Others but spreading throughout the country and with it has come the spread of economic pain and economic harm. So covid19 is not on standby and neither is economic pain and follow that his cause. For here in the United States senate, the republican leader, the majority leader has said go home and be on standby. Mr. President , that is not leadership at any time, it certainly is not the kind of leadership that the American People need and should expect during a Global Pandemic and recession era unemployment levels. So why did the majority leader tell people to just go home and be on standby, its because he wanted the Trump Administration to negotiate an agreement. Last i checked, the United States senate was a separate branch of government but with his own responsibilities, yet we have the republican leader who runs United States senate from the floor telling people to go home and be on standby because he wants the president of the United States, the trump ofio administration to negotiate an agreement and come back to us. In other words, republican leader wants to contract out his responsibilities and the responsibilities of the United States senate and the executive branch. You look at the United States constitution, there are three separate branches of government and yet the republican leader has decided to give his proxy to the president of the United States in the executive branch rather than stay here to the United States senate and do our work. Now why is that, why is it the majority leaders decided to contract out his responsibility, the b executive branch of government, we dont have to guess because mr. Mcconnell has told us, he told pbs news hour that about 20 of my members think that we birdie done enough. Let me read that again, this is from the republican leader, about 20 of my members think that we have already done enough. Its obviously referring to republican members of the senate caucus, remember the members of the Senate Republican caucus think all is well, we have done enough, dont need to do anymore to expand access to testing, dont need to expand access to personal protective equipment, dont need to do anything to help our schools, we d done enough, we dont need to do anything more on Unemployment Insurance, where the additional 600 a week has expired. Senator mcconnell said 20 of his members thought they had already done enough. Youbut 20 members of the Senate Republican caucus, their leaders say they have done enough. Here is what senator Lindsey Graham said on fox, i think if mitch can get one half of the conference, that would be quite an accomplishment. Referring to the republican conference, senator graham, South Carolina is saying if Mitch Mcconnell, Mitch Mcconnell and the republican leader can get half of the members of the Republican Senate caucus to do anything, that would be quite ag accomplishment. I want all of us to think about what that means, what it means is that many of her colleagues are happy to pack that up and go home and theyre not doing anything because they dont think we need to be doing anything. And that mr. President is really why we are not here. Thats also why you sell the Trump Administration and secretary mnuchin in the chief of staff mark meadows walk away from the negotiating table. They understood that they reached what was a compromise, senator graham said half the republicans would oppose it because they would oppose anything. So that why you have the Trump Administration walk away from the negotiating table and refuse to come to a sensible agreement. And what did we get instead, but because they walked away from an agreement, we have the president of the United States throw together a press conference at his golf club in new jersey. But the American Flag is up in his golf club put out a podium the president ial seal, invited club members to witness the signing of an executive order in some memos. And here is the really sad and it was mostly it will mostly show then rather than real substance. It was something that we would come to expecty from somebody wo is really good at reality tv but somebody who did not understand the painful realities we experienced by americans throughout this country during this Health Pandemic in the economic pandemic. I say that if you begin to look at what the president actually signed, its both inadequate and also unworkable in almost all of its parts. Now lets put aside for now the question of whether or not the president had the Legal Authority to do what he did because clearly in some parts of his executive order and his memos, he does not have the Constitutional Authority to do that, weve heard that from some of the Senate Republican l membs are ready, lets set that aside and josie whether it will deliver meaningful relief to americans or whether its more like with Trump University which turned out to be fraud and is now shuttered. Lets take a look at what the president did, first with respect to extending the 600 a week of Unemployment Insurance benefits, lets remember the starting point for this is that neither the president of the United States, donald trump, nor the Republican Senate want to extend the 600 a week unemployment compensation. They say it is too much for americans who are out of work through no fault of their own because of the pandemic and even though there are four people looking for work right now in america for every job that is available, i hear from constituents every day, i read some of their stories last thursday on the floor of the senate. People who badly want to get back to work but their former job is gone, and theres new jobs to replace it. And they need that additional 600 a week to make ends meet. Thank you, mr. President , i want to redo the senate, additional letters i received from constituents on this point. Please act to extend the 600 a week enhancement. I am requesting both in my name and behalf of my wife, we both lost our jobs and the additional 600 in significantly helping keep us afloat and purchase the needs of life. My job was supposed to restart in late june but the owner has pushed it back to november, december to be determined. My wife was put on furlough and told the Company Hopes to bring everybody back but as her nothing yet, without the additional 600, the time will come in the next few months when we will be unable to pay our bills. Here is a note i received from another constituent. Respectfully senator chris van hollen, i would like to write to you about the 600 on appointment. I understand that the other party is fighting you all the way, this is painful because i am a diabetic and at this point because the benefit was taken away, i have to choose between payingyi my bills for my insuli. I appliedg sometime in june sine i was thinking i would be back to work, gone are my savings, paying rent, car loan, insurance and other bills. From this week on because of losing the p 600, i will have o stop paying bills so i can pay my insulin. I never thought that i would be in a situation like this in america where if you work hard, pay your taxes to be able to have a roof over your head, Health Insurance and human dignity. D and