[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 21, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S62-S66]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS TO CONGRESS
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, at this juncture, on this second day of the
new session of the 108th Congress, I will spend a few moments reviewing
a bit but also looking ahead, setting the stage for what we are likely
to expect in this body.
Last night, the President of the United States delivered a powerful
challenge to the U.S. Congress and to the American people. He told us
the state of the Union is strong and confident. The substance of the
talk last night reflected just that.
There is much to celebrate as we enter this second session of the
108th Congress. Perhaps most important is the capture of Saddam
Hussein. It was only 1 month ago that the world woke up to those
astonishing images--the President described it last night--of Saddam
Hussein in a hole and now in a cell. They were images of that dirty and
dishevelled dictator emerging out of that spider hole.
Our brave and resourceful soldiers caught the ``butcher of Baghdad.''
As the President said last night, Saddam Hussein now is in a cell, a
military prison, awaiting his fate. He will be brought to justice by
the Iraqi people whom he so mercilessly terrorized, and he will be
judged as the entire world looks on.
Today, because of the war on terror, the capture of Saddam, the death
of his two sons, and the destruction of his wicked regime, America and
her allies are safer and more secure. As we enter the new year, we are
also stronger. America's vibrant economy is beginning once again to
hum. The Federal Reserve confirms that the recovery we began to observe
last fall is gaining momentum each and every day. Worker production is
up. Industrial production is up. Exports are on the rise. Home
construction is booming. More Americans than ever own their own homes.
Their total household wealth is approaching historic highs. Businesses
are investing. Manufacturing is at its highest level in 20 years. In
short, those tax cuts, those jobs and growth packages are working.
The first round of tax cuts indeed helped end that recession that
began in the year 2000. The second round of tax cuts put America on a
path to solid growth. Americans today have more money to save, invest,
and spend as
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they, as individuals, choose. Business owners have more opportunities
today to realize their entrepreneurial spirit and potential. America is
moving forward because President George Bush and the Republican-led
Congress believed in that creativity, in that ingenuity, in that common
sense of individuals, the American people. The risk-taking, willingness
to invest, irrepressible optimism of the American people is in truth
what has turned this economy around from recession to where today we
are in the midst of the fastest growing economy in not just the last 5
years, 10 years, or 15 years but the fastest growing economy in this
country in the last 20 years, since 1984.
As the President pointed out last night, now is not the time to rest.
We cannot really rest until that economic recovery is complete. Every
American who is looking for work should be able to get a job and should
be able to get that work. Thus, we have to have smart pro growth fiscal
policy to lead this country to job creation.
Looking to the future--and our obligation is to look to the future--
there are critical structural problems that we in this body need to
take head on, not to shy away from but to go right after, to tackle
head on.
The one area that is critical to job growth--the President mentioned
it last night--is tort reform. Over the last decade, class action
lawsuits have exploded. State court class action filings have
skyrocketed by over 1,300 percent in just the last 10 years. It is
really not just the statistic, not just the figure, but it is the
result. The result of this glut of claims is to clog our court system,
our State courts. They simply cannot handle them all. It is inefficient
in terms of government. It wastes taxpayer dollars. It stifles the
innovation to which I just referred. That innovation and that
entrepreneurship that is so crucial to taking a growing economy and
translating it into job growth is stifled, is shackled, is handcuffed
by this glut of claims.
Last night the President also mentioned medical liability, another
aspect of tort reform. The President said ``frivolous lawsuits,'' and
it was wonderful for me to see the Members of Congress stand up, but
now we need to act. We cannot just talk about it; we need to act. Those
frivolous lawsuits are exploding health insurance premiums. So when we
are talking about the 44 million people uninsured, and we are talking
about the cost of insurance and frivolous lawsuits are driving those
premiums sky high out of the reach of hard-working men and women, we
must respond. We must address it directly.
I encourage my colleagues to talk to their own doctors and ask them
what the impact of this exploding malpractice, medical liability is
doing to their own practice, how it affects the quality of care. I was
just in a town meeting 3 days ago with physicians. I just come straight
in. Being a physician I can sort of cut through a lot of the
conversation. I said: What is the biggest problem today in terms of the
quality of care that you give that patient coming into the room?
