[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 7 (Wednesday, January 28, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H236-H241]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               BARBARISM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Neugebauer). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 7, 2003, the gentleman from New York (Mr. 
Owens) is recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to continue the discussion that 
we have just had in a slightly different vein. I would like to broaden 
it beyond numbers and figures and talk a little more of philosophy with 
the understanding that we decision-makers here in the Congress, all of 
us are very bright people. One does not get to Congress unless they are 
very bright. So whether it is Republican or Democrat, we have bright 
and educated people who are. If they make decisions that are wrong, it 
is not because they are not knowledgeable. So I am not going to 
question the knowledge of anyone.
  I do want to question the fact that we have allowed ourselves to be 
swayed into a situation where we make some very irresponsible 
decisions; and beyond irresponsible, we make some barbaric decisions.
  I have got barbarism on my mind because I am sort of a captive of a 
series running on the History Channel right now called ``The 
Barbarians,'' and they got Attila and the Tartars. They have got all 
these different obvious barbaric groups that for a certain period of 
time captured the known civilized world at that time and held it as 
their own.
  I was surprised to see they interjected into these obvious, 
understood to be barbaric groups that usually assign the concept of 
barbarism to, they have interjected the story of Hitler. ``Tyrant of 
Terror'' is the name of that series, and they also put the Japanese war 
crimes trials in another section.
  So what we have is these barbarians who seem to be guys who ate raw 
meat and they scalped people and they burned cities to the ground. They 
raped any female in sight.
  This series is also saying there are people who have risen to a new 
level of culture, the people who listen to Beethoven and Bach and go to 
the opera and who have enjoyed the legacy of great writers, others and 
Shakespearean translation. Those people allowed themselves to be 
captured by a barbarian philosophy, to be led by a barbarian, probably 
the world's greatest war machine.
  The German war machine was the world's greatest war machine that 
probably ever existed. Instead of being a war machine for defense and 
for the promotion of peace in the world, it was a war machine that was 
put to the spread of terror; and there are a few decisions, with one or 
two signatures, the Gestapo could send millions of people to their 
death.
  Conan the Barbarian, Attila the Hun, and all the other barbarians 
together did not kill as many people as the terror of Hitler did, both 
in concentration camps, in the case of people they considered 
undesirable, Jews and weak people and disabled people, and on the 
battlefield. On the battlefield they slaughtered millions. Russia 
estimates that the Soviet Union lost about 18 million people in that 
war.
  So here is a very well-advanced group in terms of art, music, 
literature and, most of all, in terms of science, military science; and 
they behaved and caused more damage than all the other barbarians put 
together.
  What does this have to do with America? What does it have to do with 
this discussion? I want to talk about commonsense legislative 
priorities, and I want to talk about the other extreme away from common 
sense. There is in the middle irresponsibility, and at the extreme is 
barbarism. Barbaric decisions can be made in this House in this 
Capitol, a combination of Congress and the President, barbaric 
decisions with barbaric consequences.

                              {time}  1915

  And we ought to think deeply about that. We ought to think deeply 
about it because a few hundred years from now historians will be 
writing and looking back on the history of the world, and I think they 
would say that the American civilization brought mankind to a level 
never dreamed of before. Our constitutional civilization brought 
mankind to a point which is unrivaled anywhere else.
  We have the promise to continue to take civilization forward. We have 
the promise to do what has never been done in the world before. We 
already have done more for ordinary people. The masses of people live 
better, with more hope and happiness and necessities being provided 
than in any other society that has ever existed in the history of the 
world. We are the United States of America. And I often say nothing 
else has ever existed like this in terms of wealth and power. The Roman 
Empire was a village compared to the United States of America.
  I think we have great responsibilities as a consequence of that. I 
think that God has blessed America. God has blessed America in so many 
ways in terms of just natural resources, land, periods of peace, and on 
and on it goes, with great leaders who have come forward at the right 
time to take care of crises and reestablished the Nation on the right 
route. We have so much that we can appreciate, and I think we are 
indebted to God as a result.
  In fact, I am sure when God looks down on the kinds of things we 
propose sometimes and the number of children still hungry in America, 
he must weep; when he looks upon the kind of magnificent medical 
advances that we have made and still people in need die for lack of 
good medical treatment, with 40,000 people uninsured in the richest 
most powerful Nation that ever existed.
  So we should stop at this point as we go into the year 2004, which is 
a Presidential election year, and in addition to considering the 
numbers and the revenue estimates and the expenditure estimates think 
very closely about what are we deciding to do with the available 
resources. Taxpayers should not say I am against big spending; I do not 
want to spend any more money. The question is what do we spend money 
for. Are we against big spending if it is going to provide prescription 
drug benefits for senior citizens or, in the final analysis, for all 
who need them; if prescription drug benefits are a part of our 
civilization?
  There would be no magic drugs, no wonder drugs if it had not been for 
the group investment and the investment of government in research and 
the investment of the government in education. We invented 
constitutional civilization on the one hand, but we did a lot of great 
things after that. The Morrill Act, which is little known by most 
Americans, the Morrill Act established land grant colleges in every 
State.
  Land grant colleges were pretty much patterned after Thomas 
Jefferson's University of Virginia. They were established to go beyond 
the study of philosophy and art and literature and study practical 
things. They were established to study agriculture and mechanics. The 
legacy of the land grant college is that it established throughout the 
whole United States centers of learning, which were not just centers of 
learning in the usual sense, but centers of learning which focused on 
everything there was to be learned about anything that existed in order 
to make life easier for all of us.
  Out of those centers of learning came the production of agriculture. 
In the world today it is unparalleled what we do in agriculture. That 
was one of the priorities of land grant colleges. But also out of the 
land grant colleges engineering feats and devices and procedures and so 
forth have evolved. Out of the learned world that we created, not by 
accident but by legislation, we have a dynamic out there which has 
produced these marvels of science in every area, including the area of 
medicine.

