{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://web.archive.org/web/20140911235637/http://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressOffice.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=cbbd1857-01f5-3484-d7af-fb759f2e6dbe", "Barrasso Discusses Republican Solutions to Help Americans", "2014-09-10", "2014", "2014-09", "Republican", "House", "WY", "John Barrasso", "B001261", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Barrasso Discusses Republican Solutions to Help Americans \n Highlights GOP Jobs, Energy, & Health Care Ideas   \n September 10, 2014   \nClick here to watch Sen. Barrasso\u2019s speech.\u00a0\n\u00a0\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) spoke about Republican efforts to help Americans find good jobs, strengthen our energy security, improve our health care, and cut Washington red tape.\u00a0\nExcerpts of his remarks:\n\u00a0\u201cThe Senate is debating a plan, a plan by which Washington Democrats seek to restrict first amendment rights of American citizens, part of the Constitution. \u00a0\n\u201cUnder this proposal, certain people would no longer enjoy the same right to free speech, and the same right to express themselves.\n\u201cI believe this amendment is a terrible idea, and it really has no chance of becoming law.\n\u201cMajority Leader Reid wants the vote anyway.\n\u201cHe thinks that this outrageous amendment that he dreamed up will somehow help Democrats win elections this November.\n\u201cThe Majority Leader has come to the floor repeatedly to criticize, and to demonize, American citizens who don\u2019t share his views.\u00a0\n\u201cIt\u2019s nothing but political grandstanding and showboating.\n\u201cNow President Obama was on \u2018Meet the Press\u2019 last Sunday.\u00a0\n\u201cThe president talked about what\u2019s going on in Washington, the president said that \u2018people want to get stuff done.\u2019\n\u201cThat\u2019s what he says the American people want from their representatives here in Congress.\n\u201cSo if the American people want us to get stuff done, why are the Democrats in the Senate so determined to do nothing?\n\u201cWhy are they wasting time on political show votes?\n\u201cWhy are they not allowing amendments and debate on important bills?\n\u201cWhy are they blocking legislation that has passed the House of Representatives \u2013 with bipartisan support \u2013 and is right now sitting on Senator Reid\u2019s desk waiting for a vote?\n\u201cOur nation faces great challenges, many Americans are hurting.\n\u201cRepublicans have solutions that will create jobs while strengthening our energy security, improving our health care, and cutting government red tape.\n\u201cNew numbers came out just last week that show that America\u2019s labor force participation rate is at just about the lowest level it\u2019s been in decades.\u00a0\n\u201cThe House of Representatives \u2013 where Republicans are in charge of the schedule \u2013 well they passed more than 40 bills to help get Americans back to work.\n\u201cThose bills are right now sitting in the Senate, waiting for a vote.\n\u201cIs that what the president means when he says \u2018people want to get stuff done?\u2019\n\u201cThere\u2019s a headline in Politico, a local newspaper, on Tuesday morning and it read: \u2018Majority says President Obama a failure.\u2019\n\u201cA new poll found that 52 percent of Americans think that the Obama presidency has been a failure.\u00a0\n\u201cSo what do Washington Democrats do in response?\n\u201cAbsolutely nothing.\n\u201cPeople want Washington to deal with the challenges that matter most in their lives, in their individual lives.\n\u201cNow we could start by doing something about the president\u2019s health care law, it is causing so much harm to people across the country.\u00a0\n\u201cA bipartisan plan has already passed the House that would stop the employer mandate that businesses provide expensive Washington-mandated health insurance.\n\u201cThat part of the president\u2019s health care law forces small businesses to cut hours \u2013 to cut hours \u2013 therefore cutting paychecks for the workers and is also holding back hiring.\u00a0\n\u201cNow we should take up that legislation here in the Senate.\n\u201cWe should restore people\u2019s freedom to buy health insurance that actually works for them, works for their families \u2013 because people know what works best for them. They don\u2019t need Washington to tell them.\u00a0\n\u201cWe should replace the president\u2019s health care law with reforms that actually get people the care that they need, from a doctor that they choose, at lower costs.\u00a0\n\u201cThe people that I talk with back home in Wyoming are also worried about energy costs \u2013 especially as it\u2019s starting to get colder in much of the country.\n\u201cWashington should be looking for ways to help Americans produce more affordable, reliable, and efficient energy right here at home. The opportunity is there.