[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 140 (Friday, September 30, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 30, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
             VOODOO 2: THE REPUBLICAN CONTRACT WITH AMERICA

  Mr. DeCONCINI. Mr. President, earlier this week 300 Republicans stood 
on the Capitol steps and signed a contract with America. If Republicans 
take over Congress, they pledged a return to the Reagan years--with 
promises of a balanced budget, tax cuts, and defense buildups. The 
contract comes with a $1 trillion price tag: a price tag that would 
have to be made up in unprecedented budget savings. Yet the Republicans 
have no solid ideas on how to pay the bill.
  Let me remind my Republican colleagues that a contract, by 
definition, is a solemn agreement, enforceable by law. By contrast, 
what the Republicans have offered is pie in the sky, a chicken in every 
pot, election year smoke and mirrors. As my good friend from Arkansas, 
Senator Bumpers, stated, what America witnessed on the Capitol steps 
this week was a ``snake-oil convention''--300 individuals concerned not 
with the next generation, but with the next election.
  Even members of their own party see the Republican agenda for what it 
is: political hogwash. Fred Grandy, Republican from Iowa, labels the 
Republican proposals, and I quote, ``the crassest kind of politics.'' 
``How many times does the elixir salesman show up with the hair 
tonic,'' Grandy said, ``before people figure out this stuff doesn't 
work?''
  The last time we heard Republicans say they could balance the budget 
while cutting taxes was in 1981. ``This administration is committed to 
a balanced budget,'' President Reagan pledged in 1981, ``and we will 
fight to the last blow to achieve it by 1984.'' This is what President 
Reagan said. What President Reagan did was double the national debt. It 
took this Nation over two centuries--205 years to be exact--to pile up 
a debt of $1 trillion. It took us only 5 years--5 Reagan years--to pile 
up our second trillion dollars of debt. This Reagan feat was a direct 
consequence of unprecedented tax cuts plus historic defense buildups 
and no sound policy to pay for them.
  And so the American taxpayer paid, Mr. President--and paid and paid 
and paid. Under President Reagan, the average taxpayer in America had 
to work one-and-a-half weeks just to pay for the interest of the 
national debt. Under Reagan, we had interest rates of 13 and 14 
percent. Under Reagan, we had 6 of the 10 largest deficits ever run up 
in this Nation. Under Reagan, we had a recession from which we are only 
now beginning to recover. Mr. President, this was not morning in 
America.
  Our Republican colleagues, shrewdly taking note of election year tax 
cut fever, have also promised tax breaks for the middle class. This is 
what they promise, Mr. President, but what they will deliver is more 
tax breaks for the rich. Enact their capital gains tax cut, and 70 
percent of its benefits will go to families making over $100,000. Take 
the cap off IRA's, and who will benefit? Not middle-class America, Mr. 
President. At least 95 percent of the proposed new tax benefit will go 
to the top fifth of all taxpayers and one-third will go to the richest 
3 percent. The rest of America will have to shoulder the $8 billion 
increase this tax benefit will add to the deficit.
  Does this sound familiar, Mr. President? Four Presidential elections 
ago, candidate Reagan campaigned as a friend of the middle class. But 
the facts show that over one-third of the Reagan tax cuts went to the 
Rolls Royce crowd--the richest 5 percent of the taxpayers. His tax 
changes decreased by $73,000 per year the taxes paid by the richest 1 
percent of Americans, while they eliminated benefits for the poorest 
and increased the tax burden on the middle class. To paraphrase Yogi 
Berra, the Republican agenda is ``deja vu all over again.'' Mr. 
President, this is not morning in America.
  And how are our Republican colleagues planning to pay for their tax 
breaks for the rich? House Republicans give virtually no clue on how 
they will find the savings. Count on a strong economy, they say. It is 
an unsettling echo of Ronald Reagan's rosy scenario, his pain-free, 
trickle-down recovery--and we all know how that turned out: 
Recordbreaking deficits and an America that was suddenly the biggest 
debtor on Earth
  Senate Republicans are a bit more concrete. They say they will find 
the savings by cutting $238 billion from non-Social Security 
entitlement programs over 5 years. This translates into 238 billion 
dollars' worth of cuts solely in Medicare and Medicaid. This is a 
warning in red. Without health care reform, cuts of this size could 
have a devastating impact. Millions more Americans would be added to 
the rolls of the uninsured. Premium costs for Medicare beneficiaries 
would soar. Count on hospitals being forced to close their doors. Mr. 
President, this is not morning in America.
  What House and Senate Republicans both pledge is that they will not 
touch Social Security. Well, let me remind my colleagues that 
throughout his 1980 campaign President Reagan also pledged his support 
for Social Security. But less than 4 months after taking the oath of 
office, President Reagan tried to eliminate the Social Security minimum 
benefit. He called for a delay in the annual cost-of-living raise. He 
called for a reduction in benefits for those retiring at age 62. 
Fortunately, Congress rebuffed Reagan's assaults on Social Security. 
But if Republicans take over Congress, who is to say they will not go 
after Social Security again?
  Mr. President, 2 days ago my colleague from Arkansas, Senator 
Bumpers, took to the Senate floor and made a masterful speech about the 
need today for moral fortitude. As elected officials, we have a moral 
obligation to cast our votes for what is in the best interest of the 
people of this country--and not for what can ensure us 6 more years in 
office or what can bring down the opposition party. The American people 
have grown sick and tired of political posturing. Sadly, they see too 
many of their elected officials as motivated not by the public 
interest, but by private gain. We must acknowledge this attitude--take 
responsibility for it--if there is ever to be any hope for change.
  Last year 50 courageous lawmakers in this body voted to break 
gridlock and change the Nation's course. The vote was on President 
Clinton's comprehensive budget bill--and the Senate chamber was heavy 
with predictions of national doom and gloom. My colleague from Texas, 
Senator Gramm, perhaps best summed up the doomsday message:

       I want to predict here tonight that if we adopt this bill 
     the American economy is going to get weaker and not stronger, 
     the deficit four years from today will be higher than it is 
     today and not lower. . . . When all is said and done, people 
     will pay more taxes, the economy will create fewer jobs, 
     government will spend more money, and the American people 
     will be worse off.

  Contrary to Senator Gramm's gloomy forecast, virtually every one of 
our indicators points to an economic revival. The deficit is coming 
down after going up almost unstopped for 12 years; interest rates and 
inflation are at historic lows; unemployment is down; and single-family 
housing starts are at their highest level in 15 years.
  I know how much Arizonans have benefitted from President Clinton's 
economic plan. My State has added 6,900 manufacturing jobs in the last 
17 months. Our unemployment rate has dropped from 7 percent to 6.3 
percent. Annual growth in personal income has tripled that of the 
previous 4 years; and new business incorporations are up 23 percent. I 
know that Arizona is not alone in experiencing an economic revival.
  I want to emphasize that 50 lawmakers took a risk in voting for a 
proposal that would put this country back on track. They voted for the 
proposal in the face of unfounded and false charges that it would cost 
jobs; flatten the economy; and raise taxes on all Americans. But 
Democratic lawmakers were willing to take a personal risk for the sake 
of a larger cause. I could also cite examples of my friends across the 
aisle making equally courageous choices. Not that many years ago, the 
minority leader worked tirelessly to pass a bipartisan budget that made 
unpopular choices for the good of this country.
  The unfortunate fact is that courageous choices--choices which call 
for sacrifice and pain--often exact personal consequences. Many of my 
colleagues who voted for the Clinton budget are in tough reelection 
campaigns because of that vote. But there are worse consequences--
consequences that are paid by the people of this country when 
politicians take the easy road and make the promises people want to 
hear.
  ``I don't believe irresponsible promises are good politics,'' Adlai 
Stevenson once said. ``Promise-peddling and double talk may be 
expedient and catch some votes from the unwary and innocent, but 
promises also have a way of coming home to roost.'' Promises can indeed 
backfire on those who make them. But they can also backfire on those to 
whom the promises are made--the American people. We saw such 
consequences during the Reagan era. Mr. President, I pray we do not 
witness them once again through a contract which promises to revise 
those Reagan years.
  Let me say loud and clear: The Republican promises are not honest. 
They are pie-in-the-sky election-year posturing. And like the Reagan-
era excesses, they will bring this Nation to its knees.
  I have great faith in the American people. I predict that they will 
not be fooled again by snake-oil promises which have dangerous 
consequences.

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