[[Page H237]]

  So it belongs to all the people. It belongs to the people of the 
United States who are the recipients of that part of the Constitution 
which talks about promoting the general welfare. We have lost our way, 
and we need some common sense to go back and reread the Preamble to the 
Constitution and understand the real meaning of that. They did not say 
promote the welfare of just the corporations. They did not say promote 
the welfare of the 1 percent of the richest Americans. They did not say 
promote the general welfare of people who have college educations. They 
said promote the general welfare. We as a Nation can stand together and 
exist only if we clearly understand what that means.
  There is a time when we do not hesitate to call upon our citizens to 
risk their lives in this process of promoting the general welfare and 
providing for the defense of the country. The very fact that nations do 
not hesitate to call upon their citizens and demand that they go 
forward in times of crises when the Nation is threatened: the draft in 
World War I, the draft in World War II, Korea. On what basis, what 
right do we have to draft ordinary people, most of them poor, many of 
them from working families? On what basis can we do that? What moral 
principle is at work there? It is an assumption that we are all a part 
of this country. And when the time comes for the country to be 
defended, then everybody has an obligation. And if we do not have 
volunteers, the government has the right to draft.
  If we accept that, then the government has an obligation to make 
certain that our families are taken care of, at least to provide a job 
and the opportunity to earn a living. The government has an obligation 
to deal with the elderly who no longer can work. Social Security is not 
a luxury. Social Security is a manifestation of the American 
civilization.
  We were not the first to get Social Security, so I will not say we 
invented it. There are nations in the world, particularly in Europe, 
who might have had it first. But as far as the change in American 
construct and the dedication of our resources, Social Security was a 
great step forward. Of course, there was Franklin Roosevelt and the New 
Deal in a time of crisis, and later on the protege of Franklin 
Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, took it further and we got Medicare and 
Medicaid. Now we want to trivialize some of these great achievements.

  At the beginning of the second year of the 108th Congress, I would 
like us to take a hard look at some commonsense legislative priorities, 
and those legislative priorities all involve budgets and 
appropriations. And before we can get to budgets and appropriations, we 
have to talk about taxes. We cannot talk about any of this unless we go 
to the core of our problem at this moment in our history.
  The core of the problem of decision-making in America right now is 
the war in Iraq. The war in Iraq can make us or break us. The war in 
Iraq will make us behave like barbarians if we are not careful. We will 
make barbaric decisions if we do not get control of what is happening 
in Iraq.
  I will not talk about the rationale for going to war. I will not talk 
about recklessly pulling out of Iraq at this point. Yes, we do need to 
take a look at the billions of dollars that we have appropriated. I did 
not vote for the $87 billion, but I hope that it is going to help those 
troops who did not have modern bullet-proof vests and communication 
equipment that they needed. There all kinds of things that have come to 
light in terms of the way our military treats some of its soldiers that 
need to be dealt with in terms of this war in Iraq. We are going to 
make people stay there longer. There are National Guardsmen and 
Reservists, people who never dreamed they were going to be in a combat 
situation for a year at least and being told that even after that year 
we cannot guarantee that they are going to get out.
  There are things happening which have nothing to do with dollars and 
cents that we have to deal with, and dollars and cents are a part of 
the problem; spending more money on the right things and not letting 
Halliburton charge enormous prices for gasoline, not letting 
Halliburton employees pay or receive bribes in order to pay 
unscrupulous people in Kuwait and other places to overcharge us for 
services and equipment.
  I see I have been joined by my colleague from New Jersey, Mr. 
Speaker, so at this point I would be happy to yield to him.
  (Mr. PAYNE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I 
would like to commend the Congressional Black Caucus for taking time 
out the first hour and now the gentleman from New York's second hour 
talking about the budget priorities because the budget is so important. 
The budget will determine how this Nation will survive during the next 
decades. It is important that we look at the budget priorities because, 
as I mentioned, it will say where we are going as a Nation.
  Mr. Speaker, as I join my colleagues in the Congressional Black 
Caucus in urging a reordering of the Nation's budget priorities, I 
think it is very important that we just listen to what the President 
has said.
  State of the Union Speech and the Budget: Rhetoric Versus Reality.
  Of course, as we know, the President talked about the fact that jobs 
would be created. He said 2.9 million jobs, I think, would be created; 
but we have lost 2.3 million since he has been in.
  There are claims that more tax cuts would create jobs, not supported 
by facts. Claims about job growth, certainly overstated. Questionable 
commitment to manufacturing initiatives. We will talk about that a 
little more. Additional tax cuts will cost $1 trillion. Relief from the 
alternative minimum tax could cost nearly $700 billion. Up to $1 
trillion will be needed for Social Security privatization plan. New 
tax-free accounts will have long-term impact on our deficit. The Mars 
proposal is likely to cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
  The administration's budget has omitted the cost of the war in Iraq 
and Afghanistan. Job training funds are just a drop in the bucket of 
what is needed. Proposal for drug testing and abstinence, but no 
additional funds for basic education. Basing Pell grant awards on 
course selections and not economic needs. Inefficient plans to help the 
underserved. Flawed efforts to lower health care costs. Additional 
health proposals that assist the healthy and the wealthy. No mention of 
veterans.
  So as I go around my congressional district talking with my 
constituents, I hear a great deal of concern voiced about the direction 
in which our country is moving. I have not heard anyone tell me that 
their family has benefited from the tax cut which has taken billions of 
dollars away from vital areas of the budget. The concern I hear raised 
is about education, including Head Start, after-school programs, 
college loans, Pell grants, and the need for affordable housing. They 
talk about access to quality health care and a healthier environment.
  So as I conclude, if the President supports the manufacturing sector 
of our economy, why did his administration propose earlier to phase out 
Federal support for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program? If 
he supports job creation, why did his administration try to cut adult 
training and vocational education? If he cares about education, why did 
his administration propose a change to focus the Pell grant program 
away from making college affordable to low-income undergraduates?
  Mr. Speaker, when the President took office, he inherited an amazing 
budget surplus of $5.6 trillion over 10 years. That has been squandered 
totally to the point where we have a $3 trillion deficit projected.

