[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 19099-19100]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                  LITTLE CONGRESSIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENT

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, we are coming to the end of one segment of 
this Congress. We are about to break for an August recess which is an 
opportunity for Members to be back in their States and with their 
families. I am looking forward to that, as I am sure are many of my 
colleagues. But it is a good time for us to reflect on what we have 
done and what we have failed to do in the last several months.
  Each of us is elected with a responsibility to come to Washington and 
try to respond to some of the challenges facing families and 
individuals and businesses across America. I am sad to report as of 
this moment we have little to show for our efforts this year. The 
Columbine shooting, which focused the attention of America on violence 
in our schools, rallied the Senate in a rare bipartisan fashion to deal 
with violence in schools. We passed the Juvenile Justice Act, which had 
sensible gun control provisions contained in it, and tried as well to 
attack this culture of violence which is becoming more dominant in our 
society.
  If you will recall, it was a tie vote, 50-50. The tie was broken by 
Vice President Gore, the bill passed, it went over to the House, and 
was hopelessly mired down by the efforts of the gun lobby because of 
their resistance to any changes in gun control. So we are here today, 
the first part of August, with literally nothing to show for this whole 
issue of school safety. By the time we return, our kids will be back in 
school, another school year will have started, and this Congress will 
have failed to react to a problem that is on everyone's mind.
  The second issue, one that continues to haunt us, is the issue of the 
Patients' Bill of Rights. Yesterday, I was in Bloomington, IL, and met 
with a group of doctors and nurses at hospitals to talk about what is 
happening with health insurance, how families feel so helpless when 
health insurance clerks are making decisions that doctors should make. 
When we tried to address it on the floor, sadly, we were defeated by 
the health insurance lobby, a lobby which continues to spend millions 
of dollars to overcome our efforts on behalf of patients and families. 
That, again, is another issue with which we failed to deal.
  Finally, of course, we will be talking a lot this week about the tax 
break as well as the whole question of the budget. There are many of us 
who think the action by the Senate last week was not a very wise one. 
We have a chance now, if our economy recovers and continues to grow, to 
generate a surplus. Then we have to decide what to do with it. First 
and foremost, I think we should do no harm to this economy. The economy 
moves forward, creating jobs and businesses and new housing starts. Yet 
Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve Chairman, warns Congress on a 
weekly basis not to pass the Republican tax cut package, a $800 billion 
tax cut primarily for wealthy individuals, which could fuel the fires 
of inflation and raise interest rates, jeopardizing home mortgages, 
business loans, and family farmers, who are trying to stay in business.
  First and foremost, we ought to be cautioned that Alan Greenspan, who 
has no partisan interest in whose ox is gored in this battle, has 
warned us do not do it. Second, even when I go home and speak to the 
most conservative Republicans in my home State of Illinois, they say: 
If you have a surplus, Senator, for goodness' sake, the first thing you 
ought to do is get rid of the national debt, the $5.7 trillion we have 
amassed in debts over the last, well, two centuries plus, most of it in 
the last 10 or 15 years. That debt costs us $1 billion a day. All 
across America we collect payroll taxes and income taxes--for what? To 
pay the interest on the debt, not to do something good and new for this 
country; not to improve education or the safety of our streets or to 
build new highways or mass transit. No, it is interest on the national 
debt.
  So on the Democratic side, we think the highest priority, if there is 
to be a surplus, is to eliminate that debt. What legacy do we want to 
leave to our children? Wouldn't it be great to leave them a debt-free 
America and say to them: You have it here, the best country in the 
world, a history and tradition you can be proud of, and you do not have 
to pay for the debts of our generation.
  That to me is so basic, so sound, in opposition to the concept that 
we are somehow going to give tax breaks to the wealthiest people among 
us as an alternative.

[[Page 19100]]

