[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 18509-18513]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         ROSH HASHANAH AND HOPE

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, it is entirely appropriate that the 
Senate pause today at the celebration of Rosh Hashanah. This, the 
people's body--the House of Representatives and the Senate--demonstrate 
their great respect for a very important Jewish holiday that symbolizes 
so much that is important not only in terms of their faith, but also 
underlies a very important value and spirit of this country, and that 
is the spirit of hope and optimism, portrayed by the dipping of apples 
into honey, symbolizing that one is going to have a better, more 
hopeful, and sweeter year. It is a message of hope, and it reminds us 
of a long tradition that hope is deeply rooted in a spiritual setting. 
It is entirely appropriate for us as a nation as well to share that 
sense with our Jewish friends, and also draw lessons from that very 
special occasion.
  So I pay tribute to all of our friends who are celebrating this 
spiritual holiday today and thank them again for reminding us as a 
nation and reminding the world of that extraordinary spirit, which is 
reflected in that tradition and which is symbolized today in Israel in 
its continued struggle for existence and for religious liberty.
  Mr. President, I speak today about this issue of hope, and where it 
is and where it is not in terms of our own society, and what I think we 
should be attempting to do about it.
  I believe we ought to take a look at what is being represented to the 
American people, particularly on the issues of the economy. Under our 
constitutional system, we are in a period where we will be making 
judgments as to the course we are charting for the future. I believe, 
on the one hand, that we do have a road toward hope, particularly for 
working families. I think the last 3 years has been a road of burden 
and a quaky road for hard-working Americans.
  I review the record for the Senate again and for the American people 
as we are looking forward to these next 6 or 7 weeks and making 
judgments and decisions about the direction that we should follow. I 
don't think it is anywhere clearer than in the state of our economy and 
what has happened to average working Americans in our Nation. There has 
been an economic squeeze that has resulted in American families working 
harder, working longer, and falling further and further behind. It 
doesn't have to be this way.
  We have seen at other times when we have had Presidential leadership, 
where we have had the strong, expanding, and growing economy, with 
economic growth and price stability, and the reduction of unemployment. 
We have seen it in most recent times under President Clinton. We saw it 
in the early 1960s under President Kennedy prior to the time of the 
Vietnam war buildup in the latter part of the 1960s.
  Really, the issues of economic growth, price stability, and economic 
expansion is directly related to Presidential leadership. What is 
happening to the middle class today is an extraordinary set of 
pressures on working Americans that is giving them an extraordinary 
squeeze in terms of their sense of hope and optimism in terms of the 
future. I have reviewed, in the course of my discussions yesterday, 
what is happening in terms of the health care crisis--the fact that 
premiums in the area of Medicare have increased fivefold, five times 
the increase that seniors are receiving in their Social Security from 
their COLA benefits. As a result, the pressure is going onto our 
seniors. But if we look at this chart, which is a reflection of the 
last year, we will find that health insurance premiums--this is as of 
July 2004. We have also seen in the last month that this figure is 11.2 
percent for employee-provided coverage. But in this year, private 
health insurance premiums have gone up 8.5 percent; the cost of tuition 
this year is up 14.6 percent; housing is up 7.7 percent; and what has 
happened to wages of workers in real terms is that they are down .9 
percent.
  Workers are working longer, families are working harder. Nonetheless, 
when you take the indicators, they need the health insurance. And more 
often than not, they have children they are trying to educate, and they 
are finding college tuition going up and the cost of housing is 
increasing, but their wages are not.
  Yet we hear time and again that the economy is getting stronger and 
the economy is getting better. The President says that time and again. 
He said it just this last week. If you look at this, he said:

       The economy of ours is strong and it's getting stronger.

