[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 1669-1670]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            ECONOMIC POLICY

  Mr. DURBIN. I commend the leader for his statement this morning and 
ask him the following: If the Bush administration is now telling us 
that tax cuts for the wealthy are good for America, if they are now 
telling us that outsourcing jobs from the United States to other 
countries is good for America, and they are now cutting overtime pay 
for American workers and refusing to give unemployed workers in our 
country the benefits they need to keep their families together, I would 
like to ask the Senator from South Dakota and our leader on the 
Democratic side if he believes this is the right economic policy to 
move America forward out of this recession and into prosperity?
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I would simply say that if you judge how 
good an economy is by the number of jobs created, this policy has been 
a failure. If you judge economic policy by the kind of fiscal position 
we now hold--we have a $600 billion deficit and a $3.5 trillion debt; a 
$9 trillion swing as a result of the tax cuts--this policy is a 
failure. If you judge by how one pays and rewards work rather than 
wealth, by this administration's position on overtime, this position 
and policy is a failure.
  I think as we debate the economic circumstances we face in this 
country these failures ought to be front and center because they are 
the focus of every American family today.
  Ms. STABENOW. Will the leader yield for a question as well?
  Mr. DASCHLE. I am happy to yield to the Senator from Michigan.
  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, on behalf of the men and women of 
Michigan I thank the Democratic leader for his comments this morning. 
We read headlines every single day of jobs being lost to other 
countries, outsourcing, plants that are leaving. It is clear to me we 
have an administration more focused on wealth than valuing work, as the 
distinguished Senator from Illinois indicated, with a whole series of 
policies that do not reward work.
  I wonder if the leader might comment on the fact this is a race to 
the bottom. What they are saying to Americans is they should work for 
$2.50 an hour or $1 an hour or instead of being a computer programmer 
here, earning $50,000 a year, if you earn $15,000 a year, maybe we 
won't outsource your job. Isn't this a way to eliminate the middle 
class? How do they, in fact, purchase the cars and the refrigerators 
and computers and have the quality of life they want, send their 
children to college, be able to afford a quality of life as Americans, 
if this is a race to the bottom?
  Would the leader agree this is now a race to the bottom and a threat 
to the middle class and their way of life?
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I respond to the Senator from Michigan by 
saying she has characterized this situation very accurately. It is a 
race to the bottom.
  I had a conversation not long ago with a worker at a grocery store 
chain who was commenting that they are currently in negotiations with 
this particular chain. He noted over the last 30 years, as negotiations 
have been evolving, at every juncture, all through the 30 years, the 
question was: How can we make improvements; how can we improve wages; 
how can we improve benefits; how can we continue to stay abreast of the 
current fiscal and financial challenges every family faces? That was 
the goal, to advance the benefits, the wages, to take into account the 
dramatic changes in their own circumstances.
  He said for the first time in 30 years, their only goal this time is 
to hold on to what they have so the company doesn't take away benefits, 
the company doesn't take away wages.
  He said: Those on the other side are arguing, we are going to take 
away some of your wages and some of your benefits because that is what 
is happening with the competition. In order to be competitive, we have 
to reduce your wages and reduce your benefits.
  I will not accept that for this country. We can't possibly accept the 
fact we have to move backward. If we are a progressive society, we have 
to recognize these families have to continue to move forward with 
regard to their benefits and wages or, you are absolutely right, we 
will have a race to the bottom, a disparity between those at the top, 
who get the tax cuts the Senator from Illinois referenced, and those at 
the bottom, who get not only no tax cuts but now are losing their jobs, 
benefits and wages, and their overtime. What is that going to do to 
this country? We are going to have the biggest chasm in all of our 
history soon between those at the top and those at the bottom. That is 
unacceptable.
  I thank the Senator for her question.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Nevada.
  Mr. REID. Would the Chair announce how much time is left for morning 
business on this side?
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Twenty-four minutes 37 seconds.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the distinguished majority leader announced 
today the tax cuts were working. My question to him and everyone within 
the sound of my voice would be: Working for whom? As has been 
indicated, we have staggering deficits. We have a staggering debt that 
was not there when this man took the office of President a little more 
than 3 years ago.
  I have been reading a book the last couple days, ``The Price of 
Loyalty,'' by Ron Suskind and Paul O'Neill. In that book, quite 
clearly, Paul O'Neill was extremely concerned about the deficits and 
brought it up at a Cabinet meeting. He was cut off very quickly by Vice 
President Cheney, saying: President Reagan proved that tax cuts are 
good and that deficits don't matter.
  I believe deficits do matter. I believe we have a situation 
developing that is going to cause untold misery and harm, as indicated 
by the budget we have been given today. We will talk about that during 
the next few weeks as the budget negotiations and debate go forward.
  I am happy to yield 10 minutes to the Senator from Iowa.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Iowa is recognized for 10 
minutes.
  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I thank the assistant majority leader for 
yielding me 10 minutes in morning business. I rise to follow up on what 
the Democratic leader was talking about in terms of the statement of 
the chairman of the President's economic advisers saying: Outsourcing 
of jobs in this country is a good thing.
  I read the followup comments by White House spokeswoman Claire 
Buchan, who said: The President's view is that American workers are the 
best workers in the world and he is committed to free and fair trade. 
He is committed to a level playing field.
  That all sounds very nice, but is it level when you have a worker in 
China making 61 cents an hour and a worker in America making $12 or 
$13, $14 an hour? What kind of a level playing field is that? As the 
leader said, this is a race to the bottom.
  You can always find someone someplace who is lower down on the totem 
pole, who is more hungry, more destitute, willing to work for less than 
you. If that is what we are looking for, we might as well go back to 
slavery.
  If you want to talk about efficiency, that is what they are saying: 
When a good or service is produced more cheaply abroad, it makes more 
sense to import it than to provide it domestically. That has to do with 
efficiency, they said.

