Senate Proceeding on Apr 28th, 2009 :: 0:53:50 to 1:13:50
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0:44:40 to 0:53:50( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Robert Bennett

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Robert Bennett: be recognized for five mrs. gillibrand: yes. mr. gregg: i'd ask unanimous consent that after the senator from new york is recognized for five minutes, i be recognized for 10 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from new york. mrs. gillibrand: i ask unanimous consent that i be allowed to speak for up to five minutes in morning business and that senator gregg be recognized after my remarks. the presiding officer: without

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objection. mrs. gillibrand: today is a very special day for me. as a woman and a new yorker, it thris me that today we are honoring one of the greatest figures in the history of women's rights and civil rights, sojourner truth. are placing a statue of her in statuary hall today as the

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first african-american woman t have a she will be depicted in the sculptures. her groundbreaking work advancing the basic rights of women will be given its due prominence alongside so many other great women.

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she was born issa bella balmfreed, becoming an all-important mess eninjury of truth and equality. she responded with dignity and faith rather than hatred and violence when beaten. her views were shaped not only by her personal hardships -- enslavement, daily beatings, grueling work and seeing her 13 children kidnapped and sold away

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-- but also from an inate understanding that equality is an inalienable and should not be ascribed based on gender or color. once free from bondage in 1817, she changed her name, her friends that thepirit had called her to speak the truth for justice. she then traveled our nation

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speaking honest words about the shortcomings of the american dream, the stain that slavery and injustice imposed on american life and noting for all to see that th to reflect the noble our founding fathers. she dedicated her life, indeed, and risked her freedom to oppose

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the trappings of injustice and prejudice. despite being born into slavery and denied any access to education, sojourner truth understood that freedom and equality are embracing our greatest traditions and arguing with passion that neither gender nor color could overpower justice,

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she demonstrated a courage and conviction that compels us to act today almost 125 years after her death. sojourner truth raised her voice without a chorus of won behind her. most abolitionists questioned her determination to link women's rights with the abolition of slavery. she rejected their concerns,

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asking them the direct question that they couldn't avoid: "and ain't i a woman?" she refused to parse justice. with these few words she forced audiences past and psent to recognize that human dignity and respect are part and parcels of who we are as americans -- male

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or female, african-american, caucasian, he had educated or not. sojourner truth recommends the courage that the american ideal imparts and calls all of us action. as we honor this bold, daring new yorker today that new york has time and time again helped to foster those who have chosen to carry on her fight.

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today i can think of at least two others committed to justice who though from very different backgrounds themselves for justice and human rights. battles fought by sojourner truth were not left only as lessons of history, but they stood as the beacon of light for the next generation to carry on the torch one more mile.

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one of the next in our history to carry on the cause for equal justice was he will another roosevelt. he will another roosevelt could have been quite content with a life limited education, but like sojourner truth she traveled the nation and fight for equality and human rights. like sojourner truth, he will

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another roosevelt raised her voice discrimination. she practiced what she preached and held us accountable when we wanted to turn our justice and the american ideals. he will another told us that we must hazard all that we have to make the american dream real for everyone.

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that employment, housing, education, health care policies, that favored the privilege and undermined it for those who have not, women in a critical role and resp other women to run for office, organize, get out the vote, reach across party lines and really make a difference. he will another roosevelt stood

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-- took the same determination with her to the united nations where like sojourner she used strength and grace to advance the recognition of equal rights. em as the only woman on the american delegation and one of the very few women who were delegates to the general assembly, she played an instrumental role in drafting the universal declaration of

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human rights in 1948, especially the concept as stated in article 1 that all human beings are born free and equal. just as sojourner had done, the cause was enlisted by another great woman. hillary clinton stood and fought for the rights much women.

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as for first lady, hillary clinton understood the political cost of speaking out forthrightly about women's rights and human rights. and yet like sojourner and elenor, she would not ignore the rights and netteds of women despite the repercussions. she traveled to china in 1995 and stood before the world to

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oppose injustice and to proclaim once for for all, women's rights are human rights and human rights are women's rights. how sojourner truth must have relished in that moment, from akron, ohio, to beijing, ohio, their message spanned the globe. hilly clinton played an instrumental role in the

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dedication we celebrate today. hillary clinton and sheilah jackson lee were inspired by the efforts of c. dolores tucker to formally recognize sojourner truth in the united states capitol. they felt the unfinished portion

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of the monument of the suffragettes should have an image of sojourner, the first statue of an african-american woman in emancipation hall and is now there for everyone to see. as the senator from their home state i'm so grateful today to honor sojrner truth. her courage and vision are

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timeless and bold and brave. her statute will be a constant reminder that our rights must never be taken for granted and with them come responsible. to honor sojourner and all women who come before us the struggle as there is still very much to do. today is equal pay day, the day

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that for every dollar a man earns, a woman is able to earn the same amount. even in 2009 for every $1 a man earns a woman earns only 78 cents. and this dparity is even worse for women of color. latino women only earning 5 cents on that dollar and african-american women earning

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only 62 cents on that dollar. working women and their families stand to lose $250,000 over the course of their career because of pay inequity. it is unacceptable and it must change. the paycheck fairness act was introduced by then senator hillary clinton and representative delaura and is an

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Judd Gregg: important step. i proudly join in helping to move hillary clinton's work toward equality for all which is our duty. as elean roosevelt often said, we are all on trial democracy means. we have made such important strides but we still have a long

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Speech By: Judd Gregg

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Judd Gregg: way to go. mr. gregg: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator recognized. mr. gregg: i rise to speak about the pending, soon to be pending issue of the budget. we are told that the democratic membership on the house and senate reached agreement last night on a budget proposal.

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Judd Gregg: they didn't ask or seek council on it and it pretty much is the outline of the budget requested by the president. now there's been a lot of discussion about whether or not the president inherited a terrible situation. there is consensus that he did from a fiscal standpoint and he

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Judd Gregg: has had a difficult -- difficult issues to confront relative to stabilizing the financial industry and getting the economy going and addressing issues which most americans are concerned about -- their job, value of their home and ability to pay bills and send their ks to college. but what he inherited is mr. president but what he is bequeathing to the next generation is more important

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Judd Gregg: because this budget proposed is an outline for where he sees the government going and where he says this nation regrettably the budget as proposedy the president which has been worked on here by the senate democrats and the house democrats, puts forward a

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Judd Gregg: picture which basically almost guarantees that our children will be inheriting a nation which is as a government is unsustainable. the president's budget proposed $1 trillionf deficit on average for the next 10 years -- $1 trillion on average for the next 10 years.

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Judd Gregg: that's a number which is hard to koch honed but to try to put it in perspective the effect of that number is the debt of the united states will double this two years and will triple in five years and will triple in 10 years. the debt of the united states. and if you want to put it in another perspective take all the

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Judd Gregg: debt created in this country since the founding nation, all the debt since george washington through george w. bush, all that debt can has been added to our nation's become and the people of our nation's back, and president obama's budget doubles that debt

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Judd Gregg: staggering event. dramatic for the next generation. the public debt of thenited ates will go to 80% of g.d.p. fairly quickly under this proposal. the historic public debt of this country has been 40% of g.o.p. what does that mean? that means that the debt out there to relationship to the size of the economy will

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Judd Gregg: have doubled and that has dramatic ramifications. for example, at that level of public debt and economi activity in our country we as a nation would not be allowed to enter we wouldn't meet their standards for fiscal responsibility.

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Judd Gregg: countries like lithuania, ukraine which all have very serious issues might qualify for the european union but we would not. because of the fact that our debt was so high. as a percentage of our economy. and it means that our people who have to pay that debt will have to pay appear

1:06:07 to 1:06:27( Edit History Discussion )

Judd Gregg: of taxes in one of two ways in order to pay that debt off: either they have to pay though taxes because the federal government will inflate the money supply in order to pay off this debt which is the worst tax that there is -- inflation as it takes appear the savings of all the american people; or, you

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Judd Gregg: will have to significantly increase taxes on every american, not just the high-income mbers as represented by this congress but l americas will have to have their taxes go up to pay for the debt. what is driving this massive expansion of debt that our

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Judd Gregg: children and w are going to have to pay as a res budget proposed by the president? well, it's snding. very simply, it's spending. the president has proposed and the democratic congress is going to bring forward a budget which significantly increases the spending of the federal government. historically the spending of the

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Judd Gregg: peg for example has been about 20% of the gross national product. under this budget, it guess to 22%, 23%, 24%, 25%. it gets up to never been the time of world war ii. and they are unsustainable levels of spending.

