Jon Corzine

Mr. CORZINE

Mr. CORZINE. Excuse me, $35,000.

Mr. CORZINE. It is undermining the ability of working Americans to actually get good wages. That is why median income is down. That is why you go from $45,000 for a job lost to picking up a job worth $35,000.

Mr. CORZINE. The Senator from Maryland is absolutely correct. If you look at private sector jobs where a real economy is broadly creating wealth for individuals, 2.6 million jobs have been lost, and it is a horrific record relative to the performance of what should be enormous productivity and job growth in this country.

Mr. CORZINE. Will the Senator yield for a question?

Mr. CORZINE. The Senator from Maryland understands supply and demand. But if there are 6 million more Americans looking for jobs than is demand, what usually happens when there is excess supply of labor or any other element of our economic system versus demand?

Mr. CORZINE. It is a most important element. This jobs issue is not only impacting people who don't have jobs, it is impacting people who do have jobs.

Mr. CORZINE. It is 13 percent.

Mr. CORZINE. Will the Senator yield?

Mr. CORZINE. I think the Senator from Maryland probably realizes--and correct me if I am wrong--I think there are 1.4 million or 1.6 million Americans that have even dropped out of looking for work.

Mr. CORZINE. The Senator most appropriately talked about the pain that is being inflicted on the unemployed because they are unemployed for a much longer period of time. But what is just as serious is that there are a lot of people who have said the heck with it; there is no chance of actually getting a job.

Mr. CORZINE

Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, I rise to join with my colleague from Massachusetts to say this is an extraordinary failure to deal with small business employers across this country and their workers. I find it difficult to believe that what is necessary for the Fortune 500 is not necessary for the small grocery stores, construction contractors, and others across this Nation. These pension funds are at risk, and there is no reason we should not apply the same rules to the small companies and the workers who are at risk in their pensions as we do for the large companies. We spent in 2003 $5 million on these small companies we have eliminated in this conference report. We spent billions on large companies--billions. Where is the sensibility, particularly from the administration and from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who are so enamored with every economic argument they make that they want to support small business, and they are walking away from this. This is absolutely outside the context of reasonableness. We can turn this around and get this bill corrected and have it deal with small business and multiemployer pension funds, as well as the Fortune 500. We would make a major improvement. Thirty percent of the workers we are talking about who are exposed--almost 10 million--are being left out. As the Senator from Massachusetts so ably said, these are the same people who are getting pressed over and over on property taxes, the cost of tuition, rising gas prices--the middle class, the hardest working folks in America. We are turning our backs on them saying this is great. By the way, I want this for major employers. We want it. Continental Airlines is headquartered in New Jersey. We need to do it. I support this effort by the Senator from Massachusetts. We should oppose this conference report, fix it, and bring it back for a vote.

