[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 132 (Thursday, October 19, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10748-S10749]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       EDUCATION AND HEALTH CARE

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, on Tuesday night the American people 
witnessed the third and final Presidential debate between Vice 
President Al Gore and Governor Bush.
  We are now less than 3 weeks away from the election. As the debate 
demonstrated, the choices for the American people could not be clearer.
  Are we going to continue the economic prosperity of the past 8 years? 
Or are we going to waste it on excessive tax breaks for the wealthiest 
one percent of Americans?
  I remember in 1981 when the economic program of then President Reagan 
came to the Congress. It had the same kind of rhetoric around it. We 
are going to cut all of the taxes and increase defense spending and 
balance the budget, all at the same time. During that period of time, 
only a handful of us voted against it. It was so clear and obvious at 
that time that we were going to move into large deficits, which we 
eventually did--deficits in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
  I am always amused to hear from others who say it really wasn't the 
establishment of economic policies; it was just the American energy. If 
it had been the American energy, why wasn't it the American energy when 
we were running up deficits? It is quite clear that you had two 
entirely different economic policies that were being followed. One was 
a disaster.
  I am always interested in the fact that it was President Bush who 
called Ronald Reagan's proposal ``voodoo economics.''
  Now we are coming right on back again to that similar kind of 
proposal of excessive tax breaks for wealthy individuals. That is the 
heart and soul of the Bush proposal, although it was difficult to quite 
understand what it was following the debate the other evening.
  Are we going to continue to have balanced Federal budgets? Or are we 
going to return to the bad old days of trickle-down economics that 
created the biggest deficits in our history?
  And perhaps most importantly--are we going to stand with working 
families to make the critical investments in education and health care 
that are needed to help children, help parents, help working men and 
women, and help senior citizens in their retirement years?
  These issues are critical not only for the Presidential race but in 
Congress as well.
  Governor Bush and the Republicans like to talk education and health 
care. But look what has happened in this Congress. For the first time 
in 35 years, they have not reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary 
Education Act. They are 3 weeks late in providing the needed funds for 
the Nation's public schools.
  The time has expired. The new fiscal year is here. Yet we haven't 
done our business. We always leave the appropriations bill which funds 
the schools in this country for last.
  It is always interesting to me to hear and watch these promises that 
are made by the Republican leadership on education.
  On January 6, 1999, Senator Lott said:

       Education is going to be the central issue this year. . . . 
     For starters, we must reauthorize the Elementary and 
     Secondary Education Act.

  On January 29, 1999, he said:

       But education is going to have a lot of attention, and it's 
     not going to just be words.

  On June 22, 1999 the Majority Leader stated:

       Education is Number one on the agenda for Republicans in 
     the Congress.

  On February 1, 2000 he said:

       We're going to work very hard on education. I have 
     emphasized that every year I've been majority leader. . . . 
     And Republicans are committed to doing that.

  On February 3, 2000:

       We must reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education 
     Act. . . Education will be a high priority in this Congress.

  On May 1,2000:

       This is very important legislation. I hope we can debate it 
     seriously and have amendments in the education area. Let's 
     talk education.

  Why don't you bring up the appropriations to fund education? Why is 
it 3 weeks late? Why is it the last appropriations bill? Why is it that 
we didn't reauthorize it? Don't come and tell American families that 
education is number one in your priorities when for the first time in 
35 years we don't have a reauthorization.
  What is the Republican leadership going to do? They are calling the 
bankruptcy bill back up--the bankruptcy bill. We had 14 days and 55 
amendments on that bill. But that isn't enough. They are going to call 
that up later on for a vote this afternoon. They are going to try to 
jam that bill, which benefits a small group of credit card companies, 
rather than deal with the education of American families. That is their 
priority. Any American family can understand that.
  We are here. We are prepared to deal with the education program. Oh, 
no. We can't do that. We are going to go back to bankruptcy which is so 
important. Important for whom? Important for the credit card companies. 
Just as in their patients' bill of rights, they have not been able to 
quote a single health organization in the country that supports them 
because it is fraudulent. Every health group in the country supports 
the proposal that was passed by a bipartisan majority in the House of 
Representatives, and that was supported by the Democrats and a few 
Republicans in the Senate. Every health organization--over 300 of them.
  Now we have the industry itself saying no, no--the HMOs saying don't 
pass the good bill, because we don't want it. Now what happens? The 
credit card industry says they want this bill. And

