[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 48 (Wednesday, April 7, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3873-S3874]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ECONOMIC SECURITY

  Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, I rise to speak on America's economic 
security--rather, I should say America's economic insecurity at the 
moment.
  Before the Senator from Oregon leaves the floor, let me compliment 
him on bringing up one of those issues that absolutely must be 
addressed, one of those issues that is squeezing middle-class 
Americans: their gas prices--natural gas prices and gasoline prices.
  The idea that we are unwilling, after we are committing so many 
resources to the Middle East, to try to bring stability and democracy 
in the Middle East and not use our diplomatic capital to accomplish 
what the Senator from Oregon is speaking about, to bring forth a 
response from OPEC, is just unfathomable. It is absolutely an abject 
failure in the context of economic policy management and certainly on 
diplomatic efforts.
  I compliment the Senator for his efforts. I hope he will include me 
as a cosponsor of his resolution.
  As I said, I wish to speak about America's economic security. We have 
certainly heard in the last 48 to 72 hours a lot of celebration and 
victory laps being taken with regard to 1 month's economic report on 
employment in the United States.
  All of us are pleased to see that jobs have been created in the 
United States. We are glad to see they finally met something that 
looked like the expectations that have been talked about for the 38 
months this administration's stewardship of the economy has been in 
place. It is positive for those who have found jobs, but it is failing 
to take into account something that I think is very important in the 
reality of people's lives and something that is not being celebrated on 
the ground among working men and women in the United States, and that 
is an incredible squeeze on moderate and middle-class families in this 
country across the board.
  It is great to celebrate big-picture statistics, but the last time I 
checked, statistics are not how people live their lives. The reality is 
we have almost 8.5 million unemployed Americans. That number actually 
grew last month by about 180,000. For those folks and for many people 
who feel as if they are at the edge of whether their job will continue, 
the situation is really quite serious. Those kitchen-table issues 
actually make a difference in people's lives.
  I will be specific. Just last month, we closed the next to the last 
auto production facility in New Jersey. Mr. President, 1,500 
manufacturing jobs were eliminated in New Jersey. By the way, we have 
one last plant, which is scheduled to close in May of 2005. Then we 
will have the auto industry completely eliminated from the State of New 
Jersey. We have already had the textile industry eliminated. We have 
seen AT&T and Lucent lose literally tens of thousands of jobs over the 
last 2 to 2\1/2\ years in my home State.
  When people lose in these contracting industries, we see a decline in 
the real standard of living when people are reemployed. The statistics 
show that the average loss, since the last recession, for people who 
lose jobs at $44,000 when they were working to their next job at 
$35,000 was 21-percent decline in their real earnings. That is what 
happens when people are part of that growing job set but, 
unfortunately, they are losing their manufacturing jobs, they are 
losing their white-collar jobs, and they are moving into service sector 
jobs that are dramatically less valuable for their families and their 
own economic well-being. It is a big hurt, and I know it is a big hurt 
on those folks I see and talk with in my home State.

  Think about it: We have gone from 6.5 million unemployed to 8.4 
million unemployed under this administration's stewardship of the 
economy. When people get jobs--it is good we see job growth--they come 
back at a lower earning capacity than before.
  That is not the only place we are getting hurt. For most middle- and 
moderate-income families, they have to deal with trying to make ends 
meet with regard to health care costs and tuition that goes on in their 
State and, as we just heard very eloquently expressed by Senator Wyden, 
increasing gas prices. These are items for which real dough is coming 
out of people's pockets. We have gone from earning $44,000 a year on 
jobs lost to $35,000 in jobs found, and we have income not keeping up 
with the cost of medical care.
  We have seen an almost 15-percent increase in medical costs for 
individuals since 2001, while we are seeing less than 5 percent in real 
income growth. That is a huge gap. By the way, at the same time, there 
were 3.5 million, almost 4 million Americans who lost their insurance 
during that period of time, so these costs are actually real. They are 
coming right out of their pocketbooks. Those 3.5 million to 4 million 
people are having to pay those costs, and that is why I talk about 
economic insecurity. This is a reality in people's lives: lower income, 
higher costs, and they are having to deal with that around the kitchen 
tables across America.
  We might have one great number out of 38 months of economic 
stewardship as far as job creation, but I do not think it is 
translating into reality in people's lives.
  Let me use another example: increasing tuition costs. There has been 
a 14-percent increase in tuition costs last year alone. These numbers 
are up about 25 percent since the Bush administration came into office. 
We have seen Pell grants go from about 42 percent to about 35 percent. 
Income, relative to tuition costs for kids accessing the American 
promise through higher education, has just been a tragedy. We are 
seeing people not able to afford the kind of education that will allow 
them to grow their income.
  The difference between having a college education and a high school 
education or high school dropout is a dramatic improvement in their 
real earnings. We are seeing incredible pressure being put on middle-
class Americans in tuition, just as we are seeing in health care costs.
  I could go through a whole laundry list of other expenses most 
Americans have to meet and discuss around the kitchen table. Property 
taxes in New Jersey have gone up 7 percent in the last 3 years. One of 
the reasons is we in Washington keep putting mandates on them, and all 
those mandates trickle down to the local level, the local

