[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 8 (Wednesday, February 6, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S390-S391]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ECONOMIC RECOVERY AND ASSISTANCE FOR AMERICAN WORKERS ACT OF 2002
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I will use my leader time in addition to
the remaining Democratic time for my closing comments.
Mr. President, the other day I came to the floor to talk briefly
about our current circumstances. I will recount one last time for the
record in case there is any question about how it is we got to this
point this morning. I will again briefly recount the events over the
course of the last several months. There were bipartisan Finance
Committee discussions as early as last September about an economic
stimulus package. There was a hope that we could come together,
Republicans and Democrats, on an economic stimulus package as we did on
airport security, on counterterrorism, on the assistance provided to
New York and to the Defense Department in the wake of the tragedy of
September 11.
We reached out to experts who could give us guidance on what the
principles ought to be for an economic stimulus package. We had a
number of conversations with Alan Greenspan and Bob Rubin, both, early
in the months of September and October.
The bipartisan Budget Committee, I think on a unanimous basis, issued
some principles on October 4. Those principles were: If you are going
to have a stimulus package, make sure it is truly stimulative. If you
are going to have a stimulus package, make sure it is temporary. If you
are going to have a stimulus package, make sure it is immediate. If you
are going to have a stimulus package, make sure you take into account
cost. All of those principles were ones enunciated by the economists
and agreed to, in large measure on a bipartisan basis, by the Budget
Committee.
That was the lead up to the discussions we had. The House Republicans
broke off those bipartisan talks. What they said is that they wanted to
use the regular order, move through the committee and present the
Senate a bill. The Republicans blocked the Finance Committee bill on a
point of order in December, even though they could have amended it.
They could have said: Look, we don't like this but we will offer
something else. We do not like this but we will amend this bill and
have up-or-down votes on amendments.
The Republicans refused to negotiate for a 3-week period of time, as
they did mostly throughout the fall. There were no negotiations in
large measure because Republicans delayed. First, they didn't like
virtually the shape of the table. Then they didn't like who was in the
room. They came up with reason after reason why we could not sit down
and talk: delay, inaction, and ultimately a conflict that could not be
resolved.
In negotiations, the Republicans insisted on a couple of issues:
repeal of
[[Page S391]]
the alternative minimum tax and an acceleration of the rates passed
last spring. The session ended, obviously, without agreement. We got
nowhere. They insisted on these issues. We had ideas they didn't like.
So we ended in a stalemate last December.
Over the break I kept examining ways that we might break the impasse,
try to find ways with which to deal with the clear inability we had at
the end of last year to come to some resolution. So what I did was to
work with staff and examine just where the overlay was. Certainly all
that the Republicans had proposed was not foreign to what the Democrats
had suggested. And all that the Democrats had proposed was not foreign
to what the Republicans had suggested. So we came up with a diagram
that kind of looks like a MasterCard, ironically.
You take the circle on the right-hand side and these two columns
represent basically what the Democrats insisted ought to be in an
economic stimulus package. We wanted to increase the unemployment
benefits. We wanted to provide coverage for part-time workers and
recent hires. Republicans said: Oh, no, we can't do that. That is
ripping off the Federal Government. How terrible it would be if we gave
those benefits to unemployed workers. Heavens. We can't afford that.
Affordable group health coverage for the unemployed, we can't do
that. We aren't going to start new entitlements, for Heaven's sake.
Let's get real here.
Job creation tax credit for business is something they said might be
a possibility but that clearly isn't as good as a corporate AMT repeal.
Republicans had ideas we did not like. We did not like the
accelerated rate reduction. When I say ``we,'' I am talking about
probably 95 percent of the Democratic caucus. We did not like corporate
AMT repeal, or health coverage for the unemployed going through the
individual insurance market, pitting an individual against a company,
an individual with a preexisting condition, and just saying good luck--
we can't do that.
What I said was if we can't do that, and they don't want us to do it,
how about if we do the things we both said might work? We both said we
wanted to extend unemployment benefits.
Again, when I say ``we both,'' there were proposals for these issues
by large numbers on both sides of the aisle. Not every single Member,
but tax rebates, bonus depreciation, and 62 Senators voted for fiscal
relief for States--62.
Republicans, to a Governor, across the country, are saying if you are
going to do us any good at all, if you are going to help us at all,
give us some relief, especially through Medicaid. Letter after letter
from Governors has come to the attention of every Member of this
Senate, urging support for that fiscal relief.
That was a bona fide effort to try to find common ground. I know the
Republicans do not like that either because what they said, basically--
and what they are saying this morning--is if you don't give us
everything in our circle, we don't want to have an economic stimulus
package. It is all of this or it is nothing at all.
We aren't saying if it isn't all of this it is nothing at all. We are
saying we will just take what is here and it's a ticket to conference
and then let's see what happens. What could possibly be wrong with
sending a bill to conference, allowing both the House, the Senate, and
the White House to work out a compromise? They don't want to do that.
They are saying it is this entire package or we don't want to work with
you. We don't want a consensus. We don't want a bill.
They have said that now for 3 weeks. They have rejected the common
ground approach. They are continuing to insist on two things that I
hope everybody fully appreciates before they vote this morning. They
are insisting on making the estate tax repeal and the Bush tax cuts
permanent--that is what they are insisting on.
Making the estate tax repeal permanent presents two concerns. If we
are serious about listening to the Budget Committee recommendations,
the principles the Budget Committee suggested ought to guide us, then I
can't imagine that anybody with a straight face would say we want to
repeal the estate tax permanently now under the guise of economic
stimulus.
First of all, the Budget Committee said--didn't they?--that you have
to make sure it is temporary and that it is immediate. This does not
take effect until the year 2011. There may be a recession in 2011, and
it might be nice to be able to deal with that 2011 recession, but not
with the recession happening in the year 2002.
This thing costs $104 billion. We agreed the entire stimulus package
should not be more than $75 billion, but they want to spend $104
billion of Social Security money to make it permanent when it doesn't
take effect until the year 2011.
The tax cut, they want to make it permanent. CBO has provided an
estimate of $350 billion in the first 10 years, $4 trillion in the
second 10. There is nothing cost effective about that. And it, too,
does not take effect until 2011. Again, what is the stimulative value
of a tax provision that takes place in the year 2011? What is the
wisdom--I guess that is the word I am looking for--what is the wisdom
of exacerbating our already growing deficit this year by adding $350
billion more?
I don't know the answers to those questions, but I know this. On a
bipartisan basis the Budget Committee said this is not the direction we
should go.
On a bipartisan basis, they said let us try to contain the cost.
Let's do something stimulative, and do something immediate--not in the
year 2011, but now.
Really, there are only two choices. We can pass it, or we can block
it. I do not know of anything else.
I hope our Republican colleagues will pass it. I hope they won't
block it. I hope we will do the right thing. I hope we will send the
measure to conference so that we can try to work through these issues
and resolve them and come back with a bill which we can support and
move on to other priorities.
I yield the floor.
____________________