Senate Floor Speech
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
February 27, 2001 -- Page: S1596

MRS. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Utah for his remarks about the budget.

I have had some White House briefings on what would be in the President's budget. It is so refreshing to see a President, who made promises, and tonight is going to unveil his plans to keep the promises he made to the American people.

I, as one Member of the Senate, am certainly going to try to help the President keep those promises because I, too, made those promises to the American people because I believe we can treat this budget as any family in America treats their household budget; that is, we can make priorities. We can decide what we want to spend more money to do, what we want to spend less money to do, and where our priorities are going to be for saving our own money. That is the theory behind the President's budget.

He is basically saying: We are going to cover our priorities. We are going to increase spending in the priority areas. We are going to flat line the areas that are not priorities or areas where the project is complete. And we are going to have more of our own money back in our pocketbooks. At the same time, the President is going to pay down the debt at the greatest rate that we can pay it down. I think that is a balanced approach.

Let's talk about some of the priorities. One that I am very pleased the President is going to put forward is the No. 1 priority, which is education. Public education is the foundation of our country. It is what makes us different from most other countries in the world; and that is we want public education to give every child the chance to reach his or her full potential; that they can go to public schools all their life, and they will have a great education that will allow them to do whatever they want to do in life. That is the American way. We have fallen behind in that dream. The President wants that dream to come back. And Congress is going to support him. We are going to make sure every child can reach his or her full potential in this country with a public education.

So we are going to target those funds so that when the local school district wants to do creative things--wants to have teacher incentives, wants to encourage people to come from careers into the classroom, or from military retirement into the classroom--we will allow that alternative certification to bring that person in to give language or math or science that is not able to be offered in that school unless we do some creative recruiting.

Those are the kinds of things that we want to foster with the Federal funds. We want the decisions to be made at the local level. We want goals to make sure every child can read by the third grade because we know if a child cannot read in the third grade, they are going to start falling behind. Of course, they are not going to be able to pass algebra if they do not have the basic reading skills. So we take one step at a time. And we start with the basics. That is what the goals will be.

Secondly, tonight our President is going to call for prescription drug benefits and options under Medicare. That is very important. Fifteen years ago, people would have had to go in the hospital; they would have to have major surgery to treat an illness. Today, that can be done with drugs. And, yes, those prescription drugs are expensive. So we need to make sure we are covering those drug costs and giving people the options to be able to afford the drugs they need to stay healthy, while at the same time having their other living expenses be covered.

So we want to have a prescription drug option in Medicare. We want to have benefits for those who cannot afford it. That is going to be a priority in the President's budget.

We are going to keep national defense as our highest priority. We are going to make sure our military is strong and ready. I have visited our troops in the field all over the world. I know morale has been low. We have not focused enough on our national defense and the people who are serving in our military. So we are going to have pay raises, we are going to upgrade the health care for our military personnel and their families, and we are going to make sure they have quality housing.

Just last week, in Texas, I was at Fort Sam Houston and I walked through housing where the paint was peeling. That is not acceptable. We are not going to have that for our military personnel. We are going to give them good, quality housing and health care. We are going to make sure their children have quality education, especially on the bases that have school districts within the bases. We are going to step up to the plate to make sure we are doing what is necessary to give our young people, who are the dependents of military personnel, a quality public education.

So we are going to do those things to upgrade our military. And we are going to make sure we have the quality equipment and the training to give these people who are pledging their lives for our freedom the chance to do their jobs, and to do it right. We are going to support our military.

These are areas where we are going to increase spending.

I believe Congress will support President Bush's initiatives in the budget.

Also, another priority we have not talked very much about is a rainy day fund. President Bush is going to put in place a rainy day fund. Some people are concerned that maybe our economy will go soft. We do not want to get into a deficit again. So he is going to suggest we have a rainy day fund. And I am going to support him all the way. I will introduce legislation to make sure we have a rainy day fund, just like every home in America will have if they have a quality budget in their homes--a rainy day fund for emergencies.

So those are the priorities we will have in our budget. But it is no less of a priority that we also pay down the debt and that we have more money for taxpayers in their own pocketbooks because they are sending too much to Washington in income taxes.

It is very important that people be able to keep more of the money they earn because people are paying higher taxes than they have ever paid in peacetime. We need to give them some relief, particularly because the economy is a little soft right now. We want people to have the confidence they can spend their money.

But we also want them to be able to save some of their money. So we are going to have a balanced plan that will pay down the debt and will give tax relief for hard-working Americans--for every hard-working American. We are going to have priority spending, and we are going to do what every household in America will do; that is, provide for the priorities in our budget and not spend more in the areas where we do not need to spend more and target those areas where we know we are going to have to do a better job than we have been doing in national defense, in education, in prescription drug options. Those are the things we will focus on in this budget.

I am so pleased our President is showing the leadership we have needed in this country to go in the right direction for responsible stewardship of our taxpayer dollars.

Mr. President, I thank you and look forward to introducing the legislation and working with others who have already introduced legislation to accomplish the goals that will be outlined tonight by the President of the United States.