i like im sure many of my colleagues have received hundreds, hundreds of notes like that from our constituents. We will not be able to make ends meet without the additional 600 a week. But the president doesnt want to continue that, nor do Senate Republicans and so went to the president say up in new jersey, while he came up with this plan that unfortunately will not deliver, essentially what he said was take the funds that were provided in the cares act to the state, the United States congress provided about 150 billion to states to help during the early stages of this pandemic. Both to help purchase things like ppe and also to address the economic fallout. I should remind my colleagues that senator mcconnell was dead against that even in the earlier version, if you go back and look at the debate in the record you will find that he was dead set against providing any funds to state and local governments, that was a result of a compromise that we succeeded in pushing in those negotiations. But in the most recent negotiations, the most recent negotiations both the white house and again, senator mcconnell and Senate Republicans took the position no funds for state and local government, i remember a few months back when asked, the republican Leader Center him mcconnell said let them go bankrupt. Let them go bankrupt. There is a productive solution. He may have walked those comments back a little bit but he did not walk back his opposition to any funds for state and local governments. So what did the president say in new jersey the other day. Okay states, take the earlier emergency funds that the congress provided and use those as a 25 match to 300 federal dollars that we can provide 400 per week in additional Unemployment Insurance. Here is the problem with that mr. President , we provided the 150 billion Emergency Assistance to the state because of the emergency they were facing and continue to face. Because they are facing increased cost with respect to helping frontline Healthcare Providers and hospitals and providing them with personal protective equipment, the federal government has been awall when it comes to testing and the president said you all set up testing regimes and so theyre using some of the funds we provided for that, they are using the funds to try to open schools safely or help provide distancelearning when schools cant be open safely, so many of the states especially the hardest hit have already allocated, the great majority if not all of those funds, now the president is saying use those funds that we provided earlier for this other purpose. So number one, those states and other areas have already allocated most of those funds, if you look at the treasury in the daytoday release was the end of june and monies already spent, not today, monies already allocated, first of all for many states that money is already spoken for. But lets say and some cases there is money left over, what is the president of the United States saying . He is saying he wants to take from one american to give to another one. The president wants to. These needs against one another, he wants to rob constituent peter to pay constituent paul. Those monies went to the states, those monies want states to pay for real needs, okay governor, okay state legislature, youre going to have to fire that Emergency Responder who will now both be out of a s job and unabe to provide Emergency Assistance so you can give 100 match to helphe somebody who has lost thr job a little bit more. That is what the president is saying to those states that do have something left over, we do not know how much that is. If you think about it, that is not how a country should be responding in the middle of a pandemic. Governors, you have to hurt that person to help that one. That is what the president of the United States plan says and thats when its working the way he wants it. Thats if it works as advertis advertised, from the president s perspective, best Case Scenario when this planla is working, its asking governors to take from one set of constituents of americans who are hurting badly, can lose a job, they need the ppe, they need testing to need to open the schools but taken from over there and put it over here. That is what the president is saying. Now that is assuming it works at all, whether the money is available and whether or not there is a way you can actually do all of this through what is a cumbersome administrative process, i dont know if any of my colleagues, either the sunday shows in real time our reruns have read about them, heres what larry kudlow has asked on the cnn morning show. Simple question, have you checked with the states, how many of the 50 states in d. C. And other territories and did they say they would pony up the 100 a week for unemployed citizens, larry kudlow, answer, good question. Good question. Will probably be fine out today or tomorrow as we make our tents. Mr. President , there was not another sign of what happened in new jersey, it was a total show, this tells itey all. They laid out a a plan asking states that have run outth of money if they have money to lock peter to pay paul but they did not assess states if it was doable. They did not ask the states if it was doable. And that is a reflection of this entire plan. Lets look at what the president said about the second piece payroll tax deferral, a lot of americans mightve heard that and thought im an employee, i am working, and now the portion of my check that is withheld for payroll taxes like Social Security, im not going to have to pay that anymore and that will be money in my pocket. That is not what he did. What it did was say to these people who are working, by the way conducting payroll taxes from pay checks and they are not getting a paycheck, theyd got nothing to deduct something from. People are workings and thought, this is going to be extra money that they could pocket forever, that is not the case. But the president was saying, we will withhold those payroll taxes from your paychecks to the end of the year. But its going to come due and owing. These are people that were working, these are people who have their jobs, maybe they want to differ that for a little while or not but at the end of the day theyre going to have to back to uncle sam. And heres the other problem, employers are the ones that are legally responsible for the delivery of the payroll taxes, not just for the employer but the employee as well. And so theyre going to have to take the risk that if one of their employees doesnt want their Social Security taxes paid, another words they want them held, ultimately theyd be paid back, but we would hear from lots of employers that they cant guarantee that, what if the employee leaves, how my going to repay that portion of the payroll taxes. , heres another example that may have sounded good to some people when they heard but it really is a shell game in the first instance and in many ways a sham. And by the way, whether its deferral or if it is ultimately forgiven, that would require an act of congress, then the Social Security system that takes the hit unless you refund it but that is not the