[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 22 (Friday, February 23, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1294-S1295]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       ACCENTUATING THE POSITIVE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, when I first came to the Senate, President 
Reagan surprised everybody in his State of the Union Message when he 
referred quite often to Presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy, using them as 
examples of good Government. President Bush followed. In his State of 
the Union Messages he constantly referred to the Democratic Presidents 
including, of course, Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy.

  Mr. President, it appears in the primary battles that are going on in 
the Republican Party at this time to pick their nominee for the 
President of the United States they have been studying the Democrats 
probably a little too literally. It seems they have studied so hard 
that their primaries are now being conducted like ours used to be 
conducted. They are going to wind up, it appears, with their nominee 
chopped and beaten, I guess comparable to a McGovern or a Mondale.
  Mr. President, the primary process that we have heard debated and 
watched debated has been one where there has been nothing but 
negativism. It is not what they can do. It is how much they can berate 
each other generally and the Government.
  I think we should talk about how good things are rather than how bad 
things are, because I truly believe we are doing very well as a 
country. Now, when we say ``doing well,'' that does not mean we do not 
have a long way to go; we have a long way to go to become better, but 
we are doing extremely well.
  We need to improve, of course, on our immigration policies. There is 
a lot of improvement that can be made there. And the trade policy.
  As an example, I did not vote for NAFTA; I did not vote for GATT, but 
I hope they work. I do not come in the Chamber and berate what is going 
on as a result of NAFTA and GATT. I hope they work. Even though I do 
not think it was right to pass NAFTA, I do not think it benefits me or 
my country to continually stand up and say how bad things are and it is 
all a direct result of NAFTA. I do not believe that is the case. I 
believe we have some problems with our trade. They are not all related 
to NAFTA and GATT.
  We need to do better with crime fighting, especially, Mr. President, 
with juvenile crime.
  Let us talk about how well we are doing. Last year was the third year 
in a row where we had a declining deficit. It did not decline enough 
each year, but it declined. For the first time in 40 years we had 3 
years in a row with a declining deficit. We should talk about that. 
That is good. That does not take away from the fact that we should have 
a balanced budget. We can do that. But let us talk about what we have 
accomplished that has been positive.
  New jobs, about 8 million new jobs in the last 3 years. That is good. 
Let us talk about it. That is important. Lowest inflation, lowest 
unemployment in well over 30 years. Economic growth has not been so 
high since the days of Kennedy and Johnson. Corporate profits have 
never been higher. A couple times in the history of this country they 
have been as high but never any higher.

  We have heard speeches for years about how big Government is, but it 
was not until this administration that something was done about it. We 
now have 200,000 fewer civilian employees than we had 3 years ago. That 
is important, and that is good. We should talk about it. Government is 
smaller than it used to be. It is now at about the same level it was 
during the days of John Kennedy, even though the country has grown 
significantly. Consumer prices rose 2.5 percent last year, the second 
smallest increase in three decades. That is good. We should talk about 
it. It is important. Stock prices benefiting from strong corporate 
earnings growth and low long-term interest rates have risen almost 75 
percent during the last 3 years. Good does not mean good enough, but 
let us talk. It is still good.
  During the last 3 years, over 16,000 pages of obsolete regulations 
have been eliminated, part of Vice President Gore's reinventing 
Government, and also as a result of Vice President Gore's reinventing 
Government we have 200,000 fewer Government jobs than we had when he 
became Vice President. We have more new small businesses. A record 
number of new small businesses have been created since the start of 
this administration. Home ownership is at its highest level in 15 
years. And also even though we can do better with trade, the United 
States beat Japan and every other county in the world in the last 2 
years in the production of automobiles, the first time that has 
happened since the 1970's. That is good and we should talk about it.
  Education. Fewer students are dropping out of high school. In fact, 
since 1991, the dropout rate has fallen by 16 percent. That is 
staggeringly good. Welfare rolls are down since March 1994 by 8 
percent--not down enough. We still need welfare reform. It is broken 
and needs fixing, but let us talk about some of the good things that 
are happening in our country as we speak.
  The misery index. The combined rate of unemployment and inflation is 
at its lowest levels since the 1960's. It sounds pretty good to me. And 
I wish those Presidential candidates would talk about that, would talk 
about how good things are in America today. 

[[Page S1295]]

  What the people running for President should be talking about, for 
example, is health care. Thousands and thousands of new people each 
month are saying, ``I have no health insurance.'' Businesses more and 
more each day are saying, ``We do not supply our employees health 
insurance.'' Health care costs are still skyrocketing. Health care 
costs this year alone will go up $1 billion. We need to have candidates 
talking about health care reform.

