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.
“WIDENING OF THE INCOME GAP” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S9401-S9404 on Sept. 21, 2004.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
WIDENING OF THE INCOME GAP
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I draw to the attention of the Senate an issue which many of us have been concerned about for some period of time. Now it has reached the front page of some of the leading newspapers of this country, and it is something that is of central concern to families all over this Nation. I refer to the excellent opening yesterday of a series by the Washington Post, yesterday's called ``As Income Gap Widens, Uncertainty Spreads.'' This is an enormously interesting column.
I ask unanimous consent that excerpts from this column be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
Figuring out what the future holds for workers is key to understanding a historic shift in the U.S. workforce, a shift that has been changing the rules for a crucial part of the middle class.
This transformation is no longer just about factory workers, whose ranks have declined by 5 million in the past 25 years as manufacturing moved to countries with cheaper labor. All kinds of jobs that pay in the middle range--are vanishing, including computer-code crunchers, produce managers, call-center operators, travel agents and office clerks.
The jobs have had one thing in common: For people with a high school diploma and perhaps a bit of college, they can be a ticket to a modest home, health insurance, decent retirement and maybe some savings for the kids' tuition. Such jobs were a big reason America's middle class flourished in the second half of the 20th century.
Now what those jobs share is vulnerability. The people who fill them have become replaceable by machines, workers overseas or temporary employees at home who lack benefits. And when they are replaced, many don't know where to turn.
Robert Boyer retrained in computers after the plant closed. But tech companies told him they wanted five years' experience, not a certificate from a six-month course. So he works for $11.50 an hour at Home Depot, using the wisdom of four decades as plant electrician to help customers pick light bulbs for their remodeled kitchens.
Boyer turns angry at any suggestion that the jobs picture is not that bad. ``When these guys get on the boob tube and say there's jobs out there, you just gotta go out there and get them, it makes me want to go out there and grab them by the throat and say, `Where? Where are the jobs at?''
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I highlight what this story is really about. I think we will find--I certainly do in my home State of Massachusetts and my travels around the country--that this is a reality check. This story is a reality check of what is happening in cities, towns, urban areas, and rural areas across the country.
It says:
As Income Gap Widens, Uncertainty Spreads.
I quote the Washington Post:
The vanishing middle class.
Now what middle class jobs share is vulnerability . . . The people who fill them have been replaceable by machines, workers overseas or temporary employees at home who lack benefits, and when they are replaced they don't know where to turn.
The article continues:
All kinds of jobs that pay in the middle range are vanishing, including computer code crunchers, produce managers, call center operators, travel agents and office clerks.
And the list goes on, and the article goes on and on about what is happening to middle-income workers in the United States of America at this time.
I find that this article is a restatement about what many of us believe has been happening for some time and trying to make it a point to try to do something about it. But we have been rebuffed and the ideas have been rejected in the Senate, and certainly by the administration.
When we are talking about dealing with some of the issues, which I will comment on, we find an administration that says no to an increase in the minimum wage, no to extending unemployment compensation, no in terms of overtime, all which would have a great impact on the middle class.
Now, what do we hear on the other side? First of all, we heard from the President of the United States in New York yesterday: ``The economy is strong and is getting stronger.'' This is from a speech the President made in New York yesterday, even though New York has lost 240,000 jobs since the President took office.
Also yesterday, in New Hampshire, the President said: ``The economy of ours is growing.'' New Hampshire's unemployment rate is 32 percent higher than when the President took office. The New Hampshire economy has lost more than 7,000 jobs. But according to the President: ``The economy of ours is growing.'' And according to the President yesterday:
``The economy is strong and is getting stronger.''
And then we see, of course, what the President said at the time of the Republican Convention: ``We have seen a shaken economy rise to its feet.'' Well, how can it be this way? How can the President of the United States be saying ``the economy is strong and is getting stronger'' and then we have these reports here?
Well, let's look at the facts. Let's look at what has been happening over the period of the recent years. If we look at the recovery the President talks about, as shown on this chart, the current recovery is depicted by this red line right here in terms of job growth. If you are looking at the recoveries before 1991, you see the job growth that went up, as shown here. And if you look from 1991 to 1993, this is the job growth here. It is basically the Clinton job growth.
We see the difference between the Clinton job growth and the Bush job growth. Make no mistake about it, Presidential leadership makes a difference. Look at the record. During President Clinton's administration, 22 million jobs were added. During President Kennedy's administration, we had one of the longest periods of economic growth and price stability that we had in that century up until the time of President Clinton. So Presidential leadership does matter.
We have the President saying: Everything is fine. We are growing stronger and stronger. It is not the Democrats who are saying we have a real crisis in the middle class. Here we have one of our national newspapers that is saying exactly what many of us have been saying for some period of time.
