[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 143 (Tuesday, October 14, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12488-S12490]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                JOB LOSS

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, as Senator Nelson did, I went back to my 
State of Illinois during the past week and really went from one end of 
the State to the other. I visited with the chambers of commerce, labor 
unions, community leaders, hospital administrators, and average people, 
and talked about things that are on their minds. What struck me was the 
agenda of America is not the agenda of Congress. I can't get over it. 
We return here to Washington to discuss important matters but, frankly, 
ignore the essentials

[[Page S12489]]

as far as families and businesses across America.
  The number one issue, of course, is jobs. My State has been hit so 
hard by this recession. We have lost 3 million jobs nationwide under 
President Bush's administration. It is the largest loss of private 
sector jobs under any President since the Great Depression--the largest 
loss of jobs under the Bush administration since Herbert Hoover during 
the Great Depression. Clearly, there has been a lack of economic 
leadership by this President. Clearly, his plan for the economy of 
America has failed. Giving tax cuts to the wealthiest people in America 
certainly wins applause at the country club, but it doesn't create jobs 
on Main Street--not in Illinois, not in Florida, not in Maine, and not 
across America. We have seen such a dramatic loss of jobs in important 
sectors. Although the manufacturing sector in America only represents 
about 14 percent of the jobs in our country, 75 percent of the jobs 
lost under the Bush administration have been in this manufacturing 
sector--14 percent of the total manufacturing and 75 percent of the 
Bush job loss has been in manufacturing. It has hit my State 
particularly hard. Illinois has lost over 123,600 manufacturing jobs 
since President Bush was sworn into office, including 23,000 this year. 
Frankly, those are good-paying jobs--jobs people need to raise their 
families. They are not minimum wage jobs. These are jobs you count on 
to buy a home or to send a child to college. They are gone. They have 
gone overseas, primarily to China.
  I have heard over and over as I traveled across my State that it is 
just the tip of the iceberg. A lot of people say, Senator, you talk 
about manufacturing jobs. As bad as that is, we are losing service 
sector jobs, too.
  I came across an illustration in downstate Illinois in a medium-sized 
city, which I will not name for the sake of the hospital administrator 
who told me the following. If you come into my hospital in the middle 
of the night and need an x ray, we will take your x ray in the middle 
of the night in a downstate Illinois hospital. Then we will transmit it 
electronically to Australia for it to be read because there is no 
radiologist on duty. The x ray is read in Australia for people showing 
up at the emergency room in downstate Illinois. He said, When the 
doctors dictate the notes for the patients' records every day, those 
dictation tapes are sent electronically to India where they are 
transcribed. This is a downstate hospital.
  Go to Florida, go to Maine, or go to Nevada, and ask the question, 
ask your people if they received a phone call last night about changing 
their long distance telephone services. Ask them to stop and ask the 
person where they are calling from. Do not be surprised if that person 
is calling from India.

  We are seeing an outmigration of jobs from the United States--
manufacturing jobs and service jobs. This administration is oblivious. 
What they have suggested is to create one job in the Department of 
Commerce to try to figure out why America is losing jobs. I can tell 
you why we are losing jobs. It is because we have an economic policy 
that has failed--tax cuts for the wealthy. All it has done is give us a 
historic, massive deficit by taking money out of the Social Security 
trust fund--money that could be spent on education and health care 
which is just not there.
  The second reason is this administration refuses to confront trade 
realities. I have voted to expand trade. I believe in trade but only if 
there are rules and the rules are followed. The rules aren't being 
followed in China. China today has a currency valuation that gives it a 
15-40 percent advantage over any American manufacturer. Go around your 
State and ask these small manufacturers. They cannot compete because 
this administration will not confront China because of political 
realities: We need China; We need them to sit down with North Korea and 
avoid a nuclear war. So we are afraid to confront them when it comes to 
trade reality. We lose businesses and jobs permanently because of the 
lack of leadership of this administration. That is a fact.
  The second issue which I have found to be overwhelmingly and 
completely ignored by this Congress and this administration is the cost 
of health insurance. I invite any of my colleagues to meet with any 
business leader in any State in America and ask them what their number-
one problem is. It is not going to be the so-called ``death tax.'' It 
is not going to be government regulation. It isn't going to be 
environmental regulation protection. It is going to be the cost of 
health insurance. It is killing these businesses. They cannot afford it 
any longer. They tell me over and over. You know what is happening? 
More and more Americans have been shoved off the rolls with no 
protection. Those who stay on are expected to pay more out of pocket 
and get less protection. What has this administration said about the 
cost of health insurance in America? Zero; nothing; nada. This 
administration has no response when it comes to the cost of health 
insurance.
  There is one area, though, where they have been pretty vocal. They 
have stood up for the pharmaceutical industry, which is one of the main 
drivers in the cost of health insurance, to make sure they can continue 
to charge the highest prices in the world for the most vulnerable 
Americans here at home. That is their philosophy. Let the marketplace 
work this out.

