Friday, April 2, 2004

QUOTABLES

"We do not know whether Saddam was concealing WMD in the final years or planning to resume production once sanctions were lifted," said U.S. weapons inspector Charles A. Duelfer.

"A real concern of mine is that Republicans are doing the drip, drip, and the appearance right now is we are not aggressively painting Kerry the way we [need] him to be perceived," said Tony Coelho, chairman of Al Gore's 2000 campaign. "I hope they are doing something about it."

"Today Sen. John Kerry introduced his plan to reduce oil prices, he said he's going to marry a rich Saudi Arabian princess ... ," said Jay Leno.

"Kerry said he likes rap and hip-hop, and he also reiterated his stand on equal pay for bitches and ho's ...," said Jay Leno.

Sept. 11, 2001: “I served on the Intelligence Committee up until last year. I can remember after the bombings of the embassies, after TWA 800, we went through this flurry of activity, talking about it, but not really doing hard work of responding.” John Kerry on Larry King Live.

JUST POLITICS

Kerry raised $43 million

Sen. John Kerry has raised $43 million in the first three months of this year, smashing Democratic Party records and signaling a party-wide fundraising resurgence for Democrats, according to top party officials.

So far, Kerry and the soft money groups have been matching the Bush ‘04 campaign with ad buys in the battleground states. The fact that Kerry has raised $43 million in three months suggests that he can raise around $120 million in the primary. Bush has raised his targeted $170 million.

Both candidates have said that they will take the $75 million from the Federal Election Commission after their nominating conventions for the general. The money raised for the primary must be spent before the conventions.

Soft money

The National Republican Committee has recently filed criminal charges against Kerry’s campaign and the 527 non-profits PACs that are keeping Kerry competitive financially. The RNC has asked the FEC to dismiss the charges so that they can take the case to court. However, it is unlikely that the dismissal will achieve its goal because the courts are likely to refer the case back to the FEC.

The reason that the RNC is trying to accelerate the process is that by the time the FEC investigates and rules on the 527 groups the damage will already be done.

Clearly, McCain-Fiengold has caused the system of restraints to fail and no candidate that is serious will ever chose to come under its restraints in the future.

Kerry’s job ad

Sen. John Kerry has a new TV ad that features his promise to create 10 million new jobs. He doesn’t indicate where he is going to get the extra people to fill the 10 million new jobs -- analysis of his promise shows that America does not have enough possible workers to fill his promise of 10 million new jobs.

The other aspect of the ad that is not true is the assertion that President Bush wants workers to lose their jobs. Also, Kerry is bringing out the ad when jobs grew by over 300,000. Here is the narrative of the ad:

Scene: Fuzzy, black-and-white video of workers leaving a factory; the Economic Report of the President; news headlines; President Bush addressing Congress.

Narrator: "While jobs are leaving our country in record numbers, George Bush says sending jobs overseas makes sense for America."

Scene: Black-and-white images of headlines; Bush speaking.

Narrator: "His top economic advisers say moving American jobs to low-cost countries is a plus for the U.S."

Scene: A switch to color video of Kerry shaking hands with workers wearing hard hats; more headlines.

Narrator: "John Kerry's proposed a different economic plan that encourages companies to keep jobs here."

Scene: More video of Kerry, including him in front of an American flag.

Narrator: "It's part of a detailed economic agenda to create 10 million jobs."

Scene: Kerry shaking hands with a veteran.

Narrator: "John Kerry. A new direction for America."

Scene: Kerry, walking toward the camera, a flag in the background.

Kerry: "I'm John Kerry, and I approved this message."

Albright critical of Bush

Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright speaking at Yale school of divinity continued the Democrat line of attacking President Bush’s credibility. Albright’s focus of attacks was that Bush is a bit loony for his preoccupation with his faith.

Albright also was critical of the war in Iraq and suggested that Bush has increased terrorism.

Albright was responsible for the Immigration Naturalization Service issuing Al Zawari (bin Laden’s number 2) a visa to go to California and recruit terrorist and raise funds in 1997 after President Clinton authorized the assassination of bin Laden in 1996 according to a report on CBS’s 60 Minutes that did a story on Zawari’s travels to the U.S.

