[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 29 (Thursday, February 12, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2183-S2184]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             200TH ANNIVERSARY OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S BIRTH

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, today, as we all know, if we read the 
papers, we celebrated the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. 
Our Nation's 16th President is remembered and celebrated, of course, 
for his many accomplishments that shaped our Nation.
  Most of us recall hearing about the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858, 
a series of debates between the two Senate candidates over the issues 
of slavery, and how that led to the 1860 Presidential election.
  President Lincoln is celebrated for signing the Emancipation 
Proclamation, the beginning of the end to slavery. All of us remember 
learning in grade school, some of us failing to perhaps memorize it, 
but learning of the Gettysburg Address, the prophetic words to a nation 
in turmoil that a ``government of the people, by the people, and for 
the people, shall not perish from the earth.''
  One of the great places to go in Washington, DC, on a hot summer 
night is to sit on the marble floor at the Lincoln Memorial and read 
the Gettysburg Address on one side, then turn around and walk over and 
read perhaps Lincoln's greatest speech, in my opinion, the second 
inaugural address: With charity for all, with malice toward none, and 
all that he said in the second inaugural.
  We often remember elements of his legacy but sometimes forget the 
world view that drove his actions. Lincoln's fight for social and 
economic justice changed the face of our Nation forever. His fight for 
economic justice, his fight to ensure that work is rewarded and that 
wealth accrues to those who produce it, has also changed the face of 
our Nation.
  He forged a path toward prosperity, shared rather than hoarded, a 
path toward economic opportunity, rather than economic stratification.
  President Lincoln knew then what so many of us are reminded of today. 
That is one reason we celebrate him the way we do, not just his 200th 
birthday but what he stood for, and especially in light of today's 
economy. He knew that a nation with the economic priorities skewed 
toward the wealthiest citizens is a nation with a fragile foundation.
  One of my favorite Lincoln quotes:

       It has so happened in all ages of the world, that some have 
     laboured and others have, without labour, enjoyed a huge 
     proportion of the fruits. This is wrong, and should not 
     continue.

  President Lincoln could stand before this Chamber and deliver those 
same words and find equal resonance within the these walls and in the 
homes of middle-class families in the Presiding Officer's State of 
Colorado, and my home State of Ohio.
  President Lincoln's commitment to economic opportunity for America's 
workers was a tenet of what he stood for from his early days in the 
State legislature, in Springfield, IL, all the way to his final days in 
the White House.
  Those efforts were amplified through the fight against slavery, the 
hallmark of his legacy, which was founded on a fight for economic 
opportunity, opportunity for all.
  President Lincoln saw the fight for our Nation's workers, all 
workers, as a moral, a political, and an economic issue, one that put 
the Nation on a new path to prosperity and opportunity. Lincoln, in 
effect, fought for what we would today call the American dream. 
Americans who work hard, play by the rules, should get the opportunity 
and will get ahead.
  While he may have not have said it in so many words, he may have not 
have used the term American dream, he may not have mentioned the 
framework ``work hard and play by the rules,'' he was laying the 
groundwork for the creation of our Nation's middle class.
  He applied his philosophy that ``labor is the true standard of 
value'' and that

[[Page S2184]]

workers should be justly rewarded for their labor. President Lincoln 
saw Government as a catalyst that could propel the son of a farmer or a 
tradesman to a better life, to greater economic stability. He believed 
that Government investment in public works projects created jobs for 
millions of Americans, and history has shown him right--projects such 
as the transcontinental railroad, the Morrill Act to create land grants 
for colleges, and the building of canals through much of what was then 
the United States.
  It was the same philosophy championed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt 
some 70 years later on behalf of a nation in turmoil. Once again, the 
economic might of our Government was harnessed to promote public works 
projects, to create jobs, and to create economic prosperity.
  President Roosevelt's New Deal projects led to the construction of 
electricity-generating dams--I know what it did in the Presiding 
Officer's part of the country--in schools, in hospitals, in highways 
and bridges.
  The WPA, the Works Progress Administration, was responsible for 
putting millions of Americans back to work to support their families, 
back on the path to the American dream. Our Nation once again faces 
chronically uncertain economic times. During the last 8 years, the 
wealthiest 1 percent of our Nation got wealthier and wealthier. Most of 
the rest of America saw their wages stagnate. Yet the 1 percent got the 
hugest tax breaks. Middle-class families, the backbone of our Nation, 
saw their income stagnate, their jobs disappear, their health care 
costs rise, and sometimes their health care itself evaporate, their 
energy costs rise, their homes go into foreclosure, their retirement 
security vanish.
  Productivity rose and real wages declined. You would think in the 
history of this country, in the postwar years especially, when 
productivity went up, when workers were more productive, their wages 
kept up. During the Bush administration, that was truncated, where 
prosperity continued to go up, but wages flattened and the workers 
simply did not share in the wealth they created.
  That would so violate the spirit of Abraham Lincoln and so run 
counter to what he said about labor and about workers. Let me read that 
line again: It has so happened in all ages of the world, that some have 
laboured and others have, without labour, enjoyed a huge proportion of 
the fruits. This is wrong, and should not continue.
  Our Government's priorities in the last few years were focused on 
enabling the wealthiest Americans to accrue more wealth, not focused on 
ensuring that hard work would enable middle-class families to thrive. 
Lincoln knew better. Roosevelt knew better. And we know better. That is 
why what we are doing this week is so important. We are walking away 
from priorities that undervalue Main Street, Lima, OH, Main Street, 
Akron, OH, Main Street, Mansfield, OH, and overvalue Wall Street. We 
are walking away from priorities that undervalue Main Street and 
overvalue Wall Street.
  We are focusing on making sure that there are jobs to be had, and 
that Americans who work hard and play by the rules are rewarded for 
doing those jobs and renewing American prosperity by rebuilding its 
infrastructure, an infrastructure that has been starved by a war in 
Iraq, and starved by tax cuts going overwhelmingly to the wealthy. We 
are investing in public works projects because we know that the path 
carved out by President Lincoln, expanded by President Roosevelt, and 
now the one we follow along with President Obama, is the right path for 
job creation. It is the right path for our Nation's economy and our 
Nation's workers. It is the right path to the American dream.
  Abraham Lincoln, first and foremost, believed in American workers. He 
believed in American businesses. He believed in America itself. This 
economic recovery package is an investment in our great country, it is 
a fitting way to mark President Lincoln's birthday. I think he would 
have been proud.
  I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Brown). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed to lead a 
colloquy among my colleagues for up to 30 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________