[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 15 (Tuesday, January 28, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1503-S1505]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           AN ANXIOUS NATION

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I say to my friend from Illinois I always 
appreciate his remarks both on the floor and when he is out meeting 
with people via the media. He puts his finger on a lot of important 
issues. He mentioned that I was going to speak about the environment. 
This afternoon, I will take on that issue. I will mention it this 
morning, but my idea this morning, in the few hours before the State of 
the Union, is to basically address the President of the United States 
from this Chamber in a way to urge him to address the anxiety of the 
American people because I think the state of the Union, if it can be 
summed up in one word, is anxious.
  I want to go through why I think that is the case. So as we get ready 
to take part in a wonderful ritual where the Members of the Senate will 
gather in this Chamber--and I know the Chair, as a new Member, will 
experience this amazing feeling of patriotism and excitement as we 
gather here to make that march across the Capitol to join our 
colleagues in the House--we think very seriously about the state of our 
Union and what we hope the President will say.

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  In the spirit of great respect, I want to tell the President, through 
this short talk of mine today, what I am hearing from my constituents 
about the state of our Nation.
  When I say ``Mr. President'' in my talk, it is directed at President 
Bush.
  Mr. President Bush, I must tell you that the state of the Union today 
is anxious--anxious about the twin threats of war and terrorism, about 
the health of our economy and our environment; anxious about our 
children's education and our family's health care; anxious about our 
basic civil rights, including our right to privacy and the right to 
make personal decisions without Government interference.
  Mr. President, the people are anxious and they are worried that you 
are leading us prematurely down a lonely path to war while ignoring 
other serious threats to peace and that you have lost your focus on 
terrorism.
  As Senator Durbin said, the people have not heard a word about Osama 
bin Laden, whom you placed at the top of your terrorist list. We have 
not heard a word about him in months.
  Many believe that you are heading down the wrong path on the economy; 
that you are leaving too many children behind; that you are sacrificing 
our environment at the altar of the special interests; and that you are 
failing to address the health care issue.
  People worry that you are actively seeking to reverse the 
constitutionally protected right to privacy. Two examples of this are 
your attacks on the right to choose and your selection of Admiral 
Poindexter, who was convicted of lying to Congress, to lead the Total 
Information Awareness Program, collecting vast amounts of personal 
information and intelligence about ordinary American citizens.
  I am very pleased there was an amendment which passed to essentially 
do away with that program, but we do not know what the House of 
Representatives will do in conference.
  Mr. President, you have not stated at all that you are for getting 
rid of this agency which will know everything there is to know about 
any citizen they decide to follow around via their use of computers.
  Here is the stark contrast to where we were a year ago, when the 
entire world stood with the President and with all the American people 
as we struggled to recover from the terrorist attacks and prevent their 
recurrence.

  I saw Senator Biden on a talk show yesterday. He reminded us that a 
headline in a French newspaper said: We are all Americans. What a 
moment that was in history; the world was united behind us. Somehow we 
have lost that leadership. We need to get it back. Today America stands 
far too alone when it comes to foreign policy challenges.
  Many thoughtful Californians of both political parties are saying 
U.N. inspectors must have more time to do their work. I hope the 
President will state that tonight. Three weeks ago, Colin Powell said 
the inspectors were gaining momentum. We also know we have yet to give 
the inspectors a lot of information we have about what has been going 
on in Iraq. Information is power. The inspectors need that information, 
first, to find out what happened to the weapons; second, so we can make 
a case that we do not have to deal with Saddam Hussein alone. I don't 
want to see us deal with Saddam Hussein alone. Could we beat him 
militarily? Absolutely. But what happens after when we are alone? What 
happens to sharing the costs of human life? We need our allies with us, 
and more than Great Britain.
  Yes, Iraq must disarm. After all, Saddam Hussein said he would; he 
has to. He agreed to the resolutions. We have to keep in mind more arms 
were destroyed by the weapons inspectors in Iraq after the first 
Persian Gulf war than we destroyed by our bombs. That is a very 
important point reiterated by Madeleine Albright and by others. We have 
a great deal of information to give the inspectors. Let's give it to 
them. As long as Iraq is the focus of worldwide attention, as long as 
the inspectors are there, as long as we are having the no-fly zones 
patrolled by our planes and our allies in the north and the south, this 
man is boxed in. He cannot put a big toe outside of that country. He 
cannot do anything to harm us.
  I believe, therefore, we have time to avoid the devastation of war 
and, once again, to build the case and keep the international community 
with us. I worry with this focus on Iraq that we have a foreign policy 
elsewhere in the world that is one of deliberate negligence. As a 
matter of fact, if I had to put a word or two to the Bush doctrine, it 
appears to be a policy of designed neglect, except for Iraq. We ignore 
the problems. We wait for the crisis to hit us. This modus operandi is 
causing serious trouble in North Korea because North Korea was ignored 
and now it has complicated a crisis that grew out of this neglect.
  Closer to home in Latin America we see unrest. I ask, why do we see 
unrest? We have ignored the countries in our own hemisphere. We ignored 
Mexico. You promised there would be a new day. Yet we see the Foreign 
Minister of Mexico resigning out of frustration that he cannot even get 
a meeting with anyone in America who has any power. To have control 
over what goes on, that is foreign policy.
  At home, people are anxious and worried. They are worried about 
terrorist attacks. I am introducing a bill that will enable us to have 
countermeasures placed on our commercial airlines so if someone held a 
shoulder-fired missile aimed at one of our commercial airlines, at a 
takeoff or landing period, when they are most vulnerable, there would 
be countermeasures on that plane. The President has been studying this 
issue. The President is spending tens of billions on missile defense 
for long-range intercontinental missiles. Perhaps it is up to $60 
billion. A fraction of that would retrofit all of our planes.

