[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 35 (Monday, March 27, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1700-S1701]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
BUDGET PRIORITIES
Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, this week the Senate Budget Committee is
about to proceed with a markup of the budget resolution, an effort that
is overdue. Nonetheless, it will be taken up this week. I think we
should examine the context in which the budget resolution will be
considered in the Senate.
There was some awfully good news for American families this weekend.
It was announced this weekend that the Federal income tax burden for
American families has shrunk to the lowest level in 40 years. Who says
this? Studies by both liberal and conservative tax experts, the
administration, and two arms of the Republican-controlled Congress
confirmed that the Federal income tax burden for families in America is
lower than it has been for 40 years.
The middle fifth of American families, with an average income of
$39,100, paid 5.4 percent in income tax last year compared to 8.3
percent in 1981.
A four-person family, with a median income of $54,900, paid 7.46
percent of their income in income tax--the lowest since 1965. And a
median two-earner family, making $68,605, paid 8.8 percent in 1988,
which is about the same as in 1955.
In fact, one-third of American families no longer pay income tax.
That is the context in which we need to take up what we are going to
do as a people relative to our newfound economic prosperity that is
being projected by so many.
We need to remember, too, how we arrived at this point.
In 1993, when President Clinton took office, he inherited a budget
with a record deficit of $290 billion per year. In 1993, we passed the
Budget Act without a single Republican vote--none in the House; none in
the Senate. In fact, Vice President Al Gore cast the deciding vote on
this floor in the Senate and created a framework for a remarkable
turnaround.
From almost 30 years of continuing hemorrhaging red ink and growing
deficits, we then had 7 years in a row of declining deficits--in fact,
the last 3 in surplus, even over and above that required for Social
Security.
For fiscal year 2000, we are looking at a $26 billion surplus over
and above Social Security. In the meantime, that set the framework for
107 consecutive months of economic growth. There have been 20.4 million
new jobs since 1993. Home ownership is up a record 67 percent. Real
wages have increased since the beginning of the Clinton administration
by 6.6 percent, reversing a two-decade-long trend of declining real
wages.
From 1993 to 1998, the number of poor people in America declined by
4.8 million and the number of poor children went down by 2.1 million.
In these past 7 years, 7.2 million have left the welfare rolls--a 51-
percent decline in the welfare rolls. Welfare recipients now account
for the lowest percentage of the U.S. population since 1967, the height
of the Vietnam war.
In 1999, Federal spending was the smallest share of our gross
domestic product since 1966. Lower- and middle-income Americans had the
smallest tax burden in 40 years, as noted by the study that came out
this weekend. And we are now paying down debt.
By the end of fiscal year 2000, the Treasury expects to have reduced
our debt held by the public by about $300 billion--that is ``billion''
with a ``B''--from where it was only 3 years ago.
Now we have this great national debate. The experts in both the House
and the Senate are projecting about a $3 trillion surplus over the
coming 10 years, thanks, in very large part, to the decision made in
1993 to set that framework for prosperity and growth. We are talking
about a $3 trillion surplus. And $2 trillion of that is attributable to
Social Security. To the good credit of the President of the United
States, he said: Save Social Security first. Our Republican friends
have concurred. That is off the table.
The next question is, then: What do you do about the remaining $1
trillion over the coming 10 years? The first thing is to be very
cautious. Indeed, we have a hard time projecting 1 year in advance,
much less 10 years in advance, what is going to happen to our economy.
We cannot get too giddy about how to spend or give back or do
whatever with $1 trillion that may or may not materialize. But that is
the debate that is going on today. It is going on between the two
Presidential candidates. It has been going on between the parties. The
American public themselves are trying to digest what kind of vision we
have for America in the first 10 years of this century, the first 10
years of this millennium.
George W. Bush has said he knows what to do with the $1 trillion
dollars: essentially give it all back in a tax cut, commit to that now.
If $1 trillion doesn't actually show up, too bad, because Social
Security, Medicare, and virtually everything else we do will be in
jeopardy.
There are others, including myself, who say, first, be prudent about
whether this trillion is going to materialize. To the degree that it
does, let us look at making sure that we protect the long-term
viability of Medicare, which is in shaky financial condition. Most
concur. Secondly, let us put some additional dollars towards paying
down the debt. That will keep the interest rates down. It will continue
to foster economic growth and prosperity. It will make the ability to
buy a car, a house, to create new jobs, to run a farm or ranch all cost
less. It will do more than many other things the Federal Government
could do.
Third, let's make sure we do make key investments in our schools. We
have crumbling schools all across the country. We have schools that
have a greater need for better technology. We have teacher pay
problems. We have problems all the way from Early Head Start through
our graduate programs and research programs, including our technical
and vocational programs. Let's put some dollars there as well. That
will create a foundation for continued economic growth and prosperity,
if we continue to invest in the minds of American citizens.
We are in a global economy today. The world is full of people who
work as hard as any American for a dollar a day. The question is, Do
American workers bring to the table more than just a willingness to
work hard but also bring with them the technical skills and
intellectual abilities to do things other people in the world cannot
do? That is where we need this growing, developing, and constructive
partnership between the Federal, State, and local government, public
and private, whereby we empower more American citizens to take care of
their own needs, to grow the economy, and to make sure America remains
the foremost economic power in the world bar none.
