[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 9771-9772]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC POLICY

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, let me agree with the Senator from 
Georgia. The men and women in uniform representing the United States of 
America are our best. I have had a chance to meet with them, both the 
guard units in my State and their families, and to go to Walter Reed 
Hospital to meet those who have been seriously injured in combat. I 
have attended the funerals of those who have died from my State. My 
heart goes out to every single one of them and their families. They 
have given this country all we can ask and they have given Iraq 
millions of acts of kindness and bravery and good will, which we as 
citizens back home could never, ever repay.
  But, having said all that, we cannot look beyond the fact that the 
policy and the decisions made by this administration that brought us 
into this war have raised the most serious and profound questions with 
the American people and with the Members of Congress. We understand 
now, sadly, that, frankly, we were given the wrong reasons. We were 
wrong in the reasons the administration gave us for going to war. There 
were no weapons of mass destruction massed on our borders, poised to 
threaten our troops and poised to threaten others. There were no 
chemical and biological weapons, no nuclear weapons.
  The administration was wrong when they talked about plutonium being 
shifted from Africa to Iraq. There was no evidence of that whatever.
  There was no evidence whatever, despite the administration's 
statement, of the presence of al-Qaida in Iraq or any connection 
between Saddam Hussein and September 11.
  This administration was wrong on the number of troops we needed. When 
General Shinseki boldly said we would need more forces to accomplish 
our goal, he faced derision from this administration. He has been 
proven right and, sadly, at a time when we were supposed to be bringing 
American troops home, we are bringing more troops into Iraq. We are 
escalating the number of forces that are necessary for us to protect 
even those who were on the ground.
  We were wrong about our coalition. It was too thin and too weak at 
the start and still is today.
  This is an American war, borne largely if not exclusively by American 
taxpayers, and almost exclusively by American troops. Despite the 
contributions by Great Britain and Poland and others, these are 
American forces whose lives are on the line.
  We were wrong about the reaction of Iraqis who were supposed to greet 
us with parades and flowers as we liberated their country. Sadly, we 
see what is actually happening today. Now three-fourths of the Iraqis 
want Americans to leave. They are glad Saddam Hussein is gone, but now 
they want us to be gone. That was something that was not predicted.
  We were wrong about the protection of our troops. The fact that our 
Humvees were not properly armored has meant that one out of four 
American lives were lost because of this lack of preparedness. We were 
wrong about body armor. A third of our troops in Iraq, as of last year, 
did not have body armor to protect them personally. We were wrong about 
protection when it came to the helicopters which sadly still do not 
have the necessary defensive equipment to fight off shoulder-fired 
missiles.
  We have been wrong, as well, in terms of the human lives, the lives 
we have given; wrong in terms of the dollar costs. This administration 
in February said we need no more money to execute this war. As of last 
week, they said we need $25 billion. Mr. Wolfowitz said it might be $50 
billion more to finish this war at least into the beginning of next 
year. And we were wrong in the prison at Abu Ghraib with improper 
personnel not properly trained, not properly supervised.
  Frankly, we have been wrong on the impact of the war on terrorism. We 
believed somehow that standing our ground in Iraq would help us in the 
war on terrorism. It has made it more difficult. This has become a 
magnet for terrorists who come to Iraq to kill American soldiers and 
American civilians. That is something that was not predicted.
  So this administration has been wrong--wrong in its policy, as we 
find every single day. The American people still stand foursquare 
behind our men and women in uniform. They are doing their patriotic 
duty and we are proud of them. But this administration has not prepared 
us, did not prepare us, for this invasion and, sadly, we are paying 
that price today.
  There is another important element beyond foreign policy. It is the 
question of the domestic policies of this administration. The question 
which should be asked is not a question from a Democrat but one that 
was asked by President Ronald Reagan in 1980. It is very basic. The 
question you have to ask yourself every time we have an election is: 
Are you better off as an American today than you were 4 years ago?
  Take a look at the state of our economy and you can understand we are 
not. The middle Americans across America have to say, frankly, we are 
not better off. In the first 2 years of the Bush administration, real 
income has dropped by almost $1,500 per household. Growth and wages, 
remarkably weak. After growing at a healthy rate during the Clinton 
administration, wages have barely kept up with inflation under 
President George W. Bush. In fact, the Labor Department recently 
reported that in the last 12 months, wages and salaries grew at the 
slowest rate in over 20 years.
  At the same time, Americans are facing skyrocketing costs. Take a 
look at this. Flat wages during the period that the President has been 
in office, average weekly earnings, are up 1 percent.

