[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 28, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1663-S1666]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  PRESIDENT BUSH'S BUDGET FOR AMERICA

  Mr. SMITH of New Hampshire. Mr. President, last night I had the 
privilege of personally witnessing President Bush deliver remarks 
outlining his budget for America and outlining the priorities of that 
budget. I must say, it was refreshing, for one who has long fought over 
the past 16 to 17 years in both the House and the Senate, to hear tax 
cuts being proposed, and not only tax cuts being proposed, but also the 
opportunity to finally downsize the national debt so we can stop 
mortgaging our children's future.
  The President, in that plan for America's priorities, included tax 
relief, debt reduction, and some much needed reform for some very 
important programs. One of the negatives over the past 20 or 30 years 
is that as our deficits and our debts became larger, many times we 
neglected a lot of key initiatives, areas where the Federal Government 
could be helpful to the American people. So it is a pleasure to see the 
debt diminished and money being returned to the taxpayers at the same 
time, and, in conjunction with that, we are going to provide dollars in 
much needed areas. I want to talk about that.
  First, in President Bush's budget, we will see the largest debt 
reduction in American history. Think of that: The largest debt 
reduction in American history. It is good news and bad news. It is good 
that it is the largest debt reduction; it is bad that we have debt that 
large in the first place.
  The key thing to understand is that this proposal pays down the 
national debt by $2 trillion over the next 10 years. That is the 
largest reduction in debt to the lowest share of the economy since the 
First World War. With the leadership of the Republican Congress, we 
have already paid off an enormous portion of the national debt--

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nearly $363 billion so far. If you stop to think about it, it costs 
about $60 million to borrow every billion dollars.
  Multiply $60 million times 363 and see how much we save in interest 
on that debt. That $60 million will go a long way in New Hampshire. It 
was a lot of money where I grew up. That is just on $1 billion of 
borrowed money; we have paid $363 billion of it already, and we are 
proposing to pay off $2 trillion--with a ``t''--in the next 10 years. 
There is a ripple effect through the economy when taking the American 
Government out of the borrowing market and putting money back into the 
taxpayers' pockets.
  By the end of this fiscal year, we will pay off another $262 billion. 
That is $625 billion of debt reduction. Putting it in perspective, in 
1997, the first year we balanced the budget, the debt held by the 
public was $3.7 trillion. By the end of this year, the debt will be 
$3.1 trillion, still a lot. Over the next 10 years, we will take $2 
trillion more off that debt, leaving a little over $1 trillion in debt. 
Over the next 2 years, our Social Security-Medicare lockbox policy will 
reduce the national debt by an additional $400 billion.
  I was very proud to support President Bush's plan to reduce this 
enormous national debt which for so long has mortgaged our children's 
future.
  It is important to understand everything else. I will discuss some 
items, including returning money to the taxpayers, providing dollars 
for Social Security and Medicare, education, defense. Put the increases 
in perspective. You will get a tax refund. We will talk about that in a 
moment. Reduce the debt by $2 trillion, and there is still money to do 
those things. That is amazing.
  That is a great tribute to this President who didn't come into the 
White House and say, this is the way we did it last year; we will 
budget the same way we did last year. He sat down with his key advisers 
and worked through this budget and found out where the needs were. At 
the same time, he said he will reduce the debt, put money back into the 
taxpayers' pocketbooks, and fund programs that deserve to be funded.
  The tax reduction is fair. It is responsible. It is tax relief for 
all Americans. It is certainly welcome news to my own State of New 
Hampshire. Do I think the tax cut could be bigger? Sure. But I plan to 
work with the President to expand tax relief. The President's tax cut 
is bold. I support it. I will be with him all the way through this 
process.
  Good men and women of my State--and I am sure it is true all over 
America--have always been weary of taxes. New Hampshire is one of the 
only States in the Union that does not have, at this date, a sales or 
income tax. There are some in our State who want to impose a sales tax. 
I am very encouraged to see the President provide tax relief to the 
citizens of my great State and this Nation.