[[Page 1670]]

  Efficiency? Is that what we as human beings are now looked upon, as a 
machine, how efficient a machine we are or is there more to life than 
that.
  When I hear words like that, I say people have some sterile view of 
economics that counts people as just so many cogs in a wheel or so many 
units we can depreciate, use up and throw out on the trash heap after a 
while. It disturbs me greatly, the positions of these people in making 
such statements.
  I recognize free trade or fair trade is good for everyone as long as 
it does not lower people's standard of living but tends to raise people 
up to ours. That is what we ought to be involved in--not lowering our 
standard of living to others but trying to help them raise theirs.
  Couple that with this dance of the administration that outsourcing 
jobs, shipping jobs overseas is good, somehow good for our country, 
with the budget we have now in front of us and what it spells is a 
disaster for this country and especially for our young people.
  We have had the first recovery from a recession in modern time. There 
are still about 3 million jobs lost out there. This budget continues on 
that way. We have tax cuts for the wealthy. It does not create jobs. We 
have this proposal to eliminate overtime pay Senator Durbin brought up. 
Now we are going to create jobs in India and China and places such as 
that by outsourcing all of our jobs.
  Then you look at the budget, and the budget we have will continue 
deficits as far as the eye can see. It will increase deficits. What 
that means is we are now going to be paying a debt tax. As this 
administration increases the national debt, they increase the share of 
the Federal budget that goes to pay the interest on the debt. So every 
dollar we spend on interest is a dollar we are not spending on 
education or construction or health care, rebuilding our economy. This 
is the hidden tax in Mr. Bush's budget. He says he wants tax cuts, 
mostly for the wealthy. He wants to make them permanent. That will cost 
us another $1 trillion. But what about the hidden tax, the debt tax 
that is going to be put upon our workers and our children to pay the 
huge interest charges on this national debt that is running up?
  Right now interest payments are about $4,367 a year for a family of 
four.
  By 2010, because of these huge budget deficits, this debt tax rises 
to more than $8,000 for a family of four. That is just the interest 
every year. That means every family of four in America will be paying 
about $8,000 a year in additional taxes just to pay the interest on the 
national debt. Again, this is a formula for utter disaster.
  The baby boomers are on the verge of retirement--1946 being the first 
year of the baby boomers. They will retire basically at 65, so that 
brings us to the year 2011. When they start retiring, we will be in the 
hole with huge budget deficits. President Clinton set us on the right 
track to reach 2010 with zero national debt, in great fiscal shape to 
begin to finance the baby boomers' retirement and their health care. 
That inheritance from President Clinton, being on the right track and 
erasing the total national debt, has been squandered--squandered by tax 
cuts for the wealthy, squandered by the outsourcing of jobs to other 
countries, and destroying jobs in America. So we are going to reach 
2010 with a crushing debt burden, higher interest rates, a weaker 
economy, and the baby boomers just retiring.
  We know we are mortgaging our future, stealing from the next 
generation. Why? So that the wealthiest can have a tax cut of $155,000 
a year. This is not wise and it is not fair. The consequences are going 
to hit us right now, not just in the year 2001. Just look at the 
budget. It shortchanges No Child Left Behind by $7 billion. The budget 
cuts funding for local police by $1.7 billion. It cuts funding for 
firefighters by $800 million.
  There you have the essence of the Bush economic plan: huge tax cuts 
for the rich, skyrocketing deficits and debt, cuts in programs that 
serve children and working Americans, and outsourcing of our jobs to 
other countries, thus reducing the overall income of middle-class 
Americans.
  It is time for the Senate to come together and demand a change of 
course, demand fiscal sanity, fiscal integrity, and a change in our 
economic program. I believe this is the single biggest test we face in 
the year ahead. Quite frankly, I believe President Bush is out of 
control in demanding even more tax cuts. The House of Representatives 
basically will do whatever the White House says. So I say to my 
colleagues it is up to us.
  Quite frankly, if the Senate doesn't step in and provide some adult 
supervision in Washington, then nobody will, and we will, in fact, 
march down this path of huge deficits, bigger and bigger deficits, 
higher debt, more interest payments on the debt, and the increasing 
outsourcing of our jobs to other countries. It is time to stop this 
downward spiral. I believe only we in the Senate can do it.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I yield 10 minutes to the Senator from 
Illinois, Mr. Durbin.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Illinois is recognized.

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