  He said that on September 13 in Muskegon, MI. Since Bush took office, 
we have seen 250,000 jobs lost in Michigan, and 80,000 jobs lost in 
Colorado. This idea about the economy getting stronger has been 
repeated time and again over the course of this last year.
  The President said there would be tax cuts for the middle class and 
then gave the tax cuts to the wealthy. He said those tax cuts were for 
economic stimulus, but we know if the President had spent the $700 
billion on programs such as unemployment insurance, tax cuts for low-
wage workers who really need it, instead of giving the $700 billion in 
tax breaks to the wealthy, 2 million more Americans would be employed 
today, and economic growth would have been twice as fast.
  You cannot believe this administration on the economy, and you cannot 
trust them to do the right thing for the middle class. Middle-class 
working families are being squeezed in every direction by the Bush 
economy. And the ability of American families to live the American 
dream is increasingly out of reach with each passing year as they find 
it harder and harder to earn a living, pay a mortgage, pay rent, pay 
their medical bills, their food and energy bills, and still send their 
sons and daughters to college.
  Yet we keep hearing only happy talk from the administration. As I 
mentioned, in Muskegon, MI, the President praised the economy: This 
economy of ours is strong and getting stronger. But still we have seen 
the loss of jobs. Michigan is one of 44 States that has higher 
unemployment today than when the recession began.
  A week and a half ago at the Republican convention, the President 
said: We have seen a shaken economy rise to its feet. Our economy is 
growing again, creating jobs. Nothing will hold us back. But since the 
President took office, the overall number of jobs in the economy has 
fallen by 900,000. Since many of the new jobs created are in the public 
sector, the private sector is down even more, 1.7 million jobs, and 
manufacturing has been especially hard hit, 2.7 million jobs. President 
Bush has the worst job record of any administration since the Great 
Depression.
  Vice President Cheney has a novel approach to the economy. He said 
the lackluster economic indicators do not reflect reality because they 
do not include the hundreds of thousands who make money selling on e-
Bay. That is a source that did not even exist 10 years ago. Cheney told 
an audience in Cincinnati last week that 400,000 people make some money 
trading on e-Bay.
  First the Bush administration tried to count hamburger flippers as 
manufacturing jobs. Now they want to call e-Bay traders an economic 
indicator. No wonder the Vice President told a crowd of workers in New 
Hampshire last week: We think we are on the right track and we are 
headed in the right direction.
  Tell that to the more than 8 million Americans who are currently 
unemployed, and tell that to the 1.6 million long-term unemployed who 
have been out of work more than 6 months, more than double when the 
President took office.
  We have to look at these employment figures and what has happened 
over the recent year. This chart shows the job

[[Page 18510]]