Exposing judicial shenanigans

An ad, produced by the Center for Individual Freedom, portrays Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), and Richard Durbin (D-IL) as responsible for unethical delays of Bush’s judicial appointments. Their staff authored memos which documented discussions, ideas, and scheduling recommendations designed to delay action on President George W. Bush's judicial nominees -- delays that prevented appointees from ruling on important cases. 

Hillary Clinton’s April fools

Sen. Hillary Clinton and Dick Durbin took to the floor of the U.S. Senate to offer a Bush bashing of the the President’s credibility. The Democrats still target President Bush’s credibility as the best way to defeat him.

Here is a copy of the transcript that Hillary mailed to her supporters:

Many, many years ago when I was a school girl, on this day, someone might come up to me in the hallway and say, "Hillary, your skirt is ripped." I would turn around in panic and they would say "April Fools." Or maybe someone would stop me after class and say, "Hillary I heard that Janie is really mad at you and I don't know what you did to her but you better talk to her," and I would feel terrible and before I could do anything about it someone would say "April Fools." So today is April 1st, and there is a long tradition of people playing jokes on each other, pulling stunts, and then causing someone to be upset, worried, anxious or maybe even happy that they have been told something is going to happen, only to have the rug pulled out from under them when someone says either jokingly or sometimes a little cruelly, "April Fools." Well, thankfully that day only came once a year. And so you only had to endure your friends or maybe your not so friendly classmates, jokes and stunts for 24 hours. But you know, Mr. President, you sometimes feel like it is "April Fools" day every single day here on Capitol Hill, on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue in the White House, because on issue after issue after issue of profound importance to the American people, our government is basically saying, "April Fools."

Do you remember when they introduced their budget in 2001, and said you know, if you drastically cut taxes on the wealthiest of Americans, why my goodness revenues will increase in the budget. You don't have to worry about all the expenses that we have keeping this great country going, because this will work. Well, three years later we are facing a $500 billion deficit. Guess what? April Fools on us. Remember when they said our policies are going to generate jobs? Well, we saw during the 1990's 22 million new jobs created in America, and what a difference that made in so many people's lives. What have been the results of this administration's economic policies? Well, the loss of nearly three million jobs. So for all those Americans who believe, believe that this administration's policies would work to create jobs and economic opportunity, guess what? April Fools on you.

When it comes to the Medicare prescription drug benefit the administration knew there was an estimate by the man responsible for calculating how much Medicare will cost that was much higher than what had been discussed in the debate over the bill. Here in this chamber we were told the bill would cost $400 billion. That's a lot of money. And it was a lot of money for what frankly our seniors are going to get, which is going to be a lot of confusion because so much of the money is going to drug companies and insurance companies, but lo and behold we wake up and find out it wasn't a $400 billion bill, it was a $534 billion bill, and the man, the actuary, the civil servant, he is not political, he just works year in, year out for whoever is in office over in Medicare was ordered not to tell the truth to the American Congress or people about the cost of the Medicare prescription drug benefit, or he would be fired. So we pass this bill -- I didn't vote for it, but a majority did -- we passed this bill. The President signs it, guess what? April Fools. It is not going to cost $400 billion, it is going to cost $534 billion. And then of course we’ve got No Child Left Behind—which many of us so hoped would really make a difference in the education of our children. But we conditioned our support on this education reform on the promise by the president that it would be fully funded. That the money that our teachers and principals and superintendents and school boards, but particularly our children would need, would be there. Well, no longer is that promise even credible. The president signed the bill and then presented a budget didn't provide the money that is required to fully implement No Child Left Behind. Once again, April Fools on us.

You know, Americans have been fooled time and time again by this administration. Fooled by promises and fooled by predictions. Indeed, for three and a half years, this administration has said one thing and done something else. And the list is far longer than what I have even mentioned. You know this was an administration which said we are going to do something about global climate change and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, that is warming our climate and we just got a report from the Pentagon talking about what that means to our national security. The president gave speeches when he was running for office saying we are going to deal with that. Lo and behold he gets into office, forget it. April Fools, climate change, no such thing as -- thing as going forward under this president. We have just seen some recent examples with respect to the gas prices that are going up. That's a big concern. It is a concern in my State; it is a concern around our country. You know we are seeing OPEC cutting production, which will cause even higher prices for gasoline, and you know when the president was running for office, he said "Why doesn't anyone do anything to get these gas prices down?" "When I'm legislated," he said, "I will make sure OPEC doesn't raise gas prices on us." Well, OPEC went and did it. They cut the production. And all the President said was how disappointed he was. It doesn't sound like much of a strong case being made on behalf of the American people.