                              {time}  1930

  Does it make any sense to talk about missions to the Moon and Mars 
when the basic needs of our communities are not being met? We do not 
even have the true cost of the war in Iraq, a war we entered based on 
the administration's statements that Iraq definitely had weapons of 
mass destruction, none of which have been found, despite months and 
months of searching.
  We are asked to spend $87 billion for new schools and prisons in 
Iraq, while schools in some of our communities are falling apart. It is 
time for us to restore some of the fairness and sanity to our budget 
process.

[[Page H238]]

  I look forward to working with my colleagues and hopefully with the 
administration to turn these things around.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from New Jersey, I am sure, has 
had the experience that I have had, that they were glad to get the 
income tax check from the government because their unemployment was 
running out. That immediate cash was great, but the unemployment 
insurance would be far greater, an extension of it, would be a far 
greater benefit for any family than a sole check for $300. That is the 
kind of education that we have to give.
  Mr. PAYNE. The gentleman might remember there was supposed to be a .2 
percent drop in the unemployment rate, and the administration said, 
see, we are doing the right thing. However, it was because tens of 
thousands of persons seeking employment simply decided to drop out of 
the market of seeking employment. Some decided to go back to school; 
others just disappeared. So the actual unemployment rate, even though 
they said it dropped two-tenths of 1 percent, this month there are more 
people unemployed than previously unemployed; but if you do not seek a 
job, you are not counted. It is a flawed kind of statistic that says 
that unemployment is dropping. It is not dropping.
  It is a shame that we are even having this so-called jobless 
recovery. What does a jobless recovery mean? It simply means in the 
pockets of the corporations, because of the sending jobs offshore, they 
claim productivity is up. That is because when you pick up your phone 
to call a 1-800 number, it is picked up in Bombay or offshore. Doctors, 
I understand, when they do an EKG, it goes up and someone in an 
English-speaking developing country who is a trained physician looks at 
it and sends back what the diagnosis should be; therefore, the cost of 
a physician in our country is undercut. We saw the offshore development 
of textiles and toys and things, but now we are seeing high-level jobs 
also going offshore, and nobody is talking about that.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, the word ``outsourcing'' ought to be branded 
into the minds of every young American. The folks with great hopes that 
if they stay in school and get an education, become a programmer or 
technician, that they were guaranteed a job, but outsourcing beyond the 
movement of manufacturing jobs, which has taken place already and 
taking jobs away from people who are not educated, entry-level people, 
the outsourcing is going to take everything. The highest and most 
complex jobs in science can be outsourced. You can have Russian and 
Chinese physicists, space experts in Japan, India. They are the people 
who will be filling those positions while the corporations that we have 
given the contracts to make big profits because they can get those 
people by paying them in 1 year what a scientist or a technician would 
cost for a month here.
  That outsourcing is a concept that ought to be branded into the mind 
of every young American. That is the death knell of our economy because 
as they do that, they take the last group of jobs that we feel secure 
about, and take away our consumer spending power. Our economy is driven 
by consumers, and it seems corporations do not care about that. They 
are looking at their individual bottom line, how much they can make.
  In one of the papers in my area there was a front-page article about 
the bonuses received by corporate CEOs at Christmas time. One of them 
got $18 million as a bonus, one got $4 million, $7 million. They want 
more. In order to get more, they will outsource and lower the cost of 
doing services. Where do we go from there unless we realize that our 
jobs as legislators and our job as American citizens is for a way to 
promote the general welfare in America. That means new laws and new 
policies and pulling out of trade agreements. Whatever is necessary, we 
have to promote the general welfare in America first.
  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, as the gentleman mentioned, we talk about 
promoting the general welfare and we talk about providing for the 
common defense. There is no question that we have provided for the 
common defense even above the defense, but in a military budget that is 
a different budget than a defense budget. But are we providing for the 
other things that we said? We are not. Architects and engineers, 
buildings to be designed are being outsourced. We would like to have a 
30-story building with glass and chrome; and you write up something and 
send it out, and engineers and architects in India are coming up with 
architectural designs for companies that win the bids.
  Mr. OWENS. The gentleman mentioned India. Members ought to know that 
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is not now considered the 
greatest institute of technology in the world, there is one in India 
that has surpassed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. And all 
over the world, they are seeking the graduates of that institution in 
India. We let that happen, despite the act which created all the land 
