[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 51 (Wednesday, April 14, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H2034-H2035]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            ECONOMIC ISSUES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Thune) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. Speaker, this afternoon we did have an opportunity to 
vote on the budget; call it the Republican budget if you will; and, 
just as a matter of response to my friend from North Carolina (Mr. 
Etheridge) who expressed his criticism of that budget, I would like to, 
if I might, set the record straight because I think the American people 
have a right to know for the first time in a long time we are being 
honest.
  This is a honest budget. This says to the American people that we are 
going to set aside Social Security and Medicare taxes, payroll taxes, 
and leave them there, lock them up, wall them off and not touch that 
because the surplus that we are running today, most of it is in Social 
Security and Medicare and the payroll tax side of the budget. After 
that is done, after those dollars are walled off and we get into the 
future years when there are surpluses on the overall budget, in other 
words, coming off the income tax and other sources of government 
revenue, then we can engage in a debate in this Chamber, in the 
Congress, about how best to use those revenues.
  Now our side happens to believe we said in our plan that we think we 
would like to see those dollars go back in the form of tax relief 
because the American people worked hard to produce those dollars, and 
they ought to be able to keep more of what they earn. But the fact of 
the matter is, and make no mistake about it, the American public has a 
right to know that all this demagoguery and all this hype, and we have 
heard it before and we are going to hear it again, but the Republican 
budget that was passed today sets aside 100 percent of the Social 
Security and Medicare payroll tax and walls it off and locks it up.
  Now everybody on the other side is talking about the President's 
great budget which got two votes in the House, two votes in the Senate 
because it was a statement of priorities, it was a statement of values. 
The President's budget raised taxes by $172 billion over 5 years. The 
President's budget sets aside less for Medicare and Social Security 
than does the Republican budget, and again we do it by being honest 
with the American people and saying when you pay the payroll tax at the 
payroll, it ought to go into the Social Security Trust Fund to be used 
for Social Security and Medicare.
  The President's budget also talked about debt repayment. The plan 
that we voted on today actually retires more debt, pays off more debt 
than does the President's budget, substantially more debt over the 
course of the next 10 years. And then again at end when we are actually 
generating a surplus above and beyond Social Security, then we have a 
national debate in this country about whether the hard-working people 
of America ought to be able to keep more of what they earn or we ought 
to spend more here on Washington bureaucracies and programs.
  Mr. Speaker, that is a honest debate, but do not fall for the lies 
because you are going to hear them over and over again. The fact of the 
matter is that the budget that we passed today sets us on a path and on 
a course that is consistent with protecting the retirement earnings of 
America's hard workers.
  Let me just, if I might today, also address an issue which is very 
important in my State. Last week, or during the course of the recess, I 
traveled in western South Dakota in places like Spearfish, and Belle 
Fourche, and Buffalo, and Lemmon, and McIntosh and Timber Lake, and Mo 
Bridge, and Mound City, and Eureka, and Leola, and Aberdine and 
Watertown, and one of the things that I found out, and I already knew 
but I heard more, and I got a really good earful on my travels across 
South Dakota about the crisis affecting agriculture because that part 
of the State, the northwestern part of South Dakota, has been as hard 
hit as any place in the country, and I believe that we have a 
responsibility to recognize the incredible crisis that is affecting our 
agricultural producers and to address it, and there are a series of 
initiatives that we will be rolling out over the course of the next 
several weeks which I think do just that. But I believe we need to have 
a debate in this Congress on mandatory price reporting. Our producers 
need to know in making decisions what the market information is that 
the packers are using

[[Page H2035]]

in determining how to purchase their products, and today that 
information is not disclosed. And we have a bill introduced, House bill 
693, that I believe deserves a hearing. We ought to have a vote on it 
in the House.
  We need country of origin labeling. We need to make sure that the 
producers of this country have the protections that are necessary to 
allow them to do what they do best, and that is provide the best source 
of food and fiber for the American people.
  The gentleman from North Dakota (Mr. Pomeroy) and I will be 
introducing crop insurance legislation which addresses some of the 
problems in that program and makes it workable so that our producers 
have an opportunity to hedge against loss and make sure that they are, 
again, able to survive and prosper in this economy.
  We need sanctions reform. There are a lot of countries in the world 
that we cannot do business with, and it makes no sense, and I think we 
need to have a debate in this Congress about what we can do to better 
open markets so that our producers have an opportunity to make a living 
and to survive.
  Every small town, every Main Street across my State and many States 
across rural America, suffers when the ag economy suffers, and there is 
not an economy in any Main Street in South Dakota today that is not 
feeling the effects of this crisis.
  So I believe it ought to be a priority of this Congress. I am going 
to fight very, very hard and work with other Members from rural States 
who want to work together to see that we produce a series of 
initiatives, a series of solutions that will help address the serious 
needs that we have and the concerns that we have in the agricultural 
sector of our economy.
  So I look forward to working my friends and colleagues on both sides 
of the political aisle. This ought to be a bipartisan issue.

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