[[Page S10749]]

what happens? The Republican leadership is trying to jam that right 
down here. What has happened to education in between? Not only are we 
not reauthorizing it, but we are not funding it. It is 3 weeks late 
already.
  What happened to children in this country? If they hand their 
homework in 3 weeks late, they would be in the principal's office. They 
would be getting some kind of discipline in any school in the country. 
But, nonetheless, we are 3 weeks late. We haven't reauthorized it, and 
the appropriations have not been finished.
  I hope our friends on the other side are going to ease off when they 
talk about how committed their party is on education. I hope they are 
going to at least have the decency not to try to say: Oh, yes. We are 
really interested in education--we really do care about it.
  I was here when one of the first things the Republican leadership did 
in 1995 was to rescind some $1.7 billion that had been appropriated--
the greatest rescission on any single bill that I can remember in my 
service in 38 years. On what subject? Education. Who offered it? 
Republicans. How many supported it? Virtually the whole Republican 
Party.
  I was here a few years later after we were able to dull some of those 
rescissions when they came back and tried to abolish the Department of 
Education. Who offered it? Republicans. Who supported it? The 
Republican Party. Who opposed it? We did. Not just because it is an 
agency, but because many of us believe that any President ought to have 
in the Cabinet office someone talking about education every time that 
Cabinet meets.
  That is why we need a Department of Education. We have a department 
for housing. We have a department for the interior lands of this 
country. Many believe we ought to have a department for education. Not 
the Republicans. No, they wanted to abolish it.
  We have the rescinding of education funding. We have proposals to 
abolish the Department of Education. We have the refusal to authorize 
the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and we have the denying of 
funding of the existing law--3 weeks late. That happens to be the 
record.
  Now, we watched the other night the Republican candidate for office 
talking about how concerned they were. I wish he had called up our 
majority leader and said: Look, I am interested in education; why don't 
you take that up?
  Let's take up our proposals. We know what they are. We are prepared 
to vote on them. We are prepared to take those to the American people. 
Why isn't the other side prepared to do it? What are they so frightened 
of? What are they so scared of?
  All we have is silence. We have this empty Chamber where all of these 
other deals are going on--All these other deals that are not on 
education. They are on how we can try and get bankruptcy that will 
basically undermine families who in many instances are hard pressed, 
mothers who have not been able to get their alimony or child support 
and are going into bankruptcy. Half the bankruptcies are a result of 
health care costs for older workers. We cannot wait in order to draw 
out the last few dollars from those individuals for the credit card 
companies and shuffle aside education. That is what is happening. The 
American people ought to begin to understand it.
  The Republican leadership keeps on saying how important education is. 
On July 10, 2000 the majority leader said:

       I, too, would very much like to see us complete the 
     Elementary and Secondary Education Act. . . . I feel strongly 
     about getting it done. . . . We can work day and night for 
     the next 3 weeks.

  On July 25, 2000 he said:

       We will keep trying to find a way to go back to this 
     legislation this year and get it completed.

  Mr. President, SAT scores are the highest in 30 years. They have not 
moved up greatly, but they are going in the right direction for males 
and females. Of course, it isn't going in the right direction in the 
State of Texas. Texas falls below the national average on SAT scores 
between 1997-2000. The national scores are going up a little bit in the 
right direction. Texas is going along in the wrong direction for SAT 
scores.
  We have heard a great deal about what happened to the children in the 
State of Texas, being 48th of 50 for the number of children that are 
covered by health insurance. The other night, Governor Bush was talking 
about what a high priority they put on education and what they have 
done on education.
  This tells the story. These are the SAT scores, standard scores. This 
reflects the national average moving up over the last 3 years, while 
Texas has been moving down the last 3 years. We don't have any 
explanation. I know the Vice President didn't want to appear negative, 
but the fact is, I don't think drawing out what the records are should 
be considered negative. These are the facts. The American people ought 
to be able to understand them. The national average has gone up; in 
Texas the scores have gone down.
  I was here 30 years before we ever had a vote on education. We had 
Democratic chairs and Republican chairs. We had Senator Stafford, the 
education chairman of our committee; Senator Pell was the chairman. 
During that period of time, education was never a partisan issue. The 
American people don't want it to be partisan. But it is now. It is when 
you refuse to let us debate it and abide by the outcome. That is wrong. 
We ought to fund the education for the children in this country. The 
Republican leadership has not done it. We ought to be dealing with the 
education reauthorization prior to bankruptcy and other priorities, and 
the Republican leadership refuses to do it.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.

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