[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 28 (Wednesday, March 13, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1850-S1851]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          HELPING THE HELPLESS

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Madam President, I rise to express my puzzlement, my 
dismay, as to why, as soon as possible, we can't do a better job of 
helping people who are faced with some very compelling problems, very 
compelling needs.
  What I am getting at is very simple. And maybe this all becomes part 
of the budget resolution. I know the ranking member of the Budget 
Committee is in the Chamber.
  I was on the Iron Range in Minnesota. These are people who have been 
spat out of the economy. They are taconite workers. Royal TV has pulled 
the plug. Others are going into bankruptcy. But I thought the 
discussion would be about pensions, and that is part of what people are 
worried about. It is not just Enron.
  But I met more workers who were in their late fifties--57, 58 years 
old--mainly men, some women; and they were all saying the same thing: 
``I had a bout with cancer,'' or, ``I had a heart attack and I can't 
get any coverage anywhere.'' They are terrified. They have no health 
care coverage. The

[[Page S1851]]

COBRA plan is $1,000 a month. They can't afford it. They are out of 
work, and they have these preexisting conditions, and the premiums are 
so high.
  What are these people going to do? They are asking me for help. They 
are asking all of us for help.
  I have to figure out a way--I guess we can have a vote on it--as to 
how we can help people who are out of work through no fault of their 
own. People have no coverage. They are terrified. We would be 
terrified.
  So I keep thinking--my head spins--there is education, special 
education, and States saying: Please live up to your commitment. In 
Minnesota, some of our school districts are letting off 20, 25 percent 
of the teachers. The class size is going up. The prekindergarten 
programs are being cut. But then we say we don't have enough money.
  Other people are talking to me about affordable prescription drugs--a 
huge issue--but we say we really do not have enough money to make sure 
the premiums are down and the copays aren't too high and the 
deductibles aren't too high, and having catastrophic coverage that will 
work for people. We say we do not have money for that.
  Then on the whole question of what I just talked about, expanding 
health care coverage for people, we do not have the money for that. I 
just think it is unacceptable. I think we have to make some decisions 
about choices, about how much money goes to the tax cuts scheduled over 
X number of years, benefiting whom, and whether or not we are going to 
be able to do anything when it comes to other really critically 
important issues in our communities having to do with education, health 
care, job training, and affordable prescription drugs, to mention just 
three or four. I put affordable housing right up there as well.
  I am convinced affordable housing is becoming the second most 
important education program. It breaks my heart: I don't know how these 
8- and 9- and 10-year-olds can do well in school when their families 
move two or three times a year because they do not have affordable 
housing.
  I do not know. I think soon we will get to this debate. I, for 
myself, have made it really clear. Listen, the Senator from New Mexico, 
he is one of my favorite Senators. The work we do on mental health is 
so important to me. I know he would not agree with what I am about to 
say, but I will say it in the Chamber. I say it in Minnesota all the 
time. Other people can have better alternatives.
  I am saying, forgo the tax cut for the top 1 percent of the 
population--families who earn around $297,000 a year--forgo it. And 
don't eliminate the alternative minimum tax. Don't do it. That alone is 
$130 billion. That would fund special education. That would put the 
Federal Government on a glidepath, within 5 years, to reach our full 
funding, and in another 5 years to have full funding. That would make 
all the difference in the world, just to educate our children.
  To me, it is a choice. I make that choice. I will probably have an 
amendment to give Senators a chance to decide. There is an old Yiddish 
proverb that says: You can't dance at two weddings at the same time. We 
either go forward with all these scheduled tax cuts the way we want to 
do it--in which case we will not have the money for all of these other 
things, and we will cut the Community Policing Program by 80 percent, 
cut the 7(a) Small Business Program by 50 percent, cut the Job Training 
Program, and cut the low-income energy assistance program by $300,000 
and we will tell people we have no money to do any of these other 
things or we will not go forward with all these scheduled tax cuts. It 
is that simple.
  I yield the floor.

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