  And, by the way, when we take care of homeland security in such a 
manner, we create jobs, good-paying jobs, as well. Yet we will be 
prepared for what will come.
  We have to fund homeland security. I know Senator Schumer is going to 
talk about that later today.
  Let me finish by discussing the economy. We have watched this economy 
spiral downward for 2 years. We have seen this economy in a free fall. 
We have seen the stock market in a free fall. We have seen people in 
the country say: My God, I cannot retire. I was planning to retire. I 
will have to work 5 or 6 years because my retirement nest egg is 
essentially gone or so greatly reduced people cannot imagine.
  The unemployment rate, which was 4.2 percent when President Bush took 
office, now stands at 6 percent nationwide. In my home State, it is at 
a 5-year high of 6.6 percent. This is bringing anxiety and angst to the 
people. More than 2.4 million private sector jobs have disappeared. 
Mortgage foreclosures have reached record levels. The stock market has 
lost trillions of dollars. We have gone from surpluses in our Federal 
budget to deficits as far as the eye can see. We are headed to a path 
of the worst economy in 50 long years.
  In California last month alone the State lost 25,800 jobs. That is 
real people. What is your answer? Give tax breaks to the people who 
have jobs, who have earned millions of dollars, who are earning $1 
million a year? You want to give them back $87,000, while my middle-
class people are going to get back $87 a year. Where is that fair?
  More than that, what kind of stimulus is that? Think about it. 
Someone who earns $1 million a year is going to take that $87,000-a-
year tax cut. What are they going to do with it? They already have a 
new refrigerator in every home they own. They already have a new car or 
two parked at every home they own. They already have their vacations 
prepaid. What are they going to do? They are not going to do anything 
with that money that is going to stimulate the economy. The greatest 
secret of America is that our middle class is what makes the country 
great. It is our working families who will go out and spend that money 
in this economy, buying a new car. My friend from Michigan knows that 
is important. The millionaires have their cars. It is the middle-class 
working people, if they get a good deal on a car, who will go out, if 
they feel a little more economically secure, and purchase that car. 
More of the same of the trickle down to the rich, which never gets down 
to this country, will not get us out of the economic nightmare in which 
we find ourselves.
  What the President wants to do to Medicare sends shivers up and down 
my

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spine. My friend from Michigan will talk about health care. I hope she 
talks about the fact that the so-called Medicare reform is the end of 
having a chance to pick your own doctor. They are blackmailing Medicare 
patients into thinking if they stay in that plan where they can choose 
their own doctor, they will not get any prescription drugs. This 
President wants them all in the HMOs. I say to my friend, and to the 
President of the United States, if the HMOs did a good job, that would 
be one thing. If we could pass a Patients' Bill of Rights giving people 
rights in an HMO, giving them the treatment they need, giving them the 
preventive care they need, giving them the quality doctors they 
deserve, it would be a different story. But pushing people into HMOs 
before we have solved the HMO abuse problem, and then saying, well, if 
you do not do that you do not get your medicine, I hope people in this 
country will rise up against that plan.
  Mr. President, you have another 9 hours. I hope you take that plan 
out of your speech. I hope you will take that tax cut plan out of your 
speech and rewrite it and give the tax cuts to the middle class and 
give the tax cuts to the working poor. That will stimulate this economy 
and make it a 1-year stimulus that doesn't drain the revenues of 
Government in the outyears so that we are in deficits for as far as the 
eye can see. Give those tax breaks to the small business people. They 
are going to spend it on plant equipment.
  Mr. President, go back to your speech and take a look at what you are 
doing on education. Fully fund the No Child Left Behind Act.
  Mr. President, if you continue with your ``leave no millionaire 
behind'' plan, you will have no money for your Leave No Child Behind 
plan. You can't have it both ways. You can't go to war, promise people 
education, promise them this, promise them that, promise them homeland 
security, and then give away all the money to the millionaires and have 
nothing to fulfill your promises.
  People are on to this. They see it. You are doing it over and over 
again--with homeland security, not spending the money we need. The 
burden is falling on the cities and the States and the localities. I 
met with the mayors. Do you know what they said? Senator, when 
something goes wrong and, God forbid, there is a terrorist attack, 
someone is going to call 911. They are not going to call the White 
House, with all due respect. And they are not going to call me either.
  I used to be in local government. I respect those people. We are 
hanging out local government to dry--the local police, the local fire 
departments, and the rest. That is wrong. It is all in the name of 
giving tax breaks to millionaires who don't need it and won't spend it. 
It is unfair and it is hurtful.
  I will close, because my friend, Senator Stabenow, is here, on one of 
the topics I will speak more about later, and that is the state of our 
environment. If you look back at the progress we have made in the last 
50 years and more, you will see a wonderful story emerging on the 
environment. You will see Republican Presidents and Democratic 
Presidents who stood up and had great plans for this environment. Teddy 
Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton--they all 
made the environment stronger. Everywhere you turn, Mr. President, you 
are rolling back that progress.
  So the state of the Union is anxious. They are anxious on all of 
these issues. Millions of Americans are waiting to feel less anxious. I 
hope, Mr. President, you will think about that before delivering your 
speech tonight.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sessions). Under the previous order the 
Senator from Michigan is recognized.

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