13386 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS June 3, 1992 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS REASSESSING OUR TIMES proved, and cities as distant from the na­ the mirrors of the news and saw that it was tion's capital as Waco, Texas, acquired a good-successful, clear-eyed, hardworking, taste for luxury. With funds borrowed from accustomed to the standards of excellence, HON. DAVID E. BONIOR the Japanese, the country staged a show of dressed by Ralph Lauren, deserving of all OF MICHIGAN opulence that could have been set to music things bright and beautiful. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES by Cole Porter or Cecil B. DeMille. All the If the flattery had stopped at this point, the subsequent destruction of the images of Wednesday, June 3, 1992 instruments of the mass media (backed up on piano and drums by the journals of the best middle-class self-esteem might not have Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, we all lead ex­ literary and political opinion) agreed that seemed so barbarous. But the oracles and the tremely busy and hectic lives, and though we wonders would never cease and that Paradise fashion consultants didn't rest content with may try, we simply are not able to read as was at hand. the delusions of grandeur with which they much as we would like. I am fortunate to have If not quite everybody was as fortunate as already had decorated so many empty rooms. a wise friend who every so often sends me ar­ everybody else, the errors of omission mere­ They pushed the envelope of fulsome praise ly proved that the benign deities of the free even closer to the sun and awarded their pa­ ticles or books that he feels I must read and enterprise system moved in mysterious tron the last and glittering attribute of self­ may find very interesting, well-written, and per­ ways. During the spring and summer of 1982 reliance. tinent. The following essay by Lewis Lapham, a good many of the nation's farmers went The adjective was preposterous-as prepos­ which appeared in the April 1992 issue of broke, as did many of the factory workers terous as proclaiming Henry Kissinger the Harper's magazine, is just that. stranded in the nation's old and techno­ equal of Napoleon because both gentlemen During this time of political unease, eco­ logically incorrect Rust Belt. Among the le­ were short-but such was the vanity of the nomic strife, and ·general irritance at the occur­ gion of the unemployed, blue-collar workers age that a courtier's lying compliment rences taking place, it is only natural to want outnumbered white-collar workers out­ passed as plain statement of good old­ numbered white-collar workers by a ratio of fashioned American fact. The joke was wor­ to make sense of it all. Lapham's essay does two to one, and the congenial and popular thy of Moliere. No class of businessmen in not try to make sense of it all, but is success­ wisdom of the age maintained that only poor the history of the known world had been so ful at offering at least an understanding of how people suffered accidents of economic reces­ cosseted by the servants of government than it all may have come to be. I am sure you will sion. The casualties were written off as the the class of American businessmen that en­ feel the same way after reading it. price of progress and the cost of doing busi­ joyed the grace and favor of the Reagan Ad­ I commend this thoughtful article to you. ness. ministration. NOTEBOOK-WINTER OF DISCONTENT The timeless prophets of the moment For ten years I have listened to self-styled (among them George Will, Pat Buchanan, entrepreneurs (men of vision, men of genius, (By Lewis H. Lapham) and William F. Buckley) explained that ad­ etc.) bang their fists on grillroom tables and Of comfort no man speak! versity was a blessing in disguise. Self-reli­ complain of the thousand and one ways in Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs, ance was what America was all about, and which government regulations strangled Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes hard times strengthened the sinews of char­ their initiative and bound the arm of honest Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth. acter. The lessons were deemed especially labor. I'm sure that much of what they said Let's choose executors, and talk of wills. useful to people who were illiterate, anony­ was true, but never once did I hear any of For God's sake let us sit upon the ground mous, or poor, the kind of people otherwise them acknowledge their abject dependence And tell sad stories of the death of kings!- inclined to lie around drinking milk or gin on the gifts of government subsidy-the Richard II. at the government's expense. Hard times mortgage deductions on residential real es­ Ten years ago this spring I listened to a taught them the value of a dollar, encour­ tate, myriad investment credits and tax ex­ smiling deputy secretary at the Treasury De­ aged them to seize the reins of entrepreneur­ emptions, preferential interest rates, Social partment explain the mechanics of the eco­ ship, transformed them into honest Repub­ Security payments, subsidies to entire indus­ nomic miracle bestowed on his fortunate licans. tries (defense, real estate, agriculture, high­ countrymen by the election of President The national news media whole-heartedly­ way construction, etc.), tariffs, the bank­ Ronald Reagan. I remember that his office endorsed the same complacent sentiment, ruptcy laws, the licenses granted to tele­ windows overlooked the White House lawn and for the better part of a decade (i.e., for vision stations, the banking laws, the con­ and that his voice was high-pitched and thin, as long as the facade of the Reagan prosper­ cessions given to the savings and loan asso­ like the voice of a young man likely to have ity remained more or less safely in place) the ciations. Of all the federal money distributed won a prep-school Latin prize. If I cannot market in great expectations rose as steadily as transfer payments to individual Ameri­ now remember anything the deputy sec­ as the market in French silk and Italian cans during the decade of the 1980s only a retary said, it's because even at the time (in leather. The seers and augurs employed by relatively small percentage found its way full view of the flip charts and free to ask the American Enterprise Institute stepped into the hands of the poor. The bulk of the questions) I didn't understand how the num­ forward to say that financial success was donative sustained the pretensions of the bers proved the general theory of self-reli­ proof of moral or ideological virtue, and that mostly affluent and well-to-do. Without the ance. The young man wore a bow tie and was a fortune in shopping malls was synonymous help of the government, the self-reliant devoted to his faith in the Laffer curve. He with a state of spiritual grace. American middle class was as helpless as a was certain that if people followed the few The fashion magazines illustrated the good child without its nurse. simple rules of economic behavior provided news with four-color advertisements for gold In October 1987 some of the more alert chil­ for them in the computer models, the reces­ watches and castles in Spain. The texts and dren in the nursery (the ones playing closer sion through which the country was then photographs flattered the subscribers with to the doors and windows) noticed an ill wind passing would vanish like an early morning testimonials to their collective magnifi­ blowing through the trees beyond the tennis mist or fog. Even teamsters and short-order cence, and the expansive and upwardly mo­ court. The stock market lost 500 points in cooks would find themselves promoted to the bile American middle class learned to admire one day, and Nanny was so alarmed that she ranks of the prosperous middle class. itself as the eighth wonder of an envious stopped reading the bedtime story by Tom The deputy secretary's complacence was world. The admissions committee welcomed Clancy. It was a swell story (all about tanks, symptomatic of the age. Ronald Reagan had new money in any and all denominations, and Russians, and planes), and if Nanny come to Washington with the promise of his and every week the lists of new members stopped reading it, maybe something was salesman's smile and his repeated assurances multiplied at a rate that brought joy to the wrong. that he meant to be President of a country hearts of the world's wine merchants, the Four years later even Nanny's slowest chil­ in which it always would be possible-now world's tennis coaches, the world's hair­ dren (the ones in the center of the room and forever, world without end, Amen-for dressers. The media were unstinting in their playing with the blocks) knew that the . everybody to get rich. For a few years it expenditure of adjectives, and as the decade storm of recession had blown away most of looked as if he had made good on the guaran­ reached toward its zenith the great Amer­ the sailboats on the lake. President Bush did tee of prosperity. Real estate prices im- ican middle class started at its reflection in his best to calm everybody's nerves (by stag- • This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor.