Senate Floor Speech
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
April 3, 2001 -- Page: S3302

MRS. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I rise today on the resolution itself. I am very proud of the budget resolution that has been produced. I commend Senator Domenici for his leadership in making sure we address all the needs of our country in the most responsible way. I want to address the basics of this resolution: debt reduction, tax relief, protecting Social Security and Medicare, and increasing spending in our priority areas.

Every household and every business in America increases spending in some areas and decreases spending in some areas because you set your priorities and you decide what you want to spend more money for and what you care less about and would not increase for the following year. That is what has been done in this budget resolution.

First, let's talk about debt reduction. This budget resolution provides for the largest and fastest debt reduction in the history of our country. We will pay off $2.3 trillion of our $3.2 trillion in publicly held debt over the next 10 years. Not only is this an aggressive schedule, but it is the maximum debt reduction possible unless we want to pay a penalty, which would not make economic sense. So without penalties, we are paying down this debt to the maximum extent possible.

Under this budget resolution, the Government's publicly held debt will decline from 35 percent of the gross domestic product to 7 percent in 2011, the lowest level in 80 years. By comparison, the publicly held debt was 80 percent of the gross domestic product in 1950, following World War II; it was 42 percent of gross domestic product in 1990, following the cold war; and by 2011, under this budget track, it will be 7 percent. That is a healthy debt ratio and most certainly a healthy reduction.

Tax relief. We are going to have $5.6 trillion in surplus over the next 10 years. We are proposing to divide that right down the middle and set aside all of the Social Security and Medicare surplus so that those items will only be spent for those two very important programs. But of the other half, which is the income tax withholding surplus, which means that people are sending $2.5 trillion more to Washington than we need to fund the current programs, we want to return $1.6 trillion, leaving approximately $1 trillion for added spending because we are going to add spending in our priority areas.

The overall budget increase is 4 percent. There will be more in some areas such as public education--11.5 percent--and there will be less in some areas. There will be dead even expenditures 1 year to the next in some areas. In some cases, projects have already been finished and they do not need more funding.

So we are taking the responsible approach of saying $1.6 trillion goes back into the pocketbooks of the people who earned it. What is going to happen with that $1.6 trillion? That money will go back into the economy, either through spending, savings, or investment, all of which is better than having it sit in Washington doing nothing for the economy. In fact, some economists say it is a drag on our economy to have this big a surplus sitting in Washington, doing nothing. It is better to be in the pocketbooks of the people who earned it so it will go back into the economy and create the jobs and the prosperity that will keep the economy strong.

We are talking about a $5.6 trillion tax relief package. But Senator Domenici, to his great credit, came up with the idea that we are watching the economy stagnate right now. So why don't we take $60 billion, which is the surplus we have available right now, and give it back to the people right now. So $60 billion is set aside.

The Democrats and the Republicans have agreed on that figure. Senator Conrad has agreed on the $60 billion figure. That is in the budget we will pass today. How that $60 billion is returned to taxpayers I do not know. We will talk about that later. We will hammer it out. But now that we have the number in the budget, the people of our country will know they are going to get some relief immediately.

No. 3, protecting Social Security and Medicare. We want to make sure that Social Security is secure. That is our No. 1 priority. That is exactly what we do in this budget resolution. The Social Security surplus will be used for Social Security, and it will also reduce the debt because we have the surplus that is there for Social Security. The same is true for Medicare. The budget resolution ensures that every dime of Medicare Part A will be used for Medicare, for paying down the debt. It also provides--and this is important; Senator Gramm was talking about this before I spoke--$153 billion over the next 10 years will go for prescription drug benefits and options in Medicare because all of us know that people are having a harder time paying for their prescription drugs.

Prescription drugs have taken the place of surgery. They have taken the place of hospital stays. They have lessened the cost of health care in general. But the drugs are expensive so we need to accommodate that added expense as we are reforming Medicare. This budget provides the means to do that.

So what is left? Our funding priorities. We are increasing our priority areas 11.5 percent for education. That is our No. 1 priority area and it is the biggest expenditure in the budget. A 4-percent overall annual increase is going to be higher than the rate of inflation. So I think that is quite responsible.

In addition, we are going to double the spending at the National Institutes of Health for the research so we can, hopefully, find the cure for breast cancer and colon cancer and all of the diseases, heart disease--we are pouring the money into the research because we want to try to cure these diseases.

We have treatments for these diseases but in many instances we don't have the cure. That is what doubling the NIH budget does.

We are going to increase national defense spending. That is our first responsibility. Curing Social Security and providing for the national defense is our first-line responsibility. We are going to make sure that the men and women who give their lives to protect our freedom will have the support they need to do the job. We are going to give them higher pay. We are going to give them education benefits. We are going to give them health care benefits, and we are going to give them better health. We owe them that. They are doing a job for our country that no one else can do.

We are going to have the next generation of technology so that we keep our superiority in national security; so that we keep the air superiority we have seen just in the last year absolutely perform in the way we had hoped it would.

We are going to keep the superiority of our defenses because we know that the best defense is a good defense. We know that peace will come through strength. Knowing that we have the best is the best deterrent that we can have for any country that might choose to fool around with America. I am proud of this budget resolution. I am proud of the President of the United States.

There is a new era in Washington. I hope we can keep the promises we made to the American people and pass a responsible budget resolution with responsible spending and responsible tax relief for every hard-working American.