[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 15 (Monday, February 9, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S694-S695]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      PROGRESS ON THE HIGHWAY BILL

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I will comment briefly on the current 
status of the highway bill and the related debate about the budgetary 
implications of it and the budget proposal made by the administration 
over the course of the last week.
  This is our second week of debate on the highway bill. I find myself 
expressing the hope, as the majority leader just did, that we can 
finish our work on the bill this week. This bill is long overdue. Many 
of us hoped we could have passed it last fall. We are told that the 
result of not having passed it means a loss of over 90,000 jobs so far.
  We are also told that if we pass this bill soon, we could create 
nearly a million new jobs. So the economic implications could not be 
more consequential.
  We also understand the difficulties our country faces with regard to 
its own infrastructure. We are told we have an infrastructure deficit 
of hundreds of billions of dollars, which is causing more congestion, 
more pile-ups, more time en route, more commuting, than at any other 
time in our Nation's history.
  So with the infrastructure deficit, and with the need to create jobs, 
I cannot think of a more important bill than this one. I hope we can 
continue to demonstrate some real movement as we work to complete this 
debate sometime soon.
  The bill's managers are in the Chamber and we are prepared to 
entertain amendments. I hope we can get on with the substantive 
discussion and consideration of whatever amendments could be offered.
  I am troubled by those who argue that this bill is too expensive. I 
did not hear that debate when we were discussing how much to commit to 
Iraq over the course of this fiscal year. This country has now spent 
$167 billion in Iraq, with no offsets. I did not hear one comment from 
people on either side of the aisle about how expensive that bill was.
  There are proposals in the President's budget to make the tax cuts 
for those at the top of our income scales permanent. CBO estimates that 
will double the size of our deficit over the course of the next 10 
years. We now expect a deficit of $600 billion and we are told we are 
going to be ringing up a debt of a million dollars a minute. According 
to the Budget Committee, the debt will increase at $1 million a minute. 
So there is legitimate concern for how much we are spending and how 
much we are not taking in.
  I find it amazing, this selective process of deciding which ought to 
be pared

[[Page S695]]

back and which ought to be provided without any offsets whatsoever. 
There are tax cuts of $2 trillion over 10 years with no offsets. Iraq, 
as important as it is, a commitment to this country and to our efforts 
abroad, has no offsets. Highway construction, creating a million new 
jobs, has to be pared back. We are told all of the discretionary 
spending in this year's budget could be eliminated, every single 
dollar, with no money for education, health care, highways, or 
infrastructure of any kind, and we would still have a $150 billion 
deficit in this year's budget.
  As I look at the decisions and the choices made by this 
administration, there is a $140 million loss in the funding for 
conservation efforts, which, in a State with fragile lands such as 
South Dakota, is a big deal. We lose thousands of acres every year to 
wind erosion. Conservation is vital, and to cut back $140 million in 1 
year alone means we are going to lose a lot more. This budget the 
President proposed a week ago represents a $3.9 billion cut in aid to 
small towns and rural communities, $3.9 billion in losses that would 
otherwise go to improving the economic circumstances of small town main 
street. That, too, in the interest of balancing a budget that is 
lopsidedly in favor of foreign policy, tax policy, and against the 
priorities of policies at home. Even the basic programs to provide 
water and sewer services have been cut in the President's budget.
  About two hundred million dollars in grants, to small cities and 
towns, that provide water and sewer assistance were cut in this budget. 
So I simply say that the priorities represented by some during the 
debate on the highway bill, as well as the priorities reflected in this 
budget, are not the priorities I hear when I go home to South Dakota, 
not the priorities I hear when I talk to those who are concerned, as I 
am, about the implications of the extraordinary deficit created over 
the course of the last 3 years.
  The debt, and the incredible debt service we are paying, will be 
something my children and grandchildren will pay. We had a projected 
surplus of over $5.5 trillion 3 years ago. Now we have a projected debt 
of over $3.9 trillion, a shift of about $9 trillion in 3 years.
  We are told that to pay it back requires $3 for every $1 we have 
borrowed. What is amazing is we have gone to the Social Security bank 
and we have taken all of that, we have gone to the Medicare bank and we 
have taken all of that, so now we are going to the banks of the Chinese 
and the Japanese and the Taiwanese and South Koreans and we are 
borrowing at rates unprecedented to make up for the debt that we are 
accruing at $1 million a minute.
  We ought to have a good debate about the budget. We ought to get this 
job done, this highway bill, so we can move on to other important 
matters. But I must say, I can't think of anything more important than 
finishing this bill, than committing the resources to create those 
jobs, to deal with at least one of the deficits we have in this 
country, the infrastructure deficit. If we do that well, we can turn, 
hopefully in a bipartisan way, to address these other challenges before 
the end of this session.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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