  If we are going to do that and reduce the debt, we can do it in a 
fashion that is fair to everyone and do it in a way that preserves 
Social Security and Medicare. Many senior citizens are not even aware 
of the fact the Medicare system is in trouble. Yet it is. They would 
like to see Medicare expanded, as I would, to cover prescription drugs 
and to be even a better program so seniors can remain healthy and 
independent for a longer period of time. But, sadly, the Republican 
approach to this includes no money for Medicare, no money for Medicare 
out of this surplus. Do you know what that means? Seniors who are 
striving to be independent and healthy will not get a helping hand when 
they should. That is what this budget and tax debate has been about.
  Sadly, that is where we find ourselves as we head toward the August 
recess--our failure to enact the juvenile justice bill to make our 
schools safer; our failure to enact the Patients' Bill of Rights so 
that people across America who have health insurance can believe they 
have a doctor they can trust and a doctor who is making decisions for 
them and their family; our failure to enact a bill to deal with our 
surplus which is responsible, a bill that will not jeopardize the 
economy, a law which, in fact, will make sure we reduce our debt and 
reduce these interest payments which we have to pay; and something that 
deals with the whole question of the solvency and future of Social 
Security and Medicare.
  When I look at this Congress, it is sad, with all the talent we have 
on both sides of the aisle, Republican and Democrat alike, that we have 
been unable to come to any conclusion where we can go home in the month 
of August and point with pride to what we have accomplished.
  Unfortunately, there is little we can point to.
  Mrs. BOXER. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. DURBIN. I would be happy to yield to the Senator from California 
for a question.
  Mrs. BOXER. I thank the Senator for crystallizing where we are. When 
the Senator says we will go home and there is nothing we can point to, 
he is right. What happened to the juvenile justice bill and all the 
sensible gun control measures? Every day we wake up to some other 
horrible incident, and we are doing nothing to protect our children and 
our people from gun violence. It strikes me that the same thing 
happened with the Patients' Bill of Rights--nothing. The kind of sham 
bill that came across this place and passed isn't going to make any 
lives better.
  But then, it seems to me, when our colleagues on the other side of 
the aisle do something, they do something bad. My friend was alluding 
to it. I just want to ask a couple questions on that point.
  Is it not a fact that the tax bill which we passed did not allocate 
one slim dime for Medicare?
  Mr. DURBIN. That is a fact. It has been a sad commentary that we know 
in the year 2015, if I am not mistaken, the Medicare system, as we know 
it--this current system--is going to go bankrupt, be insolvent. Many 
seniors want additional benefits to help them stay healthy and 
independent, like the prescription drug program which we support. When 
we made an effort on the floor, in a vote just last week we could not 
rally any support from the Republican side of the aisle for the 
prescription drug program so that seniors can stay independent and 
healthy. That, I think, is a shame.
  I would like to go home this August and say to seniors and those of 
us soon to be in the program: We have done something positive. You can 
live a longer, more independent, and healthier life. But we can't even 
point to that. Instead, the Republicans suggest we can give tax cuts to 
wealthy people and special tax breaks to certain businesses.
  Mrs. BOXER. I want to pick up on that Medicare question. Because when 
my friend said seniors want to live fuller lives, this is so true. That 
is where we are now. We have come such a long way with our health 
research and with our ability to take certain prescription drugs that 
help us live fuller lives; that when we look out into the future, with 
the demographic changes that are coming, this is our biggest challenge. 
How do we make sure that when we pass age 60, 65, 70, 75, we are living 
full lives?
  This tax bill turns its back on this whole matter by doing zero for 
Medicare. They can say: Oh, we left a whole lot of money over here, and 
we can possibly use it, but the fact is, it is zero for something we 
know is coming down the road at us and something that is very 
important.
  So it seems to me--and I would just ask my friend to comment; then I 
will yield the floor--that when we go home, assuming this Republican 
tax bill continues to roll--and from what we can tell it may well 
continue to roll right through--what will have been done will be bad 
for Medicare, bad for paying down the debt, and threatens this economy. 
Just listen to Alan Greenspan. He is the one my friends from the other 
side of the aisle have followed very religiously.
  Suddenly, Alan Greenspan gets up and says: You better not now. Don't 
stimulate this economy now. You could threaten recovery. They roll 
right over Alan Greenspan, and they are going to roll right over us. So 
we are going to go home and probably say they didn't do what they 
should have done on juvenile justice, sensible gun control, HMOs--
fighting against them--and what they did do threatens this economic 
recovery and does nothing for Medicare. It is a bad deal all the way 
around.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Crapo). The time of the Senator has 
expired.
  Mrs. BOXER. I ask for 1 additional minute.
  Mr. DURBIN. I ask unanimous consent for 1 additional minute in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DURBIN. In response to the Senator from California, I agree with 
her. The sad thing is, if we give these tax cuts to the wealthiest 
among us, as proposed by the Republican bill, we are going to 
ultimately shortchange, in the outyears, some critically important 
programs for America, such as education.
  Think about it. As we go into the 21st century, with all the demands 
on our children, what they need to learn to be competitive and succeed 
is the very best educational system. The Republicans, with their tax 
bill to create shortfalls in spending on education, are really 
shortsighted.
  So as you look at it, here we stand on the third day of August, about 
to adjourn at the end of this week, with precious little to point to. 
We have been here for months. We have not listened to the American 
people. We have not responded to them. As we go home, I hope that we 
can build up some bipartisan approach as we conclude this year to 
address safety in schools, the Patients' Bill of Rights, and a sensible 
approach to using any budget surplus that is good for the long-term 
needs of America.
  I thank the Senator from California for joining me on the floor.
  Mrs. BOXER. I thank my friend.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senator from 
Rhode Island, Mr. Reed, is recognized for up to 10 minutes.


                         Privilege Of The Floor

  Mr. REED. I ask unanimous consent that a fellow in my office, Ms. 
Barbara Murray, be granted floor privileges during the pendency of my 
discussion on the child care quality incentive bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (The remarks of Mr. Reed pertaining to the introduction of S. 1475 
are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative assistant proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CONRAD. Mr. 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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