The Economy
THE ECONOMY
Mr. DURBIN. I thank the Chair. If there is no one else on the floor, I would like to claim that time.
Mr. President, before Senator Conrad leaves, I say to the Senator, thank you for your presentation. I hope those who are following this debate will reflect for a moment on what Senator Conrad has brought to us this morning. He is the Democratic ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee. I am very proud of the work he does, and the American people should be grateful for the time he spends analyzing these tough issues.
I know at times it must be a lonely assignment because in this revelry we have about the President's tax cut and the President's so-called stimulus package, few people are really reflecting on the overall impact of this package on our economy.
What Senator Conrad has told us this morning is very graphic because he has pointed out the fact that the President's package is fundamentally unfair, fundamentally unfair, in that the benefits he is providing for tax benefits are benefits that are, frankly, going to the wealthiest people in this country.
The argument has been made on the Republican side of the aisle that many people working for a living today are "not paying taxes." I actually heard a Pennsylvania Senator, a Republican, say: You know, a third of the workers in America don't pay taxes. Well, I wish he would have a little conversation with those workers who would be happy to remind him they pay taxes every single day for every hour they work. They are payroll taxes, taxes that come right out of their paycheck. These are people struggling to keep their families together, trying to guarantee to their kids the same quality of life we all want to see in America.
The President has forgotten them. The Republican side of the aisle appears to have forgotten them. But we don't believe they should be forgotten. These are wage earners who, if given some resources through tax breaks, would end up spending that money to invigorate this economy and to move us forward again to get us out of this recession which just won't go away.
The President's people like to say: You mean the Clinton recession? We inherited that problem.
There is no question but that the statistics show the beginning of a downturn toward the end of the Clinton administration. But who would have guessed we would be stuck in this rut on the side of America's economy for so many months under the Bush administration? By now we should have emerged.
Two years ago, the President said: I have the perfect formula. I am going to give you an economic stimulus package that will bring the economy back.
He persuaded this body and a dozen Democratic Senators to join him and vote for a tax package which I opposed, another tax package designed to cut taxes on the wealthiest people in America. As we look back on that decision, which has added geometrically to the debt and deficit with which we are coping, you have to ask the basic questions: Did it work? Is America better today? Is our economy moving forward? The honest answer is no, it didn't work.
So the President comes back this year and says: I have a magic formula that will move this economy forward, get us out of the recession, finally start restoring jobs in America, profitability to businesses, and portfolios will increase in size.
We say to the President: What is it?
He says: More of the same. Let us give tax breaks to the wealthiest people in America, and I just guarantee you that it will help.
It doesn't stimulate the economy. As Senator Conrad and others have pointed out, most of the benefits the President wants us to enact really won't occur for many years to come. So we are going to give tax breaks to wealthy people, implemented over a long period of time, which will not have an immediate impact on this economy. We know they will have an immediate impact on the deficit and debt of America.
How can we in good conscience say to the American people that we are going to ignore the millions in the baby boom generation who have paid into Social Security their entire working lives, who have played by the rules and followed the law in anticipation that when they reached eligibility for Social Security, it would be there to help them? We ignore them if we enact the President's so-called stimulus package because what the President does is create a deeper deficit and greater national debt by borrowing from the Social Security trust fund just as we need it for the baby boom generation.
President Bush's economic stimulus plan betrays the baby boom generation. At a time when we promised them Social
Security would be strong enough to provide the benefits for the baby boomers, the President is taking hundreds of billions of dollars out of the Social Security trust fund. It not only betrays that generation, it betrays their children and grandchildren, who will be saddled with that debt for years and years to come. Is that the legacy we want to leave? Think about it.
At this moment in our history, when we are this close to engaging in a war, with 130,000 American troops positioned to invade Iraq, with consequences unpredictable at this moment, with the ultimate possibility that we will be occupying that nation, trying to stabilize it for a long period of time, the President doesn't say: America, come together, unified; be prepared to sacrifice, stand behind the men and women in uniform.
He says to us: We can have it all. We can have our deficit. We can have our recession. We can have these tax cuts for wealthy people. We can pay for a war, and we can take care of Social Security.
Who in the world is watching the store down at the White House? Who is adding up the numbers? I am afraid people are not really taking cognizance of the reality of what we face. For once can we step back when it comes to tax cuts and say: Instead of being dedicated to leaving no millionaire behind, we are not going to leave any middle-income American behind? Wouldn't that be a much better dedication for this country?
Should we not take those who have been activated in Illinois and Ohio and across the Nation in the reserves and say: What are we doing in our tax package to help these people who are giving of their lives and sacrificing for the Nation? Should we not be providing tax benefits for them as opposed to the wealthiest people in America who will stay home and follow the war in Iraq on the nightly news?
I say to the President: Simple fairness dictates and the economy requires us to put a stimulus package together that is 1 year in duration, that is fair in terms of the tax benefits so the majority of benefits go to the majority of Americans to make certain that what we do ultimately will stimulate this economy, will not drive us deeper into debt, and will not sacrifice the Social Security trust fund.
If we stick to those principles, we can have an economic stimulus plan to help America. Otherwise, we are committed to a plan the President has already demonstrated will fail. This plan will fail, and it will fail at great expense not only to the baby boom generation but to their children and grandchildren.
I know some Republicans have said they have misgivings about this plan. That is encouraging. It is time we have an honest bipartisan discussion and say to the people in the White House: You have gone too far. You have suggested something not good for America, something that is not fair, something that does not move us forward.
That is the discussion we need. That is the bipartisan conversation in which we should be engaged.
Why are we not talking about dedicating our resources and time to things American families really care about? In Illinois right now, the No. 1 business complaint and labor complaint is the cost of health insurance. The yardstick by which I will measure the President's State of the Union Address is whether or not he has the political courage to step up and address this issue. If the President doesn't address the cost of health care in America, he is ignoring a major business expense and a major worry for families across the Nation.
He can talk about dividend taxes, tax breaks of $89,000 a year for millionaires, but for goodness' sake, help the average family pay for their health insurance, be sensitive to the fact that millions of Americans have no health insurance protection. These are things real families worry about every single day. They are not concerned about whether or not Bill Gates or his father have added tax benefits. They want to know if they can protect their kids, if they can protect their family with health insurance.
These are the real issues being ignored by this White House. I sincerely hope the Senate will not ignore them.
I yield the floor.