But again, what should we expect? It is the same story from this administration. Say one thing, do something differently. Fool the people, not just one day a year, but every single day. You know, it is as if words don't matter anymore with the administration or regrettably with the Republican leadership in congress. There are a lot of serious issues facing the people I represent. We are losing jobs. A lot of people are losing their health care benefits. The cost of education to send a child to college is going up. We have a lot of challenges that I think we should be working together to meet. You know on this side of the aisle why have we done that? Because it hasn't been raised for about eight years or so, and there are a lot of really decent hard-working people who are falling further and further behind because you know their costs are going up but there incomes sure aren't.

We also want to do something about overtime, because what this administration has done is to say we want to change the rules which would take away overtime compensation from about eight million Americans. Can you imagine what a horrible experience that would be for somebody working a shift as a police officer or firefighter or nurse to be told, well, your government; your president doesn't want you to be paid for the hours you have to work extra. April Fools on you. You are going to work but not get paid for it. So we don't like that. Now, is that obstructionist that we Democrats think it is not fair people should have to work and not be paid for it? I don't think so. I think that's in the tradition of American fair play. But we can't get a vote on it here because you know. Why? The Republicans know that if they had to have a vote on it would actually pass. And that would really embarrass the president and his administration. So they don't want us to vote on it. Unemployment benefits, the same thing. You know a lot of people are not only out of work but they can't find work because there are so few jobs being created in this economy. The administration doesn't want to help these people. They don't want to give them that extra unemployment benefit that can tide them over until maybe we can see some jobs created that will put people back to work, so our friends on the other side of the aisle don't want to vote on that, because the administration would be embarrassed. Because they know that if Republicans had to vote on it they would actually vote for it. So they don't really want that to happen. Time and time again, we have seen the president and the majority say one thing and do something else, and you know, it is April Fools Day today, but that's no way to run a government. It is no way to run a great country.

Mr. Durbin: Will the Senator yield for a question?

Mrs. Clinton: Yes.

Mr. Durbin: I would like to ask, isn't there an important issue here that affects families and businesses across the United States with the increase in gasoline prices? And if I recall correctly, Governor Bush, when he was a candidate for president, said in Manchester, New Hampshire that he thought in that circumstance that the president should use the power of his office to force the OPEC nations to try to expand their exports of oil so that gasoline prices did not go up in America. And isn't it true at this point in time that this administration not only has failed to do what the president promised as a candidate he would do, but in fact OPEC has announced that it is going to reduce their exports to the United States, and even force greater increases in gasoline prices which will hurt the American economy and American families?

Mrs. Clinton: The Senator from Illinois is absolutely right. Not only did the president when he was running for office say he would jaw bone and really fight back hard against OPEC if they tried to limit supply or raise prices, but he even said he would use his connections in the oil industry to make sure that got done. We all know about his connections and the vice president's connections. There has never been an administration in our history that is so closely connected to big oil and big gas and big coal and everything else. So what happens? OPEC meets, whatever they try to do behind the scenes sure didn't work because they voted to cut production by 4%. And when that was announced, what did the president do? He said he was disappointed. There was also never a president or anyone in an administration who is closer or whose family is closer to many of the big oil producing countries like Saudi Arabia. They have connections and relationships and friendships going back decades. So one would think that if any president could nurse OPEC not to make take damaging position against the American consumer, it would be this president. But I see no sign action of that. I see no effort of that, and once again it is say one thing, do something else. April Fools on the American people.

Mr. Durbin: I also feel in the state of Illinois as I travel around and speak to families and businesses there is one consuming issue and that is the cost of the cost of health care. Cost of insurance. Businesses see dramatic increases in health insurance premium. With the table prospect of reducing or eliminating coverage for their employees and that is unfortunately led to more and more uninsured Americans. Is it not true that given the chance on the floor with the prescription drug bill, where the Bush Administration could have stepped forward and spoken for these families and businesses and said to the pharmaceutical companies, you have to, as Canada done, restrain price increases so that drugs are affordable. Is it not also true that on this issue which relates directly to the competitiveness of American products, the welfare of American families and the future of businesses and jobs, that this administration has once again caved into the special interest groups, the drug companies in this case, and HMO's at the expense of the American economy?