Mr. CORZINE

Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation to ensure that managed care plans and other private health insurers pay health care claims in a timely fashion. I thank my colleagues Senators Lautenberg, Reed, Bingaman and Cantwell for joining me in introducing this bill. This legislation seeks to address the very serious backlog of HMO payments that hospitals and physicians are facing in my State of New Jersey and across the country. Specifically, the legislation requires private health plans to pay manually filed claims within 30 days and electronically filed claims within 14 days. Insurers that fail to meet these time frames would be required to pay interest for every day the claims went unpaid. Insurers that knowingly violate these prompt payment requirements would be subject to monetary penalties. A Federal prompt pay law is critical to ensuring that our health care providers maintain adequate cash flows and are able to continue functioning. The need for such a law cannot be understated. In my State of New Jersey, almost half of all hospitals are operating in the red, and that number is growing. Physicians and hospitals are experiencing a severe medical malpractice crisis, which is further limiting their resources. Untimely payment of claims has only compounded this problem. According to a survey of 50 New Jersey hospitals, only 39 percent of manually-filed clean claims are paid within 40 days. These institutions cannot afford to wait indefinitely for reimbursement for services they have provided. Each year, hundreds of millions of dollars in HMO payments to hospitals are held up for months at a time, worsening provider fiscal woes. The problem of late payments has reached such a crisis that 47 States, including New Jersey, have enacted ``prompt pay'' laws to require insurers to pay their bills within a specific time frame. Unfortunately, New Jersey's law, like most similar State laws, is largely ineffective because it lacks strong enforcement provisions and offers no incentives for private insurers to comply. Furthermore, State prompt-pay laws only apply to non-ERISA regulated plans, which only cover approximately 50 percent of New Jersey insureds. Shouldn't we hold private insurers to the same standards that regular citizens must adhere to? If you don't pay your health insurance premium when it's due, the company will simply cancel your policy. If you're late making your credit care payments, your credit care company charges you interest. Why shouldn't private health insurers also be penalized for making late payments? In my view, it only makes sense to hold insurance companies to the same type of standards to which we hold Medicare. Medicare must pay claims within thirty days of receiving them. Why should private insurers be immune from any such time limits? The bottom line is that patients, hospitals and other health care providers should not have to shoulder the burden of unpaid claims. My legislation will ensure that private insurers assume the financial responsibilities for the health coverage they are being paid to provide. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the legislation be printed in the Record.

Mr. CORZINE

Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation to ensure that managed care plans and other private health insurers pay health care claims in a timely fashion. I thank my colleagues Senators Lautenberg, Reed, Bingaman and Cantwell for joining me in introducing this bill. This legislation seeks to address the very serious backlog of HMO payments that hospitals and physicians are facing in my State of New Jersey and across the country. Specifically, the legislation requires private health plans to pay manually filed claims within 30 days and electronically filed claims within 14 days. Insurers that fail to meet these time frames would be required to pay interest for every day the claims went unpaid. Insurers that knowingly violate these prompt payment requirements would be subject to monetary penalties. A Federal prompt pay law is critical to ensuring that our health care providers maintain adequate cash flows and are able to continue functioning. The need for such a law cannot be understated. In my State of New Jersey, almost half of all hospitals are operating in the red, and that number is growing. Physicians and hospitals are experiencing a severe medical malpractice crisis, which is further limiting their resources. Untimely payment of claims has only compounded this problem. According to a survey of 50 New Jersey hospitals, only 39 percent of manually-filed clean claims are paid within 40 days. These institutions cannot afford to wait indefinitely for reimbursement for services they have provided. Each year, hundreds of millions of dollars in HMO payments to hospitals are held up for months at a time, worsening provider fiscal woes. The problem of late payments has reached such a crisis that 47 States, including New Jersey, have enacted ``prompt pay'' laws to require insurers to pay their bills within a specific time frame. Unfortunately, New Jersey's law, like most similar State laws, is largely ineffective because it lacks strong enforcement provisions and offers no incentives for private insurers to comply. Furthermore, State prompt-pay laws only apply to non-ERISA regulated plans, which only cover approximately 50 percent of New Jersey insureds. Shouldn't we hold private insurers to the same standards that regular citizens must adhere to? If you don't pay your health insurance premium when it's due, the company will simply cancel your policy. If you're late making your credit care payments, your credit care company charges you interest. Why shouldn't private health insurers also be penalized for making late payments? In my view, it only makes sense to hold insurance companies to the same type of standards to which we hold Medicare. Medicare must pay claims within thirty days of receiving them. Why should private insurers be immune from any such time limits? The bottom line is that patients, hospitals and other health care providers should not have to shoulder the burden of unpaid claims. My legislation will ensure that private insurers assume the financial responsibilities for the health coverage they are being paid to provide. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the legislation be printed in the Record.