  Minimum wage. We need to talk about raising the minimum wage. It is 
not a bunch of people, the stereotypical teenagers flipping hamburgers 
at McDonald's. The fact is that 60 percent of the people who receive 
the minimum wage are women. For 40 percent of those people, that is the 
only money they get for them and their family. The minimum wage needs 
to be increased. If it was good when we adopted it in the Depression 
years, it is good today and we should do what we can as a Congress to 
make sure it maintains its rate in keeping with inflation.
  The environment. I have not heard a single candidate on the 
Republican ticket running for President talk about the environment. 
They are in that beautiful area of New Hampshire. I have never been to 
New Hampshire but the pictures are beautiful. I would love to go there 
and see that State. On television, you think of the pristine 
environment. We need to be talking about the environment. The only 
thing we have seen especially from the other body this past year is to 
roll back the environmental laws--22 riders on 1 appropriations bill to 
roll back environmental regulations. People in that body want to wipe 
out the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, wipe out the endangered 
species law. They should be talking in a positive sense about what we 
can do to improve the environment.
  I repeat. What I have talked about has been good. It does not mean it 
is good enough, but it means it is good. Let us give our constituents, 
let us give the people of America the positive spin. We are doing fine. 
Let us have these candidates talk about senior citizens and Medicare 
and not hear the nonsense that we are not cutting Medicare; we are only 
cutting the rate of increase, without leveling with the American people 
and saying, of course, we have to maintain an increase in funding for 
Medicare because thousands of new people are coming on the rolls every 
day. Medical costs are rising out of the roof. Of course, we have to 
increase spending for Medicare. It does not mean we do not need to do 
some work to make it a better system, but we need not decimate it. We 
do not need to have it wither on the vine as the leader in the other 
body says that it should.
  Education, let us talk about education in a positive sense instead of 
what we are seeing happen this past year. We are seeing programs that I 
believe are good programs like School-to-Work--only 25 percent of the 
kids who graduate from high school graduate from college. What do we do 
about the other 75 percent? We have one way of helping. That is our 
School-To-Work Program which is a fine program that deals with that 75 
percent and involves local businesses. In the State of Nevada, we have 
a wonderful School-to-Work Program. But what are they doing in the 
other body? They want to wipe it out, and in fact that is what we have. 
It has been wiped out.

  What about our Goals 2000? In Nevada, we have set our Goals 2000. 
They are led by the First Lady of Nevada, Sandy Miller. About a month 
ago in Nevada they published their goals for the year 2000, good goals 
dealing with literacy, math education, reading, but it is being wiped 
out by this Congress. That is unfortunate. It is unfair to kids.
  Crime. Crime is staggeringly bad in this country, but let us talk 
even there about the fact that the crime rate is declining with the 
number of murders reported dropping by 12 percent, robberies down 10 
percent, car theft down 5 percent. As a result of the Brady bill, more 
than 45,000 fugitives and felons have been blocked from buying 
handguns. We have more cops on the street, about 30,000 across the 
country, over 150 in the State of Nevada. It has helped. Now, where we 
are failing--I have no problem discussing this--is with juvenile crime. 
It is becoming more violent, more vicious, and more random. We need to 
do something about that. But let us even talk on a positive note there 
about the President's State of the Union message where he said he was 
going to ask the head of the FBI to focus on juvenile crime, on gangs. 
That is important.
  There is where the discussions should come. Let us talk positively. 
Let us talk about how well we are doing and how much better we can do.
  Mr. President, there was an article recently by Daniel Gross that I 
assume ran in a number of different newspapers around the country. One 
of the things he said, and I quote, was:

       The wealthy would be well served to also recall that the 
     three most dramatic investment events of this century--the 
     panic of 1907 and the crashes of 1929 and 1987--all took 
     place in the watch of Republican Chief Executives.
       The two worst Presidencies for stocks were those of 
     Republicans Herbert Hoover, under whom the Dow fell an 
     appalling 75 percent, and Richard Nixon. Between November 
     1968 and August 1974 the market fell 18 percent. Factor in 
     the high inflation of the early 1970s, and the loss 
     becomes a 6.9 percent annual rout.

  Mr. President, I close by saying I think it is extremely important 
that the primaries, as they develop, be ones that the candidates focus 
more on the positive, talk about what is good that is happening in the 
country; and then on a positive note talk about how much better we can 
be, rather than the continual harangue we hear about how bad things are 
and how, in effect, the future looks bleak. I do not believe that. I 
think we are as good as our past. And our past has been good.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I observe the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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