[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 47 (Monday, March 24, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4317-S4320]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            A FAILING BUDGET

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, as was pointed out in the initial remarks 
of my friend and colleague from the State of Maine, we will have 
intensive consideration of the budget starting early tomorrow morning, 
and then concluding late Wednesday afternoon. And we are going to do so 
with very strict time constraints.
  I want to be able to express my views on this legislation in terms of 
where I think we are in the consideration of the budget, and my 
concerns for where I think we will end up on Wednesday evening at the 
time of our vote. This is an enormously important matter that is before 
the Congress.
  All of our thoughts and prayers and focus are outside this Chamber 
now, and with the brave men and women in our Armed Forces overseas. I 
think all of us are following this closely and have shared in the 
positive outcomes that many of those in the Armed Forces have 
experienced. And we have also felt the shattering sense of loss that 
has been experienced by many of the families, when we have seen the 
difficulties and the tragedies which have developed over this period of 
time.
  Nonetheless, our work must go on. It is important, as we think about 
the extraordinarily brave men and women abroad, that we think about 
what this budget should really be all about. It seems to me the best 
way we can show appreciation for those service men and women and their 
sacrifice and their valor is to live up to the ideals they are fighting 
for so bravely. The budget, to a very important extent, reflect our 
priorities as a nation and that is what I want to address this 
afternoon.
  As we all sat in this Senate chamber last week, casting votes on 
budget amendments hour after hour, it was striking how detached the 
proceedings were from the real concerns of the American people. While 
they were concentrating intently on every detail of the unfolding war 
in Iraq, the Senate was considering a budget that our Republican 
colleagues had proposed without any funding whatsoever for the enormous 
cost of the war and the potentially even more enormous cost of its 
aftermath.
  Tomorrow, the President will send to Congress a request for 
additional funds to cover the initial costs of war in Iraq. There is no 
doubt that all of us in Congress will want to provide that support to 
our troops as quickly as possible.
  As we watched events unfold on our television screens in recent days, 
it became clearer than ever that more needs will arise because of the 
war--both in the short term and the long term. We deserve a budget that 
does not squander the treasury in time of war. We need a budget that 
provides for our troops and meets our priorities at home.
  In this time of national unity, we owe it to our troops and to all 
Americans to make this the best America we can be. That is patriotism 
at its best--to support our men and women abroad, and to fight at home 
for the values they represent--for a strong and secure America, for a 
strong economy, for equality and opportunity for all, for better jobs 
and better schools and better health care.
  Mr. President, $1.6 trillion in new tax breaks for the wealthy will 
not win this war. It will not help laid off workers and their families. 
It will not strengthen our schools or provide prescription drugs for 
our seniors. It is as though this budget had been drafted in a sound-
proofed room, so that the sounds of war and the voices of the American 
people could not be heard. On the opposite side of the Capitol, the 
House of Representatives has already passed an even more extreme 
Republican budget, slashing hundreds of billions of dollars from urgent 
domestic priorities, including some for which even the Bush 
administration had requested support. Any objective observer of Capitol 
Hill can quickly see how out of touch this Congress has become.
  A time of war should be a time of national unity--of Americans 
pulling together and sharing the burdens fairly. The people's elected 
representatives should reinforce this national spirit with leadership 
that says we are all in this together, that we are here to help one 
another. As we confront the grave threats of terrorism and war, it is 
particularly important to build a broad national consensus at home 
based on our shared values. Many of us have become deeply concerned in 
recent years that our policies are moving farther and farther away from 
these shared national values. Increasingly, major decision about how 
America should be governed are being made by a narrow partisan majority 
in Congress with utter disdain for the basic needs of the overwhelming 
majority of our people.
  This Republican budget says it all. The last thing that America needs 
in this time of war is policies that divide us--which concentrate so 
much of the Nation's resources in the hands of the wealthiest few, 
while ignoring the needs of tens of millions of hard-working 
families. Especially at this moment when we are sending young American 
men and women into harm's way to defend our highest ideals, we in 
Congress have a responsibility to support policies which keep faith 
with those ideals.