Mr. CORZINE

Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, I rise to speak on America's economic security--rather, I should say America's economic insecurity at the moment. Before the Senator from Oregon leaves the floor, let me compliment him on bringing up one of those issues that absolutely must be addressed, one of those issues that is squeezing middle-class Americans: their gas prices--natural gas prices and gasoline prices. The idea that we are unwilling, after we are committing so many resources to the Middle East, to try to bring stability and democracy in the Middle East and not use our diplomatic capital to accomplish what the Senator from Oregon is speaking about, to bring forth a response from OPEC, is just unfathomable. It is absolutely an abject failure in the context of economic policy management and certainly on diplomatic efforts. I compliment the Senator for his efforts. I hope he will include me as a cosponsor of his resolution. As I said, I wish to speak about America's economic security. We have certainly heard in the last 48 to 72 hours a lot of celebration and victory laps being taken with regard to 1 month's economic report on employment in the United States. All of us are pleased to see that jobs have been created in the United States. We are glad to see they finally met something that looked like the expectations that have been talked about for the 38 months this administration's stewardship of the economy has been in place. It is positive for those who have found jobs, but it is failing to take into account something that I think is very important in the reality of people's lives and something that is not being celebrated on the ground among working men and women in the United States, and that is an incredible squeeze on moderate and middle-class families in this country across the board. It is great to celebrate big-picture statistics, but the last time I checked, statistics are not how people live their lives. The reality is we have almost 8.5 million unemployed Americans. That number actually grew last month by about 180,000. For those folks and for many people who feel as if they are at the edge of whether their job will continue, the situation is really quite serious. Those kitchen-table issues actually make a difference in people's lives. I will be specific. Just last month, we closed the next to the last auto production facility in New Jersey. Mr. President, 1,500 manufacturing jobs were eliminated in New Jersey. By the way, we have one last plant, which is scheduled to close in May of 2005. Then we will have the auto industry completely eliminated from the State of New Jersey. We have already had the textile industry eliminated. We have seen AT&T and Lucent lose literally tens of thousands of jobs over the last 2 to 2\1/2\ years in my home State. When people lose in these contracting industries, we see a decline in the real standard of living when people are reemployed. The statistics show that the average loss, since the last recession, for people who lose jobs at $44,000 when they were working to their next job at $35,000 was 21-percent decline in their real earnings. That is what happens when people are part of that growing job set but, unfortunately, they are losing their manufacturing jobs, they are losing their white-collar jobs, and they are moving into service sector jobs that are dramatically less valuable for their families and their own economic well-being. It is a big hurt, and I know it is a big hurt on those folks I see and talk with in my home State. Think about it: We have gone from 6.5 million unemployed to 8.4 million unemployed under this administration's stewardship of the economy. When people get jobs--it is good we see job growth--they come back at a lower earning capacity than before. That is not the only place we are getting hurt. For most middle- and moderate-income families, they have to deal with trying to make ends meet with regard to health care costs and tuition that goes on in their State and, as we just heard very eloquently expressed by Senator Wyden, increasing gas prices. These are items for which real dough is coming out of people's pockets. We have gone from earning $44,000 a year on jobs lost to $35,000 in jobs found, and we have income not keeping up with the cost of medical care. We have seen an almost 15-percent increase in medical costs for individuals since 2001, while we are seeing less than 5 percent in real income growth. That is a huge gap. By the way, at the same time, there were 3.5 million, almost 4 million Americans who lost their insurance during that period of time, so these costs are actually real. They are coming right out of their pocketbooks. Those 3.5 million to 4 million people are having to pay those costs, and that is why I talk about economic insecurity. This is a reality in people's lives: lower income, higher costs, and they are having to deal with that around the kitchen tables across America. We might have one great number out of 38 months of economic stewardship as far as job creation, but I do not think it is translating into reality in people's lives. Let me use another example: increasing tuition costs. There has been a 14-percent increase in tuition costs last year alone. These numbers are up about 25 percent since the Bush administration came into office. We have seen Pell grants go from about 42 percent to about 35 percent. Income, relative to tuition costs for kids accessing the American promise through higher education, has just been a tragedy. We are seeing people not able to afford the kind of education that will allow them to grow their income. The difference between having a college education and a high school education or high school dropout is a dramatic improvement in their real earnings. We are seeing incredible pressure being put on middle- class Americans