[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 44 (Thursday, April 1, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3527-S3528]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE DREAD OF ELECTION YEAR POLITICS
Mr. SMITH. Mr. President, as the new year arrived, I looked to coming
back to Congress with, frankly, a sense of dread because I knew we were
entering a political year, a year where the stakes are high, and the
President stands for reelection. I knew there would be an awful lot of
my work and the work of all of us tied up in partisan gamesmanship.
I will confess to my colleagues, I do not much enjoy it. I look at my
friend from Nevada, Senator Reid, and I see a great human being. When I
look at Senator Feingold, I see another great human being. I love the
message of compassion of the Democratic Party. I know where their
hearts are. This is not about good people or bad people. This is about
competing ideas.
But because I had that view--my father was a Republican, and my
mother, a Udall from Arizona--I understand good people can differ on
these issues. Because of that sort of bipartisan approach to life I
have always had, in my former life as a businessman, as candidates for
public office would come to our company and ask to meet with us and our
employees, I welcomed Democrats and Republicans alike equally.
Unfortunately, what I often came away with was the feeling those on
the Democratic side loved my employees but they hated employers. That
is because they would demand we create jobs and then they would say the
way you do that is you raise the minimum wage, increase your
regulations, and raise your taxes. I came to understand by doing the
books, by doing accounting, one of my most significant costs was
Government overhead.
All of them are well meaning. But all of them make it more difficult
for capital to come together so labor can be given work to do.
As my colleagues have come to the floor and complained about various
aspects of this current obstructionist period--you know, we talk about
medical liability, the Senator from Wyoming talked about energy, others
have talked about judges--I have to talk today about the whole issue of
FSC/ETI and how critical it is we find a way through this morass of
partisanship to getting this bill done. What we do by failing the
American people is to impose on manufacturers a European tax and a
penalty to American potential for creating jobs. I don't think that is
what Senators intend, but that is what is happening if we don't get
FSC/ETI through this process.
As I mentioned earlier, I love the compassion I hear from my
Democratic friends. Yet when I look at some of the policies that are
advanced, what I see are policies designed to make the United States
more like Western Europe, more like socialist democratic welfare
states.
I recently had an experience on a trip with Senator Shelby and
Senator Cantwell when we had traveled to
[[Page S3528]]
Berlin to meet with Gerhard Schroeder. The German Chancellor was
explaining to us his policies to reduce taxes, to reduce regulation, to
reform medicine and Social Security. I said in humor, Mr. Chancellor,
your policies would make Ronald Reagan smile.
His response was: It isn't because I want to do this, but I must do
this because Germany no longer grows. We no longer have opportunity for
our people. Our economy is dead in the water and yours is growing at a
spectacular rate.
He even commented to the effect: You worry about losing jobs? We
wonder why Mercedes and BMW are building plants in South Carolina.
It is because you can get a return on investment here.
I think we have to get beyond this lamentable side of the Democratic
message, we love employees but we hate their employers, because the
truth is both have to win and there is room for both. These policies
that are punitive are well-intended. They want a vote on the minimum
wage. I am ready to vote on that. They want to vote again on the
overtime provision. We have voted on all these things before. These are
not reasons to hold up progress on FSC/ETI. But that is what is
happening.
We have to vote two, three, four times on policies already decided by
this bicameral Capitol Hill. It is so very frustrating. I don't want
America to become a democratic socialist welfare state. I don't care
how well meaning all that was when they constructed the French and
German economies, but I know, as Vice President Cheney pointed out last
week, while our economy was growing at nearly 8 percent in the last
half of last year, their economies were growing at 1.4 percent.
So as we look to where these policies that are being proposed lead,
let's understand we don't want to become like that. We want to be
Americans. We want the American economy to produce jobs and to ensure
freedom. All the well-intentioned taxes, regulations, and burdens of
costs that are put upon employers ultimately translate into harm to
employees. I think we have to start pointing that out.
In the FSC/ETI bill we passed through the Finance Committee, there
was included in that a very important provision I was proud to sponsor.
It was the repatriation provision. One of the good things the Europeans
do and many of the other countries with whom we compete do, when their
companies invest over here they let them take the money back to their
home country without a tax. They let it be taxed once here. They don't
retax it.
As to American companies who compete overseas, we allow them to be
taxed over there and then we tax them again when they come back. So
this repatriation provision, which for 1 year would have treated our
companies like our competitors treat their companies, would have
dropped the tax from 35 percent to 5.25 for 1 year. That would have
created over 650,000 jobs. All the economists said that. It would have
brought $300 billion into the economy, and it would have increased
Federal tax receipts by nearly $12 billion a year. It is a win-win. Yet
we are stuck trying to re-vote on votes we have already voted, holding
up this critical legislation, which I promise you is a vote against
jobs. To obstruct this bill is a vote against American jobs. It is a
vote for a European tax increase on American workers.
Repatriation is a component of ending the FSC regimen that promoted
exports by helping to bring into balance with our competitors American
taxation on our companies which export abroad.
I listened with some humor last week when my colleague Senator Kerry,
the Democratic nominee for President, introduced his tax plan. It
contained my repatriation provision. But when we put it through the
Finance Committee, Senator Kerry voted against it. But now it is
included. I don't know. I am glad he changed his mind, but I don't know
why the flip-flop. It is a great idea. It is important to do. I am glad
he is now with us. I wish he were here today to vote on it. We could
use his vote to get this off the Senate floor, to a conference, and
into the American economy. It truly does produce jobs.
While I think it is easy to hate employers, it is easy to bash
corporations, at the end of the day that is how American free
enterprise does its work.
I know not all corporations are perfect. There is always a rotten
apple or two to spoil the barrel. But most employees don't hate their
employers, and most employers care about their employees. Most American
companies are anxious to see America succeed. These are patriotic
people. We have to understand there needs to be a win-win here. Right
now the obstruction on FSC/ETI is a lose-lose for the American people.
If we want to see jobs created, we need to pass this bill. We need
not to accede to a European tax through the WTO on the issue of FSC/
ETI. We need to fix it now. We needed to fix it yesterday. We need to
get it to the House so we can get it to the President and then get it
to the union shop, the corporate board room, so labor can be
reemployed, because American capital comes home.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Ensign). The Senator from Wisconsin is
recognized.
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