  It is bad enough that the Republican budget fails to meet that 
challenge. It is even worse that the narrow Republican majorities in 
the Senate and House are bent on rushing the budget through Congress 
quickly, while public attention is preoccupied with the war. If it ever 
passes, this budget will be part of the collateral damage caused by the 
war, haunting us for years to come.
  It is astonishing that our Senate Republican colleagues who protested 
so loudly about the failure of Senate Democrats to produce a budget 
last year are themselves proposing such an atrocious budget this year. 
Passing no budget would be better than passing this irresponsible 
budget. The worst thing would be to lock in these bad policy choices 
for years to come.
  We recognize that it will take no small amount of political courage 
four enough of our Republican colleagues to join us in voting down this 
budget. Hopefully, it will happen.
  The time is past for debate about whether we should go to war with 
Iraq. Now that our troops are engaged in battle, we all join together 
in praying for their safety and for a quick and successful end to the 
conflict.
  We need a budget which honestly addresses the cost of the war and the 
future rebuilding of Iraq. At a time when our troops in the field are 
being asked to make great sacrifices, the least that this Congress owes 
them is to be honest about the burden we are undertaking in Iraq.
  Even if the war ends quickly and successfully, the rebuilding of Iraq 
will be a lengthy and costly process that will make this budget 
obsolete on the day it is passed. The Feingold Amendment was a first 
step to address the cost of the war for the next few months, but 
Republican leaders boasted that they would remove the amendment from 
the final bill. The Nation's budget must not be turned into a vehicle 
for such gross political deception--for concealing costs rather than 
setting sound priorities. This is a time of high national purpose for 
America. It should be no less on the floor of the Senate.
  We need a budget which will also strengthen America at home. When our 
troops return, we want them to come home to a strong economy and secure 
jobs. We want them to come home to better schools for their children, 
not schools facing drastic budget cuts, fewer teachers and overcrowded 
classrooms. We want them to be able to afford health care and health 
insurance for their families.
  This budget fails all of these tests. It rejects the measures needed 
to restore the economy and to deal with layoffs and rising 
unemployment. Instead, it embraces rigid right-wing policies that have 
not worked and will not work and do not distribute the burden fairly. 
In 2001, President Bush pushed $1.3 trillion in tax cuts through 
Congress that disproportionately benefit the wealthiest taxpayers. Now, 
the Administration is seeking an additional $1.6 trillion in tax cuts 
that are even more heavily slanted toward the rich. That is not the

[[Page S4318]]

solution to the problems facing America's families. It is a strategy 
that will only add to their problems.
  The impact of these new tax breaks is clear from the Administration's 
own budget. When the White House says ``no'' to obviously needed 
spending on urgent domestic priorities such as education and health 
care, it says the war on terrorism requires us all to tighten our 
belts. But the belts will be tightened mainly on low and middle income 
individuals and families. The wealthiest Americans are not asked to 
tighten their belts at all. Just the opposite--they would receive major 
new tax breaks.

  As a result of the Republican tax plan enacted 2 years ago, the 
wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers will each save an average of $50,000 
a year. Now the administration wants to give each of them even more--an 
additional $25,000 a year.
  Under the administration's so-called ``economic growth'' package, 
households with annual incomes over $1 million will receive an average 
tax cut of nearly $90,000 each year. In contrast, households in the 
middle of the income spectrum will receive an average of less than $300 
a year in tax benefits.
  It cannot be wartime for other Americans, but still peacetime for the 
rich. One of America's most basic values is that the country's burden 
must be fairly shared.
  We know that the problems facing working families have grown steadily 
worse since this administration took office in January 2001. Certainly, 
the White House policies are not the sole cause of the economic 
downturn we have witnessed in the last 2 years. The stock market began 
its decline before the President took office, and so did the recession. 
