Senate Floor Speech
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
January 28, 2003 -- Page: S1649

MRS. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, the President of the United States has an awesome responsibility. I don't think anyone in America would say that he does not realize what his responsibility is and that he is not working as hard as any person could to try to do the right thing for our country, in both our domestic agenda, our homeland security, and, of course, our national defense.

He has a heavy burden. He must do something that stimulates the economy, that puts people back to work, and at the same time he must spend everything that is necessary to secure the people in our country who live here and to make sure that our young men and women who are fighting the war on terrorism, who are fighting for our freedom and our country, wherever they may be in the world, have everything they need to do the job we are asking them to do.

I have been listening to a lot of the comments that have been made on the floor today. I would like to take each of the areas that have been mentioned and try to talk about what the President's agenda is and why he is trying so hard to beef up our economy, at the same time fighting a very long and, frankly, iconoclastic war on terrorism.

This is a new kind of enemy. It is not the kind of enemy that is one country or two countries. It is no particular country. It is not the kind of enemy we always have had one which wanted to kill or harm us but didn't want to hurt themselves. No, this is an enemy that is willing to blow itself up in order to harm Americans. It is even an enemy that would tell their children, teach their children, educate their children, that suicide, in order to harm Americans and freedom-loving people, is a good thing.

This is a difficult kind of war. Our President knows we are fighting on every front, that we are trying to find the enemy, no matter where they are. If they are in the caves in Afghanistan or if they are in Iraq or if they are in North Korea or if they are in our own country, the President is doing everything he can to execute this war and to tell the people of the United States we must stand together.

We must stand together and keep the spirit of our country if we are going to have the patience and the resolve to beat this new kind of enemy.

That is what our President is trying to do. He doesn't want to make war. He doesn't want to make war on Iraq or anyone else. But he also knows that if we are going to keep another 9/11 from happening--God forbid a 9/11 with a nuclear weapon or biological or chemical weapon--if he is going to prevent that from happening in our country, he is going to have to have the full support of the American people. That is exactly what he is trying to get, by talking about the problems in Iraq, talking about what Saddam Hussein is doing.

The people who have seen Saddam Hussein, who have seen the treachery of this despot, know he is someone we must not have in control of a country and with the potential of having a weapon of mass destruction.

I know the President tonight is going to talk about the war on terrorism and all the things he is doing and all the young men and women who are on their way to the Middle East to make sure we are negotiating from a position of strength. But I know this President's very last resort is war. It is not the 1st resort, nor the 2nd resort, nor the 3rd resort, nor the 100th resort. But he knows that unless Saddam Hussein knows we mean business--we will do what we say we are going to do--we are going to lose this war on terrorism. That is the leadership the President of the United States is showing.

The President, in addition to the burden of having to prosecute a war, also has the burden of having to make sure our domestic economy stays strong, because it will be very difficult to prosecute a war if our domestic economy continues to erode.

We passed a tax cut 2 years ago under the leadership of President Bush and with strong support from Congress. That tax cut has helped a lot of people. I believe that tax cut kept us from going into a deeper recession. Now the President is trying to stimulate the economy, and the President is looking at history, and what has happened when we have had tax cuts in history has been phenomenal.

In 1964, President Kennedy led the fight for tax cuts. In 1965--1 year later--the gross domestic product rose 8 percent. Over the next 5 years, it rose 48 percent. Unemployment fell from 5.2 percent in 1965 to 3.5 percent in 1969. Five years later, revenues had risen for the U.S. Government by 66 percent. There was a $5.9 billion deficit in 1965 but a $3.2 billion surplus in 1969. That was the effect of the tax cuts of 1964.

After the Reagan tax cut of 1981, the gross domestic product rose 4 percent the next year, 1982; 42 percent over the next 5 years; unemployment fell from 7.6 percent to 7 percent in 1986. Five years later, revenues had risen by 28 percent.

So it has been proven that tax cuts will give the economy the boost it needs.

We have seen a situation in America where corporations have been dissuaded, because of double taxation of dividends, from giving dividends. So people who are saving and investing in order to have retirement security have been getting fewer and fewer dividends because companies get nothing for paying the dividend. They have to pay taxes on the money first before they would issue a dividend. It is cheaper to go into debt. So we have seen debt financing rise, and dividends that go to shareholders that can help secure retirement have been going down.

Today in America, 50 percent of the people own stock and 50 percent of the people who get dividends are our senior citizens. These are people who have tried to provide for their retirement security, not looking to their Government but looking to themselves. That is what we want to encourage. That is why the President is trying to eliminate the dividends' taxes.

So we are trying very hard to stimulate the economy.

How are we doing it? We are doing it, of course, by trying to eliminate the double taxation of dividends, trying to encourage corporations to give dividends and help people who want to have that income to live on, who need that income. But we are also doing something else. We are trying to lessen the burden of the marriage penalty. Why would we have a marriage penalty in our country? We don't need to tax marriage, but that is what we do. And the President is trying to eliminate that. I have introduced the bill in the Senate to eliminate the marriage tax penalty.

We are also trying to bring down the tax rate for every bracket--yes, every bracket. Mr. President, 35 percent of the small businesses in our country will get relief if we lower the upper bracket. Everyone will get relief under the President's plan--everyone who pays taxes will get relief, and especially the small businesspeople in our country who desperately need this tax relief and are trying very hard to make ends meet in these tough times. We want to help them.

I think the President is doing a great job. I am very proud that he is trying to stimulate the economy. He is very concerned about people who have lost their jobs, people who are worried about their retirement security, and he is trying to do something about it. At the same time, he is taking on a massive war on terrorism, to make sure that freedom reigns in the world, to make sure that our way of life--democracy, freedom, free enterprise, self-reliance--lasts in the world--not a way of life that says that suicide is a good thing if you can kill other people at the same time, not a way of life that says people will never have a chance to have a role in their own government. There will be no self-government in a world of terrorism. We cannot allow that kind of power to take over the world. That is what the President is trying to do.