grant colleges, and how did we let ourselves fall behind anybody in the 
provision of first-rate education?
  Mr. PAYNE. And even the fact that the CEOs' ratio of pay to the 
worker in many countries, it may be 50 to 1, 55 to 1 ratio.
  Mr. OWENS. Maybe the gentleman can explain that.
  Mr. PAYNE. The ratio is how much more the CEO makes than the regular 
worker. If a worker is making $30,000 a year, in many countries the CEO 
would be making maybe 10 times that amount at the highest, $300,000, 
maybe 15 times in some places.
  In the United States, it is almost difficult to quantify what the 
average salary is and what the CEOs are making. Pharmaceutical CEOs 
make between 25 and $30 million. That is the salary. That is what they 
make with bonuses, stock options, and salaries. In all of the 
industries, we see these salaries that are so far above what the 
average worker's salary is, it is difficult to quantify. I am afraid to 
give that number. It recently appeared in a New York paper about a week 
or so ago. We are driving people down.
  The middle class is being squeezed. That little $300 people got as a 
tax rebate, while others got millions of dollars. I congratulate 
Senator Corzine who is a very wealthy person. He said he did not want 
the tax cut. He did not need it. He thought it was unfair when people 
who are struggling daily to make a living, just to move ahead.
  We have people who cannot afford bus tickets for two or three kids 
going to high school, and a kid may have to drop out because the family 
cannot afford it. It is $50 a month in Newark. With three kids, it is 
$150. That is just one of the costs. We are making it difficult for 
struggling, working people to make ends meet.
  The cost of education and health care have gone through the roof, 
whereas our wages have not only leveled off; they have dropped. We have 
not had an increase in minimum wage in years.
  Mr. OWENS. It has been 3 years since we have had an increase in 
minimum wage. It is frozen at $5.15 an hour. On that, you cannot get 
out of the poverty even if you work 40 hours a week every week of the 
year.
  Mr. PAYNE. Finally, the Department of Labor as they are making new 
categories for workers who are ineligible for overtime through 
regulations, even though it has not been finalized, from what I 
understand on the Department of Labor's Web site, there are 
instructions for companies that might qualify on how they can move to 
take people in a new category as being ineligible for overtime pay and 
in steps one through five, how they can accomplish that. We are driving 
down the salaries of American workers and outsourcing of jobs going 
abroad. They said that would create more jobs in America in certain 
categories of jobs once the PRC, the People's Republic of China, 
continued to grow economically. We have not seen the impact here.
  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman allowing me this opportunity 
to have this discussion.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. 
Payne) for joining me. We are not really covering a wide range of 
topics. There is a center. We are searching for commonsense legislative 
priorities, and those priorities will have to relate to budget 
appropriation and taxes.
  Is it perhaps barbaric that the ratio of the salary of the CEO to the 
worker can be 300 to 400 times as much as the average worker, plus 
bonuses, investments, et cetera? And to increase that,

[[Page H239]]

you indulge in outsourcing and move jobs overseas to lower markets. 
Where does it end? Is that greed not approaching barbarism?
  There are two kinds of barbaric behavior. One is obviously the kind 
yielded by the people on the top. Attila the Hun, he and his henchmen 
yielded a certain kind of power, just as Hitler did. They yielded a 
certain kind of barbaric power over their people.
  On the other hand, the people at the bottom, the masses of the 
people, might worry also about barbaric behavior that they indulge in.
  Certainly in America every individual who is born in this Nation has 
a right to vote and should worry about the fact that we allow our 
government and our leadership to get out of control and reach the point 
where they are doing barbaric things and contemplating barbaric 
policies. The wiping out of Social Security through the failure to take 
in appropriate revenue, the raiding of Social Security to balance 
budgets, and a proposal to privatize Social Security for young people 
so the amount of money going into the Social Security trust fund would 
be greatly reduced at a time when the number of people who are 
qualifying for Social Security would be increased, that is a barbaric 
proposal in my opinion. We need to meet it that way.
  I hate to talk about anger because it seems that anger is not popular 
these days, but there is a time to get angry. There is a time to get 
angry. I have quoted on this floor the quote from Shakespeare's ``King 
Lear'' when King Lear has given away his kingdom to his daughters and 
had great faith in them that they would take care of him, and they tell 
him he is in the way and he does not even need bodyguards. It finally 
dawns on him that they have betrayed him, and they are evil people. He 
says, ``Fool me not so much to bear it tamely; touch me with noble 
anger.''
  Mr. Speaker, there is a time for noble anger. I think Jesus Christ 
driving the money lenders out of the temple displayed anger. There is a 
time for noble anger, and the people on the bottom who are tolerating 
this unnecessary suffering in the richest Nation that ever existed need 
to get angry. While they are getting angry, they should get angry with 
themselves and angry with their neighbors, and anybody that does not 
vote should be treated as a pariah.