The economic shock caused by the September 11 attacks was beyond the 
administration's control. Fear of the war has been hanging heavily over 
the economy.
  But the response of the administration to these economic challenges 
has been ineffective. The administration's one-track-minded commitment 
to massive new tax breaks for the wealthy as the cure for every 
economic ailment has made a bad situation even worse. The 
administration has ignored remedies that would provide a significant 
short term stimulus, while undermining our long-term economic strength. 
As a result, the economy continues to stagnate, and the number of 
families facing serious hardship continues to grown.
  Huge numbers of working men and women have lost their jobs. As 
layoffs mount, millions of others live in fear of being the next to be 
let go. Two and a half million fewer private sector jobs exist in 
America today than existed just 2 years ago. Men and women across the 
country looking for a job are finding it increasingly difficult to 
obtain one. The number of long-term unemployed workers has almost 
tripled since the administration took office. This is the first 
administration in 50 years to preside over a net loss of private sector 
jobs.
  In the face of these serious problems, it is cruel and unconscionable 
that Republicans leap to support extravagant tax breaks for the 
wealthy, yet refuse to support a reasonable extension and expansion of 
unemployment benefits. They continue to oppose obviously needed and 
obviously urgent assistance for millions of workers facing long-term 
unemployment and hundreds of thousands of part-time and low-wage 
workers who receive no benefits under current law.
  Affordable health insurance should be another high priority. Yet it 
is becoming less and less affordable for large numbers of families. 
Over two million more Americans are without health insurance today 
compared to 2 years ago. One in ten small businesses which offered 
their employees health insurance in 2000 no longer do so now. The 
average cost of health insurance is soaring at double digit rates--up 
by 11 percent in 2001 and another 12.7 percent in 2002--nearly four 
times the rate of inflation. The health care vise on working families 
is becoming tighter and tighter every year.
  Our public schools are facing budget cuts rights and left. The 
administration's words are that no child should be left behind, but the 
deeds in this budget leave over six million students behind, without 
the help they need to get a good education.
  The cost of college is rising beyond the reach of more and more 
families. The gap between college tuition and the tuition assistance 
provided by the Federal Government has grown by $1,900 in the first 2 
years of the Bush Administration. As a result, the number of able 
students denied the chance to go to college is growing each year.
  For millions of families, their retirement savings have seriously 
eroded in the last 2 years. Savings in 401(k) plans and other similar 
plans has plunged by $473 billion in the last 2 years. Individual 
retirement accounts dropped by $229 billion in 2001. The 2002 data are 
not available yet, but given the poor performance of the stock market, 
another steep decline is certain. Many middle-aged workers who thought 
their retirements were safe are suddenly being forced to stay in the 
workforce longer and reduce their standard of living in retirement.
  These are the realities American families face today.
  In this situation, the most irresponsible action Congress can take 
would be to accept the proposal of the administration to enact massive 
new permanent tax cuts.
  We cannot afford the loss of an additional $1.6 trillion from the 
Treasury. Temporary tax cuts to stimulate the economy are affordable, 
but the administration's large permanent new tax breaks are not. If 
that plan is adopted, the Federal Government will not have the 
resources to meet urgent domestic needs in education, in health care, 
and in homeland security. It will be virtually impossible to keep the 
Nation's commitment to Social Security and Medicare.
  The administration is misusing the recession to justify major new 
permanent tax breaks for the wealthy. Exempting dividends from taxes 
will take $400 billion out of the Treasury over the next 10 years. Half 
of that enormous amount--$200 billion--will go directly into the 
pockets of the richest 1 percent of taxpayers, who are not exactly the 
ones struggling to makes ends meet in this faltering economy. Eighty 
percent of taxpayers will receive little or nothing from the dividend 
proposal. To use the need for an immediate economic stimulus as an 
excuse to enact costly new permanent tax breaks for the wealthy is 
cynical trickle-down economics at its worst. The American people 
deserve better from the White House.
