[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 19 (Wednesday, February 6, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S688]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ECONOMIC STIMULUS
Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, in the remaining moments of morning
business, I wish to highlight a couple important points about our
economic stimulus efforts in the Senate.
We have had an opportunity over the last couple weeks to analyze
carefully what the American people expect in terms of a jolt to our
economy and what they expect this body to do. Unfortunately, we have
been stymied by a lot of politics. I think it is important to point out
very briefly the elements of what the Senate is trying to do, at least
on the Democratic side and, secondly, to highlight its importance to
the American people.
First of all, with regard to the basic elements--I will not go into a
long discussion--in order to stimulate this economy, we have to invest
in strategies we know will work. One of those is unemployment
insurance. We know that. All the economists say that. It is not because
Democrats assert that; economists say one of the only ways that is
proven to jolt our economy is to invest in unemployment insurance. This
proposal on the Democratic side does that. The House proposal doesn't
do that in the area of unemployment insurance. It doesn't address that.
The package this side of the aisle has been pushing is a $500 rebate.
It is across the board for everyone and obviously for those who are
married it is double that. But significantly, in this proposal 20
million American senior citizens are provided some relief. That wasn't
addressed in the House proposal. I think that is an important omission.
In order to get this right, in order to jolt our economy, we need to
help seniors. We also need to make sure a quarter of a million disabled
veterans are helped as well. That is an important feature.
Thirdly, avoiding foreclosure; doing everything we can in this
stimulus package in a short-term way to help families avoid foreclosure
is another critically important element.
Home heating costs: In my home State of Pennsylvania--and I know the
same is true in Ohio and across the country--there has been a 19-
percent increase in the costs that families have to heat their homes,
in 1 year. So if that is happening in Pennsylvania, we know it prevails
around the country. This proposal in this Chamber does that. It adds $1
billion for home heating costs.
Finally, helping businesses and energy: As to the cost to businesses,
I think small businesses should get help in this rough economy, and
this proposal helps our businesses. It also makes investments we should
have--or I should say implements strategies we should have done months
ago when it comes to incentivizing energy efficiency and other tactics
to move toward a more energy independent economy.
So whether it is energy, whether it is helping businesses, whether it
is making sure our seniors get relief, that our families get relief and
that we focus on unemployment insurance, home heating costs, all these
elements are critically important. It is not perfect. The Presiding
Officer knows--and he shares this view with me--we wanted to do more
with regard to food stamps. We are still going to try on that. But if
that doesn't happen and some other things don't happen that I want, we
still have to move this forward. I wish the other side of the aisle
would allow us to go forward in a way that addresses these basic
problems. We have seen a lot of talk on the other side but not nearly
enough action to say we are going to support a proposal, not just what
the House sent us but an improved and a much more significant proposal
to hit this economy in the way we should hit it: With a stimulus to get
the economy moving, to create jobs, to provide relief for our families,
and to move into the future together. We can do that here. We should do
it this week and make sure we don't pass something which is watered
down and which would not do the job.
I yield the floor.
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