[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16579]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 16579]]

                            SENATE BUSINESS

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, with respect to the announcement by my 
colleague from Nevada, I am a bit confused what is happening in the 
Senate. We have the month of September to finish our appropriations 
bills. We have had no conferences on any appropriations bill at this 
point. We have 13 of them to do. We have a very short period of time in 
which to finish the work of the appropriations committees in the House 
and the Senate.
  It is inexplicable to me that we are at this moment at 5 o'clock in 
the afternoon unable to go to another appropriations bill. They are 
ready to come to the floor. We are being blocked. There are objections 
to the motion to proceed to an appropriations bill. It makes no sense 
to me. This Senate must do its work and pass the appropriations bills. 
It will have to be sooner or later. It is much better if it is sooner. 
This is the work of the American people passing appropriations bills 
that contain the money for essentially the operation of Government. We 
have so much work to do and so little time in which to get it done.
  The appropriations bills and the question of whether this fiscal 
policy adds up is very important for everyone. This town and, in ways, 
the country are asking a lot of questions these days about a softening 
economy, a surplus that used to exist that has now largely vanished, 
and a fiscal policy that was put in place when it was expected there 
would be nothing but surpluses as far as the eye could see that now 
does not add up at all.
  I want to show a quote on a chart from Mr. Mitch Daniels, the head of 
the Office of Management and Budget in a statement he made on Sunday on 
``Meet the Press'' because it is central to this question about fiscal 
policy. What are the resources? How many resources do we have? How do 
we use those resources? Mr. Daniels says we have the second largest 
surplus in the history of the country. We are ``awash in cash,'' he 
says. But, of course, what he is talking about is the Social Security 
trust fund and the money in the trust fund.
  There used to be $125 billion expected above that, which indeed is a 
surplus, but that is now gone. That has evaporated. What is left 
belongs to the Social Security trust fund. When he says we are ``awash 
in cash,'' he is talking about Social Security trust fund moneys. Mr. 
Russert, the moderator of ``Meet the Press,'' said:

       The surplus is money that you got through payroll taxes, 
     which are designated towards Social Security. And to tap into 
     that is a violation of what George Bush pledged during the 
     campaign.

  To which Mr. Daniels replied:

       Well, it's not designated for Social Security, Tim.

  It is not designated for Social Security. That is from the head of 
the Office of Management and Budget from this administration who says 
that the trust funds are not in the trust fund. The taxes that come out 
of all the workers' paychecks in this country, called Social Security 
taxes, that are put into a dedicated trust fund, we are told now by the 
head of the Office of Management and Budget that this money is not 
designated for Social Security.
  He could not be more wrong or more unsuited for that job if he really 
believes that. It is possible this is a mistake. It is not a mistake in 
transcription. That is what he said, but it is possible he misspoke. If 
he did, let's hear that. If he did not misspeak, if this is what he 
believes, he is sadly mistaken.
  This is a big, big issue. This is a $162 billion issue in this year 
alone. It is a half-a-trillion-dollar issue in the next 5 years. It is 
essential to the construct of a fiscal policy that works to understand 
that this money does not belong to them; it does not belong to the 
Government; it belongs to the American workers. They paid it. It is 
their taxes, and they were told it was going to go into a trust fund.
  The message ought to be: Keep your hands off those trust funds.
  All of us face difficulty as a result of a softening economy. I am 
not here pointing fingers at who is to blame and who is not to blame. 
The fact is, we have had an economy that always has had a business 
cycle: an expansion side and a contraction side. Nobody has ever 
changed that.
  We suffered a contraction. We went through a period when everybody 
thought the stock market would always go up and never go down. That is 
not the case. We went through a period when everybody thought there was 
one way the economy moves: upward, steadily, relentlessly.
  Now they are experiencing what we learned in economics. I actually 
taught economics for a while, and I have overcome that, as I often say. 
We taught the business cycle. The business cycle is inevitable. There 
is an expansion and a contraction. It all has to do with people's 
confidence in the future. Sometimes there is more confidence and 
sometimes less confidence.
  The point is, we all now inherit this economy that has softened. It 
is incumbent on us all to get together and work together; that the 
President and the Congress understand the plan that existed before, 
anticipating surpluses forever, is a plan that now does not add up. It 
is desperately short of the resources to do that which the President 
wants to do. It would make good sense, in my judgment, for the 
President to join us in an economic summit of sorts to work through a 
new plan that represents an understanding that there is a new reality 
to this economy and the numbers in the current plan do not add up.
  Let's create a plan together that makes sense for the American 
people, one that invests in the American people's future and one that 
tries to provide the stimulus and incentive to help promote confidence 
and start this economy, once again, on an upward trend. That is what we 
have a responsibility to do.
  Fingers that are pointed mean very little at this point. We are all 
in this ship of state together. It is not as if there is an engine room 
with dials, knobs, gauges, and levers so that if we can just get Alan 
Greenspan, or someone in charge of fiscal policies, to move these 
gauges and levers just right so the ship of state will move. That is 
not the way the economic engine behaves.
  This ship of state moves forward and the economy grows when people 
have confidence in the future. The American people, the bond markets, 
and stock markets do not have confidence in a fiscal plan they know 
does not add up. That is why it is important for the President to 
recognize that reality and work with us to construct a new plan.

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