[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 7165-7167]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                          BUDGET CONSIDERATION

  Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, next week we will be considering the 
budget of the United States. We have gone through sort of the ``Perils 
of Pauline'' here crafting the budget for the country. After much talk 
of bipartisanship, the other side locked out the Democrats from the 
conference committee. That is the meeting between the House and the 
Senate budget members to work out the differences between the two 
sides.
  We were invited to the first meeting and told we would not be invited 
back, that the Republican majority was going to write this budget all 
on their own, which they have done. So much for bipartisanship.
  That is unfortunate. I think we could have crafted a much better 
result if we would have had a chance to work together. We really had an 
unprecedented year working on the budget in which there was no markup 
in the Budget Committee, and now a conference committee to work out the 
differences between the House version of the budget and the Senate 
version of the budget completely excluding Democrats from the 
consideration.
  As a result, I think we are going to get an unbalanced budget, a 
budget that threatens to put us back into deficit, back into debt, a 
budget that does not reflect the values of the American people, that 
does not put a priority on education when everybody is giving speeches 
about the critical importance of education.
  I grew up in a family in which my parents were killed when I was 
young. My grandparents raised me. My grandmother was a schoolteacher. 
In our family, education was the priority. It was not just the first 
priority; it was the second priority; it was the third priority because 
my grandparents believed that education was what unlocked opportunity 
for every child. They just did not talk about it; they lived it.
  My grandparents, who were successful people but not wealthy by any 
means, set aside a fund so every one of my brothers and cousins could 
go on to higher education. As a result, everyone in our family got an 
advanced degree. There were 13 cousins in my immediate family and 
everyone got an advanced degree--from a middle-class family. That was 
because my grandparents truly believed in the value of education. They 
were right. Those are the right values. Those are American values.
  We hear a lot of Senate speeches about education being the priority. 
When they go to the back room and write a budget, all the speeches are 
right out the window. It is all hot air. It is all fluff. It does not 
mean a thing. It is all words--words and not deeds.
  That is not right. In fact, it is misleading people to stand up and 
say they are for education and then go in a back room and cut out every 
penny of money to strengthen education. They ought to be ashamed of 
themselves.
  We are going to have a real chance to compare votes on education in 
this Chamber with votes on the budget, and we are going to see how they 
match up. We are going to see who is being straight with the people 
they represent and who is not.
  Here is what we have learned of this conference report. This is what 
the President's budget was. This is the Democratic alternative. This is 
what the Senate passed. This is what is coming out of the conference 
committee. It is very interesting.
  The tax cut has gone up from what was passed in the Senate. But when 
you look at education--this is the education line. We passed $308 
billion of funding for education, new money for education. What came 
out of the conference committee? Zero. No money.
  It is not just there that this budget fails us. On the environment, 
the President proposed a huge cut. What came out of the Senate was a 
substantial cut but not as big as the President's. What has come out of 
the conference committee? Zero. No new money for protecting the 
environment.
  It does not end there. On strengthening Social Security--to me, this 
is, along with education, the most valuable because we know--there is 
not a Senator who does not know we are headed for a crisis when the 
baby boomers retire.
  We know that. This is not a projection. The baby boomers have been 
born. They are alive. They are going to retire. And they are going to 
dramatically increase the draw on the Federal Treasury and the programs 
of Social Security and Medicare.
  The President has a big event at the White House saying he is for 
strengthening Social Security. Then when you go to match the words with 
the deeds and you look at the bill coming from the conference 
committee, do you know what you find that has been a set-aside to 
strengthen Social Security? Nothing. Zero. No money. It is all words 
about how education is a priority. It is all words about how 
strengthening Social Security is a priority because there is no new 
money for either one--nothing for education and nothing to deal with 
the long-term debt that is facing this country in Social Security.
  I think we probably know, as I reviewed before and as this chart 
details, what happened in the Senate. In the Senate, we passed the 
Harkin amendment that provided $225 billion over 10 years to improve 
education in America, money that is desperately needed. My colleague 
from Idaho said money doesn't make a difference. It doesn't in and of 
itself solve the problem. We all understand that. It takes more than 
money to improve education. We will have a hard time getting the best 
people to be teachers in this country if we don't pay them decently.
  What is happening all across America is that many of the best 
teachers are leaving education because they are not being fairly 
compensated. I have a cousin who was a teacher on an Indian reservation 
in North Dakota--a wonderful teacher, absolutely superb. But she was 
being paid so little money she really couldn't make ends meet. So she 
left to go to the private sector, started a store and became a small 
business

