[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 104 (Friday, July 26, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7423-S7424]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CORRECTION OF THE RECORD REGARDING RESOURCES FOR MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION
DRUGS AND TAX RELIEF
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, yesterday some on the other side
attacked last year's bipartisan tax relief legislation. They were led
by the distinguished Majority Leader, Senator Tom Daschle. As an
example of these claims, I ask unanimous consent to place in the Record
an article from yesterday's edition of Roll Call Daily.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Roll Call Daily, July 25, 2002]
Daschle Blames Bush Tax Cut for Failure on Prescription Drug Reform
(By Polly Forster)
Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.) expressed
frustration with the chamber's failure to enact a sweeping
Medicare prescription drug benefit and blamed President'
Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cut for ``starving'' the
opportunity to pass substantial reform.
Daschle also expressed doubt that a conference committee
will be able to work out the differences in the House and
Senate versions of trade legislation before the Houses
recesses this week.
Daschle charged that House Ways and Means Chairman Bill
Thomas (R-Calif.) was possibly undermining a key component of
the Senate trade bill by revisiting the details of the Trade
Adjustment Assistance bill and thereby delaying a final
result.
``It sounds like he's trying to undermine the TAA
package,'' Daschle said. ``If that's the case, we'll wait
until September.''
Legislation on prescription drug benefits appeared
similarly in flux. Daschle said Democrats were forced to
revise their priorities because last year's tax cut shrunk
the possibilities available to them.
``We don't have the resources because, in large measure,
the tax cut precludes it,'' Daschle said.'' Because of the
tax cut and the deficits we are now facing, we've got to be
concerned about the overall cost.''
But a Senate GOP leadership aide dismissed the validity of
that argument, saying that Democrats now find themselves in a
corner and are ``grasping at straws'' to avoid the blame.
``Because Democrats stopped the bipartisan Finance
Committee from doing its work, they've caused every possible
drug proposal to fail in the Senate,'' said the GOP aid.
Since none of the proposals for drug benefit reform passed
through the Finance Committee, all measures are subject to a
60-vote threshold.
Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has spent the
last several days in meetings with key lawmakers from both
sides in an effort to craft something most Senators could
agree to.
Daschle said the goal of the talks is to find a proposal
broad enough to win over at least 10 Republicans. ``We only
got 52'' for a Democratic bill, he said, ``and we need the
other eight. That means we've got to scale back and to
broaden our level of support.''
Daschle said Democrats will not be offering any more
proposals but instead will be looking to craft a bipartisan
measure.
Baucus spokesman Michael Siegel said the Senator was
looking at two approaches to the issue: using Medicare as the
channel to deliver drug benefits and where unavailable using
private companies, and also to extending a ``catastrophic''
coverage bill that was short of nine votes Wednesday.
Daschle said the Senate will stay on the issue as long as
it takes,including the early part of September after the
recess, until there is a result--possibly forestalling
consideration of a bill to create the federal department of
Homeland Security.
``It means our highest priority is to get the bill done and
we don't do other things until we get it done,'' he said.
Daschle vowed an equal commitment to retaining the worker
protection element in the trade package now in conference.
``We're in no hurry,'' he said. ``It's more important to me
to have a good package even if that means we have to wait
until October.''
A top Senate Democratic aide said negotiations broke down
Thursday morning over the TAA element, which would provide
health coverage for workers displaced by international trade.
Senate Democrats expected Thomas to concede ground on that
part as the House was only just able to pass their bill on
the floor.
The breakdown left at least one Senate Democratic
leadership aid frustrated. ``It's ridiculous for Thomas to be
stuck on this because it's his chamber that needs to attract
the votes to pass the bill, not the Senate,'' said the aide.
Mr. GRASSLEY. There is a very sophisticated, well-coordinated
campaign on the part of the Democratic Leadership to derail last year's
bipartisan tax relief. It seems that everything that ails us as a
nation is laid at the feet of the tax cut. I'm sure that the next
attack will be that tax relief causes the Decline of Western
Civilization. Or, perhaps, the Democratic Leadership would twist a
phrase from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes and claim that ``record high
taxes are the price we must pay for a civilized society.''