  There is some irony. When I came to Washington several years ago, I 
wanted to bring the New Hampshire example to Washington--less taxes, 
less spending. Now we are seeing the reverse. President Bush comes in 
to cut taxes, cut spending, reduce the national debt. Ironically, some 
officials in New Hampshire are doing just the opposite--raising taxes, 
trying to find more revenue.
  Now more than ever, I believe that hard-working Americans deserve tax 
relief. If you buy a television set and pay $600, and you get home and 
the price tag says $450, you were overcharged. So you go back to the 
store and get your money back.
  We hear all the fancy and somewhat bureaucratic terms--surplus; we 
have a big surplus in the Federal Government. What that means is the 
taxpayers of America have been overcharged. That is more money than we 
need to operate our Government. It ought to go back to you. It is that 
simple. We will hear it today. We have heard it all week. We heard it 
last night in the response to the President that we don't need this tax 
cut; it is too big.
  I make a suggestion to those who don't need it and don't want a 
refund: When you send in your tax return, put a little check mark on it 
that says you don't want the money, and send a check back to the 
Federal Government. You don't have to take the tax credit if you don't 
want it. If you don't want the tax cut, send the money back and we will 
put the money on the debt. I am fascinated by those who say they don't 
want the tax cut. Fine, you don't have to take it; you can turn it 
back.
  There are a lot of people out there who do want it. For starters, 
Americans spend more money paying taxes than they do on food, clothing, 
and shelter combined. That is wrong, pure and simple. We need to change 
that.
  President Bush last night in a bipartisan, nonconfrontational but 
firm and resolute way said let's do this for the American people. We 
always hear the debates. That taxes will get cut, and they don't get 
cut. It seems to be a bunch of words that don't mean anything. The 
President reached out and said: Let's not get into class warfare; let's 
just reduce taxes on the American people. It is good for the economy. 
It is good for the people. It is their money. It is not ours; it is 
theirs.
  Federal taxes alone cost American families $7,238 per year. That is 
more than any other item in their budget for most people. Taxpayer 
freedom day, the average day Americans first start working for 
themselves, was May 10 last year. So from January 1 to May 10, you 
worked to pay your Federal taxes. Where is the incentive to move 
forward and to succeed and do better? I say return the money.
  Not only are we returning money to the people from whom we took it; 
we are paying down the debt at the same time. A lot of people say, I 
don't want tax relief; don't give me tax relief; just pay down the 
debt. We are saying we are doing both. If you own a Government savings 
bond, we cannot pay that because we owe that to you. And you may have a 
20- or 30-year bond. If we wanted to pay it off in one fell swoop, we 
couldn't. But a $2 trillion reduction over 10 years is pretty doggone 
good.
  For every 8 hours of work performed, the average taxpayer in America 
works 3 hours to pay the tax collector. I think that is too much. I 
know some who hem and haw, saying, I don't know whether I can support 
this tax cut; it is too big, too small--a thousand different reasons. I 
think if the average taxpayer has to work until May 10 to pay their 
Federal taxes, has to work 3 hours of every day to pay the tax 
collector, it is time the taxpayer got a break.
  This is a big break. Today's average taxpayer faces a combined 
Federal, State, and local tax burden of nearly 50 percent of their 
income. I am delighted to support this President in providing the 
typical family of four paying income taxes a full $1,600 in tax relief.
  We are in Washington talking about trillions. I don't know what is 
after trillion. I hope we don't have to deal with it during my tenure 
in the Senate. We are talking trillions and billions and occasionally 
millions. Let's talk in hundreds and thousands. That is what the 
average American deals with--hundreds of dollars and thousands of 
dollars, not trillions and billions. Let's bring it down. Ask yourself 
what you could do with $1,600 if you didn't have to give it to the 
Federal Government. What could you do? There are a lot of things you 
could do. I am sure you can think of them as well as I can. If you have 
a child, say, born this year, if you multiply $1,600 times 18 years and 
add the compounded interest if you put it in a bank account somewhere 
or a CD, you will find you have a pretty doggone good downpayment on a 
college education--for the first year anyway--or perhaps a little more 
money for groceries, a little more money for clothing, perhaps a little 
bit for that first home mortgage. Add it up. That is real money, as 
Everett Dirksen used to say.