Now, what are the facts? We can see the economic record. We have lost 1.7 million private-sector jobs from January of 2001 to August 2004--
1.7 million jobs lost, not gained but lost, here in the United States. We have gone from 111,600,000 to 109,800,000 jobs.
Let's look at what is happening across the country. Here is a chart that shows, under President Bush, unemployment is higher in 45 of the 50 States. The States that are marked in red on this chart are States with higher unemployment than when Bush took office. The States with the same unemployment as when the President took office are marked in yellow. The States marked in green have lower unemployment than when the President took office, which are Louisiana, Nevada, Hawaii, and Delaware--four States. For all of the other States, you see the loss of over 1 million jobs. We have higher unemployment not only in some regions of the country but generally throughout the country.
What is happening in terms of the new jobs? As shown on this chart, most new jobs in the Bush economy pay low wages. This is not something we are saying over on this side, the Democratic side. This is the chief economist for Morgan Stanley, who says 81 percent of the growth in jobs is in the low-wage industries: janitors, salespeople, movers, repairmen, and drivers. It is interesting, those jobs do not have the benefits. Those jobs do not have the health insurance. Those jobs do not have any kind of sick leave. Those jobs do not have any kind of protection in terms of pensions or anything else. And it is 81 percent of the growth in jobs, according to Morgan Stanley. Jobs in the high-
wage industries--construction jobs, white-collar jobs--are the remaining 19 percent. So we have seen that whatever jobs have been created have largely been at the lower level.
This chart is from the Economic Policy Institute. It shows the disparity in pay between growing and shrinking industries--$51,270 for the expanding industries, $30,368 for the contracting industries--41 percent less. So this is saying essentially what the previous chart showed; and that is, the jobs that are being created even now are still not paying well.
Let's see what is happening to the families across the country. These are median household incomes. This is what is happening in working families over the period from 2000 to 2003. The real purchasing power has gone down some $1,500.
So we say, all right, this is the dilemma. You are sure it is a slow economy, but what in the world should we expect? We all have to share this burden, and it is too bad that workers have to share it. What is so bad about that? Well, I will show you what is bad about that, and that is, we have seen that productivity is growing 15 times faster than wages--workers are working longer, they are working harder, and they are producing more, but they are not seeing the benefit in terms of wages. They are not seeing it. This is the largest disparity in terms of productivity versus wages in the recent history of this country. So the workers are working longer. They are working harder. They are producing more. But do you think that would reflect itself in increased wages?
And let me show you this chart here. In the Bush economy, we find that corporations are getting a bigger and bigger share of the pie. Here is the share of corporate profits having increased by 65 percent over workers' wages. This gap here is the largest gap we have had in the postwar period: larger corporate profits, workers with increased productivity, working longer and harder and yet they are still not able to make ends meet. These charts are going back to what the Washington Post pointed out here: ``As Income Gap Widens, Uncertainty Spreads.'' That is what is happening in the economy.
And we can see the difference between this and other recoveries. The average in the last eight recoveries is corporate profits going up 14 percent and the workers' wages going up 8.6 percent. But here in the Bush recovery you have corporate profits going up 39 percent and wages--adjusted for inflation--going down by half of 1 percent. There it is.
We ask: Is this President doing anything about it? What is he doing? Opposing an increase in the minimum wage, saying no more overtime for middle-income families, and no, you are not going to get the unemployment compensation you paid into, that you are entitled to as a matter of right.
This is an extraordinary chart, where you get, on average, CEOs making $8.1 million versus the average worker's $26,000. This is startling. It is the average, not the median. It is the average because so many of the CEOs make so much more. The point is, the disparity between the CEOs and the workers is 300 times.
Now, it is against that background that we have many being laid off and new jobs not paying well, that we have the administration putting a lid on any of the efforts we can provide in the Senate in terms of unemployment compensation and protecting overtime. And what has been happening out there? What has been happening in the meantime? We know the wages these workers are receiving, if they have been laid off and they get a new job, are not keeping up with the cost of things.
Here it is over the period of the last 4 years: Health insurance has increased 59 percent. If the middle income is interested in their children being able to go to schools and colleges, tuition has gone up 28 percent. Interestingly, there is no increase in Pell grants, absolutely none, although in January of 2000, when the President was running for office, he said he would ask for an increase in the Pell grants. We never received that. And in the appropriations this year they will see no increase whatsoever. Housing costs are up 27 percent. Gas is up 22 percent. Milk is up 13 percent.
In my part of the country, in Cape Cod last week, for a gallon of gas it cost $4.05. I know it is about $3.23 a gallon in other parts of the country.
