[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 28 (Wednesday, February 11, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2097-S2100]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            STIMULUS PACKAGE

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, we have an opportunity in the next day 
or two to do something extremely significant to create jobs in this 
country, to help rebuild the middle class of this country, and to help 
rebuild confidence in the economy and to turn things around in America. 
I am anxious to do that, and I know our leadership is working very hard 
at this moment.
  I thank Senator Reid and everyone involved in this effort, the 
Speaker, and I thank our colleagues who have worked across the aisle 
with us to be able to address what is the most serious economic crisis 
certainly since the Great Depression. We have seen numbers of jobs lost 
that only rival back to 1945.

  In the morning I had the opportunity to chair a meeting with business 
leaders from around the country in every part of the economy, from 
retail sales to restaurants to manufacturing to homebuilders, realtors, 
the health care industry and information technology. One thing came 
through loudly and clearly.
  First, they are optimistic about America. They want to say we can get 
through this. But there is a sense that we have to move boldly and we 
have to get something done to turn things around. That is what this 
economic recovery package is all about.
  We know the numbers. Certainly I know the numbers in Michigan. My 
constituents, the families of Michigan, understand the numbers of what 
has been happening to people in my State and across the country. But we 
have seen since December of 2007 over 3.6 million jobs lost.
  It is my understanding now we have more people looking for work than 
there are available jobs. As a result of policies, of actions and 
inaction in the last 8 years, we now see over 11.7 million workers 
without a job. They want to work. People want to work. They work hard. 
People in my State right now are working hard if they are working. They 
may be working one job, two jobs, three part-time jobs to try to hold 
it together. But they want to work. We have seen the set of economic 
policies and inaction for too long that has created this horrible 
economic tsunami for too many people in this country.
  In my home State, unemployment is 10.6 percent, the highest in 25 
years. That is only the people we count. It does not count the people 
who have been unemployed so long that they are no longer involved in 
the numbers.
  The people of Michigan want to work. They want jobs. They want to be 
able to pay their house payment, be able to put food on the table, be 
able to have their small business be successful, be able to manufacture 
and make things in Michigan for this country and be a part of a vibrant 
middle class, which has been so wonderful about our country. That is 
what this economic recovery package is all about. We don't want to see 
these numbers, 3.6 million lost jobs.
  This is a picture from Miami. It is a little bit warmer in Miami than 
it is in