growth of this President, which is the worst since World War II. These 
are the total job recoveries. This blue line is before 1991. This green 
line is an indicator of what happened with job growth from 1991 to 
1993, and the red line is the current recovery. This is all from the 
Bureau of Economic Analysis. These are all solid figures. The fact is, 
we are growing in employment at a slower rate.
  Let's just take the total number of jobs in our country in the 
private sector. In January 2001, there were 111,609,000 jobs. As of 
August 2004, 1.7 million jobs have been lost from 2001 to 2004, and yet 
we have this administration saying the economy is strong, the economy 
has never been better, the economy is getting stronger.
  What planet is this President living on?
  Let's look at what has happened in terms of the jobs that have been 
created. Let's look at what the pay was for the jobs that have been 
replaced.
  Mr. President, $51,270 is the average pay for industries that are 
losing jobs. The new jobs, those in growing industries, pay 41 percent 
less. So here we have a record that is indefensible in terms of the 
number of jobs that are out there in the private sector, in particular, 
and then when we look at what the salaries are for people who are 
working, we find out they are getting paid less when health care costs 
are going through the roof, tuition is going through the roof, and rent 
is going through the roof.
  What does this mean in real terms? What is happening to American 
families? What with all of these statements that are being made by this 
President and the Vice President out on the campaign trail, let's just 
look at what has been happening in our country over the last 3 years.
  There are 13 million children hungry or on the verge of hunger, 8 
million Americans unemployed, and nearly 3 million have lost 
unemployment benefits since the Republicans ended the program with $20 
billion in surplus in the unemployment compensation fund that these 
workers paid into.
  Do you hear me? These workers paid into that fund, and this 
administration is denying them the ability to draw on it. That is the 3 
million who have lost unemployment benefits and, oh, yes, the economy 
is getting better.
  We have 7 million low-wage workers who have been waiting 7 years for 
an increase in the minimum wage--7 years. I noted last night when I was 
watching the news that the House of Representatives, under the 
Republican leadership, just voted itself another pay increase, the 
seventh pay increase since the last time we increased the minimum 
wage--seven pay increases.
  We cannot even get an up-or-down vote on minimum wage because of the 
Republican leadership in the Senate of the United States and because of 
the Republican President. It has only been in the last few years that 
this has become a partisan issue. President Nixon voted for an increase 
in the minimum wage. President Bush 1 voted for an increase in the 
minimum wage. President Reagan voted for an increase in the minimum 
wage. But not President Bush 2. No, no, we are not going to permit an 
increase in the minimum wage. We are going to give tax breaks to 
wealthy individuals but nothing in terms of an increase in the minimum 
wage.
  And 6 million workers have lost overtime protections, and in spite of 
the fact that a bipartisan coalition in the House of Representatives 
and the Senate of the United States rejected that policy, they still 
have gone forward with it. This chart shows the votes on overtime 
protection. The Senate voted September 10, 2003, to reject the 
restrictions on overtime advanced by the administration. The House 
voted on October 2, 2003, 221 to 203. The Senate voted May 4, 2004, 52 
to 47. The Senate voted on May 4, 99 to 0. The House voted on September 
9, 2004, 223 to 193. The House of Representatives in a bipartisan vote 
and the Senate in a bipartisan vote said no, and still they are going 
ahead. And the President says they are the friends of working families?
  We heard the administration trying to defend this overtime 
restriction that it has been long overdue and it will provide greater 
relief for lower income working families; they will have greater 
stability in their pay increases, and this is a simplification of the 
rules. Always look out when you hear that kind of chatter. Always look 
a little behind the rationale for taking such policy.
  Look at this:

       The National Restaurant Association requests that the 
     Department of Labor include chefs under the creative 
     professional category as well as the learned professional 
     category. . . .

  That was from a National Restaurant Association letter to the 
Department of Labor. Here we have the National Restaurant Association 
urging the administration to restrict the coverage of overtime in terms 
of those who are working in the kitchen.

       The Department concludes to the extent a chef has primary 
     duty of work requiring invention, imagination, originality or 
     talent, such chef may be considered an exempt creative 
     professional.

