Page:Congressional Record - 2010-12-10.pdf/25

December 10, 2010 Ms. LANDRIEU.I thank the Senator from Vermont. I commend to my colleagues this report entitled "Income Inequality and the Great Recession" from Senator and the Joint Economic Committee. I ask unanimous consent that the Executive Summary be printed in the.

This week, the U.S. Census Bureau will release new statistics on income inequality in the United States, allowing for an assessment of the impact of the Great Recession on our nation's income distribution. In preparation for that data release, the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) analyzed income inequality in the United States in the years preceding the Great Recession, and found:

Income inequality has skyrocketed. Economists concur that income inequality has risen dramatically over the past three decades.

Middle-class incomes stagnated under President Bush. During the recovery of the 1990s under President Clinton, middle-class incomes grew at a healthy pace. However, during the jobless recovery of the 2000s under President Bush, that trend reversed course. Middle-class incomes continued to fall well into the recovery, and never regained their 2001 high. The first year of the Great Recession dealt a sharp blow to middle-class families, who had not yet recovered from the pain of the last recession.

High levels of income inequality may precipitate economic crises. Peaks in income inequality preceded both the Great Depression and the Great Recession, suggesting that high levels of income inequality may destabilize the economy as a whole.

Income inequality may be part of the root cause of the Great Recession. Stagnant incomes for all but the wealthiest Americans meant an increased demand for credit, fueling the growth of an unsustainable credit bubble. Bank deregulation allowed financial institutions to create new exotic products in which the ever-richer rich could invest. The result was a bubble-based economy that came crashing down in late 2007.

Policymakers have a great deal of leverage in mitigating income inequality in order to stabilize the macro-economy. In the decades following the Great Depression, policy decisions helped keep income inequality low while allowing for continued economic growth. In contrast, policy decisions made during the economic expansion during the Bush administration failed to keep income inequality in check, and may have exacerbated the problem. Policymakers working to rebuild the economy in the wake of the Great Recession should heed these lessons and pay particular attention to policy options that mitigate economic inequality.

Ms. LANDRIEU.Mr. President, I want to go back to a point about this so that I am not misunderstood. I guess no matter what I say critics will take it and do what they will with it, but I am not against tax cuts. I voted for them many times in my life when we had surpluses. I have even been pressured to vote for things, and have done so, when we didn't have the surpluses, but they were targeted and focused and there actually had been some rational thought attached to where we might need to borrow some money and spend it, such as in the stimulus package, because in that instance, if we didn't get some spending going, we could slip further into a recession. Even conservative economists counseled us on parts of the stimulus package.

By the way, contrary to popular myth, that was about the same size as this package. This package is actually larger. This package is going to be $900 billion. The stimulus was $800-something. It was less. But in that stimulus package about a third was tax cuts. Remember that, Mr. President? A third of that was tax cuts. It wasn't all just spending. But every economist—conservative, liberal—said the government has got to step up and spend in this economy because this place is shutting down—meaning the country—and so we did.

People will still argue on the other side that was the wrong thing to do and we shouldn't have done it. But I am here to say that without the $2.8 billion in tax cuts and spending that went to Louisiana through that stimulus package—and my State legislature is struggling to balance the budget, as I speak; they have been in the budget committee over the past couple of weeks— I don't know where we would be today. I don't know how much went to Vermont or California or how much went to Colorado, but people say it was a failure. Well, let me say that $2.8 billion went to our State and it warded off some Draconian cuts that our cities and counties and parishes would have had to make, and it warded off tax increases so that Governors didn't have to raise taxes and mayors didn't have to raise taxes all over this country. Some of them have done that, but they have tried to limit it because they know how fragile this middle class is.

I am not unmindful of the importance of providing tax cuts when we can. But when we are asked to vote on a package that has a provision such as this, that borders on moral recklessness, I have to catch my breath and ask: Whose idea was this? I wish to know.

It is going to be a long weekend. It will be a long 30 hours of debate. I am glad the Senator from Vermont is going to make sure we take every one of those 30 hours postcloture, if we even get to cloture on this bill, because I think the American people are going to be waiting around to find out whose idea was that.

Mr. SANDERS.If I can interrupt the Senator from Louisiana, because she makes a very important point, we are a democracy and it is the American people who make the decisions. I know she shares with me the belief that the American people have to become engaged in this very important debate, which has a lot to do with the future of this country.

Senator asks a very simple question, which I would like—and I think the American people would like—an answer to: Whose brilliant idea was it—at a time when we have seen an explosion in income and wealth to the people on top, while their tax rates have already gone down—that we drive up the national debt and ask our kids to pay higher taxes to pay off that debt in order to give tax breaks to people who don't need them? That is the question Senator is asking. I think the American people need an answer to that, and my hope is that millions of Americans will start calling their Senators to ask that question.

Ms. LANDRIEU.Was it your idea? Whose idea was it?

Mr. SANDERS.Whose idea was it? The irony here—and I think Senator made this point as well—is that there are plenty of millionaires out there who say: I don't need it. I am more worried about the crumbling infrastructure or our kids out there than giving me a tax break I don't need. Thanks very much. That is what Warren Buffett has said. It is what Bill Gates has said. Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's has said it. Many millionaires have said it. We are giving some of these guys something they do not even want.

I want to thank Senator very much, not only for her being here today—and please continue—but for raising these important issues.

Ms. LANDRIEU.One more point, and then I will turn this back over to the Senator.

I was on the Greta Van Susteren show last night. I have said Greta is always a tough interviewer, but she is fair, so I am happy to go on her program. And it was a tough interview. But we debated these things, and I think that is important. I think it is important to debate them here, on TV, and in townhall meetings. That is what democracy is all about. But she said to me: Senator, we are so frustrated. Nobody ever hears anybody say they want to cut spending, or they want to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse. So let me concede this point. For me, I don't think we do talk enough about eliminating the waste, eliminating the fraud, and eliminating the abuse. I think we should spend more time, and I am going to commit myself to that, because I know the American people say: Every time we ask for a tax cut, you say we can't afford it. Why don't you cut some spending, et cetera.

Let me state that I voted for tax cuts. I am for tax cuts. I have even given tax cuts to people who do make higher than the $75,000 or $100,000 or $250,000, when we had a surplus, when I thought it was the fiscally responsible thing to do. Other people can disagree, but this is the first time I am being asked to provide a tax cut for people earning over $1 million with this kind of deficit.

But I will say this: I am going to commit myself to trying to find places we can cut. I support the Federal freeze. I support it in appropriations this year. Senator is taking down on the appropriations level $8 billion below the President's budget, and