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my State at the moment, although they cannot snow ski. That is 
something we encourage people to do. I know in your home State of 
Pennsylvania as well, it is a little bit colder. We are enjoying the 
wonderful north at the moment. But this is serious. On this picture you 
could take off Miami and put Michigan and it would be the same. This is 
a picture of a thousand people who lined up for 35 firefighting jobs in 
Miami. First, this recovery package will help keep those firefighters 
on duty. It will help keep police officers on duty. It will help keep 
teachers in our classrooms. It is critically important that that part 
of the package be passed.
  But when you look at a thousand people--and we have seen thousands of 
people show up in lines around block after block for jobs--this is not 
about them wanting to work. It is about whether we are going to have 
economic policies that create jobs both in the short run and in the 
long run. I do not want to see any more of these pictures than I 
absolutely have to--Americans who are standing in line waiting to try 
to get one of a handful of jobs available.
  This is about creating jobs in America. That is what this is about. 
We want to turn those numbers around. We know there is no silver 
bullet. Believe me, I don't think there is anybody here who wishes more 
there was a silver bullet because I would take it, I don't care whose 
idea it was. We don't have a silver bullet. But we do know from talking 
to smart people, economists, from conservative economists to liberal 
economists to everything in between, we do know there are things that 
will make a big difference. In fact, those same economists were telling 
us that those things would make a difference last year and the year 
before and the year before. Unfortunately, there were not the votes, 
the support to be able to do those things.
  Now it has changed. We have a different leader in the White House. We 
have different Members of the Senate who now agree with the majority of 
the economists in the country about what should be done to be able to 
move us forward; what should be done on jobs, and housing, and critical 
investments to be able to get the economy going again.
  I am very proud of the fact that we have in front of us a plan that 
is part of a three-legged stool. We have Secretary Geithner, who was 
testifying yesterday in the Banking Committee. Today he is in the 
Budget Committee, which I am on, talking about two other critical 
pieces. Housing, how do we get housing going again? How do we stimulate 
the housing markets? How do we create a bottom in this economic 
freefall so we can get investments going again and people can stay in 
their home or buy a new home. Second, he is talking about how do we get 
credit flowing again, so we are not only giving money to banks but they 
are loaning the money so that small businesses can get the credit they 
need, so that the manufacturers, large and small, in my State can get 
the credit they need to be able to operate, to be able to make parts, 
to be able to do business. We also know it is critically important that 
people be able to buy a car.
  The two biggest investments most people will make are their home and 
their automobile. We in Michigan would like them to buy a lot of 
automobiles, made in Michigan, by the way.
  The reality is we have seen credit shrink and dry up in a way that 
has caused incredible damage to the economy. So there are three 
pieces--two of those Treasury is tackling through existing dollars--
that is incredibly important--and the third one is what we are doing in 
terms of creating jobs. The bottom line is not about just creating 
jobs; it is about rebuilding the middle class of this country. Every 
other country looks at us with envy because of this great economic 
engine, this great quality of life engine called the middle class of 
America. That is what we are investing in for the future. The people of 
this country who have not seen any kind of assistance through 
trickledown economics over the last 8 years, people who said, hey, how 
about us? How about my job? What you are doing is just talking about a 
few people. How about the majority of people?
  This economic recovery package is for the majority of Americans. I am 
