[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 5950-5952]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           APRIL FOOLS' ON US

  Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, many years ago when I was a schoolgirl, 
on this day someone might come up to me in the hallway and say: 
Hillary, your skirt is ripped. I would turn around in panic, and they 
would say: April Fools'. Or maybe somebody would stop me after class 
and say: Hillary, I heard Janie is really mad at you, and I don't know 
what you did to her, but you'd better talk to her. I would feel 
terrible. Before I could do anything about it, someone would say: April 
Fools'.
  Well, today is April 1, and there is a long tradition of people 
playing jokes on each other, pulling stunts, and then causing someone 
to be upset or worried or anxious or maybe even happy that they have 
been told something is going to happen, only to have the rug pulled out 
from under them when someone says, either jokingly or sometimes a 
little cruelly: April Fools'.
  Thankfully, that day only came once a year, so you only had to endure 
your friends or maybe your not-so-friendly classmates' jokes and stunts 
for 24 hours. But I sometimes feel that it is April Fools' Day every 
single day here on Capitol Hill, on the other end of Pennsylvania 
Avenue in the White House, because on issue after issue of profound 
importance to the American people, our Government is basically saying: 
April Fools'.
  Do you remember when they introduced their budget in 2001 and said: 
``If you drastically cut taxes on the wealthiest of Americans, why, my 
goodness, revenues will increase in the budget. You don't have to worry 
about all the expenses that we have keeping this great country going 
because this will work''? Well, 3 years later, we are facing a $500 
billion deficit. Guess what. April Fools' on us.
  Do you remember when they said: ``Our policies are going to generate 
jobs''? Well, we saw during the 1990s 22 million new jobs created in 
America. What a difference that made in so many people's lives. What 
have been the results of this administration's economic policies? The 
loss of nearly 3 million jobs.
  So for all those Americans who believed this administration's 
policies would work to create jobs and economic opportunity, guess 
what. April Fools' on you.
  When it comes to the Medicare prescription drug benefit, the 
administration knew there was an estimate by the man responsible for 
calculating how much Medicare will cost that was much higher than what 
had been discussed in the debate over the bill. Here in this Chamber we 
were told the bill would cost $400 billion. That is a lot of money. It 
was a lot of money for what, frankly, our seniors are going to get, 
which is going to be a lot of confusion because so much of the money is 
going to drug companies and insurance companies. But, lo and behold, we 
wake up and find out that it was not a $400 billion bill; it was a $534 
billion bill. And the actuary, the civil servant at Medicare--he is not 
political; he works year in and year out for whoever is in office--was 
ordered not to tell the truth to the American Congress or the people 
about the cost of the Medicare prescription drug benefit or he would be 
fired.
  So we passed the bill. I didn't vote for it but a majority did. We 
passed it. The President signed it. Guess what. April Fools': It is not 
going to cost $400 billion, it is going to cost $534 billion.
  Then, of course, we have No Child Left Behind, which many of us so 
hoped would make a difference in the education of our children. But we 
conditioned our support for this education reform on the promise by the 
President that it would be fully funded, that the money our teachers 
and principals and superintendents and school boards, but particularly 
our children, would need would be there.
  Well, no longer is that promise even credible. The President signed 
the bill and then presented a budget which didn't provide the money 
required to fully implement No Child Left Behind. Once again, April 
Fools' on us.
  Americans have been fooled time and time again by this 
administration, fooled by promises and fooled by predictions. Indeed, 
for 3\1/2\ years, this administration has said one thing and done 
something else. The list is far longer than what I have even mentioned. 
This was an administration that said: We are going to do something 
about global climate change and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that 
is warming our climate. We just received a report from the Pentagon 
talking about what that means to our national security. So the 
President gave speeches when he was running for office saying we are 
going to deal with that. Lo and behold, he gets into office, and forget 
it. April Fools': climate change, no such thing is going forward under 
this President.
  We have just seen some recent examples with respect to rising gas 
prices. That is a big concern. It is a concern in my State and around 
the country. We are seeing OPEC cutting production which will cause 
even higher prices for gasoline. When the President was running for 
office, he said: Why doesn't anyone do anything to get these gas prices 
down? When I am elected, I will make sure OPEC doesn't raise gas prices 
on us.
  Well, OPEC did it. They cut production. All the President said was 
how disappointed he was. That doesn't sound like much of a strong case 
being made on behalf of the American people. Again, what should we 
expect? It is the same story from this administration. Say one thing, 
do something differently; fool the people, not just one day a year but 
every single day.

