[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 121 (Monday, September 23, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9010-S9011]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     EXTENSION OF MORNING BUSINESS

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time for morning business has expired.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to be recognized 
for 10 additional minutes.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I don't see 
anyone here wishing to speak. It is my understanding morning business 
has, under the previous order, ended.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
  Mr. REID. The next period of time is for debate on the cloture 
motion; is that right?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate is to 
resume consideration of H.R. 5093.
  Mr. REID. So is it now time to debate the Dodd amendment?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Yes, to discuss the Dodd amendment.
  Mr. REID. I don't see anyone here, so I ask unanimous consent that 
the Senator from Illinois be recognized for 10 minutes and that the 
Republicans be given an extra 10 minutes also.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I will yield at least a portion of my time 
to my friend from North Dakota.
  Look at the rate of growth under the Bush Presidency. Is it any 
wonder the President does not want to talk about the economy?
  Mr. REID. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. DURBIN. I am happy to yield.
  Mr. REID. I should have included that this time comes from the debate 
on the Dodd amendment, that that number be lessened by 20 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DURBIN. If you have the weakest economic growth in 50 years, 
there is no reason for you to talk about it. Certainly this Bush White 
House will not. They won't bring this issue to the American people 
because they don't have much to tell us.
  The news we have seen on the economy is well known. Take a look at 
what has happened in terms of the market value of those who own stocks, 
the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, $4.5 trillion of lost stock 
market wealth between January 2001, when President Bush came to office, 
and August 2002. That, of course, represents not just a loss in stock 
market wealth, it is a loss of savings. It is a loss of college savings 
accounts for kids. It is a loss of pension plans, 401(k)s, and people 
making new plans with their lives because of the bottom falling out of 
the stock market.
  Of course, last week we saw the Dow Jones crashing even further. The 
people in the Bush administration do not want to discuss this. They 
don't want to talk about turning this economy around. They want to talk 
about rallying troops.
  Let's rally the American people to get the economy back on its feet. 
Let the President give us 1 hour a week talking about what we can do to 
try to get this economy moving forward again.
  This stock market decline is a new record. If you look at the 
sharpest percentage decline in the Standard & Poor's 500, only Herbert 
Hoover has a worse record than President George W. Bush. Herbert Hoover 
in the Great Depression saw the stock market decline by 30 percent. So 
far, under President George W. Bush we have seen a decline of 21 
percent--historic declines. It is no wonder the President does not want 
to discuss this.
  Look as well at what workers are facing who still are on the job. The 
cost of health insurance has inflated dramatically since the President 
came to office: family coverage, 16 percent; individual coverage, 27 
percent.
  The biggest single complaint I have heard from businesses, labor 
unions, and individuals in the State of Illinois: the cost of health 
insurance. Senator, what are you going to do about it? The honest 
answer is that this Congress has done nothing about it, nor has the 
President proposed anything significant.
  When we consider the issues we should be about, national security is 
No. 1, I agree, but it is not the only issue facing America. We need to 
discuss issues of pension security and income security and health care 
security and the future of Social Security. Those are issues American 
families worry about every single day. We in the Senate should worry 
about them as well.
  I yield to the Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I have been listening to the Senator from 
Illinois. He is right. Iraq is not an irrelevant issue. It is a very 
important issue. The President will find, as we finish all of these 
discussions, that we will have a pretty unified voice on what we do 
around the world, but we need to do that through the United Nations, 
with other partner countries, as part of a coalition. At the end of the 
day, this country will have led the way towards that result.
  It is also the case, when most people sit down around the supper 
table and talk about their lives, they are talking about subjects that 
are much different from Iraq. They are discussing issues such as: Do we 
have a good job; does it pay well; do we have job security; do we send 
our kids to good schools; do grandpa and grandma have decent health 
care; do we live in a safe neighborhood? All of those issues exist as 
well.
  There are some who don't want to talk about any of those issues. They

[[Page S9011]]

say: These issues somehow are irrelevant.
  They are not irrelevant to people out of work, who are concerned 
about their jobs, concerned about opportunities for themselves and 
their children, concerned about the ability to buy health care, to pay 
for health insurance, to afford their prescription medicine. The 
Senator is absolutely correct. There are a lot of other issues we must 
resolve.
  This Senate is at parade rest; I am guessing because there are some 
people here who don't want us to do anything on these issues, whether 
it is health care, the economy, or corporate scandals. And 
incidentally, I won't have time to talk much about that, but we have 
not finished on that issue, the issue of corporate scandals. We are 
talking about hundreds of millions and billions of dollars frittered 
away by CEOs and others who have run corporations into the ground.
  A recent study by the Financial Times says that of the 25 largest 
bankruptcies in America, prior to bankruptcy 208, executives took $3.3 
billion out of the companies prior to running them into the ground. 
Should we do something about that? We should. That issue isn't over, 
despite the fact there are some in this Chamber and downtown who resist 
every step of the way.
  We have a lot to do. There is a lot on the agenda, a lot on our 
plate. Frankly, there are some people who are sitting here with their 
feet on the brakes. They don't want anything to happen on issues that 
matter a great deal to the average American family.
  I have listened attentively to the presentation. I was going to come 
over and make a presentation myself. I will do that tomorrow.
  The answer is, yes, let's be very concerned about Iraq, about foreign 
policy, about the war on terrorism. Let's be concerned about it, do it 
seriously. But let's also understand it is not the only subject. There 
are other important considerations impacting on the lives of American 
families with which we need to be dealing.
  Mr. DURBIN. I thank the Senator from North Dakota. Average families 
have to worry about a lot of issues: the health of their children, 
whether they can make the mortgage payment. If families can face more 
than one responsibility, our Government certainly can.
  It is not enough to say we are just going to focus on the Middle East 
and what might happen there in the years to come; let's talk about what 
is happening in the middle west and the East and the South and the 
North, all across the United States. What are we doing to make sure 
this economy turns around and gives people a chance?
  I spoke to a friend of mine in the plumbers union in Chicago who told 
me that the cost of prescription drugs for retirees last year went up 
300 percent in his one local. He said: I don't know if we can meet our 
obligation to our seniors that we promised over the years.
  As for corporate greed and scandals, the Senator from North Dakota 
talks about the bankruptcies and the money squandered before 
bankruptcy. There is a company called Tyco where the CEO, Mr. Kozlowki, 
has been written up in the Wall Street Journal. Their company didn't go 
into bankruptcy. It is still in business. But what he did to it was to 
bleed it of a lot of money, hundreds of millions of dollars in the 
years leading up to his resignation.
  All of these things have discredited American business. They have 
discredited the good, honest businesspeople who lead our Nation 
effectively. Frankly, they have put a damper on America's feelings 
about buying stock. The President needs to address this.
  We passed the Sarbanes bill. It was a good bill. I was glad to vote 
for it. There is more to do: the bankruptcy code, that corporate 
bankruptcy will take into account when people have squandered the money 
of corporations so that it comes back into the corporation and away 
from these corporate executives; that they be charged with crimes when 
they are guilty. All of these issues need to be taken up. It is an 
agenda which we should face because it is an agenda the American people 
face every single day. And unless and until we do that, we are not 
meeting our obligation.

  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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