This Recession

Floor Speech

Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, you know in your State of New York and I know in my State of Illinois what this recession really means. In December, the recession hit my home State of Illinois hard. We lost 1,200 jobs a day in the month of December--36,000 jobs. That is a hit that continues, I am afraid, in the month of January and maybe even in the early part of February. The overall unemployment rate for America is 7.6 percent. Madam President, 3.6 million jobs have been lost since the beginning of the recession several months ago. Clearly, that is the element which is driving our discussion now about what to do.

There are some on the other side of the aisle in Congress who argue that the best thing to do is nothing, let the economy solve its own problems. But, sadly, many of us are meeting the casualties of this recession, and many of us know them personally because they are in our families.

I talk to a lot of my friends who are struggling. It does not sound like much, you know, when they say: My hours have been cut back. A friend of mine, a lady who is raising three children, a single mom raising three kids, had her hours cut back. Her agency does counseling for drug addiction. So she is only working three-quarters of the regular time she was expecting. Well, as a result of that cutback in her pay, she could not pay her rent, and, sadly, she is now facing some of the hardest decisions of her life. So just a cutback in pay for many people who live on the margin makes all the difference. And then, of course, there are those who lost their jobs altogether. Many of those people find they stand the possibility of losing their homes. They cannot make the mortgage payments, and they are facing foreclosure. Their savings that have been devastated by the decline in the stock market have now become the only place to turn. They have had to make serious decisions.

I talked to groups of college presidents from Illinois who came to see me, and some of them, community colleges. The colleges and universities are struggling because a lot of students are sitting there saying: I cannot keep going to school. I mean, dad lost his job and mom is working, and I am a big drain on their savings at a time when they do not have it. So colleges and universities are scrambling all over the campus to try to get people to stay in school. They are afraid they are going to lose them. Community college representatives who came to visit me yesterday said, incidentally, their enrollment is up because a lot of the students say: I can no longer go to the expensive other school, so I am going to come back and do community college courses and try to keep up with it.

Lifestyles are changing. People are making decisions; some of them we hope will be temporary, some may not. That is what troubles me when we look at the debate in Congress. There are so many people who, I am afraid, are removed from this. It really would do a lot of Senators some good to get in touch with the real world out there and what people are going through. We are somewhat insulated in the life we lead, and we have to overcome that because the people who are the casualties and victims here are the ones who should be remembered when it comes to these votes.

Now, President Obama inherited this. I am not going to dwell on the mistakes and miscalculations of the previous administration. That is a matter of record. There is no point in going into that. That was yesterday. We need to talk about today and tomorrow. What are we going do about this?

What the administration, what the President wants to do is to make sure we do not stand back as spectators and watch this collision that is occurring, destroying a lot of lives and a lot of people's hopes. So he came to us and said: We have to breathe some life into this economy. We think that this year in America, $1 trillion less will be spent on goods and services, $1 trillion taken out of the economy. What happens? Shops close. People are laid off if there is not economic activity. So what the President has said is: Let's infuse back into the economy government spending now to try to make up for that and to try to get us moving forward.

Now, I understand--and we all have to be honest about this--that the money we spend on this stimulus is money added to our Nation's debt. But failing to do anything and allowing this recession to continue to go downhill will increase our Nation's debt anyway and, of course, will add to a lot of suffering by families and businesses. So the President came forward and said: Let's focus on several things. First, let's provide tax relief to working families. They are struggling. They need a helping hand. Let's provide help in a safety net, a little more money for people who are unemployed, $25 a week. For anybody who thinks that is a huge amount of money, that is $100 a month for people unemployed. For most of us, that does not mean a lot; for people struggling to get by, it could be important.

Also, there is some help when it comes to continuing health insurance. That is one of the first things that happen when you lose a job--you lose your health insurance. The COBRA program allows you to turn to Government help for that, but it is darn expensive if you have to pay both the employee and employer share. So we are trying to provide a helping hand when it comes to the folks who have lost their health insurance, giving them a little bit of help so their families are not left defenseless to the next diagnosis or the next disease.

Then we add, for the poorest of the poor, those who are struggling the hardest, help with food stamps. You know, if you keep track in your own community, you are going to find that a lot of pantries and church-run efforts to help feed people have more folks showing up than ever. Even those who are working part time are struggling to put food on the table. So we provided additional help when it comes to this supplementary feeding program to help families who are struggling the hardest.

I have often used this statistic, but I still marvel at the fact that one out of eight people in the State of Michigan is on food stamps--one out of eight. It shows you what has happened to their economy, and, sadly, many of our States are following in terms of our own needs.

So we have the tax cuts for working families, we have this safety net, and the President has also asked us to put money into spending that will not only create jobs but make an investment in America's future.

