Kennedy Leads Democrats’ Charge Against Bush Economy
By Randy Trick
WASHINGTON, Oct. 15, 2002–Calling on Republican leaders in Congress and in the White House to acknowledge an urgent need to improve the economy, Massachusetts’s senior senator, Edward M. Kennedy, on Tuesday rallied the Democratic troops for discussions in the Senate on revitalizing the economy.
Saying the Senate can no longer “sit around and say we don’t have an economic crisis,” Kennedy called on President Bush to play ball with Democrats who are seeking to extend unemployment benefits, increase the minimum wage and give employees more control over their pensions.
“We have…foreclosures on homes, the highest rate since the time of the Depression…. We have double-digit inflation in health care and we still say ‘Well, it isn’t really robbing the pockets of the families to pay.’ We don’t really see the tuition rising,” Kennedy said on the Senate floor.
“Why is all that coming in place now under a Republican administration?” Kennedy asked in remarks that were intended to set the tone for the coming discussion.
Kennedy’s comments came after two key Democratic leaders, House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, blasted Bush Tuesday for letting the economy slide and asked him to get on board for immediate tax cuts and other steps to stimulate economic growth.
Gephardt’s economic revitalization package carries a $200 billion price tag, and includes $75 billion in tax cuts, $25 billion in spending for school construction and $75 billion for health care, particularly for Medicaid and for jobless workers who have lost health insurance.
The initial response from the White House was terse. The president’s press secretary, Ari Fleischer, called the tax cut idea “interesting.”
A measure Kennedy strongly supports to extend unemployment benefits until next July 14 is pending in the Senate. Kennedy, on the floor Tuesday, cited the rising unemployment rate in Massachusetts, which has reached 5 percent, according to state officials.
“Travel with me through many of the New England states, including my own state of Massachusetts, where we have the highest unemployment,” Kennedy said.
In the Merrimack Valley, unemployment reached 7.4 percent in August, the highest in the state after New Bedford. with 8.1 percent, according to the Massachusetts Division of Employment and Training.
Kennedy also pointed to the national trend, where, he said, 8 million people are unemployed while only 3.2 million new jobs are available.
Kennedy was expected to hold a press conference Wednesday afternoon, where he will call for an increase in the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.65 an hour.
At the press conference, representatives of the National Urban League were expected to say that the $1.50 increase would help 1.4 million households from going hungry or becoming homeless.
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
