8306 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS April 25, 1990 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS PASSING ON THE LEGACY OF Poverty and Idealism Homelessness, to $130 billion to decontaminate nuclear SHAME which had virtually disappeared by the weapons facilities, $20 billion for new public 1970s, grew in significant part only after housing, and more. Reagan cut federal appropriations for low­ Will the evaporation of the Soviet threat, HON. GEORGE MILLER income subsidized housing by 82 percent. the ostensible reason for most of our $306.9 OF CALIFORNIA Because funding of discretionary low­ billion defense budget, persuade Bush to IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES income programs fell by 55 percent (after transfer funds from fighting potential en­ Wednesday, April 25, 1990 inflation> between 1981 and 1989, there emies abroad to fighting proven ones at were 3 million more poor Americans at the home? Not yet. He seems intent to the Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, the end of the 1980s than at the start of the "beating plowshares into swords," as Rich­ continuing popularity of President Bush de. decade. Nor did Reagan ever make a major ard Gephardt, the House majority leader, spite grave public concern about major issues public statement on poverty that tapped the said. A President who says we should spend and the future of the Nation will confound his­ idealism of caring among Americans, as nearly the same amount combating "com­ torians just as it puzzles contemporary politi­ John F. Kennedy did with his Peace Corps placency" as Reagan did in combating Com­ address. Indeed, Reagan's principal message munism is saying that the Defense Depart­ cal analysts. to the younger generation was go for the ment is an entitlement program. But the public is beginning to understand gold, not the golden rule. Consumers Away. Promising in his 1980 the severe price we are paying for 10 years of President Bush, on the other hand, has campaign to "get government off our sophistry, symbolism and shocking indiffer­ laudably talked about citizenship rather backs," Reagan got government <read: law ence of the Reagan-Bush administrations. than mere commercialism. Consider his now and order> off the backs off corporations by A recent article in the Nation by Ralph well-worn metaphor about "a thousand sabotaging the health and safety agencies Nader and Mark Green catalogs that sorry points of light" in his inaugural address as that were supposed to assure safe food, record. well as his assertion that "the greatest gift drugs, pesticides and water, and by immobi­ The article follows: is helping others" in his State of the Union lizing antitrust laws in the midst of the Message. But while Michael Dukakis could greatest merger wave of the century. Fur­ PASSING ON THE LaEGACY OF SHAKE have delivered the same State of the Union ther, the Reagan-Bush Administration re­ <By Ralph Nader and Mark Green> speech, Reagan would have submitted a scinded protections such as a tougher crash In their 1980s retrospectives, conservative budget just as ungenerous to the most vul­ standard for motor vehicles that was slated pundits like William Buckley, Pat Buchan­ nerable Americans. A thousand points of to start saving an estimated 11,000 lives a an, Cal Thomas and Jeffrey Bell have been blight? year on the highways in 1981. This delay exceeding the bounds of exuberance <for ex­ Lost Economic Prominence: In 1981 the has directly caused tens of thousands of se­ ample, "Reagan won the cold war">. At least United States was the world's leading credi­ rious injuries and deaths on the highways. such hyperbole raises two useful questions: tor nation, with a $141 billion net interna­ In his Economic Report to Congress, First, what are the real legacies of the tional investment credit; after eight years of President Bush signaled a welcome depar­ Reagan-Bush years so far, nine years after Reagan-Bush, it had become the world's ture from his predecessor when he recog­ their launch; and second, can-or will­ largest debtor, with a total debt of more nized that "in some cases, well-designed reg­ President Bush alter them in any serious than $700 billion. The nation's personal sav­ ulation can serve the public Interest.'' And way? ings rate plunged by one-half, real wages new regulations restricting misleading Using the framework of measurable cause fell and in nine years the federal debt grew health claims on food packages were consid­ and effect rather than crediting the rooster three times as much as it had since the ered a good first step by the Center for Sci­ for the dawn, how have these two Presi­ birth of the Republic. As a result of this ence in the Public Interest. Yet Bush al­ dents influenced the quality of our lives? borrowed prosperity, "America is losing its lowed the Consumer Product Safety