  I think we have to get away from talking about all these trillions 
and billions of dollars and think about what that means to the average 
taxpayer of America. I say this in all sincerity: If there are 
taxpayers out there who do not want that $1,600, send it back. But for 
the rest of us who might like to have it and the families all across 
America who struggle really hard to make ends meet who would like that 
$1,600, why should we take it away from them? But some are proposing we 
do that.
  President Bush is not. President Bush is saying we need to give that 
back to the taxpayers; nobody ought to spend more than one-third of 
their paycheck to support the Federal Government. I agree with him. It 
is refreshing to hear it.
  But the President also believes a tax rate of 15 percent is too high 
for hard-

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working men and women who earn low wages. So he has proposed we lower 
that even to 10 percent, down from 15 percent--I agree with that--and 
double the child tax credit to $1,000 per child, and eliminate the 
marriage penalty, penalizing people who get married.
  We in the Federal Government should be encouraging the makeup of the 
family not breakup, and, of course, eliminating the infamous death tax 
which the President mentioned last night. All your life, you work hard 
to earn money, pay taxes on that money, and have perhaps a business or 
home or some asset you want to leave to your children, and they cannot 
afford to receive it from you upon your death because they cannot pay 
the taxes on it, so they have to sell it, whether it be a business or 
home. That is not right. We ought to change it. Yet there are some who 
still want to fight the President on that--a million-dollar threshold 
or whatever. When you start talking about a business or what you build 
up all your life, if you have to sell it to pay all the taxes, what are 
you going to do?
  This is a good plan: Pay down the debt and give money back to the 
taxpayers who provided the money for us. We--all of us, the taxpayers--
funded the cold war. We won the cold war. We funded that national debt, 
unfortunately, for all those years, and now we are going to defund it. 
We are going to pay it off, and we are going to give money back to the 
taxpayers who earned it.
  There is one great thing about this budget. I have been around here 
for a few years, and I have seen many budgets come and go. Most of them 
are dead on arrival, but I am hopeful this one will not be because this 
President not only reduces debt and provides tax relief for the 
American family but he also funds important priorities.
  I can remember--and many of my colleagues can, too--year after year, 
people coming down here saying we were going to lose our money, we were 
going to lose this and that, we were going to get cut here and there 
because we were fighting for every single dollar because the interest 
on the debt was going up $300 billion, $400 billion a year just to fund 
that debt.
  We are changing that now. We are reversing that. It is a new 
paradigm. It is a new America, a new century, a new President. There is 
new excitement here in Washington because we are paying off debt, we 
are paying back taxpayers the money they deserve to get back, and we 
are funding new initiatives and new priorities, good initiatives and 
good priorities.
  Let's talk about some of them. One is the environment. I chair the 
Environment and Public Works Committee in the Senate. I commend 
President Bush's budget. It invests in one of our Nation's most 
important assets, our environment. Where are we without it? He is 
proposing to accelerate the cleanup of toxic waste sites called 
brownfields. It is a reflection of the bill that Senator Chafee and I 
have introduced to clean up brownfields. The administration has 
endorsed that bill. I am very excited about it because brownfields, 
these toxic waste sites, are all over America. There are some 400,000 
to 500,000 of them, some in New Hampshire.
  What is a brownfield? A brownfield is a site that has toxic waste in 
it. It is not a Superfund site, not as bad as some of them, but for 
years and years contractors have been afraid to come on these sites and 
clean them up for fear the Federal Government would come in and say 
they did not do a good enough job and fine them, and so forth. We have 
now clarified this in the law so these sites can be cleaned up.
  Here is what it accomplishes: No. 1, it cleans up a blight in a 
community. These are not just large cities. It is also the small town 
of Bradford, NH. I say to any of my constituents in Bradford, if you 
are listening, help is coming for you. In the town of Bradford, there 
is a toxic waste site that needs to be cleaned up. It has not been 
cleaned up because the law has not allowed it to be cleaned up. They 
want to make a park there. All they have been trying to do is get the 
funds to clean up this site to make a park. This is what we can do 
because the President has laid out a budget that pays down that debt, 
puts money back in the taxpayers' pockets, and allows us to fund 
programs such as this for the first time in so many years--truly fund 
them.