very pleased to see that we basically have, in this American Recovery 
and Reinvestment Act, three goals. One is the focus on creating or 
saving up to 4 million jobs. Believe me, I know you share that we want 
that to be 4 and 5 and 6 million and we are not going to stop just 
because we pass this recovery package. But this is a critical 
investment in jobs.
  We want to make sure there are tax cuts for families, middle-class 
families. Let's put money in the pockets of the middle class for a 
change, rather than only those at the top, in terms of wealth. And we 
want to invest in America's future. That is what we are all about.
  I am very proud that there is an emphasis on the new green economy 
which does all of these things at once. We are here talking about 
investments in new technologies that can be built in America. I know 
colleagues probably get tired of me saying it, but it is not enough to 
invest in research and development or to be able to provide incentives 
for using alternative energy--wind or solar or buying electric 
vehicles. We want to build them in America. Mr. President, 70 percent 
of the jobs in the stimulus in wind energy are in manufacturing wind 
turbines. There are 8,000 different parts in a wind turbine. I can 
assure you we can make every single one of those in Michigan and the 
ones we can't, we will outsource to Pennsylvania.
  The reality is we can build the wind turbine. We can build the solar 
panel. A third of all of the polysilicon materials used in solar panels 
are actually created in Michigan through Dow-Corning. Unfortunately, 
too much of that is shipped out to other countries. They build the 
solar panel, it comes back and it is used. We have incentives in this 
package that will help make sure they are built here--a new 30-percent 
manufactured tax credit for alternative energy.
  We are not competing with low-wage countries on these issues. We are 
competing with countries such as Germany. That is not exactly a low-
wage or low-cost country but a country that has a specific 
manufacturing strategy and tax incentives. This proposal does that. It 
invests in a number of different alternative energies and focuses not 
only on research and development, on producing the energy, but also on 
making sure that we are putting an emphasis on manufacturing.
  We also here have a strategy for moving to plug-in electric vehicles 
that are so important for our future--first, by investing in advanced 
battery technology, research, and again manufacturing; investments for 
those to be done here.
  I was very excited when we saw Ford developed the first Ford Escape 
hybrid SUV, the first plug-in hybrid SUV. It was great, done in 
America, actually being built in Missouri. But the battery had to come 
from Japan. We don't make the battery here. Japan has invested hundreds 
of millions of dollars in creating the battery technology to get there 
first in the competition for the next generation of vehicles.
  South Korea, Germany, China, and even India have put together a 
manufacturing strategy to focus on these things. This recovery plan 
does that for the first time. It puts America back on track with 
investments in battery technology development and manufacturing. 
Secondly, it does something critically important--and I wish to thank 
Senator Cantwell for her leadership and I am proud to work with her in 
the effort to create expensing tax incentives for manufacturing of 
electric vehicles, manufacturing incentives not only for those 
currently making a profit and for startups and those not making a 
profit at this time. That is critically important for you to have the 
research in the battery development, incentives for manufacturing the 
vehicles, and then we also have consumer tax credits for purchasing 
vehicles.
  We know that when you first create a new product, whether it is your 
BlackBerry or your iPhone, your computer, whatever it is, it is far 
more expensive in the beginning. If you sell a large volume, the price 
comes down. So at the beginning we know consumer credits are very 
important to help with that initial cost. There are credits of up to 
$7,500 for purchasing a vehicle, the kind of vehicle we want for the 
future. In this package, we raise the total on the number of vehicles 
that would qualify for that credit.

