Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) discusses the Democrats’ legislative agenda for the 109th Congress. Reid was joined by Sens. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Richard Durbin (Ill.), Byron Dorgan (N.D.) and Debbie Stabenow (Mich.). Here is a transcript.
REID: Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for being here.
About a week ago, I was eating dinner at the only restaurant in Searchlight, called The Nugget, and a little boy came up me. He was a fifth grader, I learned. It was nighttime, and he still had his skateboard. And he walked up to me. I’d never seen him before that I know of. And he said, "Mr. Reid, when I grow up, I want to be just like you."
Well, I was, kind of, struck by his statement: "I want to be just like you."
That’s what this press conference is all about this morning, the promise of America to this little boy named Devin Toplous (ph). It’s a promise that says if you work hard and play by the rules, you can build a stronger, brighter future for you and your family.
This promise has lived on for generations in this great country of ours and, frankly, it’s one that I believed in and I’ve lived in my own life.
We’ve all heard, I try to express it as often as I can, the story of my growing up in Searchlight. One teacher teaching all eight grades. The home that I was raised in had no inside toilet, no hot water.
But you see, in America, we all have a chance. I was able to go to college. I was able to go to college because I had some scholarships and I worked real hard. Worked in service stations. It even got to where I was driving a truck.
But today, I don’t know if that’s possible. Kids get -- they try. They work hard. But it’s debt, borrow, debt, borrow. You get out of school, you owe so much money that sometimes it’s hardly worth it, even if you can get those loans.
My story is really not unique.
REID: There are lots of Searchlights all over America whose lives have been as blessed as mine.
But I’m sad to say these stories are becoming fewer and fewer.
When little Devin (ph) said this to me, a boy -- I don’t know Devin (ph) -- in fact, I didn’t know his -- I knew his last name because it was an unusual name, Toplous (ph). And I called this morning early -- it’s a three-hour time difference -- and asked the lady there in The Nugget if she knew, and she said, "No, but I can find somebody that does." And so I learned his name this morning. And I’m going to keep in touch with Devin (ph) to see what I can do to help him be like me.
These stories are become fewer and fewer because we have schools that are crumbling. The average school in America is about 50 years old.
We have other places like -- especially Las Vegas -- where the growth is so tremendous that it’s difficult to keep up with the growth of the schools. The school superintendents in Clark County, Las Vegas, are construction superintendents more than school superintendents.
The disparities in educations are significant.
We have good-paying jobs are giving away to jobs that no matter how hard you work it just doesn’t seem to add up.
We have 45 million Americans with no health care. We have millions of others who are underinsured.
This is the America that we live in today, a country whose founding promise is slipping further and further away from reality for too many American families, a country where a kid from rural America or inner cities find it harder and harder to get ahead.
REID: Why is the promise of America not still alive and well for all of us?
In part, it’s because we have a government that simply doesn’t live up to the values upon which this promise was made. We have leaders whose poor planning and mismanagement are exemplary in the negative sense.
And there’s no better example of this than what has gone on in Iraq. Sure, we won the war, but the peace we’re losing badly. Is that poor management? I think so.
We have leaders who love to create crises that don’t exist.
Social Security isn’t a crisis. For more than 50 years, we’re going to be just fine.
Judges, 204 to 10, but that’s a crisis?
They don’t look at health care. They don’t look at education. We have a government that’s forgotten who it’s responsible to.
Billions and billions of dollars to people who don’t need help, but we’re failing in our commitment, for example, to millions of senior citizens. America’s promise will not stay alive if America’s government betrays it.
Our agenda, that we’re rolling out today, is to allow this fifth grader from Searchlight, little Devin Toplous (ph), to be just like us. And that’s why at the outset of this, the 109th Congress, the Senate Democrats are committed to restoring the promise of America by pursuing an agenda that honors the values behind it: the values of security, that the American way of life and our freedom will be protected by using all of the tools available to take the fight to the terrorists while strongly supporting those who keep us free.
In addition to security, opportunity, so that every American can get the education and training they need to compete for good jobs.
REID: Security, opportunity and responsibility, so that the United States government meets its obligations to future and past generations.
These are the values at the core of America’s promise and are the values that will guide the Democratic agenda as this Congress moves forward.
They also serve as the core principles behind the first 10 Democratic bills which my colleague, Senator Durbin, will first talk about health care and related promises; Stabenow, jobs and economy; Senator Schumer, security and terrorism; and the head of our Policy Committee, Senator Durbin -- Dorgan -- Durbin, Dorgan.
(LAUGHTER)
DURBIN: Thank you, Senator Reid.
The first responsibility of anyone in the legislative scene is to know how to count. And we can count. It’s 55-45. But the agenda that we lay out today is a suggestion of our vision, not only of where America should go, but where this Senate should go.
The vision of the Republicans is very clear. The president articulated it during the inaugural address and at other times. It’s called the ownership society.
What is the ownership society? I think you can boil it down to just one basic statement: "Just remember, we’re all in this alone."
