[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16199-16200]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            THE WORKING POOR

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, 60 years ago Franklin Roosevelt gave one 
of the most memorable State of the Union speeches in our history.
  As he spoke, Germany occupied all of Europe. Americans were dying in 
battle abroad and sacrificing for the war effort at home.
  Total victory was uncertain. But that did not diminish President 
Roosevelt's optimism and vision.
  In his address, he said the Nation had accepted a Second Bill of 
Rights that, he said, would create ``a new basis of security'' for all.
  In this Second Bill of Rights, President Roosevelt cited the right to 
a decent home, a good education, and dependable health care; the right 
to fair prices for farmers and free competition for business; and the 
right to be free of the fears of hardship caused by old age. But first, 
and most fundamental, he called for the right to work for a fair wage.
  Our country should be proud of the extraordinary progress we have 
made in many of these areas. Together we have made our country better, 
stronger, and more secure. There is, though, more work to be done, and 
today I want to focus on President Roosevelt's call for a fair wage.
  No value is more fundamental to the American character than the value 
of work. No ideal is shared so widely or cherished so deeply.
  No principle binds us more closely to the generations of Americans 
who built up our country, and the millions of new Americans who came to 
our shores to join in the effort. And no conviction so unites the 
conservative and liberal traditions of our Nation.
  Ronald Reagan once said that:

       People in America value family, work, and neighborhood. 
     These are the things we have in common socially and 
     politically. When it comes to the bottom line, all of us are 
     striving for the same thing--a strong and healthy America and 
     a fair shake for working people.

  There is a fundamental American truth in those words--working people 
deserve a fair shake. It has always been the promise of our country, 
and as we debate legislation here in the Senate, we should do all we 
can to give life to that promise.
  We should make certain that no American who works full-time lives in 
poverty. Unfortunately, the gap between promise and reality is 
widening. Among full-time, year-round workers, poverty has doubled 
since the late 1970's to 2.6 million workers. All told, the working 
poor are raising 9 million American children.
  Moreover, as recent work by the Family Economic Self-Sufficiency 
project shows, the level of income it now takes just to pay the basic 
bills is far above what we consider to be the poverty line. No working 
American wants a handout. These families are playing by the rules. But 
as hard as they work, they cannot escape the grip of poverty.
  A few weeks ago a Sioux Falls family sent me a letter. The father 
works 56 hours a week as a skilled welder. His wife is a substitute 
teacher who only works part-time so she can care for her son, who 
suffers from autism and diabetes. They live in a 20-year-old mobile 
home that has sinking floors and a leaking ceiling. They wrote:

       We are facing possible foreclosure. Lights, heat, phone, 
     etc. are all 60 plus days past due and on the verge of 
     disconnection. . . . Medical bills have been turned over to a 
     collection agency.

  Their final question was: ``Now what?''
  They feel trapped. Since they can't afford insurance, their son's 
medical bills have erased their savings and destroyed their credit. 
Without good credit, interest payments eat up much of their income. And 
without affordable child care, the family's mom can't shift to full-
time work, which could help lift them out of poverty.
  They are working as hard as they can and want to work even harder. 
But that doesn't seem to be enough. They are farther away from 
President Roosevelt's vision today than when they first wrote to me. 
It's in our national interest not to look away from this difficult 
problem, but to face it squarely and honestly.
  If the people who work hard don't get a fair shake, then our Nation 
risks losing an essential value that has contributed to America's 
excellence and ongoing success. We cannot let that happen. We should 
not kid ourselves and pretend this is an easy problem. It is not. It is 
enormously complicated. But there are things we can and must do.
  First, it is important that American business leaders live up to 
their responsibility as good corporate citizens and share the benefits 
of increased productivity with their workers, not just their 
shareholders. The Chief Economist at Merrill Lynch recently noted that 
there's been a notable ``redistribution of income to the corporate 
sector.'' While salaries have remained flat over the past 4 years, 
corporate profits now occupy a greater share of our GDP than at any 
point since tracking began nearly 60 years ago. We are moving in the 
wrong direction, and leaders in the private sector have a 
responsibility to help us move back in the right direction.
  Here in Congress, we also have a responsibility to address the 
problems confronting the working poor, and we should start by requiring 
a long overdue increase in the minimum wage. Today, the minimum wage of 
$5.15 per hour is worth $3 less than it was in 1968. Americans who work 
at the minimum wage for 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, still fall 
$5,000 short of the poverty line. That means, as the Sioux Falls family 
knows, that adequate housing, enough food to eat, health insurance, and 
college funds are the stuff of fantasy, not reality. In the time we 
have left this year, we should increase the minimum wage to $7. That 
won't solve all our problems, but it is a beginning.
  We should also revisit the Earned Income Tax Credit. It was created 
20 years ago as an incentive to help working families lift themselves 
out of poverty through hard work. President Reagan called it the ``best 
anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to 
come out of Congress.'' I agree. Now we need to expand it, so that 
every American child grows up seeing that work is rewarded and 
respected.
  We should also make sure all families receive their fair share of the 
child tax credit. Extending the credit to all working families would 
restore a basic level of fairness and offer millions of working 
families the same child tax credit given to those higher up the income 
ladder.
  We must also acknowledge that despite the many benefits of 
globalization, it has placed downward pressure on low income wages. We 
won't make progress if our wages fall faster than the prices for the 
products we need.
  ``What do the American people want more than anything else?'' 
President Roosevelt asked in 1944.
  This was his answer:

       To my mind, they want two things: work, with all the moral 
     and spiritual values that go with it; and with work, a 
     reasonable measure of security. . . . Work and security. 
     These are more than words. They are more than facts. They are 
     the spiritual values, the true goal toward which our efforts 
     should lead.

  That was the challenge 60 years ago, and it remains a central 
challenge today. It is, as President Roosevelt said, ``our duty.''
  I hope we can all join together to make that vision a reality for 
millions of hard-working and honest Americans.

[[Page 16200]]

  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Texas.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, how much of our morning business time 
has elapsed?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. There are 22 minutes remaining; 8 
minutes has elapsed.

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