yet to is an astonishingly large stack of dol-
[M]acroeconomic stimulus on a scale clos- be spent. Some of that isn’t even obli- lar bills that equals $1 trillion.
er to World War II levels than normal reces- gated, and we are going to be debating, Again, we are not just talking about
sion levels will set off inflationary pressures over the next couple of days, $1.9 tril- $1 trillion. We are not talking just
of a kind we have not seen in a generation. lion. So I just wanted to come down about 67,000 miles worth. We are talk-
Or consider the words of Steve here to the floor and try to illustrate ing about $1.9 trillion, which would
Rattner, who is a liberal economist. what a massive amount of money $1.9 stack up to be 135,732 miles high. The
President Obama named him the ‘‘car trillion is. You have to use analogies. distance to the Moon is 238,900 miles.
Again, the human mind really can’t So that stack of $1.9 trillion worth of $1

SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with SENATE
czar.’’ You may recall him admin-
istering that program. contemplate what ‘‘a trillion’’ is. bills would be more than halfway to
He said of the American Rescue Plan, I found this first analogy—my wife the Moon. That is what we are debat-
which is, apparently, what they call talked to me about it—in terms of ing spending—a stack of dollar bills
this: time. This one is simply talking about, that extends more than halfway the
The American Rescue Plan is also partly a if I would give the Presiding Officer $1 distance to the Moon. This is at a point
legislative Trojan horse—an enormous aid per second, how long would it take me in time when we are about $28 trillion
package aimed at addressing needs that, in to give her $1 million? You see the in debt. That single stack would be

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