  Here is the association asking the administration to restrict 
overtime, and guess what. It is just what the administration did.
  The list goes on. We have other charts that indicate for other 
industries as well. That is illustrative. We have 4.3 million more 
Americans living in poverty.
  There are 800,000 more children living in poverty today than 2001, 
4.3 million more Americans in total living in poverty. They are against 
any increase in the minimum wage, cutting back on the unemployment 
compensation that could help these families transition, pay their 
mortgages, pay their bills. No, we are cutting that out. These are 
hard-working Americans who paid in. No, they are not going to get that. 
That is what they have done. But, no, the economy is strong and getting 
stronger. Yet there are 4.3 million more Americans who are living in 
poverty, 800,000 of them children.
  I have given the example of what was happening for individual jobs, 
for contracting industries and expanding industries, the disparity in 
payment in the new jobs. This also affects the household income because 
we know now that many more women are working and they are participating 
in the market, too. So is it not fair to say, let us look at what has 
happened in household income?
  Remember the first chart that showed health care going up through the 
roof, that showed tuition going up through the roof, that showed rent 
or housing going up through the roof? This is what has happened now. In 
the year 2000, median household income in the United States was 
$44,853. The median income in 2004 is $43,318. It is a drop of $1,500 
for average working families in America. That is last year, and this 
year it goes down even further. And everything is fine for working 
families, for middle-income families?
  The same administration, again, is against increases in minimum wage, 
unemployment, and against overtime. This is what results. They are 
shipping jobs overseas, and they support a Tax Code that the 
administration knows has loopholes which they refuse to close down. 
This is what is happening.
  Let me give a couple of other indicators of what is happening to 
middle-income families. Look what has happened to gasoline. I do not 
know how it is in South Carolina, but I know how it is in 
Massachusetts, and that is that many workers have to drive many miles 
in order to get employment. That has been fairly consistent. We had 
great pockets of significant unemployment for years. The interstate 
system and rail have opened up some hope and some opportunities, and 
here we find out what has happened with gas. Gas has gone up 23 percent 
in 2004, and the wages again are down. They pay more in terms of gas.
  One of the most extraordinary things that absolutely amazes me is 
what has happened to milk. When I was home in Massachusetts a week ago 
in a grocery store, milk was $4.11 a gallon. I do not know, maybe it is 
a little bit less in some other parts of the country, but how in the 
world, when one is making $5.15 an hour, does a family or a single mom 
afford a gallon of milk in order to provide for their child? How do 
they do

[[Page 18511]]