[[Page S3874]]

school board. They have to meet No Child Left Behind standards and 
IDEA, special education mandates, and the only way to meet those 
mandates is to raise property taxes. It is wonderful that we are 
cutting taxes in Washington, but they are going up dramatically in the 
State and local governments. It is a very substantial hit, particularly 
for middle-class and moderate-income Americans.
  Again, it is great that we saw 1 month of job growth, but what about 
these trendlines with regard to college tuition?
  What about the trendlines with regard to medical expenses? What about 
the trendlines with regard to property taxes? Now we are seeing an 
explosion in gasoline prices. I think that is why there is a sense of 
economic insecurity among Americans.
  It is great to take these victory laps and put all the spin that one 
wants to put on what is going on with regard to job growth, but it is 
not matching reality in people's lives. It is not matching with those 
1,500 families who are losing their major wage earner at the Edison 
Ford plant in New Jersey. That is happening across the country, and I 
think it is a shame.
  We will talk a little bit about the job deficit in a macro term. We 
like to talk about 300,000 jobs grown in a month, but the fact is this 
is the only administration since Herbert Hoover that is actually going 
to be overseeing 4 years in office without having any job growth, 
unless there is a miracle that we have a job growth of 300,000 a month 
between now and next January.
  There has been roughly 2.6 million jobs lost in the private sector, 
1.8 in the overall sector because somehow or another we seem to be 
growing Government for an administration that thinks Government is not 
a good thing. Anyway, we are seeing job losses where we have not seen 
it before, all the way back to the Depression. No other President is 
going to have overseen an actual shrinkage of jobs. By the way, just 
for comparison purposes, there were about 22 million jobs created in 
the previous administration. So when the Democrat presumed Presidential 
candidate talks about 10 million jobs, at least there is a record to 
run on.
  History will show that if we want to see job creation in this 
country, and we want to have balanced policies with regard to taxes and 
budget deficits, then we have to make sure we are investing back in the 
American people in a way that makes a difference.
  We have seen these manufacturing jobs leave America, which has shown 
a reduction in the quality of the jobs that are replacing them. We have 
seen a reduction in the number of jobs overall.
  I think that to get so focused on 1 month's number in celebration is 
a little bit like some of the other things we have seen that I think 
undermine the credibility of those who claim everything is so 
wonderful. There are credibility gaps on all kinds of issues, not only 
with regard to jobs where there is a 7 million job deficit from the 
economic report of the President of 2002, post-9/11, projecting there 
were going to be 5.6 million jobs and there are actually 1.8 million 
less. That is a 7 million deficit relative to what was projected at 
that point in time.
  We have promised we would cut taxes without using Social Security 
trust funds. Well, we used every penny of the Social Security trust 
fund to pay for both the tax cuts and the expenditures that we made in 
the country.
  The claim that any deficits would be small and short term, well, we 
all know they have not been small. There are record deficits right now, 
$500 billion-plus this year. People are talking about as much as $5.6 
trillion worth of deficits in the next 10 years. We are seeing a $10 
trillion swing in cashflow of the Federal Government in the 10 years 
that encompass the President's timeframe and analysis. It is hard to 
believe $10 trillion. I have a hard time even figuring out what 
trillion means, but it is a lot of money.

  I know each American had $18,000 worth of Federal debt assigned to 
them when this President came into office. It is $24,000 now and it 
will be $35,000 at the end of the term. We are creating an enormous 
amount of debt burden on every American as we go forward, and there is 
a credibility problem. One cannot say they are a fiscal conservative, 
that they are fiscally responsible, and have this kind of debtload laid 
on the American people.
  There are also other small issues such as the $140 billion miss with 
regard to the Medicare prescription drug plan. That is why people are 
frustrated when they hear about the great news that we had great growth 
in jobs, which everybody is glad to see, but we do not see it tracking 
with the reality of the other activities that are going on.
  I wanted to make the point that while we are hearing all of this 
celebration, all of this spinning about how good this is--and again it 
is good--there were 2.6 million private sector jobs lost, the worst 
record in history. The quality of the jobs that are replacing the ones 
that are lost is substantially less in actual real earnings. Real 
median income earnings last year for the Nation were actually negative 
for the first time in decades. Massive deficits are occurring at the 
very same time. We are seeing all of these rising costs on health care, 
tuition, property taxes, and gas prices in this country.
  I think there is a serious credibility problem. We need a new 
President who will put America first, rebuild our economy, and address 
the real needs of the middle class and moderate-income elements of our 
Nation.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.

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