[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.
____________________