\n\u201cNow that would mean jobs for American families, it would also mean energy security for our nation.\n\u201cWe could start right now by approving the Keystone XL pipeline it\u2019s been six years since the applications been sitting waiting for action.\u00a0\n\u201cA bill to do that passed the House of Representatives \u2013 again, with bipartisan support. Why aren\u2019t we voting on that today in the United States Senate?\u00a0\n\u201cThe Obama Administration admits that the pipeline would actually support thousands of good American jobs.\n\u201cThe application to build the Keystone Pipeline has been stalled for six years \u2013 the administration should demand action today.\u00a0\n\u201cNow, if the president won\u2019t do it, Congress still could and should.\u00a0\n\u201cThen Congress should pass legislation to speed up exports of liquefied natural gas.\u00a0\n\u201cOur nation has abundant supplies of natural gas, and producers want to export it to customers around the world who are seeking it.\u00a0\n\u201cThe Obama administration has delayed the permits to let them do it \u2013 and Democrats right here in the Senate have delayed the bipartisan solution that\u2019s already passed the House.\n\u201cWe should take a vote on that bill today and pass it.\u00a0\n\u201cWe should pass a bill that would reform the regulations blocking energy production on federal lands.\n\u201cWe should end the Obama administration\u2019s pointless and destructive war on coal \u2013 and let the men and women across, this country, who work in that industry, get their jobs and their lives back.\n\u201cAmerican businesses are waiting to create jobs \u2013 the only thing standing in the way is the Senate majority leader.\u00a0\n\u201cSenate Democrats don\u2019t want to vote, they don\u2019t want to vote to help the millions of Americans who are out of the labor force.\n\u201cThey would rather protect the Washington bureaucracy, a bureaucracy that slows down and stifles economic growth.\u00a0\n\u201cCutting through the red tape to help Americans get back to work is one of the top priorities of Republicans, and it should be the top priority of every Senator in this body.\n\u201cWe could do it by passing a bill \u2013 one that has already passed the House \u2013 that would rein excessive regulations that makes it tougher for small businesses to invest, to grow, and to hire.\u00a0\n\u201cWe could pass another bill from the House that helps businesses defend themselves against abusive patent lawsuits.\u00a0\n\u201cNow that\u2019s going to help small businesses hire more people and help them grow \u2013 and 130 Democrats in the House voted in favor of it. Why aren\u2019t we voting on that today?\u00a0\n\u201cIt can\u2019t get a simple up or down vote in the Senate. The majority leader will not bring it to the floor.\u00a0\n\u201cWhy won\u2019t he allow it?\u00a0\n\u201cBill after bill, one bill after another that Republicans have offered, Republicans have passed in the House of Representatives, bipartisan bills, and the Senate Democrats don\u2019t want to talk about them. \u00a0\n\u201cThey don\u2019t want to talk about Republican ideas for tax reform. Tax reform that would lower tax rates, make the whole tax system simpler and more fair.\n\u201cThey don\u2019t want to talk about Republican ideas to strengthen and stabilize entitlement programs \u2013 like Social Security, Medicare \u2013 to make sure they are there for future generations.\n\u201cThey certainly don\u2019t want to talk about Republican ideas to address Washington\u2019s out of control debt.\n\u201cThose are the kinds of things we should be talking about today on the floor of the United States Senate.\u00a0\n\u201cThose are the things Republicans have proposed, and that we\u2019re going to keep fighting for in the Senate.\n\u201cThat\u2019s what the American people are talking about when they say they want Washington to get stuff done.\n\u201cThey don\u2019t mean more terrible ideas like the president\u2019s health care law, and its multiple, damaging side effects.\n\u201cThey don\u2019t mean job-killing red tape and Washington mandates.\n\u201cThey don\u2019t mean political show votes that would restrict Americans\u2019 freedom of speech.\u00a0\n\u201cPresident Obama and Democrats in the Senate have turned their backs on middle-class families who are desperately in need of jobs.\u00a0\n\u201cDemocrats want to waste time while they\u2019re trying to salvage their political careers.\n\u201cRepublicans want to help get Americans back to work.\u201d\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140911235637/http://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressOffice.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=cbbd1857-01f5-3484-d7af-fb759f2e6dbe"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8328789845108986, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}