Mrs. Clinton: Once again -- once again the Senator from Illinois is absolutely correct. As you well remember, on the floor concerning the prescription drug benefit had many opportunities to try to rein in the cost of prescription drugs. To try to give permission to Medicare to negligent, as any big institutional buyer would have the right to do. And also to import the drugs that are American made, American approved back from Canada so that they could get the lower prices. But again this administration and the republican majority steadfastly stood against the American public, stood against our seniors, and stood for the pharmaceutical industry. And as a result, the cost is going to be so much greater and so much of that increased cost is not going to go help our seniors and to lower drug costs so that we can perhaps have even more prescription drugs available for our people. But it will go right into the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies and the insurance companies.

Mr. Durbin: Is it not also the case this administration took tax payer dollars to buy advertising on television for their prescription drug program, and frankly misrepresenting what the program meant in terms of savings for seniors? So bad enough that the bill itself did not keep the cost of prescription drugs under control, the administration took taxpayers dollars and used them to basically put a message out that at least wasn't complete and perhaps was distorted are, misleading many seniors into believing this prescription drug bill is going to be of some benefit?

Mrs. Clinton: The senator from Illinois raised another important issue, because the administration is using taxpayer dollars to convey a misleading impression of the Medicare prescription drug benefit, and to do so as a way of boosting the president's reelection opportunity. So taxpayer dollars instead of his campaign dollars are being used to try to persuade the American people against the evidence that this massive bill, with so many benefits for the pharmaceutical industry and the insurance companies, is good for them. And it is regrettable as the senator knows, because many of us tried to prevent that from happening. To say let do this right. Let's do this in a bipartisan, unified manner where we really do provide a prescription drug benefit for our seniors.

But you know as the senator also is aware in the last several weeks, the president's campaign has been accusing one of our colleagues, the Democratic nominee for president, of flip-flopping. Of saying one thing one day and saying something else at a later dates. It is the pot calling the can he tell black at the very least because it is this administration which on every important issue to the American people has either changed position or has persisted in providing a misleading and inaccurate argument on behalf of a position that they have taken. And the distinguished career and public and military service of the senator from Massachusetts, Senator Kerry, is one that needs no defense from me or anyone else. It stands on its own merits. But it is regrettable that an administration increasingly known for its two-sided approach to its talking out of both sides of the mouth at the same time, of saying one thing and doing something else, would be accusing anyone of engaging in that kind of behavior. So Mr. President, it is April Fools Day once a year. Thankfully that's only once a year in most of our lives, but here in Washington, it is every single day. It is 365 days a year. The administration has engaged in April fool tricks on the people of this country repeatedly. But I think people are waking up. They are starting to say wait a minute. You know, where is that you know big surplus that you promised if we did everything you said? How come my taxes are going up as a middle-income American while the taxes on the richest are going down? How come this is the first president in our nation's history that has led us to war and cut taxes at the same time? How come the White House didn't tell us the truth about the cost of the Medicare prescription drug? How come the administration didn't fund No Child Left Behind the way it had promised? How come we are having a transportation bill that the president has threatened to veto when it is the only jobs bill on the horizon that can put people to work be repair the infrastructure and modernize our transportation system in a way that will make us richer and stronger in the future? Well, the April Fools Day jokes are coming to an end.

You know, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. And the American people are starting to ask the hard questions. They are not just questions coming from Democrats but from Independents and Republicans, coming from long time government employees who don't have any partisan affiliation like Richard Clarke, asking hard questions that deserve honest answers, because at the end of the day, Mr. President, what really matters is that the American people have trust in their government and believe their president when he talks to them about matters of life and death. Because that's what we are talking about. Life and death. And so, let's hope that when this day ends, maybe we can have some good news from this administration in the form of some admissions and some corrections that will put us back on the path of unit. That will create the tone the president promised. That would be a positive tone here in Washington where we could deal with the real problems facing Americans. I am not optimistic but I am hopeful that we could see that happen, because these are matters of profound importance. And it is imperative that we, as a nation, have faith in our leaders in these dangerous and difficult times. Thank you. I yield the floor.

 

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