[[Page 9772]]

Gasoline prices are up 25 percent, college tuition prices are up 28 
percent, and family health care premiums are up 36 percent. These are 
the real costs of families across America.
  So when this administration says, We are in recovery, things are 
looking a lot better, take a look at the reality of the bills that 
American families have to pay. These are, sadly, families who are not 
doing better today under President George W. Bush's economic plan.
  For many Americans the problem is even worse than flat wages and high 
costs. For millions, the problem is because they have lost their job. 
We have lost 2.2 million private sector jobs under President George W. 
Bush. Under President Clinton, we increased the number of people 
working in America by 21 million. Under President George W. Bush we 
have lost 2.2 million jobs.
  The manufacturing sector has been devastated, with jobs lost in 36 
out of the 39 months under this President. We have lost 2.7 million 
manufacturing jobs not likely to ever be replaced by jobs paying as 
well.
  In 2000, the unemployment rate was 4 percent when President Bush took 
office. Today it is 5.6 percent. There are 8.2 million Americans out of 
work, a third more than when the President took office.
  In addition, long-term unemployment has nearly tripled under 
President George Bush. Look at the situation with long-term employment. 
When he took office, 649,000 people were out of work. Today, 1.9 
million are out of work. There are long-term unemployed and the 
Republican administration refuses, still, to provide unemployment 
benefits for these people struggling to keep their families together 
while they are out of work.
  In addition, what we have seen is this administration has also turned 
record surpluses under President Clinton into record deficits. When 
President Bush took office, we were on track for a 10-year surplus of 
over $5 trillion. Sadly, in this situation today, we are headed toward 
a 10-year deficit of over $3 trillion.
  In 2000, we were saving every penny of the Social Security trust fund 
for those who needed it in the future. Since 2001, we have raided it 
every year to pay for President Bush's tax cut for the wealthiest 
Americans. That does not add up. It does not add up to income security 
for seniors. It does not add up to fiscal responsibility, which this 
administration promised.
  In addition, because of the weak state of the economy, State taxes 
have been on the increase, rising by $14.5 billion in 2002 and 2003 
after 7 straight years of going down.
  So while the President may talk about tax cuts for wealthy people, 
State taxes and local taxes are increasing to make up the difference. 
Household debt has increased among families in America from $7.1 
trillion in the year 2000 to $9.4 trillion at the end of last year, a 
32.8-percent increase. Our public debt has reached record levels under 
this President and, unfortunately, that debt comes down to $20,000 for 
every American--a $20,000 mortgage we are carrying because this 
President insisted on tax cuts while we fought a war, the first 
President to ever ask for that. Consumer confidence has fallen by 20 
percent under this President.
  And we come back, again, to the famous question asked by President 
Reagan in 1980. That question--are you better off now than you were 4 
years ago?--it is hard to see in any circumstance why families, on an 
economic basis, could be considered better off. Their wages are flat, 
jobs have escaped us, and the costs of doing business in America and 
raising a family in America continue to go up.
  It is clearly a time for a new direction in America. We need strong 
leadership to point us in a new direction of fiscal responsibility and 
economic growth. For the next 4 years we need to dedicate ourselves to 
working families struggling to make ends meet and raise a family that 
in the future can enjoy even a better standard of living than their 
parents.
  We are not better off than we were, but we can be.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader.

                          ____________________