  I am excited about it. When you clean up that brownfield, you are 
going to create jobs because somebody is working to clean it up; No. 2, 
you are going to eliminate the blighted site in the community; and, No. 
3, maybe somebody builds something there, a new business or something 
that does not go outside of town and bulldoze off 10 acres of green 
space. It is just a fantastic opportunity, and President Bush came 
right out of the gate and mentioned it specifically last night in his 
speech: Brownfields legislation. We are going to help clean up 
brownfields. That is good news for certainly every large city in 
America and thousands of small towns all across America.
  It is a great opportunity we have not had in the past because we had 
this debt. Now we are not only putting money back directly in the 
pockets of the taxpayers, under this budget, but we are also putting 
money back into the community. So if you are a taxpayer in Bradford, 
NH, you are going to get a Federal tax cut if you pay taxes and, 
second, you are going to have your community improved with dollars that 
are going to come into that community because we have the opportunity 
to do it now because we are running these surpluses.
  This is exciting news. It is not just brownfields. I could go on and 
on with a number of environmental priorities where we could do this--
water infrastructure, sewerage pipes, clean water--all kinds of 
environmental initiatives now that we will be able to fund.
  Another one is the Land and Water Conservation Fund where moneys can 
be provided to help create parks and trails and so many other positive 
things--habitats. It is just a great opportunity for us.
  Another item is defense. The defense of the United States has been 
neglected over the past several years. Everybody knows it. The 
President has proposed a $5.7 billion increase in pay and benefits. I 
just came back from the Mediterranean, visiting the troops out there, 
worried about terrorist attacks and so forth, putting their lives on 
the line every single day. And some of them are on food stamps? Come 
on, America. We can do better.

  The President of the United States, within days of the beginning of 
his term, went directly to the military aboard ship and on bases and 
told our sailors, our airmen, our marines, who are defending our 
interests and values all over the world: We are going to increase your 
pay and benefits. He lived up to that promise, and he put it in the 
budget.
  It should be there. It absolutely should be there. We take for 
granted what these men and women do. Believe me, we take it for 
granted. If you have a young son, or daughter, or husband, or wife, or 
a dad, or a mom who is out there, you know we take that for granted. 
They are the best in the world, and they deserve the best we can 
provide them. Now, finally, with this budget we are able to do that. It 
will give the military the vital funds to compete with the private 
sector in order to recruit the best people.
  President Bush has correctly realized our increasingly high-tech 
military requires that special steps be taken in order to attract and 
retain personnel with computer science and other disciplines. Right 
now, there is a great opportunity out there in the private sector. A 
lot of people are pulled to that, but many people want to serve in the 
military, and if they just have the opportunity to do it, with better 
pay and better benefits, we can pull more people toward the military.
  In addition to the military pay and benefits, the President has 
pledged to increase pay incentives for highly trained military 
personnel, and I know that is good news for the military.
  Let me discuss a couple of other issues: Education. I am a former 
teacher. I taught school for 6 years. You are never a former teacher; 
you are always a teacher. I also served on a school board. I have also 
been a father for 25-plus years. So I think I know a little bit about 
education from four or five different perspectives, if you will.
  I agree; decisions regarding education are best done at the local 
level, period. That is where the best decisions are made. You cannot 
sugar-coat that any other way. The best decisions are made at the local 
level. We don't need

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a national school board running our public schools.
  We need the local school boards to run those schools with the 
parents, with the teachers, with the administrators, and with the 
students working together.
  Some will say there is a lot of money in President Bush's education 
plan. There is an 11-percent increase in education funding at the 
Federal level. Look how it is applied. This plan provides the local 
schools, local districts, and States more freedom in administering the 
Federal dollars. They are going to have more choices. They are going to 
combine dozens and dozens of Federal education programs into only five 
and allow the States and the local communities to spend the money as 
they see fit in the categories that they see as best.
