[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 73 (Thursday, June 6, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E971-E972]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  2002 SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT FOR FURTHER RECOVERY FROM AND 
           RESPONSE TO TERRORIST ATTACKS ON THE UNITED STATES

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. STEPHEN F. LYNCH

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 23, 2002

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 4775) making 
     supplemental appropriations for further recovery from and 
     response to terrorist attacks on the United States for the 
     fiscal year ending September 30, 2002, and for other 
     purposes:

  Mr. LYNCH. Mr. Chairman, throughout the history of this great nation, 
all of our political parties--whether they were Federalist or Anti-
federalist, Democrat or Republican--have worked from a shared belief 
that each generation of Americans has a basic and continuing obligation 
to provide a better future for the next generation. Simply put, this is 
the promise of America. It reflects both the strength of our democratic 
system as well as its fragility. It is fragile in the sense that this 
promise to the next generation is only as good and as reliable as our 
willingness to honor that promise during times of great challenge. 
After all, it is easy to make promises when there is no cost to their 
fulfillment.
  I find it troubling that the Republican leadership has chosen in 
recent months to forget the next generation and break that basic 
promise and to wander from that common ground that we once shared. I 
believe it was Thomas Jefferson who said that a politician thinks about 
the next election, while a statesman thinks about the next generation. 
Only a few years ago, a former leader of the Republican Party warned 
this body, ``If we don't get our house in order, the financial burden 
of the baby boom retirees will be crushing for the next generation.'' 
Sadly, that message seems to have gotten lost. What I see now from the 
leadership on the other side of the aisle, raiding the Social Security 
trust fund, returning us to deficit spending, and in effect handing the 
bill for this war in Afghanistan and the domestic war against terrorism 
to our children in the form of a multi-trillion dollar deficit. It 
seems disingenuous that while the Republican leadership champions nine 
years of tax cuts for individuals making over $250,000 a year, they 
also refuse to ask those same people to help pay for this war and the 
costs of protecting our country from terrorism.
  Think about it . . .
  We are without question the wealthiest generation of any civilization 
that has ever walked this earth. We have acquired in this generation, 
our generation, greater wealth, greater scientific progress, greater 
luxury--a higher living standard, and done it faster, than any other 
generation of humans on this planet. We have seen in the past 20 years 
the average income of the top one percent of earners in this country 
increase by a staggering $414,000 per year. We have seen the number of 
millionaires in our society increase by 400 percent over the past 10 
years. The rate of home ownership is unsurpassed and has never been 
higher in this country.

[[Page E972]]

  We have recently come through the longest period of economic 
expansion in the history of this country. Yet we are here today facing 
a Republican leadership, which refuses to consider the possibility that 
we might have to ask the richest part of our society to delay the pay 
of their tax cut. Last year, my Republican colleagues pushed through 
tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, tax cuts that eliminated the 
surplus. They inherited a projected ten-year surplus of $5.6 trillion, 
and instead of planning for an emergency, instead of planning for an 
economic downturn, instead of putting some money aside for the future; 
they assumed the good times would roll forever. Four trillion of that 
surplus is already gone. Now we have a national emergency, a war to pay 
for, and instead of being able to tap into that surplus to pay for the 
war, we have to go into debt, because the Republican tax cuts have 
already spent the surplus and have generated deficits for the 
foreseeable future.
  Few of those who made these arguments last year, who said that it was 
irresponsible to spend down the surplus and leave no room for a 
national emergency, are surprised to find that we are now here on the 
floor today, faced with a need to raise the debt limit. And the 
Republican leadership is not even willing to let us have an honest 
debate, a straight up-and-down vote, on raising that debt limit.
  Last night I heard from the other side of the aisle that if my 
colleagues and I complained about these kinds of parliamentary games, 
we were not committed to supporting a strong defense. Mr. Speaker, 
there is no question here that by our actions since September 11th, 
every member has shown his and her commitment to this war and to 
supporting our troops abroad. The question before us today should be 
whether we respond to this challenge by meeting our fiscal 
responsibilities and pay for the war, not whether we are going to 
simply stamp our feet and say ``give me my tax cut'' and pass the bill 
to the next generation by raiding their Social Security and giving them 
a deficit.
  I firmly believe in the promise of America. I know that a lot of 
people on both sides of the aisle do too. I would bet that most 
Americans would agree that it would be better to freeze nine years of 
tax cuts to the very rich than to raid Social Security and bring up our 
kids in a multi-trillion dollars of debt.
  Mr. Chairman, at the very least we deserve the right to a full and 
fair debate of these issues. It is time to end the transactional nature 
of politics exercised by the Republican leadership, which benefits a 
small group of very rich people, and instead think about the true and 
undying promise of America.

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