Com­ Answer: They have been pursuing policies ability to compete in world markets," said mission to slip into a coma by failing to ap­ that have quietly sapped America's long­ John Young, chairman of the Presidential point enough commissioners <at least three> term strength. Here are ten concrete exam­ Council on Competitiveness. to form a governing quorum. ples out of hundreds, as well as a hint at Recent world events have made it plain Ecocide. For nine years two Presidents whether Bush, based on his performance that economic power, not military might, shrugged and said, "Who, us worry?" while and trajectory, might yet change these lega­ will determine who the superpowers of the acid rain ravaged lakes, waste gases widened cies: 1990s are. How are we doing in Bush's the hole in the ozone layer and the green­ In/ants and Children. Since 1981 the per­ America? Not so hot. Nonfarm productivity house effect warmed up the earth. The centage of children living in poverty soared growth fell to less than 1 percent in 1989, Reagan-Bush Environmental Protection to almost 20 percent, the worst record in the the lowest since the 1981-82 recession. The Agency will be remembered largely as a industrial West; after a decade of decline huge federal deficit is not significantly place of scandal and stagnation. <Joel Hirs­ the rate of low birthweight babies rose last lower once the Social Security surplus is dis­ chorn, a senior associate at the Office of year, especially among African-Americans. counted-nor is the trade defict. Based on Technology Assessment, says "not one Cutting infant nutrition programs, Medicaid the location of available capital, Lech major complex toxic waste site has ever and prenatal care further hurt the littlest Walesa would have been well advised to been completely cleaned up.'') Americans. have skipped Washington and gone straight If George Bush thinks he can reverse the Bush has proposed the largest one-year to Tokyo. So far President Bush hasn't James Watt years merely by quoting Teddy increase in the Head Start program ever of­ really dealt with, or even mentioned, the Roosevelt and elevating the head of the fered, $500 million <which would cover only long-term implications of these dismal facts. E.P.A. to Cabinet rank, he's wrong. Instead, one in five eligible children). However, he Investing in Bombs, Not Bridges. Because he's shown his true hand by opposing seri­ offers no suggestions as to how to reduce of tax cuts for the wealthy coupled with a ous action on global warming or on clean-air this country's dismal infant mortality rate $2.2 trillion military spending binge <includ­ legislation, and by reneging on his promise (nineteenth in the world>. And the self-pro­ ing $30 billion for unneeded spare parts), to protect wetlands. He didn't even include claimed "Education President" shows little unpaid bills mounted in the 1980s. In an un­ funds in his 1990 budget for a cleanup of more interest in schooling than his prede­ precedented series of reports issued right Boston Harbor, to which he devoted so cessor. Although the United States recently after the 1988 election, the General Ac­ much attention in the 1988 presidential ranked fourteenth out of sixteenth industri­ counting Office documented the deteriora­ campaign, confirming Governor Dukakis's alized countries in elementary and second­ tion of the nation's infrastructure because charge that it was "just a phony campaign ary education spending, Bush proposed only of inadequate capital investment. The issue.'' Environmental President? Or envi­ a 1 percent increase <after inflation> in fed­ G.A.O.'s estimated bill for repairing Amer­ ronmentally hesitant? eral education spending. ica comes to $500 billion to renovate bridges S&L and HUD Scandals. In what is prob­ If this trend continues, students won't and the interstate highways system, $150 ably the largest epidemic of financial crimi­ even be able to read Bush's lips. billion to clean up toxi~ dumps, $100 billion nality in American history, the Reagan- e This .. bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. ~_,-~.- ... April 25, 1990 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 8307 Bush deregulation policies allowed thrift in­ These Presidents are two class acts. a comprehensive long-term care program. stitutions to make reckless or corrupt in­ Reign of Error and Sleaze. From David With the typical annual cost of nursing home vestments while seeing less of federal audi­ Stockman's early admission that he essen­ care approaching $30,000, even short-term tors. Result: a bailout bill that will amount tially "cooked" the budget books to Presi­ to more than $3,000 per taxpayer over the dent Reagan's initial denial of an arms-for­ stays in a nursing home can be ruinously next ten years, with no reciprocal rights for hostages deal in the Iran/contra scandal of costly to beneficiaries.