[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 25414-25415]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                          CHOOSING A PRESIDENT

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, in just a few days the American people get 
to make one of the most important decisions that we are ever called on 
to make, and that is to choose a leader for our country. It appears 
from all of the polls that the American people just can't decide. The 
polls go up and down every single week. You see one candidate ahead one 
week and another candidate ahead the next. Frankly, the verdict of 
public opinion will be rendered on November 7, and we will decide the 
leader for the next 4 years.
  Many of us believe this is a decision of importance way beyond 4 
years. We think the next President is going to chart a course for many 
years to come.
  We have to make a very basic decision.
  Frankly, if you believe that the Presidency is an easy 
responsibility, and if you believe that America will run forward in a 
positive way on automatic pilot, then I think, frankly, you might be 
inclined to vote for Governor Bush because he has spoken in very 
general terms about what he thinks about America. He has made specific 
proposals, which are fairly radical departures from what we have been, 
and he says everything is going to be fine; in fact, it will be better.
  Many of us, though, can remember something that perhaps Governor Bush 
never experienced. He was not a Governor in Texas during the period of 
time when we dealt with the worst deficits in the history of the United 
States in Washington. Under Presidents Reagan and Bush, we dealt with 
deficits that were crippling to this American economy. I saw it in my 
home State of Illinois with high unemployment and high inflation. 
People weren't building homes and weren't starting businesses. It was a 
very bad time. We were in a recession. We paid a bitter price for it--
families and businesses across America. Thank goodness, in 1993, we 
turned a corner and started moving forward. Some of the things that 
have happened since are absolutely historic.

[[Page 25415]]

  If you take a look, since March 1991--which goes back to the Bush 
Presidency for a few months--we have had 115 months of straight 
economic expansion, the longest in the history of the United States.
  Governor Bush may not remember what it was like back in the old days 
when we would get 12 months or so of economic expansion. But that is 
what America truly was like.
  Look at what happened to the inflation rate during that same period 
of time.
  In 1980, the inflation rate was over 12 percent. Then it went down at 
the end of the administration of Jimmy Carter. Of course, it went down 
and it stayed down. But we have kept the inflation rate at the lowest 
sustained level since 1965.
  These things don't happen easily or automatically. Those who think 
Governor Bush can come to it with little or no experience and keep it 
going have to answer some questions. Will he be able to do as we have 
done in the last 8 years--create 22 million new jobs? His father 
created 2\1/2\ million jobs during his 4 years; President Reagan, 16 
million during his 8 years. Twenty-two million is a record, and it is a 
record of which we are proud. It means people have a chance.
  But we can see Presidents who came on board such as former President 
Bush who really didn't have good luck when it came to job creation and 
getting people back to work.
  Take a look at Federal spending.
  The Republicans criticize Democrats as big spenders. Look what has 
happened to Federal spending as a percentage of our gross domestic 
product. It has gone to one of the lowest levels since 1966. We have 
seen Federal spending heading down and we are being criticized for 
being big spenders. The fact is, we have not been. Just the opposite is 
true: For the people often left behind, the lowest poverty rate in 20 
years; African Americans and Hispanic Americans with the highest 
employment rates in modern memory; improvement in education scores, an 
indication that everybody gets a chance to improve in this country.
  The overall surplus we have seen generated is the largest in our 
history: $237 billion under the Clinton-Gore administration. Look at 
the red ink under Presidents Reagan and Bush in the early years of 
Clinton-Gore and how we turned the corner. There are those who think 
that will continue, but it isn't true. If we go the wrong way on 
critical decisions, we will pay the price.
  The American Academy of Actuaries came out with their report last 
week. They took a look at Governor Bush's proposal for Social Security 
and they said we would return to Federal budget deficits around 2015 
under George W. Bush's proposal. This group, which is nonpartisan, and 
is supposed to know basically more than most of us when it comes to 
accounting and actuary practice, concluded that Governor Bush's plan to 
cut taxes and divert Social Security payroll tax for individual 
accounts would make it all but impossible to eliminate the publicly 
held national debt.
  There is the choice, America. A choice for the next 4 years is 
whether we will continue to make sure that we invest in America, keep 
the economy moving forward, use fiscal discipline and fiscal 
conservatism, if you will, to make sure we pay down the national debt. 
I don't believe, nor does Vice President Gore, for that matter, that we 
should risk the Social Security system by taking $1 trillion out of it, 
something that Governor Bush couldn't even explain in the last debate. 
How do you take $1 trillion out of Social Security and then go ahead 
and spend the $1 trillion, except at the expense of Social Security 
recipients? Are you going to cut the benefits? Are you going to 
increase their payroll taxes? Are you going to change the retirement 
age?
  All of these things are options that none of us want to face. If you 
take an approach, and he suggested you may have no other alternative, 
you may find yourselves battling away at a stock market which looks a 
lot like the roller coaster at Coney Island in Senator Moynihan's home 
State.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Collins). The time of the Senator is 
expired.
  The Senator from Nevada.
  Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the Senator from 
Massachusetts, Mr. Kennedy, be recognized for 30 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.

                          ____________________