[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10083-10084]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        FOCUSING ON THE ECONOMY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gingrey). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Hawaii (Mr. Case) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. CASE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague, the gentleman 
from California (Mr. Rohrabacher), for the accommodation. Perhaps after 
he hears the remarks, he may regret that; but as a consolation I will 
say to him that I share his passion for surfing and would be happy to 
show him a few waves in Hawaii, if that is agreeable.
  We need to focus, as we have for some time, on what is clearly our 
number one national challenge, revitalizing our economy and balancing 
our Federal budget. I want to make two points and emphasize them up 
front.
  First, I am happy that we all seem now finally to agree that it is 
all about the economy. There was some doubt in my mind, given the few 
months that I have been in Congress, but now there is no question about 
it.
  There is also no question that the tragedy of September 11 and 
Operation Iraqi Freedom necessitated our full focus, our full energy on 
national security. But before, during, and after those events, it was 
and is and will be about a stagnating economy and a deteriorating 
budget.
  Now, this is an issue not only, as we all know, of jobs, of being 
able to care for our children, for our parents, for our communities, 
and of adequate resources for our government to do what it must do for 
all of us. It is also, and this link is true, it is also about our 
basic ability to afford our national defense. Because as we focus on 
national security, as we ask ourselves, what do we need to assure our 
national security, we have to recall the painful lesson that the USSR 
learned, which is that defense spending resting on an insufficient 
economic foundation will get us every time in the end. It is all the 
same ball of wax.
  Second, the point I want to make is it is not just the economy, it is 
the economy/the Federal budget. They are two halves of the same apple. 
To say otherwise, to pretend that somehow we can talk about the economy 
and about our remedies for the economy without asking ourselves, what 
is the impact on our Federal budget, just as it is ridiculous to talk 
about the Federal budget without asking ourselves, what is the impact 
back on the economy, is like saying in our family budget, I can take 
one of the three legs to any family's budget, how much money is coming 
in, how much money is going out, and how much debt am I carrying, take 
it and toss it out the window. We cannot do it; we are talking about 
the same thing.
  Up to this point perhaps most of us are starting to agree, but after 
that I do not know. I am getting conflicting reports by this 
administration about the state of the economy.
  Sometimes my President seems to be saying, everything is fine. Don't 
worry, it will take care of it itself. Nothing bad has happened on my 
watch. If that is the case, why are we granting a massive, massive 
second tax cut in 2 years?
  Because, frankly, if our economy is doing just fine, I think we 
should use those revenues for other purposes. I think we should use 
those revenues to retire rapidly increasing national debt. Perhaps we 
should use those revenues to talk about many of the aspects that many 
of our communities are having problems with, whether they be national 
security, homeland security, prescription drug benefits. We do not need 
a tax cut if the economy is doing just fine.
  Other times, the President seems to say, yes, the economy is in 
trouble and we need this massive tax cut to fix a failing economy. I 
can accept that, because at least at that point we are focusing on the 
issue. Not whether our economy needs help, but how to do it.
  The point here is, we all need to get on the same page so we can 
debate how to fix the economy. I think that is it. My page is, and I 
think most of our country believes that the page is, that we do have a 
problem.
  Do not take my word for it. Just take a look at the stats: almost 3 
million jobs lost in the last couple of years, and Federal revenues 
falling well short of projections. That is a problem. A deficit closing 
in on $400 billion annually, that is a problem. Critical State and 
local government revenue shortfalls because of poor State and local 
economies, that is a problem. A single-year increase in our national 
debt ceiling of about $1 billion, or $1 trillion, excuse me. When I 
came up here from Hawaii, I had to add a few zeroes, and it still 
messes me up. One trillion dollars, that is a lot of zeroes. That is a 
big problem, too.
  So let us stop talking about whether our economy and our Federal 
budget need help. We all know they do. In this building, sometimes I am 
not sure. But I think when we go out into our communities, we all know 
that is what is on people's minds. If we do not know it, the people we 
represent do know it.
  The sooner we get to that problem, the sooner we say, it is our 
economy, it is our budget, and how exactly do we

[[Page 10084]]

fix it, the better. Maybe we are closing in on that, but I am not so 
sure. I can tell the Members one thing, if we are going to talk about a 
huge tax cut, we have to get there pretty fast.
  We have to ask ourselves whether economic revitalization will result 
from a general, massive tax cut focused on the very upper-income levels 
or targeted to business. We have to ask ourselves whether that much 
deficit, that much debt, is good and whether it will hurt us over the 
long run. That is the debate. Let us get to it real fast, and let us 
focus like a laser beam on the issue: fixing our economy and balancing 
our Federal budget.

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