[[Page 7166]]

person. That is terrific. But education lost a star performer.
  It is just not here, but across America people are leaving education 
for higher paying jobs somewhere else, and we are losing some of the 
best.
  We can either say it doesn't matter or we can respond. We have 
schools all across America that were built in the 1950s that are not 
prepared for the high-tech world of today. We turned our back on that 
and said: Well, tough luck, kids. You are not going to be educated for 
the world that is to come. We are going to leave you out of the high-
technology workforce.
  That is a mistake. We know that classrooms have too many students in 
them. We know that every objective standard has indicated that if you 
have smaller classrooms and fewer students, the individual student who 
gets more attention does better. It costs money.
  Here is what we did in the Senate. We said we are going to put the 
money where our mouth is. We are going to put some money into 
education: $225 billion. We are going to reduce the tax cut by $450 
billion. We are going to put half of it into education. We are going to 
put half of it into further debt reduction.
  Look at what came out of the conference committee: Zero. They took 
out every dime of additional money for education. We passed in the 
Senate the Breaux-Jeffords amendment for IDEA funding. That is the 
disabilities act. Congress made a promise when it passed the 
disabilities act that they were going to fund 40 percent of the cost. 
They did not do it. We said: Let's provide the money to keep the 
promise. And we did it in the Senate.
  It goes to the conference committee, and they come back with a big 
goose egg.
  Why is this being done? I believe it is being done because the 
overall budget doesn't add up. It doesn't add up. If you include an 
education initiative, if you include the money that is being asked for 
by the Defense Department to strengthen America's defense, then you 
have a budget that doesn't add up. You have a budget at that point that 
is raiding the Medicare trust fund and the Social Security trust fund. 
Of course, everybody says they do not want to do that.
  Our friends on the other side of the aisle have produced a budget 
that is kind of a hide-and-seek budget. It hides big chunks of spending 
that all of us know are going to occur.
  For example, there appeared in USA Today on Friday, April 27, 
``Billions Sought For Arms. Secretary seeks to reduce role of ground 
troops,'' talking about the Secretary of Defense.
  The story goes on to say, ``As Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, 
nears the end of a top-to-bottom review of Pentagon, he is expected to 
seek a large boost in defense spending--$200 billion to $300 billion 
over the next 6 years.''
  Is that in the budget? Is that big defense buildup in the budget? No. 
None of it is in the budget. They do not have $200 billion to $300 
billion of new money in the budget for defense. Why not? Because if 
they put it in before the tax cut passes, the budget doesn't add up. 
They are into the Medicare trust fund and the Social Security trust 
fund.
  What is going on here is a giant scam. That is what is happening. It 
is a giant scam to mislead the American people--pass the tax cut, and 
then come back to Congress and say: Oh, by the way, we forgot about the 
money that we need for defense. We need $200 billion or $300 billion 
just for the next 6 years.
  Remember, this is a 10-year plan on which we are working. They say 
they are going to need another $200 billion to $300 billion just for 
the next 6 years, only it is not in the budget that we are going to 
vote on next week. Not a penny of it is in there. Why? Because, if they 
put it in, the budget doesn't add up.
  That is their problem. As soon as you are honest with people about 
the true costs of funding defense and of improving education, then you 
are raiding the Medicare trust fund, the Social Security trust fund, 
and doing it in a big way. These aren't the only items left out.
  Let me conclude on the defense item. This is a story that ran in the 
Wall Street Journal. This was May 1st. ``Pentagon plan sees 42 percent 
rise in the arms budget.''
  Is there a 42 percent rise in the budget we are going to vote on next 
week? No, there is no 42 percent rise. They have not put this money in 
the budget. They are going to announce the week after next, after we 
have passed the budget with the big tax cut in it, because they don't 
dare show the true budget, the true spending, or the true plan until 
they get their tax cut passed because if they show the try numbers, it 
doesn't add up. It doesn't come close to adding up.
  They are raiding the Medicare trust fund to the tune of $250 billion. 
They are raiding the Social Security trust fund to the tune of $50 
billion. That is what is really going on in this town.
