[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Pages 22691-22692]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                          THE STIMULUS PACKAGE

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, while we are waiting for some intervening 
Senate business, I wish to make a couple of comments about 
international trade. I am inspired to do that by my colleague from 
Montana.
  Before I do that, let me compliment my colleague, Senator Baucus, on 
the work he has done on the stimulus package. I told him yesterday in a 
private conversation how impressed I was with what he brought to the 
floor dealing with taxation and other issues to try to provide some 
lift and recovery to this country's economy. I think it was the right 
bill. It was the right thing. I commend him for his leadership, and I 
appreciate his leadership on that.
  I was sorely disappointed that there was a point of order raised 
against that which prevailed last evening because I think Senator 
Baucus, along with Senator Daschle and others of us who were pushing 
very hard to get this done, had put together a piece of legislation 
that really would provide some boost to the American economy.
  We are not in a position where we can just decide to stand around and 
wait and see what happens. I mentioned earlier that we had a trade 
history during President Hoover's period where this country seemed to 
be sinking into a deep abyss. And the attitude was: Well, there is not 
much we can do about that; we will sit around here and wait and see 
what happens. That is not what should have been done then, and it is 
not what we can do now.
  What we did was positive; that is, try to put together a legislative 
program

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that does the best we can to say to the American people that we are 
trying to give lift and boost to this economy in a way that provides 
jobs.
  I say to my colleague from Montana that I thought he did a great job, 
and I appreciate his work.

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