[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 134 (Wednesday, September 25, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11228-S11229]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                ISSUES IMPORTANT TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, earlier this morning, as is often the 
case, in the Senate we had a number of Senators come to the Senate 
floor with a message that essentially the folks who sit on the 
Democratic side of the aisle have not been very constructive in their 
legislative approach, and the Republican legislators have been carrying 
the issues that were important to the American people. They take on the 
President, and they take on the Democratic leader of the Senate. We 
have to come to the floor occasionally to respond to these, and I do so 
again today.
  It is interesting. Today we were told that the Democratic leader of 
the Senate, Senator Daschle, was wrong in his assessment of the 104th 
Congress. They said he didn't know what he was talking about with 
respect to the 104th Congress. Why, this was a wonderful Congress. What 
a productive Congress it was.
  I would like to talk a little about that because at the first part of 
this Congress I recall seeing someone stand on the other side of the 
floor and offer a message to the American people, saying we ought to be 
ashamed of the last 50 years; what an awful place this country has 
become--50 years downhill for America. Who caused it? The Democrats, of 
course, according to that speaker. I rose that day, and I said we must 
be living in different countries.
  Let me stand up and say I am proud of the last half century in this 
country. I am proud of what we have done. In fact, some of the same 
people who tell us that this country has gone to hell in a handbasket, 
they would say, are suggesting that we build a fence to keep immigrants 
out.
  Why would someone suggest we need to build a fence around this 
country to keep people out if it is such an awful place? This country 
is a strong, resourceful, wonderful country that a lot of the people in 
the rest of the world want to come to because it is a beacon of hope 
and opportunity.
  The fact is this Congress is a very unusual Congress. At the start of 
this Congress, Republicans were elected to control the House and the 
Senate. The American people made that choice, and I respect that 
choice. But they came to town, elected a new Speaker of the House of 
Representatives, and they had a victory lap like peacocks in full 
mating season. It was almost like a coronation at the start of this 
Congress. And full of themselves, they proposed a range of issues. They 
said, look, the first thing let's do, let's invite the polluters into 
the U.S. Capitol in something called project relief. We will tell those 
corporations in America who are disadvantaged by the clean air and the 
clean water laws: Come in. Help us to rewrite the clean air and clean 
water laws to make it a little easier for polluters. A couple hundred 
representatives of industries that pollute in America were told by the 
majority: We would like to make it easier for you.
  Now, the background here is that in the last 20 years our country has 
doubled its use of energy. But in 20 years, while we doubled the use of 
energy, we also have cleaner air and cleaner water. Why would that be 
the case? Because the American people decided and Congress responded to 
say to those who are polluting: You must stop polluting, and if you do 
not, there will be severe penalties. Regulations requiring clean air 
and clean water have cleaned up America's airshed and cleaned America's 
waters--not perfect, but it is on the road to substantial improvement 
even though we have doubled our use of energy.
  The majority party said, by the way, we will make available some 
office space for you. You all come in and tell us how we can back away 
from clean air and clean water regulations. A significant calculation, 
but that was just the tip of the iceberg. They seemed to think that 
their mandate was this country would want more pollution and less 
education and more defense but less health care; proposals that said 
let us provide a very significant tax break that will provide a $30,000 
tax refund if you happen to be making $300,000 a year. Smile all the 
way to the bank. And in order to pay for that, we are going to tell 
little children in school: If you are a poor kid going to school, in 
the middle of the day you no longer have entitlement to a hot lunch. Or 
say to people who are disabled: We are going to make sure that you no 
longer have an entitlement to health care if you are disabled.