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Judd Gregg: and it's purpose: the purpose; i guess, to europeanize the american economy and government to basically have the government become the largest and the most significant player in our economy and to dominate all aspects of our economy because of its size.

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Judd Gregg: the president is very forthright about this. he believes that by growing the government significantly he can create more prosperity. those of us on our side of the aisle, we disagree with that. we believe a government has to be have prosperity. we also think that prosperity accident come fm the government, it comes from

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Judd Gregg: victims who are willing to take risks and go out and make jobs by taking the risk. this is a fundamental disagreement and the budget lays it out precisely. now we're going to hear from the other side of the aisle the disingenuous discussions of how they have been more responsible on the budget than the president was while they claim they're

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Judd Gregg: doing exactly what the president is doing in his budget. the reason they're going to make that statement is because they cooked the at least the president was forth right. he came forward with a budget which except in the area of defense set forth in a reasonably honest way what the costs of the government were

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Judd Gregg: going to be and as a result it reflected the fact that because of his huge commitment in new spending the government was going to be extraordinary. and the at debt which was -- the amount of debt which was going to be added to the boobs and to the backs of the american people would be untenable and unsuccess staipable but the other side of

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Judd Gregg: the aisle because they recognize they will be up for election before the president don't want to have those numbers out there. so they have gone back and played a lot of games with the numbers that the president sent up. for honestly represented the fact we are not going to get revenues from the alternative revenue tax

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Judd Gregg: because every year we limit the amount of applicability of the minimum tax but the baseline reflects income because it says 20 million but that will not happen. it was designed to affect the top income producers in this

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Judd Gregg: country probably less than a million peoe. and so every year we basically change the law so f that year the alternative minimum tax doesn't apply. the president said i know that will happen, i will not account for this revenue that never co so he scored the alternative minimum tax fairly.

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Judd Gregg: what does the other side? games that number. in the area of the doctor's fix, every year we know that we're reasonable amount for their services under medicare but we have a law in place that keeps cutting that amount -- this year cuing it by 20% over the baseline -- in an

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Judd Gregg: foolish way and we should fish this permanently -- we should fix this permanently but we don't -- so we use all gimmicks over the years and everyone admits to this so we didn't have to fix that over a long period of time and correct that problem even though we know every year we

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Judd Gregg: make that payment to doctors. well, the president was forthright saying, listen, that's not fair. that's not honest accounting. we're going to tell you exactly what the doctors' fix costs and we will account for it. what does the other side of the aisle do? they hide that go back to the old rules, they hide the number.

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Judd Gregg: those two items alone represent $100 billion of annual spending. that is being put under theug. thathe president was honest enough to talk about but thisd congress in an attempt to obfuscate the issue for the american people because they don't want to tell the american people how much money they are spending they stick the numbers

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Judd Gregg: under the rug, $100 billion right there and then the health care number. at i disagree with some of the philosophies on health care and i hope we can have a bipartisan part a bipartisan bill, the wyden bill that is floating around, at least the president

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Judd Gregg: said he would account for paying for hard o half of that and he put $600 billion in his budget. which he acknowledges is half the cost of a $1.2 trillion program over the time of his budget. what did the other side of the aisle do? they don't account for any of

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Judd Gregg: it. none of it. it's -- it disappears off the books. not only is the $1.2 trillion not there $600 billion is if the there how outrageous to claim they will bring the deficit to 3% of

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Judd Gregg: g.d.p. and they hid under the rug the a doctors' fix cost and the significant fiscal issue we're going to take up which is health care it is so dis almost unbelievable. but they will do it and i suspect they will claim they

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Judd Gregg: will cut the deficit if half which is a classic example of language over substance and that will be the mantra of the day. they will claim they will cut it by 75% because they will take a $1.8 trillion deficit and

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Judd Gregg: in four years. well, let m $550 billion is too big. it's like saying we're going to take six step backwards and two steps forward and we will call, we will claim we're moving in the right direction. of course they're not moving in the right direction and equally pocht the $500 billion number is