that with milk prices going up? These are the real economic indicators.
  That is why the credibility of this administration, when it says 
everything is rosy, the economy is fine, is no better than it was when 
it misrepresented the facts in Iraq. They misrepresented, distorted, 
deceived the American people as to what was happening in Iraq and 
brought us into the terrible quagmire we are facing today, and the same 
is true with regards to the economy. It is incompetency, and that is 
what has been happening.
  Well, we can say, all right, Senator Kennedy, look, there has 
certainly been some increase for the workers with jobs. Well, let us 
look at productivity. Let us look at the American workers. Is it the 
American workers' fault?
  This chart is from the Economic Policy Institute, their analysis of 
data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is what is happening 
from 2001 through 2004 in the areas of productivity and wages. 
Historically, when we have had an increase in productivity, we have 
seen wages go up. I can put five more charts up going on back to the 
postwar period and they would all reflect the fact that with increase 
in productivity, there are increased wages, but not under the Bush 
administration. Workers are more productive today than they have ever 
been, but do my colleagues think that has been reflected in wages? 
Absolutely not. Why? No overtime, cutting back on the overtime. And 
because of the minimum wage, failing to get the bump for those who are 
working at the lower wage. This productivity represents the greatest 
gap we have had since the Great Depression, and there is a squeeze on 
the wages of the American economy. But, no, no, this economy is strong 
and getting stronger.
  Well, it is for some in America, and this chart indicates who the 
economy is getting strong and stronger for. All one has to do is look 
at this chart from 2001 through 2004 and see where the workers' efforts 
are going. I just showed what was happening in productivity. Well, look 
what has happened. Corporate profits, their share has gone up 65 
percent. They have effectively swallowed up all of the productivity. Do 
my colleagues think they have shared it with the American workers? 
Absolutely not. They have sucked all of that productivity up in these 
corporate profits. What does the administration say? Look, the economy 
is getting along fine. It is working well. It is strong and it is 
getting stronger. As a result of this, it is no mystery about what has 
been happening in America.
  This shows the pay of the average CEO. We now have the highest paid 
disparity between CEOs and the average worker. The average worker makes 
$26,000, and the difference is 300 times, and that is what is 
happening.
  I will show what has happened historically when I was talking about 
the increase in productivity, and then what we have seen is the 
increase in corporate earnings that has reached the record figures. 
Look what happened during the average last eight recoveries: Corporate 
profits went up 14 percent, wages 8.6 percent. That is what has 
happened really over the period of the last 50 years--the corporate 
profits went up and wages went up.
  Look what has happened in the current recovery. Corporate profits are 
up 39.6 percent, and workers' wages lost five-tenths of 1 percent. Oh, 
the economy is fine.
  Does it begin to have a ring, I say to my friends? Take any 
indicator--wages, productivity, what is happening with minimum wage, 
unemployment compensation, and overtime--take any indicator in terms of 
where working families are in this economy and they are falling further 
and further behind.
  One of the areas that I feel so strongly about is the issue of the 
increase in the minimum wage. I have been proud to be a sponsor of the 
increases since I arrived in the Senate in the early 1960s. We have had 
some success, in a bipartisan way, trying to get the minimum wage up so 
people do not have to live in poverty. Without the increase in the 
minimum wage, it is now at $5.15. Its purchasing power by the year 2005 
will put it at one of the lowest levels of purchasing power ever.
  Who are these workers with a minimum wage? These are proud men and 
women, men and women of dignity. They clean out the great buildings of 
American industry every day. They are assistants to teachers in urban 
and rural areas all across this country. They work at nursing homes, 
looking after our parents. Our parents are in these nursing homes. 
These minimum wage workers are men and women of dignity. They have not 
gotten any increase over the period of the last 7 years, in spite of 
the fact we in the Congress have voted ourselves pay increases six 
times, and more recently in the House seven times. Over $20,000 for the 
individual Members of the House and Senate, but we cannot get a vote on 
raising the minimum wage in the Senate.
  The issue of minimum wage is a women's issue, because the great 
majority of those who receive minimum wage are women. The great 
majority of the women who receive the minimum wage have children, so it 
is a women's issue and a children's issue. It is basically a family 
issue.
  We hear a lot of rhetoric here about family and family values. The 
minimum wage is a family issue. Will these women, single women for the 
most part, be able to see their children? No, they have to get two or 
three jobs. They are lucky if they see their children at all. It is a 
family issue.
  It is a civil rights issue because so many of those who work at the 
minimum wage are women of color. Women's issue, children's issue, civil 
rights issue--but most of all, it is a fairness issue. What the 
American people understand is fairness. What the American people 
understand is, if people are ready to work 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a 
year, they should not have to live in poverty and their children should 
not have to live in poverty, either.
  Oh, no, says President Bush. Oh, no, says President Bush. Oh, no, 
says the Republican leadership. You can't even have a vote in the 
Senate. When we offered that minimum wage increase on the State 
Department reauthorization, what did our Republican friends do? No, no, 
we are not going to vote; we are scared of that. We pulled the bill. We 
pulled the bill, so you are denied the opportunity to vote on it.
  America, do you hear me? That is this Bush administration and that 
Republican leadership. They are saying: Oh, the economy is fine. 
Everything is fine. This is a wonderful economy, growing stronger. What 
about those 7 million men and women at lower level jobs? What about 
those who have been on unemployment? What about all those who have 
given up? We thought we were one country with one history and one 
destiny. Oh, no.
  I have described some of what I think are the basic failings of the 
current administration. I want to include in the Record today the 
answers to many of these failings that my friend and colleague, Senator 
Kerry, has proposed. He has done so during the course of the campaign. 
It is on the Web site. He has outlined in great detail today in Cobo 
Hall in Detroit. The article is in the Wall Street Journal today, ``My 
Economic Policy.'' He outlines what he will do to create jobs. He 
understands middle-class taxes and their health care costs.
  I read into the Record yesterday what President Bush had to say about 
health care. I am sure he meant it in a flattering way. He said, out in 
Michigan: And John Kerry has a program that is going to be costly. What 
can you expect from a Senator from Massachusetts? Ha-ha-ha. And he got 
some laugher out in the audience on that part.
  I will tell you what I care about in health care, having battled for 
it for 30 years, and that is every American have the same kind of 
health care as President Bush has. That is what I care about. That is 
what John Kerry cares about. You can distort it, misrepresent it, which 
President Bush did, and then differ with it, which he did as well. That 
is an easy debate technique that is used around here frequently. Let's 
recognize it for what it is. Distortion, misrepresentation--does this 
have a ring to it? You didn't get the facts

