[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 21 (Thursday, February 2, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E257]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


               ``PAID VOLUNTEERISM'': AN OXY-MORONIC IDEA

                                 ______


                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, February 2, 1995
  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, I commend George Will's article in the 
Saturday, January 28th edition of the Washington Post for your 
attention:
                           Two Liberal Losers

                            (George F. Will)

       President Clinton's turbid State of the Union address was a 
     metaphor for modern government--sprawling, metastasizing, 
     undisciplined, approaching self-parody. It underscored the 
     fact that his administration now is politically almost 
     harmless,but is aesthetically excruciating.
       The address was heavily larded--exactly the right word, 
     that--with semi-conservative words about cutting taxes, 
     spending and regulations. However, regarding two matters 
     Clinton considers crucial--the American Corps ``national 
     service'' program and the minimum wage--the address was half-
     baked and half-hearted liberalism.
       AmeriCorpos, says Clinton, will revive American 
     volunteerism. The approximately 80 million Americans who 
     volunteer their time to religious and civic organizations may 
     wonder who needs reviving and how much it matters whether 
     AmeriCorps eventually produces 100,000 more volunteers. Today 
     2.9 million of America's 80 million volunteers are ages 18 to 
     25, the ages of AmeriCorps ``volunteers.''
       To Americans who use the English language to communicate 
     thoughts rather than parody them, the use of the word 
     ``volunteer'' in connection with AmeriCorps' recruits must 
     seem like the latest redundant evidence that Washington is 
     stark raving mad. To plain-speaking Americans, a volunteer is 
     someone who contributes his or her unpaid labor. Clinton's 
     ``volunteers'' will be paid a $7,400 annual stipend, plus 
     $9,450 worth of college expenses over two years. And this is 
     not all that Clinton's little puddle of government-
     manufactured ``volunteers''--little relative to the 80 
     million true volunteers who need neither financial incentives 
     from, nor organization by, government--will cost taxpayers.
       In addition to the health and childcare entitlements for 
     AmeriCorps members, and AmeriCorps' Washington bureaucracy, 
     money is spent to locate ``volunteers'' to take AmeriCorps 
     money. The Omaha World-Herald says that AmeriCorps gave 
     Nebraska's state government a $457,622 grant to recruit 23 
     AmeriCorps members. That $19,896.60 per recruit calls into 
     question the effectiveness of the $1.7 million AmeriCorps 
     paid a Washington PR firm for national advertising.
       According to the New Citizenship Project, a conservative 
     advocacy group, of AmeriCorps' first 20,000 ``volunteers,'' 
     1,200 are working for agencies of the federal government. The 
     New Citizenship Project warns that AmeriCorps is ripe for 
     politicization, citing a Washington Monthly report that a 
     1993 pilot project became an exercise in identity politics 
     and political correctness, developing ethnic and homosexual 
     caucuses. And the Los Angeles Times reported that a 1994 
     pilot project in San Francisco used its ``volunteers'' to 
     protest ``three-strikes-and-you're-out'' crime legislation.''
       Clinton calls AmeriCorps the achievement ``I would say I 
     was most proud of.'' No minimum wage increase will be rival 
     for that title.
       In 1992 candidate Clinton endorsed increasing the minimum 
     wage. During 1993 and 1994, when he had a congressional 
     majority that would have done it, he did not ask for it, 
     primarily because some sensible Democrats told him it was a 
     dumb idea. Al From, head of the centrist Democratic 
     Leadership Council, which once advertised Clinton as a New 
     Democrat, says of the minimum wage proposal: ``It's 
     anachronistic, it's a loser, it's got no bite with the middle 
     class. And it screams old Democrat.''
       Now that there is a Congress that Clinton knows will not 
     enact an increase, he calls it urgent. However, during 
     Tuesday night's oration, when he was pitilessly detailed 
     about almost everything, he remained reticent about how much 
     the minimum wage should be increased. Leaving aside the 
     unwisdom of government telling employers what to pay 
     employees, it is generally true that when you increase the 
     cost of something, people buy less of it. There is evidence 
     that is true of labor at the low end of the wage scale.
       The first federal minimum wage--25 cents an hour--was 
     enacted in 1938. Since then, the longest time between 
     increases was from 1981 to 1990. During that span, teenage 
     unemployment (teenagers are a third of all minimum wage 
     earners) fell from 23.2 percent to 15.5 percent, and black 
     teenage unemployment fell from 48 percent to 31 percent. Then 
     the forces of compassion struck, raising the minimum wage 
     twice, in 1990 and 1991. In 1992 teenage unemployment went up 
     to 20 percent.
       Now, it is problematic establishing causation for any 
     phenomenon as complex and varied as joblessness. And some 
     studies, including one by associates of the current secretary 
     of labor, purport to show that the minimum wage can be 
     increased somewhat without increasing unemployment. However, 
     the question is academic because a former academic--Rep. Dick 
     Armey, the ex-professor of economics who now is majority 
     leader--says he will oppose an increase ``with every fiber of 
     my being,'' and he will have much company.
       But this is of more than academic interest: The minimum 
     wage is now $4.25 an hour. Clinton is said to be thinking 
     about seeking $5 an hour. The New Citizenship Project 
     calculates that AmeriCorps ``volunteers'' earn more than $7 
     an hour.
     

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