                              {time}  1945

  If you do not have a good excuse for not voting, you have degraded 
yourself. In this constitutional civilization that we have created, the 
power is really in the hands of the people.
  This is a Presidential election year. In the last Presidential 
election year, less than 51 percent of the people went out to vote. 
About 51 percent. That means 49 percent did not bother to go to vote 
for President. You know if they did not vote for President, they did 
not vote for Senators, a greater percentage did not vote for Members of 
Congress and, as you go down the line, city council, all this great 
democracy of ours going to waste. The people on the bottom want to act 
like barbarians. They want to act helpless and not do anything about 
it. They want to sit and watch the CEOs make enormous amounts of money 
while they move the job-producing, life-producing industries out of the 
country at the same time they demand that your son, your daughter must 
serve in the defense of the country when the country is threatened.
  Those who have the most, the CEOs and the corporations, they have the 
most to defend. They have the greatest stake. Yet they do not go out to 
fight like Attila the Hun on the battlefield. They do not go out 
personally. They do not send their children or their relatives. They 
call on all Americans to rise to the defense of their country, and they 
have the right to demand that they do it via a draft. We do not have a 
draft right now. People say that is a word you should not be using, 
that it is not relevant. Every 18-year-old male in America has to 
register for the draft, right now. Every 18-year-old in America. That 
is the leftover piece, which, if the war in Iraq continues, there is no 
way to sustain the war in Iraq and to leave it with some degree of 
accomplishment without increasing the number of troops and probably 
there has to be a draft if we do not solve that problem.
  But back to the greed of the corporations and the greed that has been 
encouraged by the policies of this administration, this present 
administration. The Congressional Budget Office has released a new 
report. It is the kind of thing that some people on the bottom who do 
not like to read in general, who only want to watch television, you 
better start reading, barbarians at the bottom, so you know what to get 
angry about and you know that your days are numbered in this great 
Nation of ours. Your prosperity may suddenly be over one day if you 
continue to let these outrageous atrocities, economic atrocities be 
created.
  ``The Congressional Budget Office's new report on the Federal budget 
demonstrates that the return of large budget deficits is more a 
reflection of diminished revenues than, as some have recently implied, 
of increased spending.'' We are getting less money via taxes. It is not 
that big government is spending more. It is that you are getting less 
money because you have decreased the taxes on the richest people in 
America.
  ``CBO estimates that revenues in 2004 will drop to historically low 
levels, their lowest level as a share of the economy since the Truman 
administration. Spending, in contrast, will not be at a particularly 
high level. As a share of the economy, spending will be lower in 2004 
than it was in every year from 1975 through 1996.''
  They have a little box here at the bottom of the page that says, 
``Key Facts That Emerge from the CBO Data. In 2004 as a share of the 
economy, one, Federal revenues will fall to their lowest level since 
1950; two, Federal spending will be lower than in any year from 1975 
through 1996, and thus will be lower than throughout the 
administrations of Presidents Carter and Reagan and the first President 
Bush. In explaining the shift from a large surplus in 2000 to a large 
deficit in 2004, the drop in revenues since 2000 accounts for more than 
three times as much of the fiscal deterioration as the increase in 
expenditures.''
  We are not spending ourselves into a deficit. We are failing to 
collect taxes from those who have gained the most benefits from our 
society and can afford to pay larger amounts in taxes. We have a 
barbaric grab for more and more money. There is a way that we could 
finance Social Security in the future. There is a way we can end this 
pressure on individuals and families, even rich families, by changing 
our Tax Code in a way which focuses more taxes on corporations instead 
of families and individuals.
  Shortly after World War II, corporations were paying nearly 40 
percent of the total tax burden. Corporate taxes accounted for about 40 
percent of the total tax burden. Individuals and families accounted for 
about 44 percent of the total tax burden. There were other kinds of 
taxes which produced the rest. At this moment in history, individuals 
and families still, despite the tax cuts, are way up there in terms of 
their percentage of the total tax burden. Corporations are down between 
8 and 10 percent. The tax on corporations is down to between 8 and 10 
percent. Most of us are not looking in that direction. Neither party 
has taken a hard look at what it would mean if we were to impose 
greater taxes on corporations instead of on individuals.
  A tax cut is in order for the middle class. I do not agree with 
people who say we should wipe out all tax cuts. We need to certainly 
relieve middle-class families with tax cuts. But what you lose when you 
do that, you can gain from greater taxes on corporations, and they will 
not feel the pain. It is one way to get back the money they make as a 
result of outsourcing. They are making greater and greater profits. 
They produce goods and services at greater profits by going to the 
cheapest labor markets throughout the world. They come back here, and 
they sell what they have to offer in goods and services at a level 
commensurate with our economy. We are paying the same prices.
  The difference is in profit, enormous profits that are being reaped 
by the corporations. The tax problems of America can be resolved if we 
focus on taxing corporations more and getting the money we need to do a 
vast amount of retraining and education and the things needed to make 
our society able to compete in the increasingly high-tech industry 
competition. We used to 