[[Page S2099]]

  I wish to thank President Obama and his team for advocating for the 
Federal Government to be part of creating a market by making a 
commitment to purchase vehicles for the Federal Government. We purchase 
a lot of cars and trucks. We can help create that market not only for 
building the vehicles but to bring the price down to consumers by 
creating a larger market. That is in here as well.
  There is also a major focus on what has been called the smart grid, 
to make sure we have the electric capacity. I am told today, if every 
one of us had a plug-in electric vehicle and plugged it in, the lights 
would go out. We would be in trouble. We do not have the capacity. So 
we are focusing on that as well.
  Senator Cantwell's amendment focuses on what is called smart meters 
in homes. Again, we are talking about a strategy that, frankly, I am 
very excited about because it is focused on jobs and developing those 
technologies and it is focusing on the future.
  Frankly, it is focusing on the ability for us to get off foreign oil. 
The last thing we want, and the way we have been headed, is to exchange 
dependence on foreign oil for dependence on foreign technology. This 
recovery package says, you know what, that does not make any sense. 
Let's create jobs and, at the same time, be working toward getting us 
off foreign oil, making sure we can keep the vehicle production in this 
country because we certainly do not want to be asking other countries 
for their tanks or their trucks or other vehicles. So it is a national 
security issue.
  But let's do this in a way that makes sense in terms of a total 
strategy. So in this recovery plan we do a number of things for green 
technology. But there is a strategy, a plan, job training being another 
critical part of the plan. That is in here as well.
  We also know we can immediately create jobs rebuilding America. Some 
folks will criticize that somehow the spending on jobs for roads and 
bridges, water and sewer systems and other projects does not make 
sense. It makes a lot of sense. We have about 25 percent of the bridges 
in this country that are viewed as structurally unsafe. We need to be 
about the business of giving a facelift to America. For those who are 
in our middle years now, we understand that. The truth is we have not 
been investing in American infrastructure. We have not been investing 
in roads, bridges, water and sewer.
  Guess what. There is a new kind of infrastructure. It is called the 
Internet. I want the small businesses in Michigan to have access to 
high-speed Internet so they can do business around the world and stay 
in Michigan. The capacity to do that is helped in this bill.
  We also make sure hospitals can have access to technology so they not 
only make sure they are providing complete information in the care of 
someone but they are cutting costs. We are talking about not only 
traditional infrastructure and water and sewer and roads and bridges 
and public transportation, which is critically important, but we are 
also talking about looking to the future--as our President has said, 
not looking back but looking to the future.
  Part of what is in the future, as well, is investing in key portions 
related to education, related to access to college. That is here as 
well, all of which keeps people working and creates opportunities. When 
you help a family afford to send their kids to college, they are not 
then trying to figure out, since home equity loans are hard to come by 
now, how in the world they are going to juggle and be able to make the 
house payment and be able to send the kids to college.
  So this is all part of the picture in terms of stimulus. I would 
suggest this is critically important and long overdue.
  We also have a focus in here on those who have been caught up in this 
economic tsunami, those who have been hurt. I can certainly speak for 
Michigan because it has been multiple years, not 1 year, not 2 years, 
that we have seen job loss.
  In this package, we also make sure individuals and businesses that 
are hit the hardest receive assistance. We make sure we extend 
unemployment compensation--in the hardest hit States, up to 33 weeks 
for an individual. We provided extra help in putting food on the table, 
to be able to keep health care.
  It is great to have COBRA. If you have health insurance through your 
employer, then you go on unemployment and the COBRA payment can cost 
almost your entire unemployment check to be able to keep health care 
for your family. So we provide help for families, while they are going 
through a transition to get new employment.
  We also--this is very important to Michigan and I know to the 
Presiding Officer's State as well--make sure we have in place support 
for workers who have lost their jobs because of unfair trade practices 
and make sure job training, health care, and other assistance is 
available as well.
  We also know many people who, through no fault of their own, are 
finding themselves with no health care and needing to go to Medicaid. 
For individuals without health care, States are being hit very hard. 
There were 25,000 new individuals in December in Michigan who signed up 
to get health care assistance. This will help with that as well.
  Families in America are hurting. This package recognizes that and 
supports them and, frankly, according to every economist, creates a 
huge stimulus to the economy as we are doing that. It makes sense that 
when someone is out of work and they receive a little bit more money in 
their pocket, they are going to spend it. They do not have the 
opportunity to save it. They are going to have to spend it to be able 
to pay the mortgage, the rent, to be able to pay for food. We have 
heard this from economists, we have heard it actually for several years 
now. We have been hearing from economists that the quickest way to 
stimulate the economy, to get money in the economy, is to extend 
unemployment benefits, to help with food assistance because the people 
are going to go to the grocery store, they are going to buy the food. 
The grocers are going to be able to turn around and purchase food 
supply from vendors and then the ripple is very large. So we did that 
because it is both a stimulus and it is also the moral thing to do, the 
right thing to do, when people in America are hurting.
  We know, again, there are more people out of work than there are jobs 
available. We have, I believe, a moral obligation to pay attention and 
do what we can to help while families get back on their feet.
  There are many parts of this bill, but another important part for 
families is in the ability to put money in their pockets, in terms of 
middle-class tax cuts, child tax cuts for families, and to be able to 
make sure any tax relief is targeted to those first who have not 
received much of a tax cut in a long time. But, secondly, there are 
those in the middle class who most need to have money in their pockets 
and those working hard to get into the middle class who most need money 
in their pockets as well. We make sure we also focus on helping our 
veterans and seniors put money into their pockets. Again, we know this 
will help stimulate the economy.
  Overall, I am here to say this package needs to get done. It needs to 
get done as quickly as possible. It needs to get done by tomorrow or by 
Friday. I hope we will not see more filibustering going on and more 
delays.
  I hope we will come together. No one says anything we pass is 
perfect. We do the best we can. In this case, I have to say this is 
something economists have said will work. We know we need the jobs. We 
know families need help. We know what we need to do for investments in 
the future. We know what we need to do to support small businesses, 
what we need to do to be able to support manufacturing, to keep jobs in 
America.
  This is not rocket science. We know what needs to be done. This 
package addresses that. This is about creating jobs in America. That is 
fundamentally what this is about. We have gone for too long, we have 
lost over 4 million manufacturing jobs, good-paying, middle-class jobs 
in America in the last 8 years. We have over 11 million people out of 
work today. Now is the time. Now is the time for us to help the people 
of America get back to work.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Hagan.) The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

[[Page S2100]]

  Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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