It doesnt create more jobs for americans. He claimed that he wasnt going to let wall street get away with murder and he said he was going to drain the swamp. Great talk. Then he got to washington. He put together a team of people who had spent deducts as decades at big banks and large corporations, people who are determined to tilt the Playing Field in favor of wall street and against working families. You dont need to look very far to see it. His most senior Economic Advisors, treasury secretary steven mnuchin, National EconomicCouncil Director gary cohn and dean in a powell. Together those three have spent nearly a half a century combined working for Goldman Sachs. When it comes to our economy, this isnt the Trump Administration, this is the Goldman Sachs administration. Now President Trump has lined up another top Economic Advisor, kevin hassett, who has been nominated to serve as the chairman of the president s council of Economic Advisors. Mr. Hassett hasnt worked at Goldman Sachs. No, his fresh perspective is that he has spent his career advocating for policies that favor the wealthiest americans. The council of Economic Advisors plays a Critical Role in developing this countrys economic policies. It was created by congress to, as dr. Hassett has put it himself, give the president unbiased, scientific, and objective advice. About the Economic Impact of the president s policies on american economy. They have their fingers in all sorts of policies, from trade to health care to taxes to Financial Regulation. So what kind of an economy does dr. Hassett want . He has a big he hasnt been shy in telling us. He wants an economy that keeps working great for those on top. And if it leaves working families further behind, thats just too bad. Start with taxes. Dr. Hassett gets really excited about cutting taxes on giant corporations. In fact, when he was working for mitt romneys president ial campaign, he wrote that the new president s top priority, the numberone act, the first thing he should do when he stepped into the oval office, was cut the Corporate Tax rate. His argument was that if we cut taxes for big businesses, theyll give those savings to their workers and be more productive, improving the economy for everyone. Thats just plain ol trickledown economics. Give more moron to corporations give more money to corporations and the wealth chichi and theyll pass it down. It hasnt worked in the past and it isnt going to work in the future. For them that works great. On trade, dr. Hassett also sings the corporate tune. Dr. Hassett wants to double down on the same kind of trade agreements that enrich giant corporations and leave workers eating dirt. Dr. Hassett embraces trade deals that make it harder for Small Businesses to compete, trade deals that weaken public safety, and trade deals that undercut environmental rules. Dr. Hassetts approach really makes you wonder does donald trump not know who this guy is or does he just not car care . Either way, its american 0 workers who have take another punch to the gut delivered by team trump. How about on Financial Regulation . Nine years ago wall street brought the economy to its knees and had to be bailed out to the tune of 700 billion. The crash cost millions of americans their jobs and their homes. Congress then passed bipartisan financial reforms to stop another crisis. Dr. Hassett was not enthusiastic. In public he called those new rules lamebrained and described the legislation as horrifying, and the worst piece of legislation that ive seen in my entire life. He sounded the alarm that financial reform, quote, needs to be repealed as soon as possible. Now, he has since said that he greets his tone. Tone isnt the problem here. The problem is what he said, not how he said it. If dr. Hassett had his way and wall street reform gets repealed, the same behavior that caused the 2008 financial crisis would be unleashed again. I cannot understand how just nine years after the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression dr. Hassett would want to turn the banks loose so they have a clear shot at cheating consumers and building up risks that could blow up the Financial System again. There is no end to dr. Hassetts bad judgment. Hes wrong on the minimum wage, calling a proposal to raise the minimum wage to 9 an hour wrongheaded and saying that raising the minimum wage was a, quote, dishonest approach to alleviating poverty. Hes wrong on the environment. In a column he advised president obama to frack away. And most of all,s he wrong about the hes wrong about the fundamental problems in our economy, calling income inequality a myth and saying it was ludicrous to believe that our society is rigged or fundamentally unjust. He sounds like he thinks that it is just great that this economy works for those at the top and pretty much for no one else. Dr. Hassett has consistently advocated for the interests of corporations over working people. If he is confirmed, i am confident that he will be one more voice in the white house speaking up for the rich and the powerful you. No doubt, he will fit right into the Goldman Sachs administration. But congress has a say in this. The last thing we need is another Economic Advisor who wants to tilt the Playing Field even further in favor of corporate america. I oppose this nomination, and i hope other senators will, too. Mr. President , i yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call the presiding officer the senator from ohio. Mr. Brown thank you. I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to five minutes on the hassett nomination. The presiding officer the senate in a quorum call. Mr. Brown mr. President , i apologize. I ask unanimous consent to dispense with the quorum call and then ask unanimous consent for up to five minutes to speak on the hassett nomination. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Brown thank you. I rise to discuss the nomination for chair of the council of Economic Advisors, dr. Kevin hassett, who came through the Banking Committee with a mixed vote, not so much because of him and his qualifications but because of some of his statements and because of the political philosophy of the the economic philosophy of the person who nominated dr. Hassett. I hope in meeting with him and being impressed with his integrity and openness, i hope that he wont forget where he came f i hope that hell where he came from. I hope that hell approach the job in a sound way and that hell be transparent about his methods. I would caution him about embracing ideas about Economic Growth that are not supported by empirical evidence. I hope his new colleagues will listen to him. For too long, mr. President , our trade policy and tax policy have encouraged a corporate Business Model that shuts down production in hamilton or middletown or in mansfield or in toledo or youngtown, gives a tax break cashes in a tax break and then moves production overseas to china or mexico and then ships production back into the United States. Fundamentally thats become the Business Plan of far too many companies, that sort of outsourcing. And i had a long discussion with dr. Hassett about that. As i said, i hope that he remembers where he came f he saw that happened as he was growing up, as i recall, in western massachusetts, where production was shut down in his communities, moved overseas and then the goods were the goods were made overseas and sent back to the United States. Im concerned about the white house in which he will work. Im concerned that at that white house it looks often like a retreat for Goldman Sachs executives. The president s tax proposal benefits the wealthiest americans and the largest corporations. His budget is based on g. D. P. Predictions that are unrealistic. In fact, when it came to the issue of Social Security solvency years ago, dr. Hassett found a sustained 3 growth rate too optimistic for planning purposes. Thats the same rate that same rate is what the trump budget uses to gloss over its true cost. I noon support i plan to support dr. Hassett. I think he is a honorable man. I again implore him as i cast my vote in support of him because the president is entitled to an advise their way, to choose within a band of course of support whom he wants. But im hopeful especially that dr. Hassett remembers what it was like when he grew up what it was like when he grew up in greenville, massachusetts, where bad tax policy and bad trade policy have dashed the dreams of far, far too many people. I count on dr. Has tote do the right thing i count on dr. Hassett to do the right thing. I hope he will help mr. Trump see what these communities look like. Understand what happens with a trade policy and a tax policy. More trickledown economics, more tax cuts for the rich is not the way to build an economy. You build an economy by building from the build class out. That means a tax system and a trade system that works for man field, ohio. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call the presiding officer the senator from louisiana. Without objection. All time is expired. The question is on the nomination. Is there a sufficient second . There appears to be. The clerk will call the roll. Vote vote vote vote the presiding officer any senators that wish to vote or to change their vote . If not, the yeas are 81, the nays are 16. The nomination is confirmed. Under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the president will be immediately notified of the senates action and the senate will resume legislative session. The presiding officer the senate will be in order. Mr. Paul mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from kentucky. Mr. Paul i rise today to oppose unauthorized, undeclared and unconstitutional war. What we have today is basically unlimited war anywhere, any time, any place upon the globe. My amendment would sunset in six months the 2001 and 2002 use of authorization of force. What does that mean . This was legislation passed many years ago to go after the people who attacked us on 9 11. I supported that battle but i think the mission is long since over. I dont think that anyone with an ounce of intellectual honesty believes that these authorizations from 16 years ago and 14 years ago, i dont think anyone with intellectual honesty believes they authorized war in seven Different Countries. Not only is it the lives we are losing, the american soldiers, the brave young men and women who are sent to distant lives and asked to give their lives for their country without the Senate Taking time to authorize the law i think is terribly unjust and should end. There are some who argue that we dont even need to vote at all. Some of the president s, republican and democrat, have said they have article 2. This is the second article of the constitution. They say by the constitution they can do what they want, where they want, and that Congress Never has to approve their authorization, never has to give authority to go to war. These advocates of perpetual war argue that these powers are implicit and that no one can stop a president that wants to go to war. Is this die this is diametrically opposite of what our Founding Fathers thought. Madison in particular days debrises. Madison wrote that the executive branch is the one most prone to go to war, therefore the constitution, with studied care, vested that power in the congress. You see, our Founding Fathers saw the history of europe as the perpetual history of war. Brothers fighting