in tuition, just as we are seeing in health care costs. I could go through a whole laundry list of other expenses most Americans have to meet and discuss around the kitchen table. Property taxes in New Jersey have gone up 7 percent in the last 3 years. One of the reasons is we in Washington keep putting mandates on them, and all those mandates trickle down to the local level, the local school board. They have to meet No Child Left Behind standards and IDEA, special education mandates, and the only way to meet those mandates is to raise property taxes. It is wonderful that we are cutting taxes in Washington, but they are going up dramatically in the State and local governments. It is a very substantial hit, particularly for middle-class and moderate-income Americans. Again, it is great that we saw 1 month of job growth, but what about these trendlines with regard to college tuition? What about the trendlines with regard to medical expenses? What about the trendlines with regard to property taxes? Now we are seeing an explosion in gasoline prices. I think that is why there is a sense of economic insecurity among Americans. It is great to take these victory laps and put all the spin that one wants to put on what is going on with regard to job growth, but it is not matching reality in people's lives. It is not matching with those 1,500 families who are losing their major wage earner at the Edison Ford plant in New Jersey. That is happening across the country, and I think it is a shame. We will talk a little bit about the job deficit in a macro term. We like to talk about 300,000 jobs grown in a month, but the fact is this is the only administration since Herbert Hoover that is actually going to be overseeing 4 years in office without having any job growth, unless there is a miracle that we have a job growth of 300,000 a month between now and next January. There has been roughly 2.6 million jobs lost in the private sector, 1.8 in the overall sector because somehow or another we seem to be growing Government for an administration that thinks Government is not a good thing. Anyway, we are seeing job losses where we have not seen it before, all the way back to the Depression. No other President is going to have overseen an actual shrinkage of jobs. By the way, just for comparison purposes, there were about 22 million jobs created in the previous administration. So when the Democrat presumed Presidential candidate talks about 10 million jobs, at least there is a record to run on. History will show that if we want to see job creation in this country, and we want to have balanced policies with regard to taxes and budget deficits, then we have to make sure we are investing back in the American people in a way that makes a difference. We have seen these manufacturing jobs leave America, which has shown a reduction in the quality of the jobs that are replacing them. We have seen a reduction in the number of jobs overall. I think that to get so focused on 1 month's number in celebration is a little bit like some of the other things we have seen that I think undermine the credibility of those who claim everything is so wonderful. There are credibility gaps on all kinds of issues, not only with regard to jobs where there is a 7 million job deficit from the economic report of the President of 2002, post-9/11, projecting there were going to be 5.6 million jobs and there are actually 1.8 million less. That is a 7 million deficit relative to what was projected at that point in time. We have promised we would cut taxes without using Social Security trust funds. Well, we used every penny of the Social Security trust fund to pay for both the tax cuts and the expenditures that we made in the country. The claim that any deficits would be small and short term, well, we all know they have not been small. There are record deficits right now, $500 billion-plus this year. People are talking about as much as $5.6 trillion worth of deficits in the next 10 years. We are seeing a $10 trillion swing in cashflow of the Federal Government in the 10 years that encompass the President's timeframe and analysis. It is hard to believe $10 trillion. I have a hard time even figuring out what trillion means, but it is a lot of money. I know each American had $18,000 worth of Federal debt assigned to them when this President came into office. It is $24,000 now and it will be $35,000 at the end of the term. We are creating an enormous amount of debt burden on every American as we go forward, and there is a credibility problem. One cannot say they are a fiscal conservative, that they are fiscally responsible, and have this kind of debtload laid on the American people. There are also other small issues such as the $140 billion miss with regard to the Medicare prescription drug plan. That is why people are frustrated when they hear about the great news that we had great growth in jobs, which everybody is glad to see, but we do not see it tracking with the reality of the other activities that are going on. I wanted to make the point that while we are hearing all of this celebration, all of this spinning about how good this is--and again it is good--there were 2.6 million private sector jobs lost, the worst record in history. The quality of the jobs that are replacing the ones that are lost is substantially less in actual real earnings. Real median income earnings last year for the Nation were actually negative for the first time in decades. Massive deficits are occurring at the very same time. We are seeing all of these rising costs on health care, tuition, property taxes, and gas prices in this country. I think there is a serious credibility problem. We need a new President who will put America first, rebuild our economy, and address the real needs of the middle class and moderate-income elements of our Nation. I yield the floor.

