Date: 1983-03-03
Speaker: PHILIP M. CRANE (republican)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chairman. Congress is an immensely compassionate body. If there is an identifiable problem in society. Congress rarely misses it. Sooner or later. majorand sometimes minorproblems become the focus of congressional attention. Unemployment is one of those problems. I remember debates over public works jobs in this body in 1976 to alleviate the problems of the 197375 recession. I remember similar debates over public works legislation in 1972 to deal with the problems arising from the recession of 1970. Some colleagues in this body remember the public works legislation in 1962 designed to deal with the unemployment arising from the 1960 recession. The significant fact is that in every instance. Congress acted to address the problem well after it was in the process of disappearing. You have all heard or seen the encouraging economic statistics of late. Since President Reagan took office. inflation has dropped from a high of 13.5 percent under President Carter to 2 percent today. The prime rate under President Carter hit 21.5 percent. Today it is 10.5 percent and expected to drop another 1 percent very soon. Housing starts are up almost 100 percent over a year ago. Automakers are rehiring and plan to increase production 35 percent this spring over a year ago. But the most encouraging economic indicatorand the most reliableis Congress itself. By the time this body gets around to dealing with unemploymentwhich has already started to declineyou can rest assured that the economy is well on its way to recovery. Now what are the inherent flaws in this legislation? First. we are proposing to spend $4.6 billion that we do not have. Since we are not proposing to raise this unanticipated spending burden with a $4.6 billion tax increase. we must go into the capital markets and borrow it in competition with the private sector at the very time business will be borrowing aggressively in a business recovery. This can only retard a healthy recovery in the private sector. The loss of $4.6 billion to the private sector represents a loss of over 100.000 productive jobs in the private sector. jobs that give workers a future and improve the overall state of our economy. Second. OMB studies reveal that public works jobs result in hiring no more than 12 percent to 27 percent of the unemployed. 75 percent. almost 90 percent of these jobs will go to people already employed. Third. the jobs that sponsors of this legislation intend to promote are not Jobs in the areas of greatest unemployment. Why are we taking precious capital out of our economically distressed heartlandwith the highest levels of unemployment in the landto spend it in areas that have infinitely less suffering? That is why I support this amendment. But if jobs are really at issue. there are any number of preferable positive actions that could and should be taken by this body instead of resorting to counterproductive. misplaced. and misguided legislation such as we have under consideration today. For example. if we were to repeal the anachronistic DavisBacon legislation. we could save the taxpayer an estimated $2 billion and simultaneously create an estimated 100.000 new jobs. many of which would offer expanded opportunities to minorities and the disadvantaged. If we provided a youth differential under the minimum wage. we could generate another 50.000 jobs for the young. especially black teenagers who are hurt the most. By accelerating scheduled social security tax hikes to 1984. the chamber of commerce estimates we will be losing another 500.000 jobs that otherwise would be created. By granting eminent domain to coal slurry pipelines. we could create another 150.000 jobs. If we refrain from cutting the defense budget by $10 billion. according to the Christian Science Monitor. we can save another 350.000 jobs. There are many other positive steps we could take as well. but just these few examples would net us over a million jobs. Mr. Chairman. this bill is cosmetic as far as affecting unemployment. Moreover. it is injurious to the economy. And finally. it seriously aggravates an already depressing budget deficit. I urge my colleagues to defeat the resolution and go back to the drawing boards.