It was pretty amazing. That group of physicians, without any
hesitation, just one after another, said medical liability, medical
malpractice premiums; I cannot afford it; it affects quality; it
affects access; it affects the way I practice medicine in a negative
way.
Being a doctor, I receive letters about this problem from doctors all
over America. It is real. The problem is increasing, and thus we in
this body must respond to it. It is driving doctors out of the practice
of medicine. When babies are being delivered, in some States the tax on
that baby is as much as $1,000 the mom or family has to pay, somebody
has to pay, at the end of the day. That $1,000, being a tax, goes to
medical liability service. It hurts access to care. It hurts the
quality of care. It is threatening our health care system. It is
costing the country billions of dollars.
As a physician, I am concerned about the care and the quality end of
it, but even though the numbers are hard to calculate, if we just stand
back and look in the aggregate, it is expensive. Well-researched
reports predict that if we reform the medical liability system, make
sure that there is equity, fairness, and appropriate compensation, if
we have appropriate reform, we will save the economy anywhere from $70
to $126 billion a year. Just the Federal Government would save about
$14.9 billion over 10 years through savings just in the Medicare and
the Medicaid programs.
So when we are talking about what is the biggest issue in health care
today, clearly this issue of the uninsured and the cost of health care
must be put on the forefront.
Staying with this whole area of tort liability, I very much would
like to address the issue of asbestos litigation. Right now things are
out of control. A very good law has run amok over time and the intended
consequences no longer are being accomplished, but they are unintended
consequences which are hurting America.
The torrent of asbestos litigation has wreaked havoc on the victims
of asbestos. Many of them develop either cancer or a type of cancer
called mesothelioma. It has wreaked havoc on Americans' jobs. Companies
are going bankrupt. About 20 companies have gone bankrupt from the cost
of this out-of-control asbestos litigation system over the last 2
years. And it is wreaking havoc on the economy. The approximately
600,000 claims that have been filed already have cost $54 billion in
settlements, judgments, and litigation costs.
The sad thing is that even with all of these billions of dollars that
are being spent in the system, the current asbestos tort system has
become nothing more than a litigation lottery. A few victims receive
adequate compensation. But far more, far more today, the way the system
is constructed, the way it has evolved, suffer long delays for
unpredictable awards, for inequitable awards--if they receive anything
at all. This is the victims, the people who have been hurt by asbestos.
It is a system where, if you look at it, there is only one real
winner. It is not who was intended to win in the initial legislation or
the laws or the regulations; that is, the victim or potential victim of
exposure to asbestos. No, the only one real winner today is the
plaintiffs' trial lawyers, the only certain winner. They are taking
about half of every dollar that is awarded to victims. So you have a
victim, you have a system with a lot of money going to it, but only 50
percent of it ends up going to the victim. The other 50 percent gets
lost in the system. There can be a system where there is fair and
adequate compensation both for the lawyers and especially for the
victims.
While the attorneys collected their fees, the asbestos-related
bankruptcies have already cost about 60,000 Americans their jobs. These
job losses are unnecessary. If we act and update and modernize the
asbestos tort system and bring everybody to the table, and do it in a
bipartisan way, we can stop this unnecessary job loss--60,000 jobs to
date. For those who lose their jobs, the average personal loss in wages
over a career is as much as $50,000. That is in wages. That doesn't
even include the losses in health benefits as well as in lost
retirement.
Remember, when I say 20 companies in the last 2 years have gone
bankrupt, these are big companies, big employers. About 60 companies
have gone bankrupt over the last two decades because of the asbestos-
related matters.
So passing this asbestos reform will create enormous economic
benefits. It will benefit the victims themselves. The certainty that
flows from the bill itself will also stimulate capital investment which
will go to preserve existing jobs and create new jobs. Again, I mention
a bipartisan spirit. We have to have everybody at the table. We began
the work in the last session. I would like to finish it in this session
in a bipartisan spirit to accomplish this reform.
In early February we will be turning to the highway system. It will
be shortly--February 2, hopefully, somewhere, depending upon when we
finish the appropriations bills, which I hope we will finish this
week--that we can turn to America's highways. It is another jobs issue.
