Date: 1982-12-20
Speaker: ROBERT C. BYRD (democrat)
Chamber: S

The American people are tired of confrontation. tired of that kind of victory. I must say that in my judgment the minority in this Senate has worked in a very cooperative fashion with the majority. We have offered our alternatives when we disagreed with the majority. We offered our alternatives last year on the KempRoth tax bill. We offered our alternatives on the budget cut packages last year. We offered our alternatives on the gas tax package on which there will be a vote today. on the Baker amendment. and then there will be a cloture vote on the bill itself today. We have cooperated in every way possible even though some of us will not vote for the gas tax bill. Yet. we have not sought to obstruct or delay. We have not followed a policy of obstruction and confrontation. We have done everything to cooperate and expedite passage of appropriations bills and the continuing resolution so that Government agencies could continue to function and checks might not be delayed for those entitled to receive them. We have performed. the part of a responsible minority. We in the minority have followed a policy of responsibility. We have tried to do our duty and where we could not agree. we offered our alternatives. We were voted down. So I think it has to be said that this has been a minority that has acted reasonably and that many times could have obstructed. We did not have to give cloture on the gas tax bill and the majority could not have gotten cloture without the help of the minority here because it takes 60 votes. but we gave cloture on the Baker amendment. and as far as I am concerned. I am willing to give cloture on the gas tax bill itself this evening. and I think that there are a good many Democrats who are willing to do that. We in the minority are also willing to allow passage of the bill tonight. What happens beyond that point is something else. We may then have to reevaluate our position. but we have cooperated in every way. All we see from the White House is a politics of confrontation. The President vetoed a supplemental appropriation bill this year. He called it a budget buster. Yet. it was $1.9 billion under what the President requested. And that raised the hackles of a lot of our friends from the other side of the aisle who had worked hard on behalf of that supplemental appropriations bill. The chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Mr. HATFIELD. . and the chairman of the Budget Committee. Mr. DOMENICI. did not like it because that bill was called a budget buster. It was $1.9 billion under what the President had requested. And we saw then a bipartisan grouping together to override that Presidents veto and we overrode it by 60 to 30 votes which was a twothirds vote here in the Senate. Again. let me say that the President. if my memory is correct. not once. not twice. but at least twice. maybe three times before a joint session of the two bodies early this year stated there would be no increase in taxes this year. What did he do? He reversed himself and supported an $89 billion tax increase. and again now he is supporting the proposed tax increase on gasoline. I do not quarrel with Senators who wish to support that tax. That is their business. And I find no fault with any Senator who disagrees with me on that. but I say we have cooperated and this side has not filibustered. There has been a little minority on the other side that has filibustered. But we have tried to be constructive. we have tried to come up with a jobs provision that has had the support of at least some Members of the majority party. and yet the President has held out the threat of vetoing that continuing resolution. I do not doubt his willingness to veto it because he has held out these threats before and he has followed through on them.