  I have news for them. The marketplace is working this out. Health 
insurance companies exist to make a profit. They make a profit by 
cutting costs and increasing profits. That is what is happening. They 
have cut their costs by taking sick people and pushing them off the 
rolls and reducing the coverage of those already on the rolls and 
charging higher premiums. Businesses in America are getting nailed with 
health insurance premiums. But back to the trade issue: Every extra 
dollar in health insurance is embedded in the cost of the product that 
is sold. If it is a car or a computer, included in that cost is the 
cost of health insurance in America. And this administration, the Bush 
administration, and this Congress, dominated by the Republican 
leadership, refuse to even address this issue.
  The third issue we will debate this week is the war in Iraq. Now, I 
will repeat--although it is now a cliche, it is true--we will stand 
behind our troops and give them what they need, but when we look at 
what this administration is proposing for the reconstruction of Iraq, 
it really does betray a lack of preparation and a lack of thoughtful 
reflection on what we are dealing with.
  What is the nation of Iraq? Iraq is a nation, if we can use that term 
loosely, that was conceived in the mind of a British colonial empire. 
They drew a line on the map and said, We will call this spot Iraq. We 
will put within those borders two warring Muslim factions; and just for 
good measure, let's include hundreds of thousands of Kurds who do not 
want to be there. And we will call this Iraq. Because this situation, 
which they called a nation, was almost unruly and unmanageable, first 
they had a king, followed by a ruthless dictator. It took that kind of 
iron will to maintain this country.
  Now this President says, with the $87 billion, we are going to 
establish an economy, a civil society, and a democracy in Iraq.
  Excuse me, this is a long-term undertaking. To take a group of people 
with no history of nation state, with no history of self-governance, 
and say to them, America can send enough money to make you a nation, 
perhaps we can, but it will be a great expense to the people of this 
country, a great expense to Americans who need help in their schools.
  I heard the same thing the Senator from Florida heard--no child left 
behind, President Bush's great idea. I voted for it. Perhaps the 
Senator did, too. The money is not there. It is not there because the 
President says we cannot afford it. We have to send money to Iraq. We 
have to build schools in Iraq.
  I am sorry, I am one who supports foreign aid. I voted for it. I 
believe in it. But I didn't support this war. I didn't give the 
President the authority he asked for on the use-of-force resolution. I 
said, and others did as well--23 Senators voted as I did--it is easier 
to get in a war than it is to get out of it. This President is learning 
this bitter lesson. He comes to us for $87 billion, $20 billion for the 
rebuilding of Iraq. And that is not even half of what we expect will be 
needed.
  We are in for the long haul, to get up every single morning, to turn 
on NPR

[[Page S12490]]

and hear the news being led off by the story: Another American soldier 
killed and more wounded.
  Just so people understand the gravity of this, a wounded soldier is 
not a flesh wound in all cases. Some of these soldiers, our best and 
brightest in America, have lost limbs. Their lives have been damaged 
and changed forever. They are just listed as ``wounded.'' But those 
wounds go deep and those families and those soldiers will bear them for 
many years to come.
  That is where we are in this war in Iraq: This President ignoring the 
economic realities of America with the loss of jobs, ignoring what has 
happened because of the economic policy that has failed, refusing to 
acknowledge the cost of health insurance and these astronomical profits 
of the pharmaceutical companies, caving in to the special interests on 
Capitol Hill, ignoring the real people, the small businesses, the 
families across America who ask us to stand up for them. Instead, we 
are going to send $87 billion to Iraq to try to build an economy there.
  Sadly, we should start here. Let's build America's economy. Let's try 
to make sure we focus on what we need as a nation. This administration 
has not done that. The American people will awaken to that. Congress 
should as well.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. REID. Will the Senator from Illinois yield for a question?
  Mr. DURBIN. I am happy to yield.
  Mr. REID. There are a number of strikes going on as we speak. The 
latest started in Los Angeles with all the transit drivers. That is a 
result of problems with health care. The problem with automobile 
manufacturers, the other strikes going on in America involve one issue: 
health care. So the Senator's statement regarding health care and this 
administration's total neglect is one of the most important domestic 
issues facing America today.
  I appreciate very much the Senator's statement.
  Mr. DURBIN. I say to the Senator from Nevada, through the Chair, this 
is a pervasive issue. It used to be you could separate on trade and 
health care, business on one side and labor on the other. If I took you 
into a room and did not tell you the origin of a group in a room and 
you listened to a business group on these issues of trade and health 
care, you would think you were in the labor group. If you went to a 
labor group, you would expect to hear some concerns about what trade 
policy in this country has done and what health care does.
  I find over and over again that these people are despairing. They are 
despairing because they have been told by this administration, let the 
marketplace solve the problem. The marketplace has not solved the 
problem.

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