Many in the media agree with this concept and rarely, if ever,
challenge the factual basis for these attacks on last year's tax cut
bill. Well, let me tell my friends in the Democratic Leadership, I'm
going to correct the record every time. It's fine to attack tax relief,
if you must, on ideological grounds. If the Democratic Leadership
thinks we need to maintain record levels of taxation and keep growing
government. That's something on which we can disagree.
On facts, however. I'm going to correct the use of incorrect data.
I'm also going to compare the record of the Democratic Leadership
against the specific attack on the tax cut.
A couple days ago, I corrected the record on incorrect data used with
respect to the scoring of permanent death tax relief. Today, I'm going
to take the latest attack and compare it with the record of the
Democratic Leadership.
The Roll Call Daily article is entitled ``Daschle blames Bush Tax Cut
for Failure on Prescription Drug Reform.'' According to the article,
the Distinguished Majority Leader said and I quote:
We don't have the resources, because, in large measure, the
tax cut precludes it. Because of the tax cut and the deficits
we are now facing, we've got to be concerned about the
overall cost.
Now, I noticed this same point being made by others in the Democratic
Leadership. I must say the Democratic Leadership spends a lot of time
coordinating messages. They are very good at it. Perhaps, though, if
less time were spent on perfecting partisan attacks on the President
and Congressional Republicans, we might resolve more problems. After
all, isn't that what we're paid to do? That is, do the People's
business.
So, the charge is the tax cut ate the surplus and there's not enough
money left for a Medicare prescription drug benefit. It's all the
President's fault. It's the fault of the bipartisan budget resolution,
Boy, do I get tired of hearing this stuff. It gets very old.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
COMPARISON OF BUSH, DEMOCRATIC, AND SENATE PASSED BUDGETS
(Fiscal year 2002 through 2011)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Democratic Senate
Bush budget alternative passed
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Project Surplus.................. 5.6 T 5.6 T 5.6 T
Social Security Trust 2.0 T 2.5 T 2.5 T
Fund (for debt paydown)*......
Medicare Trust Fund ........... 0.4 T **0.4 T
(for debt paydown)*...........
Projected Available Surplus...... 3.6 T 2.7 T 2.7 T
Tax Cuts......................... 1.6 T 745 B 1.2 T
High Priority Needs.............. 212 B 744 B 849 B
Education............. 13 B 139 B 308 B
Prescription Drugs.... 153 B 311 B 300 B
Defense............... 62 B 100 B 69 B
Agriculture........... -1 B 88 B 58 B
[[Page S7424]]
Health Coverage....... ........... 80 B 36 B
Enforcement........... -48 B 18 B -41 B
Other................. 33 B 8 B 119 B
Strengthen Social Security:
Using Social Security 600 B ........... ...........
Trust Fund Surplus............
Using non-Social ........... 750 B ...........
Security, Non-Medicare Surplus
Interest......................... 461 B 490 B 572 B
Unallocated...................... ***845B ........... 129 B
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Because these trust funds are not needed in short term to pay benefits,
these amounts are used to pay down publicly-held debt.
**Senate passed GOP resolution raids Medicare Trust Fund in 2002, 2005,
2006, 2007.
***Includes $526 B from Medicare Trust Fund (OMB scoring).
Mr. GRASSLEY. Under that Democratic Alternative, ``resources,''
that's the term Senator Daschle used, set aside for a Medicare
prescription drug benefit were $311 billion. Under the bipartisan
budget resolution, guess what, it's about the same number, $300
billion. That's right, both sides allocated basically the same
resources, $311 billion versus $300 billion for Medicare improvements
and a prescription drug benefit. So, the Democratic budget had
prevailed, we'd basically be where we are today.
There's another part of the record we have to examine. It's last
year's Democratic Alternative tax relief package. The Democratic
alternative was supported by all members of the Democratic Leadership
and all but three members of the Democratic Caucus. Well, guess what.
All of those Senators voted for a $1.260 trillion tax cut. That's 93
percent of the cost of the bipartisan tax relief. So, apparently 7
percent is a big difference. It's a big enough difference for the
Democratic Leadership to blame President Bush and the bipartisan group
of Senators that supported the tax relief package.
I make this statement for one basic reason. The issues of budgeting,
prescription drugs, and tax relief are important matters. Certainly
everyone of us hears about these issues when we are back home. They are
issues that our constituents expect us to resolve. Folks back home
expect us to be intellectually honest in debating these important
matters. When we debate these issues, we ought to be consistent in what
we're saying.
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