[[Page 18512]]

when he came to Iraq, why in the world should you believe it when they 
distort and misrepresent John Kerry's health care program?
  There is a basic limitation on American people being able to buy into 
the kind of health care program that every Member of the Senate and 
House has. I wonder how many of those people, the 3,000 or 4,000 people 
out there listening to the President, have the same kind of benefit 
program we have? We pay a 25-percent premium and the taxpayers pay 75 
percent. Wouldn't every American like that one?
  If we are so concerned about the Federal employees' health insurance, 
let's give it up and go back, like every other American, except those 
11 million or 12 million of us who are able to get in the Federal 
employees' program. How about it? Not a chance.
  So until you do, let's be easy in characterizing John Kerry's 
program. Here it is: creation of jobs, cut middle-class health care 
costs, restore America's competitive edge, cut the deficit, restore 
economic confidence. I will not read through it.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that this article be printed 
in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

             [From the Wall Street Journal, Sept. 15, 2004]

                           My Economic Policy

                            (By John Kerry)

       As I travel across this country, I meet store owners, stock 
     traders, factory foremen and optimistic entrepreneurs. Their 
     experiences may be different, but they all agree that America 
     can do better under an administration that is better for 
     business. Business leaders like Warren Buffett, Lee Iacocca 
     and Robert Rubin are joining my campaign because they believe 
     that American businesses will do better if we change our CEO.
       Since January 2001, the economy has lost 1.6 million 
     private-sector jobs. The typical family has seen its income 
     fall more than $1,500, while health costs are up more than 
     $3,500.
       Today, American companies are investing less and exporting 
     less than they were in 2000--the first time investment and 
     exports have been down during any presidential term in over 
     70 years. At the same time, our trade deficit has grown to 
     more than 5% of the economy for the first time ever, a 
     troublesome and unsustainable development.
       The economy still has not turned the corner. Over the last 
     year, real wages are still down and even the jobs created in 
     the past 12 months represent the worst job performance for 
     this period of a recovery in over 50 years. Indeed, the total 
     of 1.7 million jobs created over the last year is weaker than 
     even the worst year of job creation under President Clinton, 
     and below what is needed just to find jobs for new applicants 
     entering the work force.
       Forty-three months into his presidency, George Bush's main 
     explanation for this dismal economic record is an assortment 
     of blame and excuses. Yet what President Bush cannot explain 
     is how the last 11 presidents before him--Democrats and 
     Republicans--faced wars, recessions and international crises, 
     and yet only he has presided over lost jobs, declining real 
     exports, and the swing from a $5.6 trillion surplus to 
     trillions of dollars of deficits.
       While the private sector will always be America's engine 
     for innovation and job creation, President Bush has failed to 
     take any responsibility for missing opportunities to 
     strengthen the conditions for investment, economic confidence 
     and job creation.
       When the economy needed short-run stimulus without 
     increasing the long-run deficit, President Bush got it 
     backwards, passing an initial round of tax cuts that 
     Economy.com found had no effect in lifting us out of 
     recession. He then passed more deficit-increasing tax cuts 
     that Goldman Sachs described as ``especially ineffective as a 
     stimulative measure.'' When small businesses and families 
     needed relief from skyrocketing health-care and energy costs, 
     he chose sweetheart deals for special interests over serious 
     plans to reduce costs and help spur new job creation.
       With the right choices on the economy, America can do 
     better. American businesses and workers are the most 
     resilient, productive and innovative in the world. And they 
     deserve policies that are better for our economy. My economic 
     plan will do the following: (1) Create good jobs, (2) cut 
     middle-class taxes and health-care costs, (3) restore 
     America's competitive edge, and (4) cut the deficit and 
     restore economic confidence.
       Create good jobs. I strongly believe that America must 
     engage in the global economy, and I voted for trade opening 
     from Nafta to the WTO. But at the same time, I have always 
     believed that we need to fight for a level playing field for 
     America's workers.
       I am not trying to stop all outsourcing, but as president, 
     I will end every single incentive that encourages companies 
     to outsource. Today, taxpayers spend $12 billion a year to 
     subsidize the export of jobs. If a company is trying to 
     choose between building a factory in Michigan or Malaysia, 
     our tax code actually encourages it to locate in Asia.
