The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“AMERICA'S WORSENING FISCAL SITUATION” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the Senate section on pages S7711 on June 11, 2003.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
AMERICA'S WORSENING FISCAL SITUATION
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, the new Congressional Budget Office, CBO, budget deficit numbers announced Monday should trouble us all.
Only 1 month ago CBO, estimated that the Federal deficit would be
$300 billion--an alarming number considering that when President Bush took office the Federal Government was running a surplus. Now, CBO has notified Congress that the deficit will be a record $400 billion.
CBO now projects that the federal government is likely to end fiscal year 2003 with a deficit of more than $400 billion, or close to 4 percent of gross domestic product. The deterioration in the short-term budget outlook stems from continued weakness in revenue collections and from enactment of the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, which will add an estimated $61 billion to this year's deficit in the form of tax cuts, refundable credits, and aid to states. The recent extension of unemployment benefits will boost outlays by another $3 billion this year. For the first eight months of 2003, the government ran a deficit of $291 billion, CBO estimates, about twice the shortfall it incurred in the same period last year.
When President Bush entered the White House in January 2001, the Nation was enjoying a record budget surplus that was built with hard choices and determination over the previous 8 years. With breathtaking speed, this administration's fiscal irresponsibility has quickly turned those record surpluses into record deficits. In 3 short years, these policies have driven us further into debt, transferred a greater share of tax receipts to the pockets of the Nation's most privileged, and turned millions of hard-working Americans out of their jobs.
In fact, the Labor Department recently reported that the Nation's unemployment rate rose to 6.1 percent last month, the highest level in 9 years. Since the economy began slumping in early 2001, nearly 2.5 million jobs have disappeared.
In 2001, I voted against the President's first tax plan because it was too skewed toward the wealthiest Americans and it was too fiscally irresponsible. Since then, we have gone from record surpluses to red ink, and the economy is still adrift.
Yet Congress passed a budget this year--including another ill-advised tax plan of $350 billion--that will only further deepen our deficits and pump up the national debt. I voted against the tax bill again this year because it is so clearly harmful to the economic health of our country, especially with the cost of the war in Iraq and the ever-
increasing peacekeeping expenses.
The budget plans this administration has sent to Congress each year have been full of misguided priorities and squandered opportunities. The President's plans have severely underfunded essential health, employment training and education efforts. They have contained enormous Government giveaways to wealthy corporations and the wealthiest individuals instead of providing relief for hard-working Americans and their families. And they have been wholly inadequate to meet the domestic security needs of the first-responder agencies that we are counting on to defend against and prepare for future acts of terrorism.
The President's economic plan is not about growing the economy or creating jobs. It is a fiscally irresponsible plan that threatens to economically divide our country. Cutting taxes is a popular thing to do, and I am delighted to vote for tax cuts when they make good fiscal sense. But it is not always the right thing to do for the country and for the security and economic well-being of the American people.
The 1993 budget bill set the framework to eliminate the Federal deficit and passed by the narrowest of margins. It was a tough vote for everyone who voted for that plan and many Senators and Congressmen lost their seats in the subsequent election before the benefits of the plan could be fully realized. That momentous vote set this country on a course of surpluses, budget discipline and fiscal responsibility unmatched in American history. Unfortunately, the current administration--with its lack of fiscal responsibility--has blown all of the progress that many worked so hard to achieve. And the proof is in the latest CBO deficit figures.
Earlier this year, the President said we should not pass on our fiscal problems to future Presidents, Congresses, and generations. On that point, I agree with him. Regrettably, year after year his budgets have driven us deeper into debt, and his policies will do exactly what the President says we should avoid: They will burden our children.
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