[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 110 (Wednesday, July 23, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9746-S9747]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              THE DEFICIT

  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I have come to the Senate floor on a 
number of occasions concerning the exploding deficits being built up by 
this administration, as well as the very poor performance of the 
national economy since this administration took office. The recent 
Office of Management and Budget, OMB, projections are especially 
noteworthy.
  We now see the White House foresees a 5-year debt increase of $1.9 
trillion, a record $455 billion deficit this year, a $475 billion 
deficit next year. Each of those numbers signifies a terrible record of 
performance and record-setting deficits. With each report the deficits 
get deeper and deeper. Next year's $475 billion deficit represents over 
$1,600 for every man, woman, and child in America. That is the 
equivalent of adding to each citizen's credit card $1,600 upon which we 
will be required to pay interest year after year after year ad 
infinitum.
  In the past 3 years, we have seen the worst record of job creation 
since the Presidency of Herbert Hoover, with over 3 million jobs lost. 
This is the only administration in 70 years with a decline in private 
sector jobs. Long-term unemployment has tripled. We are in the slowest 
economic growth in over 50 years. And one other item: A huge drop in 
the value of pensions. A $100,000 pension invested in Standard & Poors 
stocks at the beginning of this administration is now worth $26,000 
less.
  We do not hear a lot of talk from the administration, at least 
openly, about privatizing Social Security any longer. Just think, if 
you are just getting ready to retire, and this administration's 
privatization policies for Social Security had been in effect, and you 
had $100,000 in your pension funds in something that everyone believed 
would be very safe, it would now be worth $74,000. You would have lost 
$26,000 in 3 years. That is why I have said this administration is 
committing economic malpractice. It is economic malpractice at its 
worst. We keep hearing about medical malpractice, but this is economic 
malpractice because for the long term we face millions of retiring baby 
boomers and large increases in Social Security and Medicare. We have a 
great need to invest in the education of our children and to protect 
our children with homeland security. But this administration has one 
answer to all our problems: More tax cuts for the wealthy.

  I think it is worth looking at history. Faced with high unemployment, 
President Franklin Roosevelt said to Congress on May 24, 1937:

       We know that overwork and underpay do not increase the 
     national income when a large portion of our workers remain 
     unemployed. Reasonable and flexible use of the long-
     established right of Government to set and change working 
     hours can, I hope, decrease unemployment in those groups in 
     which unemployment today principally exists.

  Those are the words of President Franklin Roosevelt in 1937.
  So what did Congress do? Congress passed time-and-a-half pay for 
overtime to increase jobs. Yet, faced with rising unemployment, this 
President wants to take away time-and-a-half from millions of Americans 
who receive a higher income because of it. This President, through the 
promulgation of new rules and regulations, wants to remove the 
incentive that overtime pay provides to employers to hire more workers. 
This is an anti-job-growth policy. In fact, this President threatened 
to veto a House appropriations bill if that bill said no to cutting 
time-and-a-half for overtime--again, economic malpractice.
  The President's OMB Director says the projected budgets are 
``manageable.'' But when we look at the operating budget for next year, 
using OMB's own numbers, we face a deficit equal to 5.7 percent of our 
GDP, our gross domestic product, the second largest since 1946.
  These are the budget deficits expected just for the next few years. 
In 2000, as we can see, we had budget surpluses. During the 1990s, we 
paid off our debts, we had wise tax-and-spend policies, and we built up 
a surplus. That surplus was intended to be used to pay off our debt to 
provide for security for those who are going to be retiring very soon.
  Now, because of the economic malpractice of this administration, the 
forecast is for even bigger deficits than what we have had in the past, 
going on into the future with no end in sight. So the President's 
policies eat up all the reserves we were going to use for Social 
Security and they have turned them into debt.
  Under this President's program, these explosive deficits just keep 
going on and on and they keep getting worse. We tried this supply-side 
economic tax policy in 1981, and both the deficits and unemployment 
skyrocketed, resulting in our prior deficit record.
  In 1993, we tried to reverse supply-side policies. I just might note 
for the record, every Republican in the Senate and every Republican in 
the House voted no. They all predicted economic disaster. Instead, we 
got out of the hole and we got into record surpluses. Unemployment 
dropped year after year, wealth increased all over America, average 
people saw their incomes rise.
  So when this President came into office in 2001, what did he do? He 
pushed a huge tax cut primarily aimed at the wealthy. Deficits 
skyrocketed, jobs were lost, and the unemployed stayed that way for 
longer and longer. In 2003, it is a repeat of what they did in 2001--
economic malpractice.

  On February 12, Mr. Greenspan said:

       There's no question that as deficits go up, contrary to 
     what some have said, it does affect long-term interest rates. 
     It does have a negative impact on the economy unless 
     attended.

  We are not attending to it. In fact, what is happening with this 
administration is that it is getting worse, the deficits are getting 
bigger. On July 16, Mr. Greenspan said:

       There is no question that if you run substantial and 
     excessive deficits over time, you are draining savings from 
     the private sector, and other things being equal, you do 
     clearly undercut the growth rate of the economy.

  That is what is happening.
  Some on the right say they have a way to reduce the deficit that will 
grow larger and larger. They say reform Social Security and Medicare. 
What they mean is, by privatizing it, cut Social Security, cut 
Medicare, cut them deeply. They see too much being spent on our 
children's education. They think that ought to be cut, too.
  I have an alternative view. I think the economic malpractice of this 
administration and supply-side economics must end and we have to return 
to economic sanity in this country. Look at those who are unemployed 
for 3 months, 6 months, a year--hurt economically, families hurt, 
marriages destroyed, futures lost. Look at our African-American 
community and the Hispanic community, which are suffering huge 
unemployment levels. Look at teenagers who cannot find jobs and wonder 
how they are going to be able to afford rising college tuition, which 
in many cases has doubled in the last couple of years. Look at the 
disabled who are being fired to cut health care insurance, and they are 
not being rehired and people are not reaching out the hand to hire 
people with disabilities because of the rising cost of health 
insurance, and the pressures are

[[Page S9747]]

growing to cut Social Security and Medicare as these deficits grow.
  Only an ideologue who thinks of shrinking Government, whatever the 
cost, could possibly think we are on the right path. As Congressman 
Spratt in the House has said of the policies of this President and what 
the Congress is now following:

       There seems to be no shame, no shock, and no solution.

  We must reject these policies. We must reject the economic 
malpractice of this administration and move back to economic sanity in 
our country.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired. Under the 
previous order, the Senator from Kentucky is recognized.

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