  It is a hide-and-seek budget. They are going to hide the true effects 
of this budget until after the tax cut passes. Then they are going to 
come back to us, and they are going to say: We have to do something 
more for defense. We have to do something more for education. We have 
to do something to fix this alternative minimum tax problem.
  That is a big one they aren't talking about. The alternative minimum 
tax today affects about two million taxpayers. The Joint Tax Committee 
has told us that if we passed the Bush plan, 35 million people are 
going to be caught up in the alternative minimum tax.
  Boy, they are in for a surprise. They thought they were going to get 
a tax cut. But instead, one in four American taxpayers will be caught 
up in the alternative minimum tax. They will be paying more. It costs 
$300 billion to fix it.
  Do you see that anywhere in the budget? It is nowhere in the budget. 
They don't have a dime in this budget to fix the alternative minimum 
tax. They don't have a dime for this big defense buildup they are 
getting ready to announce. They don't have a dime of new money for 
education. Why? Because, if they did, they would have a budget that 
doesn't add up. It is right back into deficit. It is right back into 
the bad old days of deficits and debt and decline.
  The harsh reality is, unlike the 1980s, if we go back to deficits and 
debt now, this is no time to recover, because the baby boomers start to 
retire in 11 years. Then all of this changes. We go from big surpluses 
today to massive deficits in that 10-year period.
  That is the Comptroller General of the United States warning us of 
where we are headed. He says we face a demographic tidal wave that is 
unlike anything we have ever seen in this country. That is because the 
baby boomers are such a large group, when they retire, the number of 
people on Medicare and Social Security double in very short order.
  We ought to be setting aside money today to deal with the problem we 
know is coming tomorrow. This budget does not do it. This budget does 
not set aside a dime to strengthen Social Security for the long term. 
There is no money in the budget for that.
  In our budget, we propose setting aside $750 billion to strengthen 
Social Security for the long term. But the conference committee comes 
back and there is no money, just as they came back with no new money 
for education, no money for this big defense buildup they are going to 
be asking for week after next, no money for area after area that we 
know is going to be a real cost--no money to fix the alternative 
minimum tax. The reason is simple and clear: It is only by showing a 
false budget that they can get it to add up.
  If they put the true costs in, if they put in the defense buildup, if 
they put in the cost of alternative minimum tax reform, if they put in 
new money for education, then they are heavily raiding the Medicare 
trust fund, heavily raiding the Social Security trust fund. That is the 
truth.
  This is exactly how we get into trouble in the country: Betting on a 
10-year forecast that even the people who made the forecast warn us is 
unlikely to come true. In fact, we have a projection of a $5.6 trillion 
surplus over the next 10 years--$5.6 trillion. But that is just a 
projection. That money is not in the bank.

[[Page 7167]]

  In fact, the people who made the forecast said that number only has a 
10-percent chance of coming true; a 45-percent chance there will be 
more money, a 45-percent chance there will be less money.
  That forecast was made about 10 weeks ago now. What has happened in 
the interim? The economy has weakened. We have a jobless report today 
that suggests quite dramatic weakening in the economy. So do we bet 
there is going to be more money or less money? I would say all the 
signs are there is going to be less money. That puts us in grave danger 
of going back into deficit, going back to the bad old days of raiding 
every trust fund in sight.
  I say to you, the thing that is most wrong about that approach is 
that in the 1980s we had time to recover. This time, if we get it 
wrong, there is no time to recover. The baby boomers start retiring in 
11 years, and all of these things that have been working in our favor 
start to turn the other way. There is not a Member of this body who 
does not know that is true.
  I just hope that before we vote on this budget, people will think 
carefully about the implications, and they will think carefully about 
the risks, and they will think carefully about the danger of going back 
into deficit, back into debt, just before the baby boomers start to 
retire; and we know these surpluses of today turn into massive deficits 
tomorrow. That would just be a serious mistake.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 
15 minutes as in morning business.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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