Transportation is the obvious thing to turn to, but it goes beyond that. President Obama would like to see us put more money into building libraries, laboratories, and the classrooms of the 21st century, modernizing schools so they are energy efficient, reducing the cost of energy. That is a good investment for families, and it is a great investment for schools. The President wants money to go in, as well, to health technology so we start computerizing medical records across America. That is a first step in bringing medical care into the 21st century. With computerized records, doctors and nurses are less likely to make mistakes. They are more likely to have all the information they need before they make a diagnosis and suggest a treatment. It will reduce the cost of medical care and reduce the number of mistakes made, which is very important. That is money well spent.

The President focuses on energy. He is right to do so. We have to understand, as long as we are dependent on foreign nations for our major energy sources, we are at their mercy. We saw it happen when gasoline was over $4 a gallon, and it could happen again. We have to be thoughtful in the way we move forward in this economy, creating jobs but looking for more energy efficiency, more energy independence. That is part of the President's goal.

Yesterday, Secretary of the Treasury Mr. Geithner came forward with a plan dealing with banking institutions. It is a complex problem, and it is a multifaceted response. It tries to get at the heart of these banks that, sadly, have portfolios riddled with mortgages that have been overvalued. We have to get to the bottom line so the banks have solid balance sheets and the people have more confidence in them and, importantly, the credit being offered by these institutions starts coming forward so businesses, large and small, individuals buying homes or automobiles, have a chance.

It is a big agenda, and there are a lot of people on the other side of the aisle who say: We shouldn't do any of this. What are we doing this for? The economy will fix itself.

I disagree. The American people expect us to find solutions, do our best to come up with good-faith efforts to find solutions. They expect us to work together and not squabble, to try to find give-and-take that leads to a good solution. They want to make sure there is accountability. They are mad--I am too--that $350 billion was spent several months ago for the so-called TARP, and at the end of the day, a lot of people said: How much did they spend and what did it do?

That is taxpayer dollars. We have a responsibility to be transparent and be held accountable as part of that. They certainly expect us to do this on a timely basis. They don't want Congress chewing over this issue for weeks and months while the economy continues to decline.

Some have suggested: Are you saying this is going to work? Is this perfect? The answer is, no; I am not sure. But if we do nothing, I know what will happen. It is going to get progressively worse, where more people lose their jobs, more businesses fail, more families suffer, and we will see a spiral head downhill and continue not only in the United States but around the world. That is why what we are doing in the stimulus program is so important, that we get it done. As we speak, last-minute negotiations are underway for the stimulus bill. I hope we can get it done even today to send a clear message across the United States and maybe to the rest of the world, as they are paying attention, that we take it seriously. We are not going to buy into a Herbert Hoover mentality that everything will get well if we leave it alone. It is not going to happen.

This patient, the American economy, is in serious need of attention now. We need to apply the tourniquets to stop the bleeding. We need to make a good diagnosis and order the medicine and treatment that is essential. It has to be done in a timely fashion. I encourage my colleagues to come together. Fortunately for us, three Republicans stepped forward in the Senate and joined this effort. We could not have done it without them. We have listened to them. We have accepted their counsel. We have made changes and compromises. We have tried to work together. I invite even more to finally realize that just standing back and saying: No, I will not do a thing, isn't going to solve this problem. We are expected to work together.

We understand what led up to this; we don't want to dwell on the past. But we want to look forward to a new America that gets back on its feet using the spirit of this country to restore the economy and get us moving forward again.

Mrs. BOXER. Will my friend yield for a few questions?

Mr. DURBIN. I am happy to yield.

Mrs. BOXER. I was thinking the other day to when we had another difficult crisis of confidence in the economy in 1993, when Bill Clinton was elected and we had deficits as far as the eye could see and debt as far as the eye could see. Things were slowing. We were in difficulty. A new President came forward, Bill Clinton, and we had the Congress, the Democrats did. We passed a budget. We did it without one Republican vote. Thank goodness here we have three. We have the 60-vote supermajority Republicans are insisting upon. If you remember, it was Senator Bob Kerrey who had to think long and hard and decided to support that.

I wonder if my friend remembers because I just looked up some of the comments made by the Republicans. I read into the Record one of them by Trent Lott. He said: We have not been involved in this. This is going to be a disaster. This is awful. They said: No.

I wonder if my friend knows about the Clinton economic record: 23 million new jobs created during the 8 years of the Clinton Presidency; the largest surplus in history was left behind by President Clinton, over $230 billion; unemployment rates were the lowest in three decades; there was the lowest overall poverty and child poverty rate since the 1970s.

Does my friend remember that battle and how we Democrats had to do it all by ourselves?

