[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 39 (Monday, April 3, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2030-S2031]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 BUDGET

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the leader is right, this is a historic 
time. It is historic because this is the week we are going to begin 
deliberations on the budget that will guide all of our spending for 
this year. We have 13 appropriations bills and as soon as the budget is 
adopted, we can start appropriating.
  I hope my friends on the majority side of the Senate will understand 
that we really are doing quite well as a country. This all began in 
1993 when we voted on the deficit reduction plan. I am sorry to report 
it was not done in a bipartisan fashion. Every vote for that deficit 
reduction plan was cast by a Democrat. It passed the House of 
Representatives by one vote. In the Senate, it resulted in a tie that 
was broken by the Vice President of the United States, Al Gore. As a 
result of that action, the United States has seen on an unprecedented 
amount of economic expansion.
  In April, we reached 107 months of consecutive economic growth, the 
longest period of economic growth in the history of this country. We 
are now 2 months beyond that and still growing. We have created about 
21 million new jobs. The majority of these jobs are high-wage jobs, 
high-paying jobs. We have had the lowest unemployment and the lowest 
inflation in 30 years.
  We talk about the size of Government. Well, we have actually done 
something about the size of Government as a result of the program 
President Clinton initiated and which was supported in the Senate in 
1993 by a tie-breaking vote of Vice President Gore and in the House by 
one vote. We have cut the size of Government. We have talked about the 
Government continually getting smaller. Now it is about the same size 
as when President Eisenhower was President. We talked for a year or two 
about it being the size when President Kennedy was President. We have 
gone even beyond that.
  Home ownership is the highest in the history of this country. The 
country is doing very well. I hope we continue the record economic 
expansion because it does give us a historic opportunity.
  We need to save Social Security. We need to make sure it is 
strengthened. Now that it is going to be OK until about the year 2035, 
the President wants to move forward and make sure it is OK for another 
20 to 30 years. We should do that as soon as we can.
  We should do something to expand Medicare so that prescription drugs 
are part of the program. It is no longer adequate that we have 
hospitalization and some doctor care for senior citizens. It is 
important we realize they also need help with prescription drugs.
  People over the age of 65 get an average of 18 prescriptions filled 
every year. We need to do something about that. Sixty percent of senior 
citizens have trouble paying for prescription drugs. Some do not get 
the prescription drugs they need. Some, because they do not have enough 
money, take half a pill a day when they should take one pill a day. 
They split the pills. People are actually going without food for 
medicine. We need to make sure that we, in this richest country in the 
history of the world, the only superpower in the world, have some 
program for prescription drugs. I hope we do not squander this 
opportunity.
  This already is a Presidential campaign issue. I think we should take 
a look at what the Republicans are saying about Governor George W. 
Bush's budget which there is going to be a tremendous tendency to adopt 
on behalf of the majority.
  Senator John McCain says:

       But, more importantly, there is a fundamental difference 
     here. I believe we must save Social Security. We must pay 
     down the debt. We have to make an investment in Medicare. For 
     us to put all the tax cuts--all of the surplus into tax cuts 
     I think is not a conservative effort--I think it's a mistake.

  Senator McCain is right. This country has a debt of over $5 trillion. 
We should address that in this budget. We should not be going on 
speculative tax cuts. It seems the only thing the Governor of Texas 
understands as a solution to a problem is a tax cut. We have an energy 
crisis. What does he recommend? A tax cut, about which I am sure the 
oil barons, the oil moguls in the Middle East, are jumping for joy. I 
guess George W. Bush thinks anytime the price of gas goes up, all the 
Government has to do is lower the tax and continue producing as much 
oil as before, and it makes the Middle Eastern oil producers very 
happy.

[[Page S2031]]

  He also suggested an income tax cut, even though a week ago it was 
reported in the press all over the country that income tax rates are at 
their lowest in the majority of categories. Our taxes are lower than 
they have been for 40 to 50 years, depending on which category one is 
in. Yet George W. Bush wants an income tax cut. Again, what Senator 
McCain says about that is:

       Thirty-eight percent of Governor Bush's tax cut goes to the 
     wealthiest 1 percent of Americans.

  We have Members in the House who disagree with the budget of George 
W. Bush. Lindsey Graham says:

       It is a large tax cut that's going to eat up all the 
     surpluses if they come about. It does nothing, in my opinion, 
     fiscally responsible to reduce the national debt. It doesn't 
     address the Social Security issue. Here's what Governor Bush 
     said: ``There's plenty of money to take care of the debt, 
     take care of Social Security and give you a big tax cut. The 
     truth is this money is a projection 10 years in the future 
     and Congress' spending plan is going to destroy the 
     projection. If the economy goes south, he--

  Meaning George W. Bush--

     has dedicated all the surpluses to a tax cut. The $5.8 
     trillion debt needs to be addressed quickly.

  I could not agree more with Representative Lindsey Graham. We have to 
address the debt. If we address the debt, we reduce the debt and it is 
a tax cut for everybody. We pay hundreds of billions of dollars on 
interest on the debt. If we did not do that, it would be money in 
everyone's pocket, not just the 38 percent that goes to the wealthiest 
1 percent of people in this country.
  We are going to debate the budget this week to find out if we are 
going to adequately take care of the needs of this country. Can we meet 
the demands we have? What demands do we have? One can look at all the 
appropriations bills and, at random pick, for example, the Interior 
appropriations bill. Our national parks are the envy of the world, but 
our national parks have a backlog of renovations and repairs of almost 
$10 billion. We are closing national parks. The national parks deserve 
some attention. In the State of Nevada, we only have one national park 
and it too has a backlog of needed repairs. The people who work for the 
National Park System live in quarters that are unbelievable. They are 
bad.
  In Grand Canyon National Park, in the sister State of Arizona, they 
live in facilities that are difficult to describe. They look like big 
tin cans. People who work to preserve or national parks should not have 
to live in facilities such as that.
  We need to help our National Park System, not only with the living 
quarters of the people who work in the parks, but also simply to make 
it so that when tourists visit them, they can visit all the parks, and 
that the roads are OK, the trails are OK, and, in fact, that we do a 
better job of preserving our parks.
  We can look at every appropriations bill we have to consider this 
year and there are things that need to be dealt with.
  The point I am trying to make is, the American people recognize that 
there are things we need to do other than cutting taxes. We need to 
make sure we take care of Social Security, we address education, and, 
as I have already talked about, we need to do something about Medicare. 
There are priorities the American people have that are more important 
than reducing Federal income taxes, which are the lowest they have been 
in 40 to 50 years.
  I hope, as this debate unfolds this week, we will be able to seize 
upon this opportunity to continue the record economic expansion that 
was started in the 1993 Budget Deficit Reduction Act. I hope we can 
meet this historic opportunity, on a bipartisan basis, and vote on 
amendments that come before us on this budget bill not on strictly a 
partisan basis but on what is best for this country.
  I 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. THOMAS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, we are in morning business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.

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