       My plan would take the entire $12 billion we save from 
     closing these loopholes each year and use it to cut corporate 
     tax rates by 5%. This will provide a tax cut for 99% of 
     taxpaying corporations. This would be the most sweeping 
     reform and simplification of international taxation in over 
     40 years. In addition, I have proposed a two-year new jobs 
     tax credit to encourage manufacturers, other businesses 
     affected by outsourcing, and small businesses that created 
     jobs.
       American businesses are the most competitive in the world, 
     yet when it comes to enforcing trade agreements the Bush 
     administration refuses to show our competitors that we mean 
     business. They have brought only one WTO case for every three 
     brought by the Clinton administration, while cutting trade 
     enforcement budgets and failing to stand up to China's 
     illegal currency manipulation. That not only costs jobs, it 
     threatens to erode support for open markets and a growing 
     global economy.
       Cut middle-class taxes and health costs. Families are being 
     increasingly squeezed by falling incomes and rising costs for 
     everything from health care to college. But spiraling health-
     care and energy costs squeeze businesses too, encouraging 
     them to lay off workers and shift to part-time and temporary 
     workers.
       Under my plan, the tax cuts would be extended and made 
     permanent for 98% of Americans. In addition, I support new 
     tax cuts for college, child care and health care--in total, 
     more than twice as large as the new tax cuts President Bush 
     is proposing.
       I have proposed a health plan that would increase coverage 
     while cutting costs. It builds on and strengthens the current 
     system, giving patients their choice of doctors, and 
     providing new incentives instead of imposing new mandates.
       My health plan will offer businesses immediate relief on 
     their premiums. By providing employers some relief on 
     catastrophic costs that are driving up premiums for everyone, 
     we will save employers and workers about 10% of total health 
     premiums.
       Our hospitals and doctors have the best technology for 
     saving lives, but often still rely on pencil and paper when 
     it comes to tracking medical tests and billing. As a result, 
     we spend over $350 billion a year on red tape, not to mention 
     the cost of performing duplicative or redundant tests. My 
     plan will modernize our information technology, create 
     private electronic medical records, and create incentives for 
     the adoption of the latest disease management.
       And I won't be afraid to take on prescription drug or 
     medical malpractice costs. We will make it easier for generic 
     drugs to come to market and allow the safe importation of 
     pharmaceuticals from countries like Canada. Finally, we will 
     require medical malpractice plaintiffs to try nonbinding 
     mediation, oppose unjustified punitive damage awards and 
     penalize lawyers who file frivolous suits with a tough 
     ``three strikes and you're out'' rule.
       This plan will make our businesses more competitive by 
     making our health care more affordable.
       Restore America's competitive edge. America has fallen to 
     10th in the world in broadband technology. Some of our best 
     scientists are being encouraged to work overseas because of 
     the restrictions on federal funding for stem-cell research. 
     President Bush has proposed cutting 21 of the 24 research 
     areas that are so critical to long-term growth. We need to 
     invest in research because when we shortchange research we 
     shortchange our future.
       My plan would invest in basic research and end the ban on 
     stem-cell research. It would invest more in energy research, 
     including clean coal, hydrogen and other alternative fuels. 
     It would boost funding at the National Science Foundation and 
     continue increases at the National Institutes of Health and 
     other government research labs. It will provide tax credits 
     to help jumpstart broadband in rural areas and the new 
     higher-speed broadband that has the potential to transform 
     everything from e-government to tele-medicine. I would 
     promote private-sector innovation policies, including the 
     elimination of capital gains for long-term investments in 
     small business start-ups.
       To ensure we have the workers to compete in an innovation 
     economy, we need more young people to not only enter but 
     complete college, we need more young women and minorities to 
     enter the fields of math and science, and we need to make it 
     easier for working parents to get the lifelong learning 
     opportunities they need to excel at both their current and 
     their future jobs.
       Cut the deficit and restore economic confidence. When 
     President Bush was in New York for the Republican convention, 
     he did not even pay lip service to reducing the deficit. His 
     record makes even Republicans wary. From missions to Mars to 
     a pricey Medicare bill, President Bush has proposed or passed 
     more than $6 trillion in initiatives without paying for any 
     of them. The record is clear: A deficit reduction promise 
     from