[[Page 5951]]

  It is as if words don't matter anymore with the administration--and, 
regrettably, with the Republican leadership in Congress. There are a 
lot of serious issues facing the people I represent. We are losing 
jobs. A lot of people are losing their health care benefits. The cost 
of education to send a child to college is going up. We have a lot of 
challenges we should be working together to meet.
  On this side of the aisle we have tried to raise the minimum wage. 
Why have we done that? Because it has not been raised for about 8 
years. There are a lot of decent, hard-working people who are falling 
further and further behind because their costs are going up, but their 
incomes sure are not.
  We also want to do something about overtime because what this 
administration has done is to say: We want to change the rules which 
would take away overtime compensation from about 8 million Americans. 
Can you imagine what a horrible experience that would be for somebody 
working a shift as a police officer or a firefighter or a nurse to be 
told: Well, your Government, your President doesn't want you to be paid 
for the hours you have to work extra. April Fools' on you. You are 
going to work but not get paid for it.
  We don't like that. Is that obstructionist, that we Democrats think 
it is not fair that people should have to work and not be paid for it? 
I don't think so. I think that is in the tradition of American fair 
play. But we can't get a vote on it here because the Republicans know 
that if they had to have a vote on it, it would actually pass. That 
would really embarrass the President and his administration. So they 
don't want us to vote on it.
  Unemployment benefits, it is the same thing. A lot of people are not 
only out of work, but they can't find work because there are so few 
jobs being created in this economy. The administration doesn't want to 
help these people. They don't want to give them that extra unemployment 
benefit that can tide them over until maybe we can start seeing some 
jobs created that will put people back to work. So our friends on the 
other side of the aisle don't want to vote on that because the 
administration would be embarrassed, because they know if Republicans 
had to vote on it, they would actually vote for it. So they don't want 
that to happen.
  Time and time again, we have seen the President and the majority say 
one thing and do something else. It is April Fools' Day today, but that 
is no way to run a government. It is no way to run a great country.
  Mr. DURBIN. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mrs. CLINTON. Certainly.
  Mr. DURBIN. I would like to ask the Senator from New York, through 
the Chair, is there not also an important issue that affects families 
and businesses across the United States with the increase in gasoline 
prices? If I recall correctly, Governor Bush, when he was a candidate 
for President, said, in Manchester, NH, he thought in that 
circumstance, the President should use the power of his office to force 
the OPEC nations to try to expand their exports of oil so gasoline 
prices did not go up in America. Isn't it true at this point that this 
administration not only has failed to do what the President promised as 
a candidate he would do, but, in fact, OPEC has announced it is going 
to reduce their exports to the United States and force greater 
increases in gasoline prices which will hurt the American economy and 
American families?
  Mrs. CLINTON. The Senator from Illinois is absolutely right. Not only 
did the President, when he was running for office, say that he would 
jawbone and fight back hard against OPEC if they tried to limit supply 
or raise prices, he even said he would use his connections in the oil 
industry to make sure that got done. We all know about his connections 
and the Vice President's connections. There has never been an 
administration in our history that is so closely connected to big oil 
and big gas and big coal and everything else.
  So what happens? OPEC meets. Whatever they tried to do behind the 
scenes sure didn't work because they voted to cut production 4 percent. 
When that was announced, what did the President do? He said he was 
disappointed.
  There has also never been a President or anyone in any administration 
who is closer or whose family is closer to many of the big oil-
producing countries such as Saudi Arabia. They have connections and 
relationships and friendships going back decades. One would think that 
if any President could force OPEC not to take this damaging action 
against the American consumer, it would be this President.
  But I see no signs of that. I see no real effort in that. Once again, 
it is say one thing, do something else. April Fools' on the American 
people.
  Mr. DURBIN. If the Senator will further yield. I also believe, in 
Illinois, as I travel around and speak to families and businesses, 
there is one consuming issue, and that is the cost of health care, the 
cost of health insurance. Small businesses see these dramatic increases 
in health insurance premiums, and with these increases they are faced 
with the terrible prospect of either reducing or eliminating coverage 
for their employees; that has, unfortunately, led to more and more 
uninsured Americans.
  Is it not true that, given the chance on the floor, with the 
prescription drug bill, where the Bush administration could have 
stepped forward and spoken for these families and businesses and said 
to pharmaceutical companies that you have to, as Canada has done, 
restrain drug price increases, is it not true that on this issue 
relating directly to the competitiveness of American products, the 
welfare of American families, and the future of businesses and jobs, 
that this administration has once again caved in to the special 
interest groups--the drug companies and HMOs in this case--at the 
expense of the American economy?
  Mrs. CLINTON. Once again, the Senator from Illinois is absolutely 
correct. As he well remembers, the debate on the floor concerning 
prescription drugs benefited many opportunities to try to rein in the 
cost of prescription drugs, to try to give permission to Medicare to 
negotiate, as any big institutional buyer would have the right to do, 
and also to import the drugs that are American-made, American-approved, 
back from Canada so we could get the lower prices.
  Again, this administration and the Republican majority steadfastly 
stood against the American public, against our seniors, and stood for 
the pharmaceutical industry. As a result, the cost is going to be much 
greater, and much of that increased cost is not going to help our 
seniors and lower drug costs so we can perhaps have even more 
prescription drugs available for our people. Instead, it will go right 
into the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies and insurance 
companies.
  Mr. DURBIN. Is it not also the case that this administration took 
taxpayer dollars to buy advertising on television for their 
prescription drug program and, frankly, misrepresented what the program 
meant in terms of savings for seniors? It is bad enough that the bill 
itself didn't keep the cost of prescription drugs under control. The 
administration took taxpayer dollars and used them to basically put a 
message out that at least wasn't complete, and perhaps was distorted, 
misleading many seniors into believing that this prescription drug bill 
is going to be of some benefit?
  Mrs. CLINTON. Well, the Senator from Illinois has raised another 
important issue because the administration is using taxpayer dollars to 
convey a misleading impression of the Medicare prescription drug 
benefit, and to do so as a way of boosting the President's reelection 
opportunity. So taxpayer dollars, instead of his campaign dollars, are 
being used to try to persuade the American people against the evidence 
that this massive bill, with so many benefits for the pharmaceutical 
industry and insurance companies, is good for them. It is regrettable. 
As the Senator knows, many of us tried to prevent that from happening 
and say let's do this right, in a bipartisan, unified manner, where we 
really provide a prescription drug benefit for our seniors.
  As the Senator also is aware, in the last several weeks, the 
President's