It is also an infrastructure issue. It is a safety issue. It is an
issue we will address in this body. It is estimated the highway bill,
from a jobs perspective, will help create as many as 2 million much
needed jobs, and it is easy to understand why.
We are blessed in many ways because this country is interlaced with 4
million miles of roads and highways. Our
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transportation infrastructure is estimated to be worth about $1.75
trillion. We are blessed in many ways.
It is interesting that every $1 billion we invest in transportation
infrastructure turns around and generates, for every $1 billion
investment, $2 billion in economic activity. That, of course,
translates into jobs.
Our roads, our ports, our railroads are that infrastructure, that
transportation infrastructure that is fundamental to our Nation's
economic success. If things are so good, we are so blessed, why do we
have to have a highway bill? Because if we look at that infrastructure,
we see much of it is deteriorating or is becoming painfully crowded.
Probably people listening to me now over their radios as I am talking
are sitting in line in their cars. Commutes that used to take 10
minutes now take 20 minutes or that used to take 30 minutes now take an
hour. Some people are probably sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic as I
speak, not during just rush hour but throughout the day.
From a safety standpoint--I have to put it on the table because it is
another reason we have to address this highway bill early--we have more
accidents.
There is less time to spend with families as you spend more time in
the car. There will be about 23.6 billion hours spent by Americans in
delays, it is estimated. Americans waste 5.7 billion gallons of fuel
just sitting in traffic in these delays. We can't ask our fellow
citizens to join the great American workforce and then simply sit idly
by and allow our roads to decay as that daily commute stretches from a
few minutes to 30 minutes to 60 minutes--indeed, to hours.
It is a jobs issue. It is a quality of life issue. It is a safety
issue.
Last year we addressed similar types of issues. We addressed the
issue of spam with legislation, the Do Not Call phone registry. We just
hit the issue of spam head on. This year we need to upgrade our
transportation system. We are losing billions of dollars in lost
productivity and billions of hours stuck in traffic.
It is that image of being stuck in traffic that kind of moves me to a
topic that is unfinished business, that we worked hard on but we were
unsuccessful with in the last session. It is an issue that affects
every single American, every one of my colleagues, every one of my
colleagues' families, everybody listening to me, their families--and
that is energy. Our Nation simply does not have a comprehensive energy
policy that addresses the unfortunate dependence on foreign sources of
oil and energy today, a dependence which is increasing. It used to be
30 percent, 40 percent, 50 percent. Now it is up to 60 percent
dependence on oil from overseas--an energy plan.
A lot of this reminds me to at least comment on what happened last
summer. Fifty million people suffered the biggest blackout in American
history. It came at an instant from New York City to Cleveland to
Detroit to Toronto; tens of thousands of citizens were trapped at that
instant, trapped in elevators and subways, trapped in trains, and they
were stranded on dark city streets. We saw just with a sort of snap of
the fingers in that instant the potentially fatal consequences of
operating on a grid, upon which we are all so dependent, that is
outmoded, that is outdated, that can crash at any time.
The Senate must respond. Our Congress must respond. It is our
responsibility to respond, to act--not just talk, not just try, but to
respond and pass legislation that addresses in a comprehensive way
energy supply and conservation and renewable resources and the uses of
more efficient types of energy.
We have to address what people are beginning to feel in the last
several weeks, especially with the cold wave and the cold streak that
has hit New England in historic proportions, and that is the cost of
energy and the cost of oil and natural gas. U.S. chemical companies are
closing plants. They are laying off workers. They are looking to expand
production abroad. All because of what? The cost of high energy prices.
We will import approximately $9 billion more in chemicals than we
exported this year. American consumers are getting hit with higher and
higher energy prices.
Small businesses are struggling just to contain these rising energy
costs. It is our responsibility, this body, the Senate, to act. We
acted in the last Congress. We came two votes short. Now it is
incumbent upon us to go back and address that challenge before us.
I should add, not only will the energy plan lower prices, it, too,
will have a real impact on jobs and on the economy--on thousands of
jobs. It is estimated that the energy package will create about a half
a million jobs. The Alaskan pipeline alone will create at least 400,000
jobs.
