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Whether it is rejecting Democratic initiatives to provide medical care to veterans or to return to fiscal responsibility, this Republican Congress's record is clear: when it comes to answering the call of the far right, it's "I'll do it ASAP." When it comes to doing the people's business, it's "take a message."
Americans deserve a Congress that will use its power to advance American values not a Congress that abuses its power to advance the agenda of a radical few.
We need a common sense reform agenda for the common good. And that starts with defending our nation and making it more secure. As of this month, more time has passed since 9-11 than the time between Pearl Harbor and the defeat of Japan. During those three years and eight months -- sixty years ago -- we invaded North Africa and Normandy. We freed people from the Philippines to France. Hitler lay dead and Tojo was in chains. We had defeated fascism around the world and had begun to build the new United Nations.
But today Osama bin Laden is still on the loose, our homeland is still not secure, we're still not energy independent, and -- in many ways -- Americans are less safe than we were before 9-11.
Democrats are the party of national security. And we have an agenda to defend America from danger. We stand for increasing our military strength by 40,000 troops so we can wage the War on Terror on every front. We stand for securing our borders and bridges, our seaports and airports, our nuclear and chemical plants. We stand for tracking down and securing the loose nuclear weapons that threaten our people. And we will honor our troops and their families by making sure they get the benefits they have earned.
Our common sense reform agenda will take our economy from sluggishness to prosperity. A prosperity where a rising tide lifts the boat of every American who is willing to work hard.
When it comes to the economy, the Washington Republicans offer the same old answers and then try to change the subject. But the growing trade deficit and a runaway national debt that puts us into hock to China and Japan show that this Administration and this Congress have lost control over America's economic destiny.
Democrats stand ready to win back America's prosperity. We'll end the tax breaks that encourage companies to take jobs overseas. Restore fiscal responsibility. Spur innovation. Open the doors to college. And make work pay more than welfare.
And if we want our companies to be ready to compete in the world economy, we have to hold down health care costs. Today, Starbucks spends more on health care than on coffee. Today, GM spends more on health care than on steel. Today, we can't ask our companies to go head to head with foreign competitors with this burden on their backs.
Our families will never get ahead while they are getting battered down by health care costs that total $10,000 a year.
And our country will never be what it should be as long as the color of your skin or the size of your bank account determines whether your children can see a doctor. We can do better for them. And they are expecting nothing less from us.
Many of the jobs of the future will be jobs that come from new energy saving industries. Today, Japan's and South Korea's head start on innovation means they are running away with those jobs. We have to get back in that race.
Americans are getting fed-up every time they go for a fill-up. They know that our reliance on Mideast oil is making America less safe. They want us to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and make this nation energy independent. We can get there -- but only if we start putting America's security and prosperity first.
And Democrats will continue to stop George Bush from privatizing Social Security while we say "yes" to shoring up Americans' pensions and making our retirement system more secure.
This is our agenda -- an agenda for reform, an agenda to do the people's business. And for them we will continue to fight.
The lines that divide Congress should be between right and wrong, not right and left.
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