Yes, in the context of how to use this $1 trillion, let's try to find
some room for tax relief, too, but let's target it to middle-class and
working families, families who have the most difficult time meeting
their bills. When you look at George W. Bush's proposal, it is blown on
a tax cut, with nothing for the schools, nothing to invest, nothing to
reduce the deficit, nothing to protect Medicare, at least not to the
degree that it needs to be done. Then look and see who are the winners
and losers on this.
The typical middle-class family gets about a $500 tax cut; a-million-
dollar-a-year income gets about a $50,000 tax cut. That is not fair,
not when we are being told we don't have the money to build new
schools. We can't pass a bond issue in most of the counties in my State
of South Dakota. Real estate taxes are through the roof. Our ag economy
is not doing well. We are wondering how to replace all those 1910, 1920
vintage schools across my State. We are looking at still a great many
children who would benefit from Early Head Start programs, Head Start
programs. We are looking at the need for better law enforcement. We are
looking at the need for investing in our infrastructure, including our
rural water. We are looking at all the things we need to do to prepare
ourselves for the increasingly challenging economy of this coming
century, the coming millennium.
That is where the American public is in concurrence with those of us
who say, first be prudent about that $1 trillion, making sure that we
stay in the black, that we don't go back into the bad red-ink days of
the Reagan-Bush
[[Page S1701]]
years and the years before that which were bipartisan; both parties
were in the red prior to 1993, for over 30 years. We don't want to go
back to those days.
To the degree we have these dollars to utilize, let's make sure we
cover an array of needs we have: paying down further debt; protecting
Medicare; investing in our schools, education, making us a more
competitive society; doing some things for our families; and, yes, some
tax relief as well. But let's do it all in that package rather than
some sort of radical libertarian vision of America where the role of
the Federal Government is to guard the border and deliver the mail.
Many of our friends seem to think we shouldn't be delivering the mail
anymore either.
I think most Americans have a more moderate, mainstream view. The
American people are not ideologues. They are not far to the left. They
are not far to the right. They don't want the Government to do
everything, and they don't want a situation where the Government does
nothing. They are commonsense about their vision of where we need to
be. I think we should use caution in taking public opinion polls too
seriously around this place.
Time after time, poll after poll taken reveals the American public is
on the side of this more balanced, thoughtful, deliberative approach to
how we are going to position ourselves to be in a situation of strength
in the years to come. A lot of people's eyes glass over when we talk
about budget issues, dollars and cents, talking about trillions of
dollars. It is almost unfathomable. Yet at the heart of it all, where
our real values and priorities lie is determined by those dollars-and-
cents decisions we make in this body and on which we are about to begin
this week.
The rhetoric is never lacking. The rhetoric is always in favor of
almost everything. But when it comes time to see whether we are going
to protect the environment, whether we are going to help our kids,
whether we are going to rebuild schools, strengthen Medicare, whether
we are going to do something about prescription drugs and health care,
as Senator Dorgan from North Dakota has noted, whether we are going to
do these kinds of things is, in large measure, dictated by the dollar-
and-cents decisions we make on this floor.
This is going to be a very crucial week. We will be establishing a
budget resolution. I am fearful from what I see headed our way that
there is a likelihood that it will be another partisan political
exercise at a time when the American public is rightfully frustrated by
the lack of ability of the two parties to work together as well as they
should. If that is the case, we will see, as we go through the 13
separate appropriations bills or omnibus bill in the end, as may wind
up being the case, whether we come out in a way that is, in fact,
balanced, which does, in fact, use the resources necessary.
It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Two generations have gone by
waiting for this opportunity to have our Federal Government in the
black and to make some policy decisions about how we can partner
together to continue opportunity and prosperity for all of our citizens
and not just a few. How tragic it would be if we were to lose this
opportunity, if we would say, no, there is no role for the Federal
Government to improve Medicare, to keep our rural hospitals open with a
decent level of reimbursement, to rebuild our schools, to do the things
that need to be done while at the same time providing some tax relief
and paying down debt. What a loss that would be if we were to miss that
opportunity.
There is no more fundamental decision to be made in this the 2nd
session of the 106th Congress than these budget issues that are before
us this week. We can be proud and we can take some satisfaction in the
fact that taxes for middle-class families are now the lowest in 40
years, that we have had 3 years in a row of budget surpluses over and
above that required for Social Security, and that our economy has had 8
years in a row of continuous GDP growth. But there is no automatic
pilot on which to put our economy. It requires difficult decisions to
be made each and every year by the Congress to set the stage for
continued prosperity.
That is the challenge before us. I am hopeful that before we adjourn
at the end of this year, we will be able to look back at this 2nd
session of the 106th Congress as truly a watershed time, a fork in the
road where we chose the right road to go down in terms of strengthening
our society and creating a framework for continued growth and
prosperity.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
Mr. GRAMS. Mr. President, I understand there has been time set aside
this morning?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senator from
Wyoming or his designee shall be in control of the next 45 minutes
which has now begun.
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