Hundreds of millions of dollars will be invested in research and
development and new technology. All of this will create jobs.
Engineering will create jobs in math, chemistry, physics, and science.
Reforming the litigation system, upgrading our highways, and passing a
comprehensive energy plan will lead to more jobs and higher economic
growth.
We also must think beyond our borders in relation to what happens
within this country, what happens within other countries, and address
the energy issue of trade--specifically trade with Central America and
Australia. Free trade is essential to the creation of jobs and to
growing the economy.
Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to spend 2 days in Mexico City
where I met with representatives from the senate there. I had the
opportunity to look back over the last 10 years of NAFTA. Indeed, under
those 10 years of much freer trade with Mexico, the value of two-way
trade between the United States and Mexico tripled. It went up three
times--from $81 billion to over $230 billion. While I was there, I was
talking to my legislative counterparts in the senate. And I was talking
to President Fox. It was apparent to me that free trade does much for
growth and economic opportunity.
But it also does much more than that. They described to me how
elections there have become much freer and much more open at the state
level and at the national level. We also need to make sure those trade
agreements that we are part of are fair and equitable--that they
strengthen the rules of international trade, and we will work hard in
this body to achieve that right mix of benefits and obligations.
In addition to these types of structural reforms, we will continue to
pursue strong fiscal policy and deficit reduction.
Again, the President mentioned last night the importance of this
fiscal responsibility. In about 2 weeks, the President of the United
States will deliver a budget to this body. We will work with that
budget to accomplish that fiscal discipline. The President last night
laid out a plan to cut the deficit in half over the next 5 years.
Now that the economy is beginning to hum once again, thanks to the
tax relief package and the jobs and growth package of the President
from 2001 and 2003, we must turn our attention to reducing the deficit.
The deficit depends in part on revenues and in part on how much we
spend. To grow those revenues, we have to focus like a laser, which the
President has done and which we in this body have done growing the
economy. Now is the time to focus on that spending.
We are also committed to promoting fairness in the Tax Code. Last
summer we passed a tax bill to provide additional tax relief for
families with children. We created a uniform definition of a child.
Instead of five confusing and conflicting categories in terms of
defining a child, the Tax Code was simplified to make it easier for
folks to fill out the forms and get the tax relief to which they are
entitled.
Tax simplification: We will not solve all of it this year, but I
pledge this body--working with the appropriate committees--to work
along the line for tax simplification. We will continue to pursue
reforms that make the Tax Code clearer, more understandable, and less
burdensome for America's tax filers. We will address the issue of
Internet tax, for example. We will work hard to pass manufacturing tax
incentives.
Each of these will reduce the burden that the Government imposes on
American workers and on American businesses. They, too, are critical to
adding jobs to the economy. Reducing taxes on manufacturing profits
especially will increase the competitiveness of American businesses by
creating a fairer and a more sound system of taxing income. We will
work hard this year to lower
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manufacturing taxes and streamline the Tax Code; all of that as we
focus on taxes because taxes ultimately is not about dollars but about
people--people who go to work every day, who start businesses, who hire
new workers, who contribute to their communities, who raise their
families, and who expand the economy.
Tax relief and tax reform grow the range of opportunities for people
to make the very best choices for themselves and for their families,
whether that is to spend their hard-earned dollars on a dishwasher or
whether it might be to take the family on a vacation.
For some families, however, the choices are stark. They are not
thinking about even a new dishwasher. They are not thinking about a
vacation. They struggle just to pay the bills. Often health insurance
for their loved ones is a necessity they do without.
The President last night mentioned the importance of addressing the
cost of health care today. Forty-four million people are uninsured in
this country. It varies between 40 million and 44 million. Whatever the
figure is, it is too high. The primary cause is the cost of health
insurance. It is one of the most daunting policy challenges facing
our Nation.
As a physician, it is clear to me that if somebody does not have
health insurance they simply don't get good care or high-quality care.
They do not tend to get things that are important in preventing
diseases such as preventive services. The uninsured are four times less
likely to receive needed medical and health treatment. The uninsured
are five times less likely to obtain prescription drugs. The uninsured
are four times more likely to enter the health care system through the
emergency room.