Mr. CORZINE

Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, I am honored to introduce a bill on behalf of Senator Frank Lautenberg and myself to authorize the renaming of the main post office in Fair Lawn, NJ as the Mary Ann Collura Post Office. Mary Ann Collura was the first female police officer in Fair Lawn, where she served the people in her community as an outstanding officer and role model for eighteen years. On April 17, 2003, Officer Collura was fatally shot while attempting to arrest three men after a car chase. She was the first Fair Lawn police officer ever killed in the line of duty. The idea for naming the Fair Lawn post office in honor of Officer Collura came from a Fair Lawn high school student, which is indicative of the admiration the people of Fair Lawn have for her. She was known for her courage, kindness, and genuine caring for others. Officer Collura was also a pioneer in Fair Lawn. She started a program to protect trick-or-treaters on Halloween by giving them glow sticks, which has expanded and is now a countywide program. Senator Lautenberg and I are proud to be joining Representative Steven Rothman and the entire New Jersey congressional delegation in the effort to rename the Fair Lawn post office in honor of Mary Ann Collura. By naming the main post office in town after such a brave woman, we pay her the respect she earned, and memorialize her in a way befitting a person of her stature. She is a true hero and will be missed. I ask by unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. CORZINE

Mr. CORZINE. Madam President, it is good news to have an increase in employment in America today. Everyone is pleased to see more jobs are coming into our economy and Democrats, as well as Republicans, are pleased to see more Americans are going to work. But that said, working men and women, and everyone, has to understand numbers of 1 month do not indicate a change in whether one assesses economic policy working for average Americans, for middle-class Americans, for moderate-income Americans, for those who are trying to make ends meet in our economy. These good numbers we would like to see continued. We would like to see more Americans going to work, but the American people need to understand this number, this 1-month number, in the context of a whole 38 months of development of economic policy in this country, is a record that I believe, and I think many people would believe, has put enormous stress on the American people. We are pleased with the job growth, but the fact is, we saw growth in the unemployed this month of about 184,000. We now have 8.4 million Americans unemployed in this economy. That is up substantially this month. We have also seen the unemployment rate tick up about one-tenth of a percent. I heard some spinning about Senator Kerry saying 5.6 was pretty good in 1996. There is a difference when you come from 7.2 percent, which is where President Clinton's unemployment rate was when he came to office, going to 5.6--on the way, by the way, to 3.8 percent--than when we have a 5.6 or 5.7 percent rate, coming up from 4.2 percent, which is what the current administration inherited. We have rising unemployment in this country, not declining. One month is a good thing to have happen, even a good quarter is a good thing to happen, but let's put it into the context of the 38 months of the stewardship of this administration's economic policies. The fact is, we have had the worst record in 70 years, and it still stands. It has not been substantially altered by a 1-month performance in job growth in private sector jobs that we have seen since the Herbert Hoover years in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The fact is, every other President from that point in time on-- Roosevelt right through Clinton; including George Bush 1, Ronald Reagan, Carter--produced private sector jobs. And we have about a .7- percent decline in jobs under this administration in the private sector. We have lost about 2.6 million of those jobs, even after these numbers. In fact, we have been producing more jobs in Government during the Presidency of someone who said they did not believe in Government-- which is quite strange--relative to an emphasis on the private sector. Again, I repeat, you have to look at this in the overall context. One month is good, and we are all pleased about that, but the fact is we have lost private sector jobs in this economy. It is a fact of which I think the American people have a real understanding. Economic policy is something to analyze over a period of time, in context. It is not just a month. Remember, in the Clinton years, there were roughly 21 million jobs created--21 million jobs created--over that 8-year period. Right now, we have lost something in the neighborhood of 2.5 to 2.6 million jobs over the term of