  President Bush said last night: Leave no child behind. I think this 
is the best opportunity we have had in many years to make that come 
true. Passing year after year a child who can't read or write doesn't 
do any good. It puts them at a tremendous disadvantage when they come 
out into society. It is not necessary. Our schools and teachers should 
be about kids. If they can't compete, then parents ought to have the 
opportunity to say, well, I am going to go over here to this school or 
this school. That is what rich folks do. They send their kids to some 
private school, if they want to. They borrow money to do it because 
they don't like the public school.
  I am a former public school teacher. I am a strong advocate of public 
schools. They ought to be competitive and good. And if they are not and 
won't improve, then parents ought to have the right to choose another 
school.
  The Bush plan provides schools with more freedom in administering 
these Federal dollars. But it also holds States accountable for 
improving student achievement, which will be demonstrated through 
assessments in reading and math. The plan provides reading programs 
which will be available to States to provide research-based reading 
programs in the early elementary grades and low-income preschools.
  Some think we are going to put all of this taxpayer money on the 
public debt and not do anything else and that we are going to cut these 
programs. We are not. That is the beauty of the budget. It is one of 
the best, if not the best, budgets I have seen since I have been in 
Washington. It preserves and protects Social Security. It locks away 
every penny--$2.6 trillion goes right into the lockbox for Social 
Security. We cannot touch it for anything else. There will be no more 
Government greedy hands in there borrowing the money and using it for 
something else.
  In addition, the President talks about making those dollars in Social 
Security go further.
  With Medicare, it is the same thing. It spends every dime for 
Medicare. That is what it is gathered for and collected for, and that 
is what it should be spent for. It passes it on.
  I have spent a year looking at the prescription drug issue. It can be 
done without hurting the program's solvency. We can provide help for 
our senior citizens who need prescription drugs. They deserve it and 
are going to get that help under this budget.
  Finally, faith-based initiatives are somewhat of a controversial 
matter. It is not controversial to me. I think the President made it 
very clear last night. Faith-based proposals can get the job done. 
There are so many people out there working in various charitable 
organizations, whether they be religious or not. They are trying to do 
a job. We are not picking sides. The President is simply saying why not 
help all of these good-hearted Americans who are working and doing a 
wonderful job to restore and heal the lives of men and women in need? 
They can do it better than any Federal Government program. They can do 
it better than any bureaucrat in Washington, and they are doing it OK. 
God bless them. If you have ever been out to see what they do, your 
heart goes out to them. In spite of everything, they are out there day 
in and day out begging for more money. We need a chance to provide the 
dollars to these folks who can get people back on track and be 
productive again.

  Billy Graham once said that our basic problems today are not social 
problems; it is not a lack of education. The problems are the problems 
of the human heart, a heart that is not right to God. These 
organizations recognize that God has the power to change lives and heal 
wounds and instill an inner drive in people so they have tools to 
change destructive behavior.
  Faith-based organizations provide needed community services. This is 
a nation under God. We are not supposed to take God out of our 
Government. We are just not supposed to have a state-sponsored church. 
Sometimes we forget that. Why not help these people? President Bush 
does. He took it head on. He knew he was going to get hit for it. But 
he is doing it anyway. That is leadership. Faith-based organizations 
are very effective, and they are going to get help. That is why I 
support President Bush's plan.
  Let me close with this point: Under this budget, we pay back $2 
trillion of the national debt over the next 10 years. We provide $1.6 
trillion to go back into the pockets of the people from whom we took 
it. And we do all of these things that I mentioned. I haven't even 
gotten started with the things I could have added to the list. That is 
a good budget.
  I tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that is leadership. When you step 
up to the plate and take on something such as that, that is leadership. 
President Bush deserves a lot of credit for coming up here last night 
and laying that out in a concise and clear way and not being afraid to 
take on these tough challenges.
  I sincerely hope my colleagues will act quickly to pass this budget 
so the country will be the beneficiary of it.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee is recognized.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I understand we are in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.

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