[[Page H240]]

think that no matter what happens, we are going to be the leaders in 
high-tech industries, no matter what happens. We never dreamed that the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology would not forever be the greatest 
of its kind. But the Indians speak English, too. Pakistanis speak 
English. Their governments made some conscious decisions about how they 
wanted to educate a portion of their population and they are now 
challenging us. They are challenging us and the Chinese are learning 
more and more English all the time. They have an enormous population. 
If they only educate one-fifth of it. It is an enormous hoard of people 
who have education and can compete at very low salary levels for any 
kind of job you might want.

  The Soviet Union, of course, has been counted out, but one thing that 
Stalin and the whole bunch of dictators did was create a massive 
education system, and the residue of that is still there. They are very 
educated people. They are learning English, too; and the competition 
from Soviet scientists will be there for American scientists. There is 
nothing that outsourcing will leave untouched.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit for the Record this first page of the ``Center 
on Budget and Policy Priorities'' report that I just read from in its 
entirety.

    [From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Jan. 26, 2004]

 CBO Figures Indicate Lower Revenues, Not Higher Spending, Account for 
                           the Large Deficit


  as a share of the economy, revenues to hit lowest level in 54 years

                  (By Isaac Shapiro and Joel Friedman)

       The Congressional Budget Office's new report on the federal 
     budget demonstrates that the return of large budget deficits 
     is more a reflection of diminished revenues than, as some 
     have recently implied, of increased spending. CBO estimates 
     that revenues in 2004 will drop to historically low levels, 
     their lowest level as a share of the economy since the Truman 
     Administration. Spending, in contrast, will not be at a 
     particularly high level. As a share of the economy, spending 
     will be lower in 2004 than it was in every year from 1975 
     through 1996.
       On the revenue side:
       CBO projects that revenues will fall to 15.8 percent of the 
     economy in 2004. This is the lowest level since 1950. (The 
     figures in this analysis focus on revenues and spending as a 
     share of the Gross Domestic Product, labeled here as the 
     ``economy.'' The Gross Domestic Product is the basic measure 
     of the size of the economy. Measuring spending and revenues 
     as a share of the economy is the standard way that economists 
     and budget analysts examine changes in the levels of revenues 
     and spending over time.)
       CBO projects that income tax revenues (including both the 
     individual and corporate income tax) will equal 8.0 percent 
     of the economy in 2004. This is the lowest level since 1942.
       Without the tax cuts enacted in recent years--which will 
     reduce revenues by $264 billion in 2004, according to Joint 
     Committee on Taxation estimates--revenues as a share of the 
     economy would not be close to a historically low level.


                key facts that emerge from the cbo data

       In 2004, as a share of the economy:
       Federal revenues will fall to their lowest level since 
     1950, during the Truman Administration.
       Federal spending will be lower than in every year from 1975 
     through 1996 (and thus will be lower than throughout the 
     administrations of Presidents Carter and Reagan and the first 
     President Bush).
       In explaining the shift from a large surplus in 2000 to a 
     large deficit in 2004, the drop in revenues since 2000 
     accounts for more than three times as much of the fiscal 
     deterioration as the increase in expenditures.