The lack of affordable health care coverage is also one of the key
factors accounting for the health care disparities among minorities--
addressing specifically access to quality care.
As we heard last night, the President offered specific proposals. He
didn't just say we need to address the problem by saying we are going
to take care of everybody no matter what it costs and sort of stick
one's head in the sand about the issue or overpromise. The President
offered very specific proposals which we in this body should consider.
Refundable tax credits for low- and middle-income Americans are
important. It means that people who are on the margin and can't afford
health care insurance all of a sudden have a pool of resources to be
able to buy that insurance.
He proposed to expand the number of community health centers and to
increase access to this new entity of health savings accounts where
you, in essence, own your health savings account. You are able to put
in money tax free and take it out tax free. You control that health
care dollar.
He introduced the concept last night of making the premiums
deductible, to encourage and to make it more affordable to have these
health savings accounts.
We have to control costs through, as I mentioned earlier, addressing
head on the frivolous and unnecessary medical lawsuits.
The President mentioned promoting association health plans--again, a
specific proposal. It will be debated on the floor of the Senate.
But the point is the President says we need to reduce the cost of the
health insurance policies. He feels very strongly that one of the
answers would be lowering the cost by allowing association health plans
to enter the market and to compete.
In this body, I have asked Senator Judd Gregg to lead a Senate
Republican task force to explore ways in which this body can respond to
the uninsured--this daunting challenge which is before us.
America is a strong nation. America is a compassionate nation. We are
committed to protecting the most vulnerable before us. The President
last night mentioned immigration policy. The reception to his
immigration policy statements from a few weeks ago has been very mixed.
We know that. A lot of people are getting phone calls from
constituents. But the point is the President says this is a problem,
and the reality is we have 8 million people or 9 million people in this
country who are in the shadows. We don't know who they are or where
they are or what they are doing. Our immigration policy is outdated. It
must be addressed.
Indeed, in this body we must address immigration policy. I have asked
my chairmen of the appropriate committees to come together and see what
the appropriate response is in discussing, pulling together and
addressing what the immigration policy might be and to report back.
It was feared that the President's plan was either amnesty or
welfare. But the President was very direct last night. This year we
will work to find ways to improve the system.
In 2004, we will also work to build on the success of the No Child
Left Behind Act and the education bill. We are committed to improving
Head Start and making sure that every child in America learns.
We will also address the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
in this session, and to get education out of the courtroom and into the
classroom focusing on the individual--to focus on individuals
themselves who have disabilities and to make sure they have that
opportunity to learn. We will examine how we can expand access to
higher education. The President last night mentioned the support for
community colleges. If you are a minority or your family is poor, you
are less likely to attend college. We must examine how to close this
gap so that college is within reach for all children, regardless of
race, regardless of income. We will work hard in this body this year to
make sure, from Head Start all the way up through college, every child
in America has that opportunity to learn and to achieve.
Our commitment to opportunity also brings me to mention welfare
recipients as they work to gain independence and self-reliance. Since
the enactment of the historic 1996 welfare law, 5.4 million fewer
people live in poverty than when the law was passed. Caseloads have
declined by more than half. Families once trapped in the clutches of
government dependency are now on those first rungs of the economic
ladder.
It is by no means an easy climb, but these hard-working Americans are
succeeding for themselves, they are succeeding for their families.
Today, 2.8 million fewer children live in poverty. Among African-
American children, poverty has dropped to its lowest level ever.
Welfare reform is working. It is working because it is based on the
belief that everyone can succeed if given the chance. This year, in
this body, we will work to extend the promise of welfare reform which
is at its heart the promise of the American dream.
As we move America forward on the domestic front, we must also
continue to meet international challenges to the safety and security of
the American people. There are many but none more important than the
war on terror. The fight against terror will be a long and difficult
struggle, unlike any struggle this Nation has known before. Let there
be no mistake about it; we are at war, but we will prevail. Already we
have made tremendous progress. After years of indifference to the
threat of terrorism, the U.S. Government has, under the leadership of
President Bush, made enormous strides in taking the fight to the
terrorists. In just 2 years, America has toppled two terrorist-
sponsoring regimes. In just 2 years, America has liberated millions of
people. In just 2 years, America has brought avowed adversaries to the
table of peace. Our bold, tough, unwavering leadership has yielded
spectacular results. As the President said last night in the State of
the Union Message, ``No one can doubt the word of America.''