  The administration obviously does not want to discuss why its tax 
breaks are targeted so heavily to the wealthiest. Its typical response 
is to shout ``class warfare.'' That's nonsense. It's not our 
description of the White House plan that constitutes class warfare. A 
tax plan which gives the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans more in tax 
breaks than the total given to the other 90 percent is the real class 
warfare.
  Clearly, the Nation cannot afford all of these tax breaks. Cuts of 
this magnitude will condemn us to escalating deficits that will weaken 
the economy and make it impossible to meet our long-term commitments to 
Social Security and Medicare.
  Instead of reducing tax rates on the top income brackets in future 
years and repealing the estate tax, we should freeze those rates at 
their current levels and retain the tax on estates over $ 4 million. We 
should not enact any new permanent tax breaks for the wealthy, when we 
are so clearly failing to address so many of our most urgent national 
needs.
  For the cost of reducing the tax rate on the top income brackets, we 
could provide the additional funds needed to keep the promise made in 
the ``No Child Left Behind'' education reform act and keep it for a 
decade.
  For the cost of permanently repealing the estate tax on the super-
wealthy, we could help to ensure that Social Security has the resources 
needed to keep the promise of a secure retirement for future 
generations.
  For the cost of President Bush's newly proposed $726 billion package 
of additional tax breaks tilted to the wealthiest taxpayers, we could 
fully fund a generous program of prescription drug assistance for 
senior citizens under Medicare, and extend health insurance to millions 
of uninsured families.
  We know which of these choices will make our country stronger and 
help us meet the challenges of the future. A

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craven decision to give more and more tax breaks to the richest among 
us is a decision to ignore America's greatest needs.
  Now more than ever is the time for Congress to bring the Nation's 
policies into line with the Nation's values. The courage of our forces 
fighting in Iraq and the courage of our fellow citizens who responded 
to the terrorist attacks on 9/11 should inspire us all. In the time of 
great national purpose for America, Congress must respond.
  Consider what we can accomplish if our policies are brought into line 
with our national values. The American people want us to measure 
success by people helped and problems solved. They want policies that 
are worthy of a great and generous people in this new century.
  Providing every child with a good education from the early years 
through college that will enable them to reach their full potential 
would be consistent with our most basic values. Yet, today, far too 
many children are denied that opportunity. The children of working 
families, who need help the most, often receive the least when it comes 
to education. The administration's budget leaves six million--six 
million--children behind. It would actually reduce funds for after-
school activities for more than half a million students. How can 
President Bush abandon his unequivocal promise of full funding for the 
school reforms required by the No Child Left Behind Act? That 
legislation was signed into law with great fanfare by the President a 
year ago. But when the klieg lights go out and the bunting comes down 
and the cameras leave, the money isn't there. The Republican budget 
before us provides $8.9 billion less than we promised America's 
children a year ago. This budget has the wrong priorities and it should 
not be enacted.
  In the past, Democrats and Republicans in Congress have worked 
together to reject the administration's anti-education budgets. By a 
substantial bipartisan majority, we have increased the funds for 
education. We should do the same this year. Congress must--even if the 
administration won't--live up to our promise to leave no child behind.
  At the same time, we have to provide more college students with 
financial aid to meet rising tuition costs. The gap between the cost of 
college tuition and the level of tuition assistance has grown by $1,900 
since President Bush took office. We took a step toward narrowing the 
gap last Friday by agreeing to increase Pell Grants. We must make 
certain that the increase remains in the final budget.
  Just as Social Security is a promise to senior citizens, we should 
make ``Education Security'' a promise to every young American. If you 
work hard, if you finish high school, if you are admitted to college, 
we should guarantee that you can afford the cost of the four years it 
takes to earn a degree.
  We will fight to make the dream of a college education a reality for 
all. We will fight this month, this year, and we will not stop, because 
the fight is for America's future.
