[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 17 (Monday, February 4, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S562-S563]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ECONOMIC STIMULUS PLAN

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, each day newspapers around the country tell 
us news stories of America's economic troubles--and there are economic 
troubles. I was told by Senator Corzine, before he became Governor--and 
he made millions and millions of dollars on Wall Street--regarding the 
market, that you can always understand when the economy is in big 
trouble when there are large fluctuations in the stock market. If his 
words are meaningful, and I believe they are, that is what we have had 
to deal with lately--wide fluctuations in the stock market.
  Today, I looked before I left for the floor, and the market was about 
100 points down. Last week, it was up several times by more than a 
hundred points and then down a few hundred points. That is not an 
economy that is feeling good about itself.
  Housing foreclosures are dramatically up in cities and towns 
throughout the country, including an astonishing rate in Reno, NV, of 
more than 600 percent. In Las Vegas, it is 200 percent. In Florida, it 
is 275 percent. In California, with 37 million people, it is up more 
than 300 percent.
  Gas prices are well above $3 per gallon throughout the country. The 
average price is $3.02 a gallon. Some States are significantly higher, 
and California and Nevada feel that very much.
  Heating costs are skyrocketing. This is the time when especially the 
Northeast depends so much on heating oil. Those prices are hard to 
handle for people.
  Friday, the Department of Labor's jobs report showed that 17,000 
nonfarm jobs were cut in January. With the cost of heating homes, this 
is very difficult.
  I was able to spend some time at home in Searchlight after Christmas. 
I paid the bill last night. In Searchlight, NV, $480 was the cost of my 
bill for heating our house. I wasn't even there all that time. Mr. 
President, I can pay that bill, but some people cannot. So they have to 
make a choice between staying cold or not paying the bill. Most of them 
stay cold because they know they cannot get out of paying their bill.
  Again, Friday, the Department of Labor jobs report showed that 17,000 
jobs were cut in January. These are 17,000 husbands, wives, sons, and 
daughters who don't have a job. They wonder what they are going to do.
  After 8 years of economic growth during the Clinton years, the Bush 
administration's 7 years have shown anemic job growth. Now job growth 
is nonexistent, negative. During the Reagan years, about 22.5 million 
jobs were created. With troubling statistics such as we have had these 
past 7 years--yes, there have been jobs added, but they have been very 
weak--and growing economic challenges in our daily lives, it is no 
wonder that polls show the American people are now more concerned about 
the economy than the intractable war in Iraq. Congress cannot solve 
this problem on its own with a single piece of legislation, but we can 
and must help.
  Last week, the House sent us a plan that was a good first step. It 
was a first step, but we have a chance now in the Senate to make the 
plan better. On a bipartisan basis, Senators Baucus and Grassley have 
worked together to send us a bipartisan package we can all support, and 
we should support it.
  The Finance Committee package sends stimulus checks to 21.5 million 
senior citizens, who would get nothing from the House bill. Most of 
them are living on fixed incomes, but they are facing high living 
costs, as I have mentioned with the heating bill for my little home in 
Searchlight, and medicine and groceries, which are anything but fixed. 
Give them the money, and these seniors will spend that money.
  This Finance Committee package sends checks to 250,000 disabled 
veterans, who were left out of the House plan. These wounded American 
heroes are struggling to make ends meet, and we should not leave them 
out. Give them the money, and they will spend it.
  The Finance Committee will extend unemployment benefits for those who 
lost their jobs in this economy. You are entitled to unemployment 
benefits for 13 weeks. When that runs out and you don't have a job, you 
are in big trouble. We have a lot of people in big trouble. The House 
bill doesn't do anything for the unemployed. Economists tell us that 
this is the single-most effective way to stimulate the economy. Give 
the unemployed this tax break, and they will spend it.
  The Finance Committee bill is business-friendly--much more so than 
the House bill. It gives small businesses a greater ability to 
immediately write off purchases of machinery and equipment. When we 
give these tax rebates and we give these business-friendly tax 
incentives, it will create jobs, and in many instances it will allow 
people to have money, and these people will spend this money. It helps 
larger businesses with ``bonus'' depreciation or an extended carryback 
period for their past losses to recoup cash for future investments. 
Give them the tax break, and they will spend it. This bill will help 
big businesses, small businesses, medium-sized businesses, 
manufacturers, home builders, and a whole panoply of businesses that 
are struggling today.
  The Finance Committee legislation addresses the housing crisis by 
including $10 billion in mortgage revenue bonds to be used by States to 
refinance subprime mortgages. This legislation was originally put into 
place to help build new homes, but we don't need that now. We have an 
inventory of tens of millions of homes. We need help in refinancing 
homes. The President talked about this in his State of the Union 
Message. This is in the Senate Finance package. Everybody should 
support it--Democrats and Republicans.
  The Finance Committee bill includes an extension of energy efficiency 
and renewable energy incentives, which will create jobs, expand the 
clean energy industry, save consumers money on their energy bills, and 
begin to help stem the tide of global warming.
  Mr. President, I am going to offer a substitute, as I explained, to 
my Republican counterpart to the House-passed legislation. It will 
incorporate the measures reported by the Finance Committee last week on 
a bipartisan basis together with the addition of LIHEAP. This will 
include the House-passed language on housing, plus the items we put in 
the bill. It will increase the conforming loan limits for Fannie Mae 
and Freddie Mac, as well as the loan limits for FHA-backed mortgages 
which will allow many more homeowners to refinance and will reduce 
mortgage interest rates in many parts of the country.

  This amendment will allow about $1 billion to help low-income 
Americans heat their homes through the Low-Income Home Energy 
Assistance Program, which we call LIHEAP. This Low-Income Home Energy 
Assistance Program, which speaks for itself, provides some relief to 
people from having to choose between food and medicine or heat. There 
is more we can do, but this is a step in the right direction.
  All Americans should know that as a result of our debate, their 
rebate checks will not be delayed a single minute.
  Under the terms of the House plan, the Internal Revenue Service will 
determine the size of payments based on 2007 tax returns, which are not 
due until April 15. That gives us the opportunity to work together to 
create a

[[Page S563]]

better plan without any need for concern.
  The Finance Committee's bipartisan work helps build on the bill sent 
to us by the House of Representatives and makes it much better--fair to 
seniors and disabled veterans--and, as important as that, more 
effective in stimulating the economy with the breaks it gives to 
businesses.
  That is the bottom line. It will do the job. It will work. People 
say: Why do we need to go to conference? We have to go to conference 
anyway. The House-passed bill allows the benefits to go to undocumented 
people. I don't think Senators want to vote for that provision. A vote 
this afternoon is simply a vote to proceed to the House bill. We have 
to go to conference anyway because of that provision; that is, rebates 
for undocumented persons.
  We have a chance to stimulate the economy and help more struggling 
Americans. I hope we can all work together, Democrats and Republicans--
in fact all Senators--to build on the good work done by the House of 
Representatives by supporting this bipartisan Finance Committee 
legislation. It is good legislation.
  This is it. People need not look further. If the package does not 
pass, that is the end of the line. That will be it. It will be a shame. 
We will have to look at something else after we dispose of this 
stimulus package to try to do something to stimulate the housing 
industry, give unemployment benefits, to do something about LIHEAP. It 
would be a shame that we would miss this opportunity. The Republicans 
should join with us. The bill has to go to conference anyway. Let the 
conferees determine, working with the President, what we should do to 
stimulate the economy. We believe ours is a Cadillac package. It is 
what the American people need. It is what the economy needs. It is 
fair. It is just. It is quick. The House bill is, as I said, a step in 
the right direction but a very small step.

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