Previously recalcitrant rulers are beginning to cooperate in the war
on terror. After seeing our troops roll into Baghdad, the Libyan
dictator, Muammar Qadhafi, called the Italian Prime Minister and said:
I will do whatever the Americans want because I saw what happened in
Iraq and I am afraid. Libya will now dismantle its nuclear weapons
programs and join the Chemical Weapons Convention.
With the military defeat of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and
Saddam's regime in Iraq, American diplomacy has been further
strengthened toward ending the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and
Iran. North Korea and
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Iran now feel the combined pressure of the international community to
abandon their nuclear ambitions. I am confident in time they will.
Finally, change wrought by war has given old adversaries an
opportunity to lay aside their grievances and begin the work of peace.
India and Pakistan have agreed to peace talks. Syria has established
diplomatic relations with Turkey. In each case, the opportunity to
pursue a new course of peace between these historic antagonists is a
direct result of the United States determination to oppose
international terrorists and the regimes that sponsor them.
This is not to say the war against terrorism has been won. We are far
from that. Yasser Arafat continues to cling to the tools of terror,
frustrating the latest efforts for peace in the Middle East. In
Colombia, a courageous new government fights a stubborn terrorist
movement. But with clear-eyed determination we can find solutions to
these conflicts as well.
Victory in the war against terrorism is inevitable because of the
leadership of our President, because of the perseverance of our people
and, most of all, because of the courage and sacrifice of our men and
women in uniform. Every day they serve the Nation, our service men and
women give this Nation their very best. They are not the first, but
they are the latest generation to take up and bear arms, to travel from
home and loved ones and risk all so we may live in safety, so we may
live in peace. They deserve our deep gratitude.
I take one final moment to pay a special thanks to the 101st Airborne
which is based in my home State of Tennessee and also in the adjoining
State of Kentucky. Under the leadership of MG David Petraeus, a friend,
the 101st is doing extraordinary work. You may remember it was the
101st that found and dispatched Uday and Qusay Hussein in Mosul. Since
then, the 101st has moved more quickly than any other American unit in
training guards and policemen for the new Iraqi civil defense guard.
They have also shown that the Iraqi people have tremendous generosity
in their relationships with the United States. They have demonstrated
the generosity through their action, through the action of the 101st
Airborne, the generosity, the heart displayed by our service men and
women in helping Iraq rebuild its infrastructure, rebuild its civic
institutions and, even more fundamentally, the pride and hope of the
people in Iraq, that pride and hope in the future. Together with the
support of the Congress and the American people, the 101st is helping
plant the seed of democracy in the heart of the Middle East.
There is yet much to be done, but it must be said that none of these
developments was even imaginable 3 years ago. Because of the
extraordinary leadership of President Bush and the courage of our men
and women in uniform, America is safer. Millions of people around the
world are for the first time free.
Strengthening our homeland security, prosecuting this war on terror,
addressing domestic issues such as education and health care and tort
reform are just a few of the issues we will address this year. The
President's judicial nominees will get the up-or-down vote they
deserve. We will not allow a small minority of Senators to thwart our
constitutional duty to advise and consent.
Look for action to protect unborn victims of violence, child custody
protection, gun liability, bankruptcy, and many other legislative
efforts.
We have laid out an ambitious agenda, one worthy of a great nation,
one that will require strong, bipartisan work. We will be aggressive.
We will fulfill our duty to serve the American people and make our
Nation strong.
Some cynics say in a narrowly divided Congress, especially during an
election year, that we are doomed to gridlock, that we can accomplish
little. I strongly disagree. I believe everyone in this Chamber will do
what is right and what is best for the American people and that is to
move America forward.
There is much to be done and there is no time to waste. I thank my
fellow Senators for their dedication. I look forward to another
extraordinary year in the Senate.
I yield the floor.
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