{"database": "openregs", "table": "congressional_record", "rows": [["CREC-2020-12-31-pt1-PgS7985-8", "2020-12-31", 116, 2, null, null, "NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT", "SENATE", "SENATE", "ALLOTHER", "S7985", "S7986", "[{\"name\": \"Mitch McConnell\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}]", null, "166 Cong. Rec. S7985", "Congressional Record, Volume 166 Issue 223 (Thursday, December 31, 2020)\n\n[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 223 (Thursday, December 31, 2020)]\n[Senate]\n[Pages S7985-S7986]\nFrom the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]\n\n                   NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT\n\n  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, yesterday, the Senate was finally\nable to proceed to this year's National Defense Authorization Act. A\nfew of our Democratic colleagues have pulled out all the stops to hold\nback this crucial bill, but last night, a big bipartisan majority of 80\nSenators voted to proceed.\n  There should be nothing controversial about giving our brave men and\nwomen in uniform the tools and training they need to stay safe. There\nshould be nothing controversial about continuing the work of rebuilding\nand modernizing our capabilities. It should be a nonpartisan\nproposition that America should keep pace with Russia and China rather\nthan slip behind.\n  We have enacted an annual NDAA for 59 straight years and counting. In\nthe next few days, the easy way or the hard way, we are going to do our\njob once again. This body will fulfill our responsibility to the men\nand women who protect our country. The Senate will be here until we\nfinish this bipartisan legislation.\n  Now, for several days, we heard some Senators say Congress must send\nmore cash to high-earning households that haven't seen any income\ndisruption during COVID-19. Our colleagues who purport to be the\nchampions of vulnerable Americans now say that what struggling people\nreally need is for Congress to stop focusing on targeted relief for\nthem specifically and, instead, to send thousands of dollars to people\nwho don't need the help.\n  Experts from across the political spectrum agree that our colleague\nfrom Vermont is dead wrong on this. Socialism for rich people is a\nterrible way to help the American families who are actually struggling.\nLet me say that again. Borrowing from our grandkids to do socialism for\nrich people is a terrible way to get help for families who actually\nneed it.\n  Washington Democrats took President Trump's suggestion and skewed it\nso the checks would benefit even more high-earning households.\n  Imagine a family of five where the parents earn $250,000 per year and\nhave not seen any income loss this past year. Speaker Pelosi and\nSenator Sanders want to send them $5,000 from Uncle Sam. They make a\nquarter of a million dollars, nobody is out of work, but our so-called\nprogressive friends say the household needs ``survival\n\n[[Page S7986]]\n\nchecks.'' In fact, they believe a family of five should have to earn\n$350,000 before the spigot of government money would stop entirely.\n  Socialism for rich people. That is what Speaker Pelosi and Senator\nSanders have sketched out. A terrible way to help those who need it,\nand experts across the political spectrum agree.\n  The liberal editors of the Washington Post have blasted so-called\nprogressives demanding a nontargeted giveaway that would give ``huge\namounts'' to ``perfectly comfortable families.''\n  Larry Summers, who ran the Treasury Department for President Clinton\nand the National Economic Council for President Obama, says there is\n``no good economic argument'' for more nontargeted checks with no\nlinkage to need.\n  The liberal New York Times reported this morning that a majority of\nthe households that get nontargeted checks do not end up spending them\non urgent needs but rather just add it to their savings. ``We know\nwhere the pockets of need are,'' said one economist, and ``putting\n[money] there would be a much more efficient use.''\n  Fortunately, though some of our colleagues seem to have forgotten,\nthat is exactly what we did only a week ago. It has been less than 5\ndays since President Trump signed into law another historic bipartisan\nrescue package targeted to Americans who actually need the help.\n  We passed an entire second round of PPP loans to save small business\njobs, targeted to the hardest hit. We renewed multiple kinds of\nadditional benefits for unemployed workers, including an extra $300\nsupplement every week. There are billions for targeted food assistance,\nbillions for targeted rental assistance, and many billions of dollars\nfor vaccine distribution so we can finally beat this virus and reopen\nthe economy in full.\n  These are the kinds of targeted emergency programs that directly help\nthe most vulnerable, and we just poured almost another trillion dollars\ninto them, less than 5 days ago, along with more direct checks that are\nalready arriving in households' accounts. That is what we did just 5\ndays ago.\n  This crisis has not affected everyone equally. The data show that\nmany upper middle-class Americans have kept their jobs, worked\nremotely, and remained totally financially comfortable. On the other\nhand, some of our fellow citizens had their entire existence turned\nupside down and continue to suffer terribly.\n  We do not need to let the Speaker of the House do socialism for rich\npeople in order to help those who need help. Our duty, both to\nstruggling Americans and to taxpayers, is to focus on targeted relief\nthat will have the maximum impact and help the people who need it the\nmost. That is what the experts say we should do. That is where there is\nbroad bipartisan support, and that is exactly what we did less than 1\nweek ago, when nearly $900 billion in more targeted relief was signed\ninto law for our people\n\n                          ____________________"]], "columns": ["granule_id", "date", "congress", "session", "volume", "issue", "title", "chamber", "granule_class", "sub_granule_class", "page_start", "page_end", "speakers", "bills", "citation", "full_text"], "primary_keys": ["granule_id"], "primary_key_values": ["CREC-2020-12-31-pt1-PgS7985-8"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 52.51875915564597, "source": "Federal Register API & Regulations.gov API", "source_url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/developers/api/v1", "license": "Public Domain (U.S. Government data)", "license_url": "https://www.regulations.gov/faq"}