1626 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—SENATE February 8, 2005 SENATE—Tuesday, February 8, 2005 The Senate met at 9:30 a.m. and was bill managers will be here between 10:30 priately defined as a bubble, the Inter- called to order by the President pro and 10:45 to begin debate. Amendments net bubble of the late 1990s. When that tempore (Mr. STEVENS). also are in order today, and I expect we bubble broke, it was very likely and it can make good progress over the would be historically consistent if we PRAYER course of the day on the bill. I reit- had gone into an extraordinarily deep The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, of- erate, Members should notify their re- recession. But the President of the fered the following prayer: spective cloakrooms if they intend to United States had the foresight at the Let us pray. offer amendments to this legislation. beginning of the recession to propose Sovereign Lord, who fills our hearts The Senate will stand in recess today to the Congress, and the Congress sup- with songs of thanksgiving, each day from 12:30 to 2:15 for the weekly policy ported it, a fairly significant tax cut we lift our hands in prayer to You, for luncheons. which was able to shallow out the re- You are always merciful. Thank You Also, I alert Senators that the cession. That is the classic approach to for blessing us each day. Chertoff nomination to be Secretary of addressing a recession, in trying to You have rescued us from dangers Homeland Security is now available on move out of recession: cut taxes so you and kept our feet from slipping. You the Executive Calendar. We will be create more economic activity. You banish our worries and calm our fears. looking for the first available window leave more revenues at home with the Thank You for Your eagerness to for- to schedule that nomination for floor people, allow them to spend more of give us and for Your unfailing love. consideration as well. their own money, and as a result you You alone are God. I yield the floor. come out of the recession more quick- Today, strengthen the Members of The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The ly. And that is exactly what happened. this body. Help them to trust You Senator from New Hampshire. Today we are seeing a robust recov- without wavering. Teach them Your Mr. GREGG. I take it we are in morn- ery. We are seeing a very low jobless ways, that they may live according to ing business, Mr. President? rate. I think it is down to 5.2 percent, Your truth. Give them purity of heart, The PRESIDENT pro tempore. We in fact. Even though there was a sig- that they may honor You. Use our Sen- are in morning business. nificant revenue reduction, a tax cut in ators as instruments of peace on Earth. Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I yield the first term of this Presidency, we We pray in Your great and Holy Name. myself such time as I may consume are now seeing revenues growing at an Amen. under morning business up to 10 min- extremely robust rate: Last year, 9.2 utes. percent, this year they are going to f The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The grow by 6.5 percent, it is projected next PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE first 30 minutes is under the control of year at 7 percent, and so on into the fu- The PRESIDENT pro tempore led the the majority leader or his designee. ture. As a result of his economic poli- Pledge of Allegiance as follows: f cies, we are seeing a recovery. In addition to being confronted with I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the THE BUDGET a recession, he was, of course, con- United States of America, and to the Repub- Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I am ris- lic for which it stands, one nation under God, fronted with the fact that the United indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. ing to discuss the budget as presented States was attacked, attacked merci- yesterday to the U.S. Congress and to lessly by evil people. The damage f the American people by the President caused by that attack was not only RESERVATION OF LEADER TIME of the United States. Let me begin by personal loss, which was dramatic and saying I think the President has been The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under obviously horrible, but it was also eco- courageous. He has stepped forward the previous order, the leadership time nomic loss, having a significant impact and addressed some of the most critical is reserved. on our economy and, as a result, caus- problems that we have as a nation, one ing us in the Federal budget to specifi- f of them being the fact that we are run- cally have to spend a lot of money we MORNING BUSINESS ning excessive deficits, another one hadn’t anticipated spending fighting being the proper prioritization of our the war, and also having an impact on The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under spending in a time of fiscal restraint. It our revenues as a Federal Government. the previous order, there will be a pe- is appropriate, as the President has The President has been prosecuting riod for the transaction of morning proposed, that we return to a period of this war against terrorism in an ex- business for up to 1 hour, with the first fiscal restraint so that we do not end tremely aggressive and appropriate 30 minutes under the control of the ma- up passing on to our children massive way and the results are pretty obvious. jority leader or his designee and the amounts of debt, and so that we can as- We have not been attacked, now, for al- second 30 minutes under the control of sure the international community and most 3 years. We invaded Iraq to the Democrat leader or his designee. our own people that we are going to change a totalitarian, despotic regime, f live in a fiscally responsible way as a and we have been successful there. We Government. That is what the Presi- have seen an extraordinary event RECOGNITION OF THE MAJORITY dent’s budget has proposed. there, the elections which just oc- LEADER I think it is important, before we ad- curred. Afghanistan is on the road to The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The dress the specifics of the budget, to democracy. The success in the war on majority leader is recognized. talk a little bit about the context in terror cannot be denied. We are making f which this budget is sent to us. Re- significant progress, but it is still a member, when this President took of- war we need to fight and we need to ex- SCHEDULE fice we were headed into a fairly sig- pend considerable resources to accom- Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, we will nificant recession. It was a recession plish that. So there has been this dual have a 60-minute period of morning that had arisen out of the most rapid pressure put on our Federal Govern- business today, prior to resuming con- economic expansion in our history. It ment: first a recession, and, second, sideration of S. 5, the fairness bill. The was called a bubble, and was appro- fighting a war on terror that had not ● This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. VerDate Sep 11 2014 10:57 Jan 13, 2017 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 0686 Sfmt 0634 E:\FDSYS\2005BOUNDRECORD\BOOK2\NO_SSN\BR08FE05.DAT BR08FE05 ejoyner on DSK30MW082PROD with CONG-REC-ONLINE February 8, 2005 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—SENATE 1627 been anticipated when this President of that system. But because of the size dren who have to pay the costs of that came into office but has been well han- of the baby boom generation, beginning budget through their tax burden in the dled by this President since he has in the year 2008 those numbers change future. That is why reforming Social been in office. dramatically, and by 2016 there will Security is so important. It is why this As a result, we now confront some only be 2 people paying into the system budget is such a positive step, a step in significant fiscal questions that we for every 1 taking out, and we go from the right direction toward reforming must address. Having put in place the a pyramid to essentially a rectangle the way we, as the Federal Govern- tax cut, which has caused very strong and it is simply not supportable in its ment, operate. That is why I congratu- economic recovery and which is start- present form. late the President for it. ing to show significant revenue in- The practical effect of that is that What the President has proposed is creases, and having pursued a course of those children who will be working, our essentially a budget which, for lack of fighting a war that has cost us a great children and our grandchildren whom a better term, gores everybody’s ox. He deal of money, we now must make deci- we want to see have a better lifestyle, essentially has said: Listen, if we are sions on how we properly balance our those two people will have to pay a going to get our fiscal house in order, fiscal house in Washington. The Presi- much higher burden of taxation in we can have no sacred cows.