[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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