[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 110 (Wednesday, September 15, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9273-S9274]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              THE ECONOMY

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I have a speech on energy, but the 
Senator energized me so much that I want to speak a little bit about 
what he spoke about and then I will talk about the people in the Senate 
on their side of the aisle.
  First, isn't it wonderful to say, fellow Americans, we need 10 
million new jobs.
  Senator Smith, you own a business; you know how people get jobs, 
right? Your business employs them, right? If things are bad in the 
economy, you cannot hire more, right? What good does it do for a 
politician to come up here and say we need 10 million new jobs? That is 
true. In fact, I would say we probably could use 20, although the truth 
is, we do not have that many people to be hired, but we could say that.
  Well, that is no plan. That is a statement. How are you going to do 
it? Who are you going to follow? Are you going to follow the Clinton 
model? They say that did all those things. There is a lot of question 
whether that plan did all that. But why don't Democrats say: We are 
going to follow the Clinton plan? The Clinton plan was to raise taxes. 
It just happened that the economy was recovering. And the Democrats 
will say: Yes, but the country got very confident once we put in the 
increase in taxes because they thought we were going to reduce the 
deficit. That is really their idea of where they got their great, new 
jobs. That may be true, but nobody is saying they are going to do that.
  They stand up and say: We need 10 million jobs. Bush is not producing 
them. We need 10 million jobs. Elect our man. That will take care of 
it. Does anybody believe that? It used to be they would say something 
better. When I came to the Senate, and we would have a downturn, the 
Democrats would come to the floor and say: We are going to add jobs. 
How? They would say: We are going to spend money. Do you know what they 
used to do? They would put a public works jobs bill on the floor and 
say: We are going to build bridges. We are going to build roads. We are 
going to build all these things. And the American people, like big, fat 
suckers, would say: Let's pass it. We are going to get new jobs.
  We stopped doing that. I say to the Presiding Officer, have you ever 
heard of anybody doing that since you have been here? No. Do you know 
why? Because it does not work. By the time those new jobs would come 
on, do you know how many years passed, on average? Three years before 
they started; 7 years before they got finished. By then, there was a 
whole new set of problems. Right? The downturn was gone. It did not 
have anything to do with it, but they passed something. Or they said: 
Let's double all the spending in all these programs we have. That will 
put everybody to work.
  Maybe we could get a chart here and say: We need 10 million new jobs. 
Let's put them to work with Government programs. We would see what that 
produced. The American people would say: Are you nuts? You want to 
spend $50 billion to put people to work? And then it would be invented 
work.
  So the truth is, you have to say, when you talk about 10 million 
jobs: I have the secret of how to make the American economy grow--not 
how you wish it would, but how you are going to make it grow.
  And I have not heard much. I have heard there is going to be more 
middle-income people getting tax cuts. Interesting. Has anybody put on 
a board how much that will cost? And will they really do it? And how 
much are they going to give the middle income back? And what will that 
do to create jobs? Most interesting. I would like to see it. Enough of 
that.
  Second issue. Health care costs are too high. Let's take a poll. I 
say to Senators, put up your hand as to how many of you think health 
care costs are too high? I imagine you would get 100 votes. Right? One 
hundred Senators say health care costs are too high, health care costs 
are going up too much. Wonderful.
  Now, let's go out to America and tell them that: I am running, and 
health care costs are too high. That is good. But now the question is, 
Are you telling us you know how to reduce the health care costs? What 
is your plan? What is your secret? Do you have some new way to do it? 
Let's hear how. I do not hear that because the one thing that is being 
said is, maybe the Government ought to take more people and let the 
Government take care of them in health care. But then, when you say, 
what do you want to do that for, is it that you mean you want more 
Government-owned and operated health care?

  Now, I know when you say ``socialized medicine,'' they get very 
upset. But maybe you do not want socialized medicine. Maybe you only 
want half socialized medicine, not all of it. But, frankly, I do not 
see any plan. The only one I have heard about is the importation of 
drugs. And I am not going to argue that today. It has been argued back 
and forth.
  I will just say, I have read everything I can about the importation 
of drugs and its impact on the costs of prescription drugs in America. 
And I guess I am prepared to say that there is very little empirical 
evidence that across the board, for really good kinds of medicines that 
are important today, and to our seniors, that in the long run, unless 
you physically take your body on a train or an airplane or car and 
drive to a foreign country and buy the prescription and bring it back, 
there is very little evidence that you are sure to get the right kind 
and that the price will be right if you ask it be shipped. Now, enough 
of that.
  So the question is, we need 10 million more jobs. How will the 
Democrat Presidential candidate do it? And let's talk about it. And 
then we need to reduce health care costs; and let's ask, how would we 
do it?
  Now, let me tell you, there is a lot of talk about the uninsured. 
Frankly, the most interesting thing is, they speak about a lot of 
children being uninsured. I submit that may be true. But when we were 
working 8 or 9 or 10 years ago on health care, I was involved. We asked 
some insurance companies: Well, how much does it cost to insure kids? 
Do you know what they said? ``We don't insure kids, children. We don't 
have any insurance policy that insures children.'' ``Are you kidding?'' 
``Yes, we don't do that.''

[[Page S9274]]

  Well, frankly, before that year was out, we pushed somebody. One 
insurance company finally put out a brochure that said: We will insure 
children. Do you know what. Very cheap. The thing is, most children are 
not covered that way. They are covered derivatively through their 
parents. Right? One of their parents gets a job. Their parent's job 
covers them and their kids. They buy insurance. They don't buy it only 
for themselves, they buy it for them and their children.
  So, in essence, it is good to say: We need to cover more people. It 
is hard to say how you are going to do it. I submit if you put what the 
President is proposing side by side with what the Democratic candidate 
is saying, you at least have some very positive things you can measure 
that are being done that the President is proposing. The other one is 
untried, nice to talk about, beautiful rhetoric. But I think the 
President's basic ones, with some additional things added to it, will 
probably be the way we go as a country anyway.
  Now, all the other issues that were raised by my good friend on 
behalf of their nominee could all be answered much the same way. So 
there are more poor people than there were before. Good statement. Not 
quite as many as they say, not quite as big a problem as they allege. 
But the question is, What are you going to do about it? How are you 
going to fix it?

  Most of the time, we are down here on the floor of the Senate talking 
about education and the inadequacy of our education. It is most 
compelling to me that about 4 weeks ago, Alan Greenspan, who normally 
does not have anything to do with education, was being asked a question 
in one of our committees about the fact that we have a lot of people 
who are unemployed, we have a lot of people underemployed, we have very 
tough competition from overseas. What do we do about it, Dr. Greenspan? 
I say to my colleagues, he did not talk about any single American 
program. He did not say: Let's increase the Small Business 
Administration so it would help more small businesses. He did not say: 
Let's give a tax cut to somebody. Do you know what he said? He said: 
Well, if that is the case, I guess we better start educating our 
children better. That will do more for the unemployment, more for the 
underemployment than anything else: better technical education for 
children. I am surprised--
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has used 10 minutes.
  Mr. DOMENICI. I ask Senator Murkowski, could I have 2 additional 
minutes? I say to the Senator, you are next.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DOMENICI. But I am surprised that is not what we are talking 
about: How do we take that tremendous number of young people walking 
our streets, who are not educated, who do not have diplomas, and make 
them educated so they will get out of poverty? Not just coming down and 
saying they are but that they will get out of it. How will we be 
competitive? Because that kind of person will become technologically 
capable, and they will help make us competitive.

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