  Mr. Speaker, we started the evening with colleagues of mine from the 
Congressional Black Caucus discussing budget matters. I consider my 
discussion to be an extension of that discussion. Commonsense 
legislative priorities deal with budget and appropriations and taxes 
first. This Congressional Black Caucus budget, a budget to leave no 
family behind for fiscal year 2004, is still relevant. It is relevant 
in terms of the kind of priorities we set forth. We united with the 
Congressional Progressive Caucus and produced a budget which we are 
quite proud of. I am just going to read some of the principles that 
were set forth in our Congressional Black Caucus budget because it 
relates to the kind of priorities that we need to establish:
  ``Basic Assumptions and Principles for an Alternative Budget of the 
Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus.''
  1. A smaller, streamlined and efficient government should be the goal 
of all lawmakers; however, there must be enough revenue and resources 
to carry out the vital functions of our complex American society. It is 
absolutely necessary that we maintain an adequate investment in human 
development. Education comes first in terms of keeping our civilization 
moving forward. We are drastically cutting funding for education at the 
higher education level and at the elementary and secondary education 
level. No Child Left Behind has no clout because of the fact that the 
President refused to fully fund the bill.
  2. Federal assistance for education, health care, housing, child 
care, transportation, worker safety and protection, and business 
development is as vital as support for homeland security and defense. 
Somehow we get off on these tangents and we define priorities in terms 
of some buzz words, homeland security and defense. Education is our 
greatest defense. An educated population is our greatest bulwark 
against invasion economically or militarily. The high-tech army that 
went into Iraq would not be possible if you did not have very educated 
personnel in that army. The kind of projections being made by the 
homeland security people of germ warfare being sneaked into the country 
or anthrax and various other destructive actions by terrorists, you 
need an educated population to deal with those kinds of crises and 
threats. Therefore, it is very important that we understand that 
assistance for education is as important as the specific dollars that 
we label homeland security and defense.
  3. The imperative of the government to provide for the Nation's 
security can be effectively implemented and sustained only if all of 
the vital investments in human development are assigned priority on a 
continuing basis. This second session of the 108th Congress must get 
back to looking at education. No Child Left Behind cannot be the last 
discussion and the last word on education. We have a higher education 
bill to reauthorize, and we are stumbling along on that trying to find 
ways to do the least amount for our higher education students when it 
is a time when we ought to be doing the most amount for them.
  4. While the taxing of middle income and working families must be 
reduced and maintained at the lowest possible levels, the Federal 
Government must nevertheless secure the revenue it needs by upwardly 
adjusting the tax rates on corporate entities and by creatively seeking 
larger fees from publicly owned resources such as the spectrum, the 
Internet, and public lands and waterways. We throw away, we the 
American people give to private interests and corporations some of our 
greatest resources. The spectrum, the air above us, has made many 
people rich. We should look at the ways in which we can make better use 
of these resources for all of the people in terms of selling bandwidths 
in the spectrum, leasing it, renting it, taxing the Internet. None of 
that should be off-limits while billions are made by the people who 
happened by accident to be in a place where they can take advantage of 
it. If you want taxes, there are plenty of ways to get them without 
going into the pockets of middle-class families to get that revenue.
  5. There should be an end to the tax system as we know it and a 
revamping which reduces the portion of the tax burden borne by 
individuals and families to less than 50 percent of the overall tax 
burden. Corporate entities utilizing the collective and accumulated 
knowledge and institutional support of the total society will continue 
to grow and prosper. Such recipients of publicly sponsored research and 
development protected by the legal system must pay their fair share in 
terms of meeting the revenue needs of the Nation.
  We have other items here related to health, human services, and 
safety nets. While the recently released Democratic Caucus prescription 
drug plan with a $25 premium should be endorsed, other health care 
inadequacies must be addressed in the current budget. We have gone 
through a process of passing relief for seniors suffering from the need 
for more money for prescription drug benefits, and we have given them a 
bogus bill which needs very much to be revamped.
  In the area of housing, there is an acute housing shortage in the 
inner city communities which can only be met in a timely manner by 
providing

[[Page H241]]

more public and section 8-type housing. For the upwardly mobile poor, 
there are homeownership programs being sponsored by foundations and the 
private sector which could be made more effective with Federal 
assistance.
  Small businesses in urban settings have never received the quantity 
and quality of support provided over the years for agribusinesses. We 
give far more to agribusinesses. Our farm subsidies are out of kilter. 
We are still giving enormous amounts of money to less than 2 percent of 
the population.

                              {time}  2000

  Farm subsidies represent one of the greatest swindles in the American 
budget. The taxpayers should take a look. They should get angry about 
the fact that we are funding these farm subsidies and they are not 
going to poor people. The agribusinesses, the corporations have bought 
up the quotas. They have accumulated the right to those subsidies, and 
we are really subsidizing large agribusinesses with the farm subsidy. 
The revenue generated by these large entities could generate greater 
funding if we dealt with that problem.
  International relations means that we have to again, as I said 
before, focus on what do we do about the war in Iraq. How do we get out 
of Iraq. Many proposals are being made by many different candidates. 
The sensible proposals that must prevail are proposals which allow us 
to leave with order and honor but, on the other hand, leave immediately 
and trust the rest of the international community to help us accomplish 
the purposes that we can accomplish productively in Iraq.
  At the core of our decision-making this year is the war in Iraq. The 
war in Iraq will make us behave like barbarians, or we can behave like 
the extraordinary creators of a new kind of civilization. The 
constitutional civilization created by America is one that guides us 
and will guide us out of these absurd and ridiculous atrocities that 
are being committed in economics and will be committed militarily if we 
do not get out of the war in Iraq.

  Congressional Black Caucus/Congressional Progressive Caucus--Basic 
          Assumptions and Principles for an Alternative Budget


                           General Priorities

       1. A smaller, streamlined and efficient government should 
     be the goal of all lawmakers; however, there must be enough 
     revenue and resources to carry out the vital functions of our 
     complex American society. It is absolutely necessary that we 
     maintain an adequate investment in human development.
       2. Federal assistance for education, health care, housing, 
     child care, transportation, worker safety and protection, and 
     business development is as vital as support for homeland 
     security and defense.
       3. The imperative of the government to provide for the 
     nation's security can be effectively implemented and 
     sustained only if all of the vital investments in human 
     development are assigned priority on a continuing basis.