Mr. DURBIN. I remember it well because I was serving in the House at the time. When we called the Clinton plan to try to reduce the deficit and invigorate the economy, we did not have a single Republican who supported us. When it came to the Senate, it passed because Vice President Gore cast the deciding vote so it could go forward. That is the reality. There were many skeptics. You mentioned Senator Lott. There were others who said: This isn't going to work. The best thing to do is nothing. Sadly, they were wrong. They should have known they were wrong. We ended up seeing a surge in economic growth, the likes of which we have not seen in modern times.

I think right now we are in a slightly different situation because we are not talking about a big economic surge. We need to stabilize the economy. That is the key. I am afraid many of the people who are criticizing President Obama's efforts are not in touch with what is going on at home.

I watched this morning, as I am sure the Senator from California did, as President Obama went to Ft. Myers, FL, and talked to two particular people. One was Henrietta Hughes, who said: I am living in my car. I am a homeless person. What I wouldn't give to have my own kitchen and bathroom. Can you help me?

Sadly, a lot of people are homeless today. The President reached out, embraced her, and said: We will do what we can. Someone in the community stepped forward.

Another fellow said: I have been at McDonald's for 4 years. McDonald's is a great Illinois corporation, but the fact is, he wants benefits. He wants improvement in wages. You see a lot of people struggling and falling behind. If we don't stabilize this economy, that group is going to grow--people losing their homes, people in jobs that don't even sustain them.

What we are doing is a leap of faith. We are saying: We believe in this President. We believe in this last election where the people said they wanted change. We are going to stick with this President and move forward. We hope some Republicans will join us this time.

Mrs. BOXER. I think my friend is so eloquent as usual. The point I am trying to make is, we faced a serious economic problem in 1993, when a Democratic President took over. You are right. Things are way worse, and it is a different circumstance. But the same thing happened then. We had Senate leadership, Senator Lott saying, on August 6, 1993: This is a pork alert, pork alert. It is 1,800 pages. We are talking about big sums. He said: We have to concentrate on spending cuts first.

They predicted gloom and doom. What happened was the greatest economic recovery in modern history because we took a chance. We followed the wisdom of many economists at the time. We know now that if the Republicans would just join with us, we can get this economy moving in the right direction. A trillion dollars has been taken out of the economy due to lost productivity. Who is going to put it back? The banks won't. We are the only ones who can put it back. It is not going to be a trillion. It is probably under $800 billion. But it is the way to go forward.

I agree with my friend. I am so glad President Obama is out there. Doesn't he agree--and this is my last question. Then I will do a presentation about what is happening in my State--that it is important for the President to get out there, not to a group of people who have been prescreened, who are all his admirers, but actually to get there with all these people who are troubled? They are worried. They have hope and faith, but they are scared. It gives him a reality check rather than listening to what goes on around here because I am afraid the GOP, the Grand Old Party, has turned into the same old party, the same old negativity we heard in 1993 when we had another Democratic President get us on the right road to an amazing recovery. It is sort of the same old thing.

I wonder how my friend feels about our President getting out among the people.

Mr. DURBIN. The Senator from California knows the President, before he was elected, was my colleague for 4 years in the Senate. Every Thursday morning at 8:30, then-Senator Obama and I would get together for a town meeting which we opened to people who came to Washington. Originally, it was for people from Illinois who came to Washington. Then when I saw the crowds growing with my colleague, Senator Obama, I suggested those who wish they were from Illinois or just those who want to see Barack Obama. We would have a huge room full of people. Many of them were fans and admirers. But I watched Senator Obama field questions then.

During the campaign I saw the same thing. This is risky business about which politicians are warned: Don't walk into that crowd that has not been prescreened because they are going to throw you curve balls. They will criticize you. It could get tough and out of hand. Be ready.

He is ready because he has been tested. He was tested as a Senator, certainly tested 2 years on the campaign trail. It is downright refreshing that he walks in and has somebody hold up their hand and he doesn't know what is coming. This could be a person who would never consider voting for him, a person who disagrees with him completely, and he is prepared to hear that. That is a refreshing change in American politics. I hope he sticks with it. I think he will.

The fact that he is going to communities that are suffering--whether it is Elkhart, IN, or Ft. Myers, FL--he is doing his best, as Presidents are generally isolated in the White House and away from most of the people, to get back in touch. I hope our colleagues will do the same, whether they go to New York or California or Illinois or Florida. Go out and talk to the folks.

In my hometown of Springfield, my wife came in Sunday and said: I was just driving down South Grand Avenue, and there was a young woman standing there with a sign saying: I am out of work. Can you help me feed my family?

This was in my hometown. That is an eye opener. There are people like that. But she was so desperate she stood out by the side of the road asking for help. That is happening.

We have to do something about it. The answer is not to ignore it. The answer is not to do nothing. The answer is to do our level best to find a solution so we can have our best efforts, working together to find a way, an accountable way, to get the economy moving again.

I yield the floor.

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