This view breaks the statement into its steps and names what each one does.
Mr. President, Procedure · 33 wordsI want to say a few words, first, about the Protect College Sports Act that Chris just talked about. I am not going to go into a lot of detail about the rules.Procedure Claims · 103 wordsBasically, it will set about--the bill, rather. Basically, it will establish one nationwide set of rules mainly pertaining to NIL payments--name, image, 1and likeness payments--for college athletes; the ability of an athlete to transfer between schools and the ability of an athlete to receive some of the money that athletics generate at that particular athlete’s university. But if you look at this bill from 35,000 feet, what it really does is exempt colleges and universities and the NCAA from the antitrust laws.2 We are all subject to the antitrust laws. This bill would basically say that colleges and universities and the NCAA aren’t. Procedure · 11 wordsWhat does that mean? Well, let me give you an example.Procedure Reasoning · 161 wordsLet’s suppose that all of the plumbing companies in my State that employ plumbers got together--that the owners of the plumbing companies got together, that they met this weekend--and said: We all employ plumbers, and the more we pay the plumbers whom we employ, the less profit we as the owners of the plumbing companies make. So let’s all agree as owners of the plumbing companies to not pay our plumbers more than 25 bucks an hour. Well, that is illegal. It is price-fixing. It violates the antitrust laws. You know, if the owners of the plumbing companies did that, at a minimum, they would have to pay big fines, and they might get sent to prison and spend some quality time with Bubba. So that is illegal. The same principle would apply if colleges and universities and their athletic programs got together and agreed on what athletes could make on NIL and salaries and how many times they could transfer. Claims · 52 wordsThis bill exempts the colleges and universities and the athletic programs from the antitrust laws. I mean, that is what it does, and it sets rules about what the colleges and the athletic programs have to pay in terms of NIL payments and salaries and the number of times they can transfer. Aside · 19 wordsNow, I love college sports--I watch them all the time--and we all want what is best for our teams.Aside Procedure · 12 wordsYou may like what the bill does or you may dislike it, ProcedureClaims · 21 wordsbut what it does is give the NCAA and college sports teams and the universities an exemption from the antitrust laws. Procedure · 6 wordsNow, who wins from this bill?Procedure Claims · 15 wordsWell, obviously, the universities and the colleges, OK? This is going to save them money. Procedure · 13 wordsI will tell you who else wins, not that they need Congress’ help: ProcedureClaims · 30 wordsour college coaches. We have got four college coaches--football coaches--in America who are making $13 million a year, not over the life of their contracts--a year.3 They are good coaches, Aside · 19 wordsbut they are pretty fat and happy--not fat physically, but they are happy. ``Satisfied’’ would be a better word.Aside Claims · 66 wordsThis makes it easier for them to recruit. This also helps the colleges and the coaches in that they don’t have to raise as much money from donors to pay athletes. Now, the proponents of this bill also say that it helps the athletes. I can see where it does in some respects, but I can see where it caps their earnings in other respects, OK? Reasoning · 52 wordsMaybe, in the long run, if it makes college sports healthy, it will be in the best interests of the athletes so I am not going to weigh in on that. You can read the bill or read the articles and decide for yourself whether it really helps the athletes or not. Claims · 14 wordsMy friend Senator Murphy just gave a very eloquent talk about how it doesn’t. Procedure · 9 wordsBut the point I am trying to make is, ProcedureReasoning · 48 wordsif we give the NCAA and we give the colleges and universities an exemption from the antitrust laws, it is going to cap the amount that these athletes can make. Let me assume, for a second that, in the long run, it is a positive for the athletes. Claims · 13 wordsSo the athletes win. The coaches win. The colleges and the universities win. Procedure · 11 wordsWhat is wrong with this picture? Who makes all this possible?Procedure Claims · 132 wordsThe fans. They are the people who pay to go to the games--the fans--the ordinary Americans out there who have to make donations to the athletic programs in order to even have the privilege of buying the tickets. At some of our colleges and universities--I am thinking of college football--it is so popular that, in order to be eligible for the privilege of buying the tickets, you have to make as much as a $10,000 or $20,000 contribution to the university first.4 So the fans are paying their fair share, but as best as I can tell, this bill doesn’t do a damned thing for the