[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 60 (Friday, May 3, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4661-S4663]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REPUBLICANS' SELECTIVE MEMORY
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I had the opportunity to listen to the
colloquy by our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. I wanted to
come to the floor for a couple of minutes to respond and I know that a
number of our colleagues will also be doing so a little bit later on
this morning.
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I find the selective memory very intriguing, and I certainly
appreciate the good words by so many of our colleagues about the impact
that the 4-cent gasoline tax has had. What I am surprised at is that
they have chosen not to also direct some of their concern and attention
to the dime's worth of increases in gas taxes in the 1980's and early
1990's--increases that most of them supported.
We raised the tax in 1982 by 5 cents and again in 1991 by an
additional 5 cents. As I understand it, almost every single Republican
supported those two increases--a dime. In fact, our distinguished
majority leader was one of those who supported the increase in gasoline
taxes of 10 cents. We like to refer to that 10-cent increase as the
``Dole dime'' because, in effect, that is what has been the result of
the gasoline tax policy over the last 15 years. Mr. President, a 10-
cent increase was supported by virtually every single Republican in
1982 and again in 1991.
In order to cure this selective memory about gasoline taxes, I would
remind my colleagues that the 4.3-cent increase that we passed in 1993
was part of an overall budget package that has led to the single most
consequential deficit reduction program in the history of this country.
We have not seen 4 consecutive years of deficit reduction since the
Civil War, but we did it in 1993, we did it in 1994, we did it in 1995
and now for the 4th year in a row we have done it in 1996. What a
remarkable achievement. We have brought the deficit down to about half
of what it was when the Republican Presidents left office after 12
years of dramatic increases in the size of the deficit.
The deficit in 1980, as everyone recognized when President Reagan
took office, was about $800 billion. After 12 years of Republican White
House domination, that deficit had ballooned from $800 billion to $4.5
trillion. This, despite all the rhetoric about deficit reduction,
despite all the promises we were given about how we would bring down
the size of the debt--it increased to $4.5 trillion.
It took a Democratic White House, with leadership from this
President, beginning the first year he was in office, to force this
deficit to come down now for 4 years in a row. We want to continue to
do that. The President has made every overture I would expect him to
make, urging the majority leader, the Speaker, and others to continue
negotiations, trying to find a way, in a bipartisan effort, to maintain
this downward trend in the deficit.
We can achieve a meaningful deficit reduction package for the next 7
years, bringing deficits to absolute zero if we have the courage and
the wherewithal and the determination to do what this President did in
1993. The opportunity is there. The door is open. We do not have to use
new gas taxes. We do not have to find new sources of revenue. We can do
it with the cuts proposed in this President's budget.
As everyone understands, it is a budget that has been scored by the
Congressional Budget Office, something that the Republican leadership
has said again and again is one of the key ingredients to coming to
some resolution. The President's CBO-scored budget is, in large
measure, the effect of many months of negotiations with the Republican
leadership in an effort to continue the progress that this President
has made now for the last 4 years.
I must say, this selective memory amazes me--I did not hear a word
today about the dime increase, the 10-cent increase supported by
virtually every Republican Senator in the past decade. If they are so
concerned about the 4.3 cents, why is it we have not heard anything
about the 10-cent increase proposed by our colleagues and supported
almost unanimously on the other side? If we are going to give tax
relief, maybe we ought to go to the Dole dime as well as to the 4.3-
cent increase that has been discussed this morning.
I think the real issue here is obfuscation with regard to meaningful
ways of which to help working families. If they really wanted to help
working families who are struggling to make ends meet--in many cases,
with reductions in purchasing power year after year after year--the
best thing they could do would be to pass the minimum wage increase. We
are talking about a 4.3-cent reduction in taxes, when if we wanted to,
this very day we could pass a 45-cent increase in the minimum wage.
This afternoon we could pass a 45-cent increase, 41 cents more than the
relief we get out of a gallon of gasoline, providing purchasing power
to millions of struggling American families.
This week marks the 35th anniversary of the signing of President
Kennedy's increase in the minimum wage back in 1961. As a result of
raising the minimum wage in 1961, purchasing power for a working family
increased, in 1996 dollars, to $6.61 an hour. You heard it right: $6.61
an hour in 1963. That is what working families had at the lowest rung
of the economic scale 35 years ago--$6.61. Today, they are relegated to
$4.25. Their purchasing power goes down year after year after year
after year.
We are now at a 40-year low in terms of purchasing power. While CEO's
across this country saw a 28-percent increase in their purchasing power
just last year to an average of $950,000 per year in salary, the
purchasing power of working people at the lowest rung of the economic
scale has gone down to a point where it is almost more beneficial for
them to stay on welfare than to go out and work. How wrong is that, Mr.
President?
I do not deny any one of those CEO's a good income. In many cases,
they deserve it. But if we can find ways in which to advance the
economy and build the growth within the economy that we have seen in
the last several years--8.5 million jobs, an economy that is booming,
the stock market has reached unprecedented levels--why is it we cannot
come up with the wherewithal in this country to provide some purchasing
power for people at the lowest end?
We have produced an action agenda that we want to pass sooner rather
than later. That action agenda has everything to do with the paycheck--
first, passing a minimum wage that every single American could
ultimately benefit from; secondly, passing retirement security that
allows people to take their health insurance with them; and finally,
passing pension and retirement security, making sure that every time a
worker changes jobs--and the average worker changes jobs now seven
times in his or her lifetime--they can take that pension with them.
They can go from one job to the next with the assurance they will have
a pension when they ultimately retire. Pension security, especially for
women, is something we ought to talk a lot more about in the Senate. We
will do that in the coming weeks.
Mr. President, we can talk about gasoline taxes, this 4.3 cents. I
suppose that is something that has relevance to the increase in gas
prices. We ought to figure out a way to ensure that taxpayers have
relief. I think we better make absolutely certain that if we provide
relief, it goes in the pockets of the consumers and not the oil
companies. For every 1-cent decrease in tax, we could see $1 billion in
additional profit for the oil companies, unless we ensure that the
benefits actually get back to the people who need it. We must make
absolutely certain our tax relief is for consumers and not some bailout
for the big oil companies.
If we are really serious about economic security, if we are really
serious about helping working families, then the best way to help
working families, Mr. President, has a lot more to do with minimum
wage, it has a lot more to do with health security through passing the
Kennedy-Kassebaum bill, it has a lot more to do with pension security
and making sure retirements are secure when people retire, than it has
to do with 4 cents on a gasoline tax.
So we hope to work with our Republican colleagues and do a number of
things this year that can provide real relief. No. 1, let us pass
minimum wage. No. 2, let us pass Kennedy-Kassebaum. No. 3, let us
ensure that we have pension security. No. 4, let us continue this
deficit reduction effort that the President has laid out for us in such
an able way now for the last 4 years. No. 5, let us pass a balanced
budget resolution that allows us deficit reduction, and reduced
interest rates, and a healthy economy which can be brought about by a
balanced budget. All of this is within our grasp. It is going to take a
bipartisan effort to do it, but we ought to do it. We can do it now.
Let us do it, commit to it, and send a clear
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message to the American working family that we are on their side.
I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Mack). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, may I inquire, what business is the Senate
in at this moment?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate is in morning business, 90 minutes
controlled by the minority leader.
Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, then I ask unanimous consent to be allowed
to continue as in morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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