[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 42 (Tuesday, March 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H2780-H2781]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                   WE NEED A NEW ECONOMIC NATIONALISM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Gephardt] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Madam Speaker, I rise today to call my colleagues' 
attention to an important finding in last week's issue of Business 
Week.
  I am speaking of an economic reality which may be new to the business 
press in the United States--but has been plaguing millions of hard-
working middle-class families for more than 16 years.
  The simple fact is corporate profits are surging, but the working 
people who stand behind those profits are seeing their incomes fall.
  That is why Business Week concluded in an editorial, and I quote,

       The middle class has shouldered much of the pain * * * that 
     has made Corporate America so productive and competitive in 
     global markets. Now is the time for the middle class to share 
     in the fruits of higher productivity.

  When you look at the facts, it is clear that we are in the midst of a 
powerful business boom. Business Week reports that, despite the Federal 
Reserve's efforts to halt our economy, corporate profits among 900 
leading companies grew by an astonishing 71 percent in the fourth 
quarter of 1994.
  Profits grew by a whopping 41 percent for all of 1994, the biggest 
increase since Business Week began keeping these statistics back in 
1973.
  But while business has never been better, for middle-income families, 
the economic crunch continues.
  Business Week reports that American household wealth has actually 
fallen by about half of 1 percent--only the eighth time it has dropped 
in 30 years.
  This is something to which attention must be paid, especially by 
those who talk about family values.
  Look at what is happening to the families that have given up every 
minute of family time while parents work two, three, even four jobs. 
How can you build a strong family when you are working day and night 
just to pay the bills?
  When I was growing up in the 1950's, America brought a higher 
standard of living to a growing number of our people.
  As profits flourished, the people behind those profits saw their real 
wages rise.
  But today, working people cannot even expect to share in the fruits 
of their own labor.
  The statistics are as plain as day. From 1947 to 1973, American 
workers gave their companies an almost 90 percent increase in 
productivity, and in return, their real wages increased by nearly 99 
percent. They got as much as they gave.
  But from 1973 to 1982, workers got only half as much of an increase 
in real wages as they gave in new productivity. And from 1982 through 
last year, they got only a third as much as they gave in real 
productivity.
  For Democrats, the single, simple, fundamental task of our party--in 
this Congress, in this decade, in this generation--is to fight for the 
standard of living of working families and the middle class. We must 
heed the words of Business Week, and help the middle class to share in 
the profits and fruits of higher productivity.
  That means that we must question a boom in which Wall Street is 
strong, but Main Street is still weak.
  It means we must challenge an economy in which the Dow Jones keeps 
rising through the roof, but family fortunes keep falling through the 
floor.
  And it means that the American people have to decide which political 
party is willing to stand up and fight for them--and which political 
party is standing in their way.
  Democrats believe in a substantial minimum wage increase--because you 
cannot support a strong economy, let alone your own family, on $8,500 a 
year. People ought to be paid more if they are working than if they are 
on welfare, and too often, we know that is not the case today.
  Republicans not only oppose a minimum wage increase, House Republican 
Leader Dick Armey wants to abolish the minimum wage altogether. I ask 
Mr. Armey or those who agree with him, could you raise a family on 
$8,500 a year?
  Democrats believe that a capital gains tax cut is not the first 
priority, that we need a middle-class tax cut, to build up the 
community of consumers who buy America's products.
  Republicans not only oppose a middle-class tax cut, they want to give 
that tax break to the wealthiest investors, forcing deep cuts in the 
programs working Americans need most; school lunches for children, food 
stamps, Social Security, Medicare.
  Democrats believes that globalization of our economy 
should not mean the pauperization of our middle class. It should not 
mean throwing our workers into roller-coaster competition with third-
world workers who earn as little as a dollar a day.
  And it does not have to mean that, if we change the way we do 
business, both home and abroad.
  We need a new economic internationalism, to bring the third world 
into the global economy, without submerging developed nations into the 
third world, to lift them up, without dragging ourselves down.
  We need a new economic nationalism. Not an effort to isolate 
ourselves, but a commitment by business, labor, and government to hard-
working, middle class families here at home.
  We need a commitment to the notion of ``Pay for Performance''--
ensuring that productivity, quality, and creativity profit the people 
who are actually providing it. A powerful study by Laura Tyson and 
David Levine shows that if you reward workers' good results, you get 
even more progress. In the coming months, I will offer legislation to 
encourage companies to embrace such financial fairness.
  Republicans, on the other hand, actually like the rampant 
globalization of 
[[Page H2781]] our economy. They do not see lower wages, lower 
environmental standards, and lower labor standards as a problem; they 
see them as the solution. We have seen the results in these past 16 
years: people suffer, even as profits soar.
  Business Week's findings are powerful proof of the challenge we face: 
raising the standard of living for working families and the middle 
class.
  And I think it is clear that this goal could not be farther from the 
Republican agenda. Just read the Contract. There is not so much as a 
nod or wink about real jobs or opportunities.
  So it is up to the Members of my party--the Democratic Party--to 
devise real solutions to this very real national crisis.

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