You are asking a person to work for a minimum wage of $5.15 and to buy a gallon of milk at $4.05. The administration says they are opposed to any real increase. These are hard-working men and women, more than 7 million of them, many women with children. It is an issue which affects many of those hard-working men and women of dignity.
If you look at what has happened in terms of health care costs, the consumer price index has gone up 1.6, 2.4, 1.8, 5.9, and total health care costs cumulatively, 59 percent. One might ask, what in the world can we do about it? One of the things we might be able to do about it in terms of drug costs is reimportation. We could do something about that. We have a bipartisan bill. Yet we can't get it on the floor. We can't get an up-or-down vote. Those of us who would support it would go for an hour evenly divided. Let's get accountability. Let's do something about the cost.
When you ask, so you are complaining about the increase in cost, what is your idea? One of the ideas is the reimportation of drugs. But no, we can't do that. We have dealt with all the issues of safety. I yield to no one in this body in terms of the safety of health care. We are unable to permit the Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors. We could do something about that. But no, we are denied the opportunity. As a result, we have exploding costs that are going out of control in terms of health care generally and in terms of prescription drugs--all impacting middle-class families. More and more of them are losing their health care coverage, their security. They haven't got wage security. They don't have job security. They don't have education security. They don't have health security. This chart illustrates that, every single year, more than a million, from 2000 to 2003. The economy is strong? The economy is getting stronger? Everything is OK? Hello.
It isn't just those on this side of the aisle who say that this is what is happening; we have seen this in newspapers all across the country. All you have to do is visit any town in America. We know what the results are: We have 13 million children hungry or on the verge of hunger here in the United States. And the economy is getting stronger? Eight million Americans are unemployed, and nearly 3 million have lost unemployment benefits since Republicans ended the program. Seven million low wage workers wait 7 years for a minimum wage increase. That used to be a bipartisan effort, to have an increase in the minimum wage. President Bush 1 signed an increase. President Nixon signed an increase. It was bipartisan for years. But no, we can't even get a vote on it.
When we offer an amendment on one of the bills, what do our Republican friends do? They pull the bill. State Department reauthorization, pull the bill; add it onto the reform of welfare, pull the bill down; class action, pull the bill. We don't want to even vote on it. Imagine that. Imagine not even wanting to vote on it.
Six million have lost overtime protection under the new Bush rule. Let me give a quick review of who is impacted. These are the individuals who would be impacted: police, nurses. They are our homeland defenders, the first responders. They are the ones whose overtime is threatened.
In the last several days, my colleague and friend Senator Kerry has offered a real alternative to the current economic challenges we are facing, that middle-income Americans are facing every single day in terms of lost wages, lost jobs, lost health insurance, lost opportunities for education. It talks about creating good-paying jobs, strengthening the middle class, and restoring America's competitive edge and cutting the deficit.
I ask unanimous consent that an excerpt of this plan be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
The Kerry-Edwards Economic Plan
Under George Bush, America has lost 1.6 million private-sector jobs. The typical family has seen its income fall by more than $1,500. Real business investment and exports are both down under George Bush, the first time we have a decline during a Presidential term in over 70 years. And all George Bush has had to offer are excuses and bad plans that put job creation and the middle class last while favoring special interests.
John Kerry and John Edwards believe that America can do better. They have an economic plan that will unleash the productive powers of America's workers and companies, creating millions of good-paying jobs and strengthening the middle class. Their economic plan is built around four basic principles:
(1) Create Good-paying Jobs in America
End tax breaks for companies creating jobs overseas and cut taxes for 99 percent of taxpaying corporations.
A New Jobs Tax Credit to encourage hiring by manufacturers, other businesses affected by outsourcing and small businesses in 2005 and 2006.
Level the playing field by enforcing out trade agreements and trade laws.
(2) Strengthen Middle-class Families by Cutting Taxes and Lowering Health and Energy Costs
Cut taxes for 98 percent of families, including new tax breaks for education, child care, and health care.
Cut health premiums by up to $1,000 for families.
Provide $25 billion in a State and Local Tuition and Tax Relief Fund.
(3) Restore America's Competitive Edge
Make America energy independent of Middle East oil.
Invest more in research and development, including lifting the ban on stem cell research and making broadband universal.
Double the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP).
Provide a tax cut on up to $4,000 of college tuition and investment in training.
(4) Cut the Deficit and Restore Economic Confidence
Cut the deficit in half in four years by restraining spending growth, paying for all proposals, and eliminating corporate welfare.
Mr. KENNEDY. I thank the Chair.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The 10 minutes we are currently in are reserved for the Senator from Iowa.
The Senator from Iowa.
____________________