brothers, kings of two Different Countries who are brothers, uncles, fathers, sons. When we broke away, we said we are going to have checks and balances in place. We are going to make it difficult to go to war. We are going to vest that power in the congress. But somewhere along the way we loss our way and we now commit ourselves to war or one man or one woman commits us to war without any vote by congress. This is not what our Founding Fathers intended. Former president obama when he was a can indicate wrote that no president should unilaterally go to war unless we were under imminent attack. That is the understanding of the constitution that most originalists take. Yet, when president obama was in the white house, he bombed seven Different Countries. He expanded the use of executive power, he expanded the warmaking power of the presidency even though all along he was for a narrow interpretation. Candidate trump said that the war in afghanistan had lost its purpose, that it was a disaster and it should end. He said this on maybe 15 different occasions. Yet, now that he is in the white house, the generals have said we must fight on. We must continue to fight. If we leave, the taliban will take over. My question is, when will the afghan stand up and fight . We have spent billions helping them. We have spent billions to convince them not to grow the poppy that addicts the world. Yet, last year afghanistan had the biggest crop of poppy in history. The people that run afghanistan that we put into government, the car karzai family is full of crooks and thieves. My question is where did the trillion dollars go . How come they cant defend themselves . How come we have to fight their wars for them . One thing is certain, the war was not authorized by you the people and it was not authorized by us the congress. Therefore the war is unauthorized. You say, do we ever vote to authorize war . Well, yes, we have. When we went to war in afghanistan the first time and i would have voted yes there was a vote and overwhelmingly we voted to go in. Some have argued, well, six months, is that enough time for congress to do anything . Can they get anything done in six months . When we were attacked in pearl harbor, you know how long it took us to declare war . 24 hours. When we were attacked on 9 11, how long did it take us to authorize the military force go in . Three days. People say congress will never get it done. Maybe because were divided. We havent been attacked. We have no clear purpose in afghanistan, and there is no clear route to victory. Realize that president obama in 2011 put 100,000 troops into afghanistan. He pushed the taliban back. Where did they go . To our ally pakistan who has gotten billions and billions of dollars of american welfare and as we sit here des tained destined for more money in the next month. Billions and billions of dollars sent to pakistan, but where does the taliban live . In pakistan. They run back and forth across the border. So we have to ask the question, what is our purpose . Are we nation building . We spend hundreds of billions of dollars building their roads, building their bridges, building their schools. They bomb them, we bomb them, somebody bombs them, then we rebuild them again. We have 150 billion worth of damage in texas. You know how we should pay for it . Lets quit sending welfare to Foreign Countries. Lets look at our country first, rebuild the problems that we have here, rebuild our roads, our bridges, our schools, and not borrow it, not add to a 20 trillion debt. Take the money were sending in welfare to Foreign Countries and lets rebuild our own. We are at war nn seven at war in seven countries, none of them voted on by congress . Is it expensive . Yes, to the tune of trillions of dollars. Today we will debate the issue of war and whether congress is constitutionally bound to declare war. We will debate whether one generation can bind another generation to perpetual war. We are at the point where we have been so long in afghanistan that people are fighting within the within the next year there will be people fighting who were not yet born at the time of 9 11. This war no longer has anything to do with 9 11, has no longer anything to do with any vital interest of our country. It has to do with us believing we can reshape the world and make the world safe for democracy, everybodys going to love america, and everybodys going to become a westernstyle democracy. Guess what. It will never happen. Afghanistan is not even a country. It was five or six tribal lands by europeans who had no knowledge of the local people. They dont even like each other much less us. They are not a country. They will not listen to kabul. You know what they call the president that resides in kabul, they call him the mayor of kabul. They are interested in their chieftain in the local area. They speak five different languages, they will never be a country. Do you think somehow going to afghanistan will make our country safer . Lets vote on it. I am advocating a vote. For the first time in 16 years im advocating on whether or not we should be at war. It should be a simple vote. It is like pulling teeth. I have been trying hard to get this vote for five years now. Im this close. Im hoping we get the vote today or tomorrow, but it isnt easy because we have been obstructing and obstructing and object be strucking and no one wants to be on the line. That thats why were elected, to put our name, our john hancock on the line. Are you for or against the war . Im done. Im done. Im ready to come home. I remember my father saying in one of the president ial debates in 2008, he said how will you get the people home . He said we just marched in. We can just march out. There is no more meaning or purpo