Date: 1982-07-22
Speaker: ROBERT C. BYRD (democrat)
Chamber: S

Mr. President. I rise today to support the amendment that has been proposed by the distinguished Senator from Ohio. Senator METZENBAUM. The Senator from Ohio correctly has pointed out to this body that the reconciliation bill before us today contains increases in the Federal unemployment tax that over the next 5 years will total $12 billion. And yet. Mr. President. this bill. which touches in some way virtually every program within the jurisdiction of the Senate Finance Committee. does not provide one thin dime to the 10.4 million persons who currently are unemployed and either have exhausted or soon will exhaust their regular and extended unemployment benefits. The economic statistics irrefutably demonstrate that this Nation entered into the current recession in July of last year. Ironically. this recession. that began 6 months after the current administration took office. officially commenced within a few days of enactment by Congress of the administrations supplyside economic program. The record is unassailable: Since that day. the recession has only grown more serious. Despite almost daily claims by administration spokesmen that "we are about to turn the corner" toward economic progress. we remain mired in a national economy tragedy. The administrations economic program has failed to date. As David Stockman revealed in his statements to William Greider last fall. it is now and always has been only a Trojan Horse to sneak the old philosophy of "trickle down" economics into law. Voodoo economics has extracted a terrible price in human misery. Nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in the unemployment statistics. In the Labor Departments report last month. 10/ million people were counted as unemployedand that is on a seasonally adjusted basis. President Reagan has said he does not believe the world is seasonally adjusted. If one takes the raw figures. 10.9 million were counted as unemployedover 9.8 percent of the workforce. This. of course. does not count the rapidly increasing number of discouraged workers who have failed in their efforts to find work for so long that they simply have given up looking. there are over 1.5 million of these. Nor does it count the several hundred thousand workers who have been forced to work only part time because they are not able to secure full time work. It is these people who are the most serious casualties of the current recession. Mr. President. What has the administration done to help these people? I am distressed to say that the administration proposed and the Congress accepted billions of dollars in reductions in unemployment insurance benefits within the Reconciliation Act of 1981. And the unemployed have felt only the tip of that icebergbecause some of the harshest reductions have been lying dormant for a year. and will not take effect until late September. when hundreds of thousands of persons will lose eligibility for extended benefits. How does this record contrast with the way in which previous administrationsand the Senate when it was under Democratic controldealt with recessions when unemployment was higher than normalalthough considerably lower than today? In 1971. Mr. President. there were 5.1 million unemployed persons. and the unemployment rate was 5.5 percent. In 1974. the next significant recession. the unemployment rate reached 7.2 percent and 6.6 million persons were out of work. During each of those times. a temporary program of supplemental benefits was enactedincreasing from 39 weeks to 52 weeks. and in one case 65 weeks. the period during which the unemployed are eligible for unemployment benefits. On May 18 of this year. with 21 original cosponsors. I introduced a bill to establish a temporary supplemental benefits program: S. 2542. Although it is not the ultimate solution to the problem of unemployment. I think it is an essential step that a compassionate nation must take when a tenth of its work force has been idled by a recession. What has happened in the 2 months that have passed since then? Unemployment has risen even further. Thousands more people have exha:sted their unemployment benefits. And nothing has been done with the bill I introduced or with any similar measure here in the Senate. The House Ways and Means Committee. on the other hand. has reported a bill such as this twiceand. in fact. attached its bill to the House companion for the very bill we are considering here today. I am advised that the Senate Finance Committee now has set hearings on this bill in Washington and in several other cities at the end of this month. I intend to testify. But those hearings. and the testimony I and others will offer. will not provide so much as a penny of badly needed assistance to even one unemployed person. How bad does the unemployment situation have to get before the administration thinks it is bad enough to do something about it? How many more millions of persons must lose their jobs. and lose their unemployment benefits. before the majority in the Senate concludes that we must do something? How much longer must we wait? But most troubling of all is the fact that we have no assurance whatsoever that the Senate Finance Committee ever intends to report supplemental benefits legislation. It is for that reason. Mr. President. that I will support the amendment offered by the Senator from Ohio. and will urge my colleagues to support it as well. While this bill has been under consideration by the Senate. I have supported amendments that would delete the increase in the Federal unemployment tax. because I think nowwhile businesses are struggling. and before we even begin an economic recovery that must include hiring back millions of unemployed workersis the worst possible time to increase the costs to employers of hiring workers. If there are other amendments to -delete or delay this tax increase at this time. I expect to support them. But if we fail in our efforts to delete or delay this tax increase. I believe it is essential that we obtain an ironclad commitment that we will not limit our actions to returning the unemployment insurance trust fund to a stable posture. but that we also will do something for unemployed people in this country who daily are losing their homes. their life savings. and their selfrespect. The Senate must act on supplemental benefits legislation. and it must act promptly. This is nothing less than an obligation to 10 1/2 million unemployed persons and their families. Consequently. Mr. President. I will support this amendment.