fans.No reason given Colleges and universities, particularly since they will now have more money after being able to cap the amount that the athletes make, are saving money. Reasoning · 17 wordsYou would think they would want to go cut the ticket prices to keep their fans happy, Claims · 16 wordsbut the ticket prices go up, up, up. We are not doing anything for the fans. Procedure · 26 wordsNow, I am not saying this is a bad bill. It is not a perfect bill, but I am not saying it is a bad bill.Procedure Claims · 29 wordsI am saying it could be made better. Republicans want to offer four amendments to try to make the bill better.5 My Democratic friends want to offer four amendments.6 Procedure · 5 wordsI am not blaming anybody, ProcedureClaims · 17 wordsbut I think both sides--Democrats and Republicans--are going to be blocked from making amendments, from offering amendments, Reasoning · 11 wordsand that is not how this place is supposed to work. Procedure · 5 wordsI am not blaming anybody.Procedure Claims · 9 wordsThere has been a lot of negotiations going on, Positioning · 6 wordsbut it is a dadgum shame.Positioning The ask · 40 wordsWe ought to let Senators be Senators. We ought to let Republicans offer amendments and Democrats offer amendments and Independents offer amendments to try to make this bill better. We shouldn’t have to swallow this thing without offering our input, Claims · 30 wordsbut I think that is how it is going to end up, and I am not happy about it. One of those amendments--you will not be surprised to learn--is mine, Promise · 30 wordsand if you give me the chance, I am going to offer an amendment to do something for the people who make all of this money possible for the universities. Claims · 43 wordsAnd the people who make it possible for college football coaches--I am not begrudging them--to make $13 million a year--did I mention some make $13 million a year? That is not over the life of their contracts. That is a year--are the fans. Promise · 62 wordsIf I am given the chance--and it doesn’t look like I am going to be able to--I am going to offer an amendment that says, in return for the antitrust exemption and capping the amount of money that colleges and universities and coaches have to pay their athletes, you can’t raise ticket prices on the fans more than 4 percent a year. The ask · 6 wordsLet’s do something for the fans, Claims · 12 wordsbut I don’t know if I am going to get that opportunity. Promise · 8 wordsI may offer it in a separate bill, Claims · 9 wordsbut they probably won’t let me bring it up, Procedure · 8 wordsand I am going to just mention that.Procedure Mr. President, Claims · 34 wordsNo. 2, we had the chance this week to lower prices for cargo ships, oil tankers, fishing vessels, lawnmowers, for people who own lawnmowers, for people who own chain saws, and so much more. Reasoning · 10 wordsAnd it is legal malpractice if we don’t do it. Procedure · 5 wordsWhat am I talking about?Procedure Claims · 39 wordsWhen the bureaucracy promulgates a rule--and the bureaucracy under President Biden promulgated several rules which raised prices on cargo ships, oil tankers, fishing vessels, lawnmowers, chain saws, 7and other things--their rules make the cost of these things go up. Procedure · 9 wordsNow, do you know who paid that increased cost?Procedure Claims · 49 wordsIt wasn’t the cargo ship owners, et cetera, et cetera. You and I did. The people did--the people who buy the lawnmowers. I don’t know who the people were in the Biden administration who came up with this idea, but this is the kind of stuff that causes inflation. Procedure · 12 wordsI don’t know who came up with it, so this isn’t personal, ProcedurePositioning · 88 wordsbut I will say whatever rock star in the Biden administration came up with these rules is like a rock, only dumber.Insult Whatever rock star in the Biden administration came up with these rules to raise prices on the American people is living proof as to why it took our ancestors tens of thousands of years to learn how to stand upright.Insult Whatever rock stars in the Biden administration came up with these rules to increase our prices are living proof that evolution is a slow, slow process.Insult Claims · 47 wordsWe have got the chance this week--through what we call CRAs--to get rid of these rules.8 If we don’t act this week, the rules stay in place, and the American people pay more for lawnmowers and chain saws and fishing vessels and oil tankers and cargo ships, Procedure · 5 wordsand I could go on.Procedure Claims · 27 wordsAll we have to do is take a vote this week. There is a time limit--this week. Now, I don’t control the floor of the U.S. Senate. Aside · 20 wordsIf I did, we would be voting to get rid of these rules like a hobo on a ham sandwich, AsideClaims · 6 wordsbut I don’t control the Senate. Procedure · 6 wordsI am not putting anybody down, ProcedureReasoning · 27 wordsbut all I am saying is, it is legal malpractice, legislative malpractice, if the U.S. Senate is not allowed this week to vote to kill these rules. Claims · 21 wordsAll of us have been out there, talking about the cost of living and how we need to get it down. Procedure · 5 wordsWell, here is a chance.Procedure The ask · 16 wordsAll we have got to do is vote. We ought to stay here until we vote. Procedure · 9 wordsNo. 