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     George W. Bush is not exactly a gilt-edged bond.
       Americans can trust my promise to cut the deficit because 
     my record backs up my word. When I first joined the Senate, I 
     broke with my own party to support the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings 
     deficit reduction plan, which President Reagan signed into 
     law. In 1993, I cast a deciding vote to bring the deficit 
     under control. And in 1997, I supported the bipartisan 
     balanced budget agreement.
       I will restore fiscal discipline and cut the deficit in 
     half in four years. First, by imposing caps, so that 
     discretionary spending--outside of security and education--
     does not grow faster than inflation. If Congress cannot 
     control spending, it will automatically be cut across the 
     board. Second, I will reinstitute the ``pay as you go'' rule, 
     which requires that no one propose or pass a new program 
     without a way to pay for it. Third, I will ask for Congress 
     to grant me a constitutionally acceptable version of line-
     item veto power and to establish a commission to eliminate 
     corporate welfare like the one John McCain and I have fought 
     for.
       I am not waiting for next year to change the tone on fiscal 
     discipline. Every day on the campaign trail, I explain how I 
     pay for all my proposals. By rolling back the recent Bush tax 
     cuts for families making over $200,000 per year, we can pay 
     for health care and education. By cutting subsidies to banks 
     that make student loans and restoring the principle that 
     ``polluters pay,'' we can afford to invest in national 
     service and new energy technologies. My new rules won't just 
     apply to programs I don't like; they will apply to my own 
     priorities as well.
       Cleaning up President Bush's fiscal mess will not be easy, 
     but to ensure a strong and sustainable economic future we 
     have to make the tough choices to move America's growing 
     deficits back in the right direction.
       On Nov. 2 we will have a national shareholders meeting. On 
     the ballot will be the choice to continue with President 
     Bush's policies or return to the fiscal sanity and pro-growth 
     polices that proved so successful in the 1990s. You will 
     choose.

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I want to review again the circumstances 
we are facing. We have many Americans in working families working 
longer and working harder. The fact is, Americans work longer and 
harder than people in most of the industrialized world. We are one of 
the few--I don't know another one--where we have seen real income for 
working families drop, as we have seen over the period of the last 3 
years.
  This is an indication of a failed and flawed economic policy. No 
matter how many times you tell the American people that everything is 
rosy, that is clearly not speaking about Main Street. They may be 
talking about Wall Street, but they are not talking about Main Street.
  When we hear the Vice President saying the lackluster economic 
indicators don't reflect the reality because they don't include the 
hundreds of thousands who ``make money selling on eBay, that is a 
source that didn't even exist 10 years ago,'' and when they try to 
characterize flipping hamburgers as ``industrial jobs,'' we are not 
getting the real story. We are not getting the real story on Iraq. We 
are not getting the real story on health care. We are not getting the 
real story on education. We are not getting the real story on the 
economy.
  I hope the American people will pay careful attention over the next 6 
weeks and try to understand the real story. When they do, I believe 
John Kerry will have their support.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Murkowski). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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