president s plan, the president for which he can do either. The evictionk at moratorium. That is a real mirage. I urge my colleagues to read the executive order, the executive order tells health and Human Services and the centers for t Disease Control to consider whether an extended Eviction Moratorium is reasonably necessary to protect the public health. He is asking to federal agencies to consider a question he posed to them. Now i imagine a lot of people male watch the president with the American Flags up. I imagine a lot of them thought, the president said no one can get evicted. Thats not what he said at all. It was a sham. He said hhs and cdc should consider whether an extended Eviction Moratorium is necessary to protect the public health. And then he asked treasury to look around in their Bank Accounts to see if they have any money who might be evicted. You know the way to help people who are evicted, first of all, dont let them be evicted in the first place but to help them in the landlords, lets pass the rental assistance provision in the heroes act that passed the house. So mr. President , whether you look at then employment insurance provision or the payroll tax provision or the socalled Eviction Moratorium provision, this really is show and not substance. And im only talking about what the president put into the plan, not everything that he got left out. Everything that got left out that is in theer heroes act, helping people go back to school safely, helping expand realtime testing so we can reopen our economy in school safely, Food Assistance for those who are struggling, rental assistance. Money for state and local government whose needs have only risen dramatically since the last down payment that Congress Passed and the cares act and the president is saying while you approach that fund and hurt people fight taking things away from them in order to help other americans. So those are some of the things they were totally left out. Now i have often heard when talking about state and local government, the president tweets all the time, this is just a question of blue states wanting to be bailed out for bad economic decisions or bad budget problems they had in red states are just doing great. Anybody who looks at the states Financial Affairs knows that is not true. Take a look at my state of maryland. As people will consider us a blue. State, we have a aaa bond rating, last i checked the state of kentucky was a single aid bond rating. So this is not a question of whether we want to help states who somehow had difficult financial situations before the coronavirus, the reality is right now this is not a red state or blue state issue, this is an American Issue we all know that the virus has spread through out the country, nobody can totally escape it, doesnt matter if youre red state or blue state, this is a red, white and blue moment and we need to treat it as a national effort, not a statebystatewh effort bt one where the federal f governmt plays a very Important Role and is not a wall in the middle of a big pandemic and not playing politics in the middle of a pandemic. Listening to the healthcare experts about whether or not to wear a mask instead of making that a political statement that puts people at greater risk who follow the president s political advice rather than the healthcare advice of the healthcare experts. Mr. President i hope we will get back to the negotiating table but to do that the president has got to be serious abou serious g a conclusion and will need help from senator mcconnell and from more than half of the Senate Republican conference that mcconnell and senator graham say they dont want to do anything at all. Let mee clarify that, the republican leader said 20 members dont want to do anything and senator graham said about half. And if thats the case the countries in bigger trouble than we mightve thought because theres a failure to recognize the immediacy of the need and the depth of the problem that we face. So lets get back to the t negotiating table, i remember some of the president s Top Priorities when he first presented his plan, he wanted the tax break for three martini lunches for business executives. Food assistance for needy families, yes to tax breaks for three martini lunches, thats what the president said, i think we were also surprised to see that he wanted 1. 6 or 1. 7 billion to build a new fbi headquarters at his current si site. Rather than follow through with the original plan which was to move the headquarters to a suburban campus for security needs and to consolidate. But i guess if you rebuild that hisk current site, there is no risk that someone will buy the land ended up building a hotel that competes with nearby trump hotel. That was part of the president set of priorities in the middle of an emergency. American people need to understand that. So lets get back to the negotiating table, what the president did was show and not substance and we need to Work Together to do something meaningful, dont walk away, come on back and lets work and just finally mr. President when i say, back, again all and were i started. Were in the middle of a pandem pandemic, the virus is not taken a vacation. The virus is not taking any timy off. The economic harm is not taking a vacation or any time off. And yet here we are in the senate, all quiet, every extends to the administration, we are separate branch of government, under the constitution of the United States, lets get back here and do her job for the American People. I yield the floor. Tonight on the communicators American Economic liberties project executive director sarah miller and Baker DonelsonSenior AdvisorBarbara Comstock on whether big tech is too big. There are going to be more facebooks, amazon and more googles because our antitrust workers and policymakers have allowed the cancel corporation to unmask an enormous amount of power with their respective market to shut down competition and engage in self referencing and prioritize the behavior. What i heard from those leaders of those businesses was the american Success Story and all the things that they are doing to help our current economy thrive, grow and how to make america the most competitive tech ecosystem in the world. Sarah miller Barbara Comstock tonight on a eastern on the communicators on cspan2. Weeknights this month were future book tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan2. Tonight starting at 830 eastern, new yorker staff writer marsha provides her take on life in the u. S. Since the election of president trump. Then thomas, chief economist for Bloomberg Economics discusses why the chinese economy never collapses and what would happen if ever does, later Hoover Institution fellow michael talks about the geopolitical rivalry between countries in the Indo Pacific Region of the world. Enjoy book tv on cspan2. Members of the House Freedom caucus discussing u. S. China relations and the impact on their districts and constituen constituents, they spoke at Liberty UniversityFreedom Summit conference. Welcome back to the curb center, we had an actionpacked day, youre about ready to see the besf