3, I just want to make this clear.Procedure Claims · 33 wordsWe are going to look back 5 years from now and realize that what President Trump has done in Iran and what Israel has done in Iran has made the world immeasurably safer. Procedure · 6 wordsAnd I know all about it.Procedure Claims · 11 wordsI know that it has caused gas prices to go up.9 Procedure · 12 wordsI get it, and I am not happy about any of that.Procedure Claims · 156 wordsBut what the President has done and Israel has done--and they had the courage to do it--has made the world safer--not just the Middle East, the entire world. Israel and America have gutted Iran like a fish. We didn’t want to. It is not being reported by the press, but Iran today is immeasurably weaker. Iran today--both the public and the private sector--is a sucking chest wound. There are whole parts of Iran that look like something out of ``Mad Max’’ 4. We have destroyed their air force; 10they have no air force. We have destroyed their navy; 11they have no navy, except they have got these little weenie boats left that they run around in in the strait. They have no navy. We have destroyed a lot of their missiles. We haven’t been able to get all of them because they are hiding some of them in a cave. We have destroyed their weapons-producing facilities.12 Procedure · 13 wordsI hate to see us have to do it to the Iranian people, ProcedureClaims · 85 wordsbut they have got 70 percent inflation.13 We are blockading everything going in and out. They can’t sell their oil. Food is not getting in. Nothing is getting in because we are blockading it.14 We have increased sanctions. We just increased sanctions even more so that planes can’t fly in and out of Iran.15 We have destroyed their nuclear weapons program.16 They have still got fissile material to make a nuclear warhead, but it is buried beneath the earth. Iran has no air defenses anymore. Procedure · 4 wordsWhat does that mean?Procedure Claims · 57 wordsThat means that we can send our bombers and fly anywhere we want to in our planes in Iran without worrying about being shot at--anywhere. Right now, Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapons program. What the President wants is for them to promise not to do it in the future. But right now, they don’t have one.17 Procedure · 4 wordsDo you know why?Procedure Positioning · 12 wordsBecause we ate them up and spit the bones on the floor.Positioning Claims · 56 wordsWe had to do that. Our intelligence and Israeli intelligence will know within 5 minutes if Iran restarts its nuclear weapons program, and as soon as they do, because we have crushed them like a bug, we will know--and they have no air defenses-- and we can go in and bomb their program all over again. Procedure · 10 wordsI wish we didn’t have to do all of this, ProcedurePositioning · 11 wordsbut you can’t let these whack jobs have a nuclear weapon.Positioning Procedure · 22 wordsThese people are like--I am sorry. I am not talking about the good people of Iran; I am talking about the leadership.Procedure Positioning · 11 wordsThey are like Son of Sam. They are like Charles Manson.Positioning Claims · 37 wordsThey think they are on a mission from God, that God has told them to kill everybody who disagrees with their radical form of Islam--kill them all, including Americans, and drink our blood out of a boot. Reasoning · 5 wordsThey can’t have nuclear weapons, Claims · 11 wordsand thanks to President Trump, they don’t and they won’t. (Ms. Procedure · 14 wordsLUMMIS assumed the Chair.) Now, I know the price of gas. I get it.Procedure Claims · 91 wordsIt is painful as hell. And I know it has increased inflation, and we are working to get it down.Vague promise I know a lot of my colleagues--they have the right to their opinion-- have accused the President of everything except abandoning his children to wolves in terms of Iran. President Trump has made the world immeasurably safer--not just the Middle East--immeasurably safer because he is the first President in our lifetime, along with Israel, to say: Iran, we have had enough of your BS. We have gutted them like a fish, Positioning · 20 wordsand I am proud of what American did--didn’t want to do it, but I am very, very proud of it.Positioning Madam President, Procedure · 5 wordsmy work here is done.Procedure Aside · 53 wordsI can show myself out. If you like what you have heard today, I hope you will tell--what I have said today, if you like what I have said today, I hope you will tell your friends. If you don’t like what I said today, I hope you will keep it to yourself.Aside Procedure · 10 wordsWith that, I yield to my good friend Senator Coons.Procedure
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