  We must do the same for health care. Every American family is facing 
some aspect of the worsening health care crisis we face today. Health 
care costs are skyrocketing. Families with insurance are facing more 
and more increases in their insurance premiums, for fewer and fewer 
benefits. The number of Americans without any insurance at all is 
unacceptably high and rapidly rising. No family with insurance today 
can be sure that it will be there for them tomorrow if serious illness 
strikes. For senior citizens, the 40-year old promise of good health 
care under Medicare is now being broken every day, because Medicare 
does not cover prescription drugs.

  In the face of this crisis, the administration proposed only a meager 
amount to help the uninsured, and Senate Republicans cut even that 
small amount nearly in half.
  In the face of this crisis, the Republican budget pays lip service to 
the needs of senior citizens for prescription drug coverage but fails 
to provide adequate resources to do the job. Even worse, they propose 
to dismantle Medicare and force senior citizens into HMOs and other 
private insurance plans in order to obtain even the paltry drug benefit 
they are offering.
  No senior citizens should be forced to give up the doctor they trust 
to get the prescription drugs they need. No budget accepted by this 
Congress should put tax breaks for the rich ahead of health care for 
senior citizens and their families.
  The Republican plan for Medicaid is equally unacceptable. It would 
victimize 46 million of the neediest and most dependent of our fellow 
Americans. The administration is proposing the same type of destructive 
block grants for Medicaid that the Gingrich Congress failed to enact 
almost a decade ago. The Republican block grant plan would leave 
millions of innocent victims in its wake--sick and needy children and 
their parents, the disabled, and the low-income elderly.
  The GOP plan for block grants to States would abolish the Federal 
Child Health Insurance Program, which now gives over 5 million children 
the chance for a healthy start in life. Millions of senior citizens 
would no longer be able to count on Federal nursing home standards to 
protect them if they are unable to continue to live in their own homes. 
Spouses of senior citizens who need nursing care would no longer be 
guaranteed even a minimum amount of income and savings on which to 
live.
  States need fiscal relief now, so that they can respond to the human 
and financial devastation that the current recession is causing to 
State budgets, and especially to State Medicaid plans. The demands on 
Medicaid are greater than ever for States, as more families lose their 
jobs and turn to Medicaid for health care. But instead of offering real 
help, the GOP budget offers the fool's gold of State Medicaid 
``flexibility.'' Instead of the funds that States need to protect the 
Medicaid safety net, the Republican budget offers only a license to 
States to shred it.
  Finally, small in cost but large in symbolism is the failure of this 
budget to address the immediate needs of the unemployed. That failure 
vividly illustrates how far this budget strays from our values.
  How can a budget deny unemployment benefits to the long-term 
unemployed at the same time it offers $1.3 trillion in additional tax 
cuts disproportionately benefiting the wealthiest taxpayers?
  More then four million Americans will be unemployed with no federal 
benefits after June 1 under current law. These men and women have 
worked hard for years, paid into the unemployment fund, and now find 
themselves without a job through no fault of their own. They are 
victims of the stagnant economy, and the economic news is not getting 
any better. Another 308,000 workers lost their jobs last month. New 
jobs are scarce. On average, there are three unemployed workers lined 
up for each job opening. The administration's own budget estimate 
acknowledges that unemployment will stay at its current high level for 
the rest of the year.
  Where is our concern for these four million workers? Where is our 
sense of fairness? How can anyone argue that we have $1.3 trillion for 
new tax breaks but do not have $16 billion to help the unemployed and 
their families?
  It is disturbing that our Republican colleagues are considering such 
an irresponsible budget at this very moment when our forces are risking 
their very lives for us in Iraq. Our colleagues would be foolish to 
expect the shock and awe of the war to distract the American people for 
long from noticing what is transpiring now in the arcane pages of this 
budget. They can see that the choices this budget makes will make their 
lives more difficult. It would be wise to reject this budget, and try 
again to get it right.
  If we take inspiration from the willingness of our troops to make 
great personal sacrifices for America, it can mark the beginning of a 
new era of common purpose--a return to unselfish policies which truly 
reflect America's values.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Chambliss). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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