  You think that was not the case. It was. One hundred proposals in the 
first 100 days, some of them so bizarre, so extreme, so far off the 
chart that I think the American people took a look at this and said: 
That is not what we wanted. We want good Government. Not more 
Government, we want good Government. But we do not want people taking 
Government apart in circumstances where it is important to help the 
lives of the American people. We want better schools. We want police 
protection. We want a good Defense Department. We also want to care 
about the disabled. We want to care about poor kids in school who are 
hungry in the middle of the day.
  That is what this has been about.
  The manifestation of all of this was that some of us said we will not 
agree to cutting Medicare $270 billion so that you can have a tax cut 
of $245 billion, the majority of which will go to the upper income 
folks. We will not agree to that. We will not agree to saying to poor 
kids in school that you no longer can get a hot lunch. We will not 
agree to stripping the entitlement for health care for the disabled.
  What happened as a result of that? As a result of that, we had a 
pique of anger, a fit of anger, and the Government was closed down 
twice. We will just close it down, they said. We do not care about 
Government anyway. Just close it down. And they closed it down.
  The American people said: What kind of behavior is this? Do they need 
adult supervision? What kind of behavior is this in this Congress?
  They quickly turned against the majority in this Congress.
  It is interesting; the second half of this Congress has been markedly 
different. It is exactly as the Democratic leader portrayed it. The 
second half we have accomplished some things which largely represent 
the agenda of those of us who fought for constructive changes. We have 
said there are health care changes that we ought to make, and initially 
it was blocked and then embraced by the majority party, and we passed 
the health care reform bill. We said we ought to have an adjustment in 
the minimum wage; it has been 7 years. Initially, it was blocked and 
then embraced by the majority party, and we passed a bipartisan minimum 
wage bill.
  There are a number of steps which have occurred that represent 
bipartisan achievements finally in the latter stages of this session. 
And now this session limps to a close. We have not yet enacted five of 
the appropriations bills so we will have those put into what is called 
a continuing resolution.
  I think the record of this Congress is going to provide some of the 
most remarkable reading for historians a century from now. They will 
look at this and they will scratch their head and say: What on Earth 
happened in 1995 and 1996? They will see two different Congresses, one 
confrontational, belligerent, give no quarter, extreme, pushing and 
pushing and pushing for a philosophy which believes that America is 
helped if you somehow put something in at the top and let it all drip 
down and filter down and trickle down to the rest, fought tooth and 
nail by others

[[Page S11229]]

who believe that America's economic engine is represented by the folks 
on the foundation at the bottom who are working every day, working hard 
to try and make do for themselves and their families. We call that the 
percolate up belief in this economy. Hubert Humphrey used to say 
trickle down, percolate up. He said trickle down, now that is the 
theory where if you feed the horse some hay, later on the birds will 
have something to eat. Anyone who has been around horses knows what all 
that means. That is trickle down. Supply-side economics, some call it. 
Supply-side, that is when the other side gets all the supplies. That is 
pretty easy to understand.

  My only point today is to say those who characterize this Congress as 
a Congress constructive only by the majority party over the objections 
of the minority misconstrue the record of this Congress. This Congress 
started in a set of circumstances that represented the most extreme 
proposals, including finally Government shutdowns because we would not 
go along, and then Congress changed and the second half of this 
Congress has been more productive because it has been bipartisan and 
because we have seen the embracing of some of the constructive things 
that we think, policies that we think will make life better in this 
country for the American people.
  My point is this. This Congress does not work, cannot work, and will 
never work with one party trying to make it work. Congress will always 
work and work best if you find bipartisan consensus. The fact is, 
Senator Dole sat over there during his Senate career. I have said 
before and I will say again that Senator Dole is a wonderful American 
who has provided enormous service to this country, and I deeply admire 
him. He served here many, many years. While I might disagree with him 
on some policies, he, I think, was a remarkable Senator. I have said 
before and let me say again, I would not trade Senator Dole for all 73 
freshmen House Republicans who came here bragging they had no 
experience, and quickly showed it. The fact is, there are people 
serving in this Congress, Republicans and Democrats, for whom I have 
the most enormous respect, who have the kind of experience which can 
provide solid, stable leadership for this country, who will help this 
country advance and grow, help our economy produce new opportunities, 
help maintain this country's leadership in the rest of the world. We 
can, it seems to me, and should, it seems to me, in the 105th Congress 
not talk about just what we do right and the other party does wrong. We 
should talk about what we can do together. And part of the 
demonstration of that is in what we have done toward the end of the 
104th Congress.

  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. FAIRCLOTH addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina.

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