Date: 1982-12-09
Speaker: M ETZENBAUM (democrat)
Chamber: S

I very much appreciate the further questions of the Senator from Louisiana. Almost one out of every four unemployed teenagers are now walking the streets of America looking for a jobthe highest rate on record. This administration must be proud. if Is setting all kinds of records. Up until it came into office. we never had a deficit budget that came anywhere close to approaching $200 billion. It has broken all records in that respect. The last one under the Carter administration was a $59 billion deficit. And why do we have that kind of a deficit? The President goes on television. the President goes across the country and tells people that we have to cut spending. If I have heard once. I have heard a dozen times that we are going to save $15 billion or $17 billion or $20 billion by eliminating waste and fraud and abuse. and then the next days newspaper reports another example of waste and fraud and abuse. I see no evidence whatsoever of any effort along that line. This administration has been irresponsible in attempting to convince the American people that somehow by cutting and cutting and cutting expenditures of those programs dealing with people that they are going to balance the budget. Look at what this administration did. It cut the maximum tax from 70 percent to 50 percent. It cut the capital gains tax from a maximum of 28 percent to 20 percent. It cut substantially all sorts of estate taxes. totally eliminating some portions of them. And then the administration and the President say the way to have to balance the budget is by cutting further. I urge the President of the United States to call in his advisers and have them sit down and explain to him what they have really done to America in the last 2 years. Let them explain to him why the budget has not a chance of being balanced. Because you balance the budget on the basis of what comes in as conpared to what goes out. And they have cut so much of what conies in that it Is almost impossible to balance the budget. Now the administration is saying. "Oh. no. we have a way to solve the problems of the economy. We are going to cut taxes 10 percent more in 1983. That is somehow going to balance the budget." The supplysiders are not talking much about supplyside economics anymore and now they are saying we have to see to it that business gets better. First they told us they were going to get business better with supplyside econimics. now they are saying we have to stimulate the economy but they are not explaining how. Nearly 23.000 businesses have failed so far in 1982small businesses. big businesseswhich compares to 15.000 a year ago. Individual bankruptcies have averaged nearly 25.600 per month in the first 0 months of 1982. Well. this crowd over there has an answer as to how you cut down the number of bankrupticiesiot by making it possible for people not to have to go bankrupt but by denying them the right to go bankrupt. What a magnificent approach that is. Republicans gave us a tax cut which directs most of the benefits to persons earning more than $80.000. while those earning less than $15.000 receive a pittance. It is incredible how much this administration has done for the rich and how much this administration has not done for the poor. The combination of tax and spending cuts that this administration put into effect means that a household earning $10.000 or less will actually be $220 poorer by 1984 while a family earning $80.000 or more will be realizing a $19.230 increase in income. Republicans have cut funding for Legal Services by 25 percent. Sure. cut funding for Legal Services. Why should those people who are in trouble have an opportunity to have a lawyer represent them? By doing that. they deprive hundreds of thousands of indigent Americans access to legal aid. What is happening in that connection? Well. the Senate Republicans and many of the House Republicans are pushing provisions to exempt the Nations lawyers from the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission. Reagan Republican cuts in medicare will cost the elderly $1.8 billion in additional outofpocket expenses on top of the 40 percent they already pay. Simultaneously. the Republicans are pressing to pass the American Medical Associations pet bill to exempt doctors from Federal antitrust laws. Let me take a moment to address myself to that subject. The Federal Trade Commission is now the only agency of Government that has some semblance of responsibility to protect the consumers of this country. Every few months we get some new group that wants to be exempted from the Federal Trade Commissions jurisdiction. The AMA and the ADAand I do not mean the Americans for Democratic Action. but I mean the American Dental Associationare pushing with all their might to see to it that they be exempted from the FTC regulationsanother special interest. cat and dog. that should never be brought to the floor of this Senate. If someone sees fit to push that measure and bring it to the floor of the Senate. I know that the American people are going to want to know about that subject before the Senate acts on it. and I therefore indicate with no reservations whatsoever that if that measure comes to the floor of the Senate. the American people are going to have a number of days to learn what the provisions of that measure are and to be apprised of the impact that it will have upon them. It is another one of those cats and dogs that does not belong in this session. Nearly threequarters of a million people have had their welfare benefits cut or eliminated by this administration. What do the Republicans do about that? Oh. they have a great answer. They push corporate welfare bills. not Individual welfare bills. but corporate welfare bills like tax leasing and the timber bailout bill. a bill that would save the timber industry $2 billion by relieving them of their contracts negotiated in good faith with the Federal Government. another one of the cats and dogs. the special interest bills that are waiting to be brought up on the floor of the Senate. That. too. is a measure that I hope will never see the light of day in this Senate. but should it be brought to this body. it is a matter that I think the American people should understand and understand well. and if it be necessary. that is another one of those measures that I will be prepared to explain to the American people regardless of how long a period of time that might take. The Republicans eliminated 500.000 persons from the guaranteed student loan program. forcing many into a hopeless job market. while supporting unproductive multibilliondollar breaks for oil companies. What a wonderful thing to do. Take care of the oil companies and keep young people from having an opportunity to go to college under the guaranteed student loan program. This administration has been so heartless. so cruel. so indifferent to the concerns of the many and so specially tuned into the concerns of the few. It bothers me that I do not think the American people understand really what is going on. They understand the unemployment. They understand when they do not have food for their family. They understand when they are in tent camps even in rich States like Texas because they cannot find a job and do not have a home in which to live. This administration does not understand. The President even objects when television carries coverage about someone who is unemployed and he finds something is wrong with television because it played up the fact that someone was unemployed in some part of our country. Those who are unemployed did not mind hearing it. They wished they did not have to hear it. The fact is. they are living it so they do not have to hear it on television. but at least they feel better if they know that the country is apprised of their condition. This administration reduced the number of households receiving Federal housing assistance from 220.000 to 75.000. simultaneously increasing the rent for these lowincome tenants. Think of it. They cut back on the number of housing facilities that will be made available and then what they do is. they increase the rents. for the lowincome tenants. What kind of fairness is that? What kind of equity is that? Oh. I am sorry I mentioned the word "equity." This administration does not think in terms of fairness and equity. This administration thinks in terms of taking care of the affluent. forgetting about the people of this country. More Americans are in poverty today than in any time since 1967 and the number of poor persons rose 2.6 million during Reagans first year in office. Meanwhile. what do the Republicans do? They push bills to relieve corporations of their pricefixing liability. Mr. President. I say to you that this administration should get down to the business for which we were called back. that this administration should deal with the substance of what these proposals are all about and recognize that they do not belong on the agenda. Mr. President. I suggest the absence of a quorum.