[[Page 5952]]

campaign has been accusing one of our colleagues, the Democratic 
nominee for President, of flip-flopping, saying one thing one day and 
saying something else at a later date. It is the pot calling the kettle 
black at the very least because it is this administration which, on 
every important issue to the American people, has either changed 
position or has persisted in providing a misleading and inaccurate 
argument on behalf of a position they have taken.
  The long and distinguished career in public and military service of 
the Senator from Massachusetts, Senator Kerry, is one that needs no 
defense from me or anyone else. It stands on its own merits. It is 
regrettable that an administration, increasingly known for its two-
sided approach and its talking out of both sides of its mouth at the 
same time, saying one thing and doing something else, would be accusing 
anyone of engaging in that kind of behavior.
  Mr. President, it is April Fools' Day once a year. Thankfully, that 
is only once a year in most of our lives. Here in Washington, it is 
every single day, 365 days a year. The administration has engaged in 
April Fools' tricks on the people of this country repeatedly. But I 
think people are waking up and starting to say:
  Wait a minute, where is that big surplus you promised if we did 
everything you said?
  How come my taxes are going up as a middle income American while 
taxes on the richest are going down?
  How come this is the first President in our Nation's history that has 
led us to war and cut taxes at the same time?
  How come the White House didn't tell us the truth about the cost of 
the Medicare prescription drug?
  How come the administration didn't fund No Child Left Behind the way 
it had been promised?
  How come we are having a transportation bill that the President 
threatened to veto when it is the only jobs bill on the horizon that 
can put people to work and repair the infrastructure and modernize our 
transportation system in a way that will make us richer and stronger in 
the future?
  Well, the April Fools' Day jokes are coming to an end. Fool me once, 
shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. The American people are 
starting to ask the hard questions. They are not just questions coming 
from Democrats, but from independents and Republicans, and coming from 
longtime Government employees who don't have any partisan affiliation, 
like Richard Clarke, asking hard questions that deserve honest answers.
  At the end of the day, what really matters is that the American 
people have trust in their Government and believe their President when 
he talks to them about matters of life and death. That is what we are 
talking about--life and death. So let's hope that when this day ends, 
maybe we can have some good news from this administration in the form 
of admissions and some corrections that will put us back on the path of 
unity, that will create the tone the President promised that would be a 
positive tone in Washington, where we could deal with the real problems 
facing Americans.
  I am not optimistic, but I am hopeful that we could see that happen 
because these are matters of profound importance. It is imperative that 
we as a Nation have faith in our leaders in these dangerous and 
difficult times.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada has approximately 8 
minutes left. Who seeks recognition?
  The Senator from Mississippi is recognized.

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