U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey reflects on his greatest accomplishment in his farewell speech

Dec. 16—Pat Toomey said farewell to the U.S. Senate on Thursday afternoon, capping his two terms with a 20-minute speech thanking his family, staff and colleagues for their support and reviewing his accomplishments, especially ones advancing his conservative free enterprise philosophy.

"Representing Pennsylvania in the United States Senate for these 12 years has been the greatest honor of my professional life," said Toomey, a Republican who lives in Upper Milford Township, Lehigh County. "And I'll always be enormously grateful to the wonderful people of this great state, for them entrusting me with this awesome responsibility. And I also am equally grateful to the volunteers who made those campaigns successful."

Toomey was first elected to the Senate in 2010. Before that, he was in the U.S. House of Representatives for three terms after working in the banking industry and operating a restaurant in Allentown.

He decided not to run for a third Senate term in 2020, leaving a wide-open field for the 2022 election. Democrat John Fetterman defeated Dr. Mehmet Oz in November and will take over Toomey's seat Jan. 3.

Toomey said his mission in the Senate was to defend Pennsylvania interests and advance the cause of personal freedom.

"In the hierarchy of political values, freedom is first for me," he said. "I think the real purpose of government is to secure the blessings of liberty and government too often is the source of restrictions on our freedom instead. But in this category of defending and advancing personal freedom, my focus has tended to be the economic realm.

"Economic freedom is a fundamental aspect of personal freedom. There is a well-documented high correlation between the society's economic freedom and the level of prosperity and the standard of living of the people in that society."

In an introductory speech, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell praised Toomey as someone who is professional and respectful to his colleagues, nominees and everybody else.

"A man with a brain formed on the trading floor and a heart shaped by the Lehigh Valley kitchen table," McConnell said. "It's true he loves his family and free enterprise. This combination has made him a formidable senator."

Across the aisle

Despite his conservatism, Toomey warmly lauded Democratic Sen. Bob Casey as someone willing to work with him to help Pennsylvania.

"I don't think you could ask for a more collegial, thoughtful colleague than the fella that shares the senatorial responsibilities with me for Pennsylvania," Toomey said. "Fact is we cancel each other's vote out almost every time, but we've also worked together when we could and one of the areas where we had just tremendous success is filling vacancies on the federal bench in Pennsylvania."

Toomey said in 12 years, the two have teamed up to get 33 federal judges confirmed to the bench in Pennsylvania. Only California and Texas have had more judges confirmed and neither state had split delegations in that period.

"I'm not sure he wanted to be caught dead agreeing with me on some issues," Casey said in his own floor remarks. "And that's just the way it works around here. But one thing we tried to do from the opening day that he got here in January of 2011 was we tried to, and I think we were successful over 12 years, have a kind of mutual respect. That is easy to articulate and harder to effectuate and requires both sides to give and take. And I'm grateful that we were able to do that together."

Greatest accomplishment

The legislation Toomey was most proud of was the 2017 tax bill that initially started with a small group of fellow GOP senators from the finance committee that worked hours on producing "a very complex product."

Toomey said the result was low unemployment, including for African Americans and Latinos, wages growing faster than inflation and narrowing the income gap. Federal tax revenue is on the upswing with lower corporate tax rates, he said.

"We took our draft and we presented it to our colleagues," Toomey said, "and over a course of many weeks, we kind of iterated our way to what became the most sweeping tax reform in at least 30 years, and we expanded economic freedom with that product. And honestly, I have to tell you, I think the results were even better than what we had hoped for. By the time the tax reform had been fully implemented, to calendar year 2019, we had the strongest economy of my lifetime."

Some advice

Toomey offered some outgoing recommendations for Republicans, Democrats and the Senate.

"For my Republican colleagues, let me just say, our party can't be about or beholden to any one man, our party is much bigger than that," he said, referring to former President Donald Trump. "We are the political representation of this huge center-right coalition across America. On a good day, that's more than half of Americans and I hope we resist the temptation to adopt the protectionist, nativist, isolationist, redistributive policies that some are suggesting we embrace."

Toomey said those values are inconsistent with the core values of a majority in the GOP and they will lead to bad outcomes for the country.

He said Democrats, while sincerely wanting to defend democracy, must remember that it is much more than just voting.

"Elections really are a means to an end," he said. "They are not the end themselves. The end or purpose of elections is to provide the mechanism of accountability of the government, to the people whose consent is our sole source of legitimacy. When we hand over Congress' responsibilities to unelected and therefore unaccountable parts of our government, be that the courts or independent regulators or executive branch agencies, we really undermine our democracy, which, of course, is really our republic."

Toomey also pleaded with his fellow senators to keep the filibuster and urged them to change unanimous consent rules that allow a single senator to block a vote on an amendment to a bill.

"Please keep the filibuster. It's the only mechanism that forces bipartisan consensus," Toomey said. "It prevents governance from the extremes by forcing bipartisanship; it results in more durable legislation."

Looking ahead

Despite the recent polarization in politics and threats abroad, Toomey said he's optimistic about the country's future.

"Nowhere do we face the imminent threats that we faced during World War II, and at several moments during the Cold War," he said. "And we are polarized and it's uncomfortable and it's problematic, but in 1968, we had political assassinations and cities were being burned down. This very chamber we're in right now first opened its doors in 1859. Imagine living through the decade that followed that."

As for economic challenges, such as inflation, a potential recession and growing national debt, Toomey said many Americans are living at a higher standard of living than their parents.

"A rising standard of living is, after all, the purpose of economic growth," he said. "So I always answer that question about America's future with the truth. And that is that despite our challenges, I'm extremely bullish. And I think my optimism is easily justified by our history. America has always been able to survive and thrive. And America remains the greatest nation in the history of the world. If we keep on being Americans, we will remain the greatest nation on the planet."