                               tax policy

       4. While the taxing of middle income and working families 
     must be reduced and maintained at the lowest possible levels, 
     the Federal government must nevertheless secure the revenue 
     it needs by upwardly adjusting the tax rates on corporate 
     entities and by creatively seeking larger fees from publicly 
     owned resources such as the spectrum, the internet, public 
     lands and waterways, etc.
       5. There should be an end to the tax system as we know it 
     and a revamping which reduces the portion of the tax burden 
     borne by individuals and families to less than fifty percent 
     of the overall tax burden. Corporate entities utilizing the 
     collective and accumulated knowledge and institutional 
     support of the total society will continue to grow and 
     prosper. Such recipients of publicly sponsored research and 
     development; protected by the legal system and military might 
     of the nation and enriched by the great American consumer 
     market; such entities can and should bear a greater portion 
     of the national tax burden.
       6. Tax cuts for the upper income brackets should be 
     repealed immediately. Tax cuts for all families earning less 
     than fifty thousand dollars per year should be implemented 
     immediately commencing with a large reduction for payroll 
     taxes for the poorest workers.


                       education and job training

       7. Since the nation's security as well as its future 
     economic stability and prosperity is directly dependent upon 
     the quality of education of its citizens, the budget should 
     greatly increase Federal assistance for education from 
     HeadStart to Title I, bi-lingual education, Historically 
     Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Higher 
     Education Institutions, special education and educational 
     technology. Since school buildings are essential for the 
     implementation of all school improvements, the taboo must be 
     ended and Federal grants for school construction must be 
     provided. The President's budget is proposing construction 
     grants (not loans) only for charter schools.
       8. Significant Federal initiatives for education reform 
     such as No Child Left Behind cannot be implemented 
     effectively while Local Education Agencies are under assault 
     from state and local budget cuts; therefore, an emergency 
     targeted revenue sharing for education programs must be 
     legislated. The Federal government must move beyond its 
     present funding posture which contributes less than seven 
     cents of each dollar spent for education while mandating 
     compliance with far reaching reform programs.
       9. Job Training programs must be rescued from the downward 
     spiral of budget cuts. It must be made complementary and 
     compatible with our overall education efforts as well as the 
     changing occupational needs generated by new challenges in 
     homeland security and global competition for expertise. The 
     role of the Federal government in job training for youth must 
     be restored and funding levels increased. A more detailed 
     analysis of the staffing needs of the Homeland Security 
     initiative must be coordinated with the Department of Labor.
       Technicians to clean up anthrax, other biological warfare 
     germs; to respond to chemical or dirty bomb attacks; to 
     translate terrorists communications; etc. must be trained. 
     Even familiar first responders such as nurses, police and 
     firefighters are in short supply when a requirement that they 
     live within one hour's traveling time to their assigned post 
     is mandated. Big city inner city residents must be trained to 
     be their own first responders. Funding for this purpose must 
     be made available immediately.


                 health, human services and safety nets

       10. While the recently released Democratic Caucus 
     Prescription Drug Plan with a twenty-five dollar premium 
     should be endorsed, other health care inadequacies must be 
     addressed in the current budget. Of greatest significance to 
     the CBC are the President's proposals to have the Federal 
     government abandon MedicAid and leave it to the states. This 
     bribing of the states by allowing them to keep whatever they 
     save as a result of reduced health care for the poor must be 
     blocked beginning with the budget process. The swindle that 
     started with welfare reform dollars must not be allowed to 
     expand.
       11. Welfare Reform must be revisited and made more humane 
     by providing more in cash payments for children. The survivor 
     benefits rate used by Social Security for payments to 
     children under eighteen should be used as a guide for 
     calculating aid to dependent children. Funds must also be 
     provided to allow any welfare parent who qualifies to attend 
     college for two years with a job specific goal such as 
     nursing or medical technician, etc.
       12. A coordination and calibration of the services provided 
     to families under Title Twenty with the goals of assisting 
     low-income youth under No Child Left Behind must be 
     appropriately funded.


                     housing and urban development

       13. There is an acute housing crisis in the inner city 
     communities which can only be met in a timely manner by 
     providing more public and section 8 type housing. For the 
     upperwardly mobile poor there are home ownership programs 
     being sponsored by foundations and the private sector which 
     could be made more effective with Federal assistance.
       14. Small businesses in urban settings have never received 
     the quantity and quality of support provided over the years 
     for agribusinesses. Small businesses and related economically 
     significant institutions such as hospitals and public service 
     agencies deserve greater loan and grant options. The revenue 
     generated by these entities would offset the increased 
     funding.


                             transportation

       15. Mass transit subsidies are provided primarily to assist 
     working families and the poor. More federal funding is needed 
     in order to avoid increased costs faced by workers already 
     hard pressed to make ends meet. Congress must insist that 
     transit systems receiving Federal aid must provide open 
     disclosure for their accounting and contracting procedures as 
     well as their salary and consultant fee rates.


                              agriculture

       16. Billions of dollars continue to be appropriated for 
     agribusinesses and farmers. There is no need for an increase 
     in the overall budget; however, specific earmarking of funds 
     for the poorest farmers; for Black farmers, for loans to 
     groups that have been discriminated against by the farm loan 
     programs; these are all items which must be addressed in the 
     budget.


                        international relations

       17. Foreign Aid dollars are still basically dollars 
     distributed with a double standard with Caribbean nations and 
     Africa being greatly short-changed. The CBC will continue to 
     assign high priority to an increase in funding for these 
     neglected areas and people.


                                general

       18. Funding for Commissions to study issues such as 
     Reparations; Disenfranchisement of Federal Ex-Offenders; 
     Disparities in Sentencing; Disparities in Health Care; etc. 
     are vitally needed.

                          ____________________