this stewardship of the economy. It is the context you have to think about, what kind of economic policy leads to sustained economic growth and sustained economic job creation, which is the end result that I think people will measure in their own lives--whether they have a job, whether they are working, whether they are actually able to take care of their families. By the way, it is not just jobs; it is actually the earnings one gets on those jobs. One of the things that has been happening in our job market is, as people lose a job, and then they take another job, we have seen a 21-percent decline in the average wages of people who get reemployed. So those factory workers in Edison, NJ, where our last Ford factory was closed--they go from a Ford manufacturing job to a service sector job that is, on average, 21 percent lower in real earnings than the job they had before. So they may be working but going into a Wal-Mart or going into hamburger flipping, which is not as good a job as the ones we are losing. That is the problem in this economy, even though we might be seeing job growth. By the way, if you look at the actual numbers in this month's job creation, so many of them are in the service sector, where you are seeing this phenomenon happening, where there is a decline in the earnings of families and their purchasing power. They are losing their ability to go into the economy and have the strength to participate in the way they were before. So it is not just the jobs; it is the quality of jobs that is at stake in the debate we have with regard to economic policy. So not only do we have a poor performance with regard to job creation, we have poor performance with regard to the quality and the earnings power that is associated with those jobs. I think it is hard to hear some of the celebration and spinning that I have heard this morning on some of the television stations and from others who are focusing only on the good news of the 308,000 jobs created. That is great. How about the 184,000 people who lost their jobs? How about the 8.4 million people who are unemployed? How about the 2 million people who are on long-term unemployment in this country, who are detached or who have dropped out and are not looking for jobs? It is the highest number we have ever seen. By the way, if you added that into the unemployment rate--the people who have stopped looking because they have given up hope looking for a job--the unemployment rate would be 7.2 percent. This is not just a single number. I know there is going to be a lot of focus on it, and that is a good thing. I hope it sustains itself over a long period of time so we can start correcting this malaise we have in our jobs market around this country. And it is serious. People know about outsourcing. They know about offshoring. They know about the fact that the minimum wage has not increased so that real earnings can grow for working men and women in America. There is a real problem. In January 2001, we had about 700,000 long-term unemployed. Today, we have 2 million. You tell me whether that is a good stewardship of our economic policy and our jobs policy in this country. Where I come from that does not sound like a good performance. I saw one of my esteemed colleagues from the other side of the aisle--I know he was trying to make a positive case--saying we have record employment at 138.4 million jobs in this country. That may be true, but last time I checked the population just keeps growing every month. Every month, the population keeps growing. If the employment rate does not go up, do you know what. What happens this week or what happened in this month's numbers is exactly what is taking place. We get rising unemployment, particularly when you add in all those people who have dropped out of the workforce. It is not that hard to do fractions. If you keep the base the same, and the numbers go up, you are going to get a changed number. And that is what is happening. It is hard for me to understand why we want to take victory laps when there are 8.4 million Americans without jobs. Now, this is something we all hope turns and continues along the path. By the way, it is sure coming at a fairly serious price. The last time I checked, the President's own OMB Director was projecting we are going to have a $540 billion budget deficit. I guess if you go out with a credit card and spend up a storm, you can get some activity going on in the marketplace. If you go to the malls and spend until you are in debt to the point where you cannot sustain it over a long period of time, you can get some economic stimulus, but that does not mean that is good economic policy. In fact, that means we are mortgaging our children's future so we can get results now. Funny, we want results about 6 months in front of an election, but we are spending in an uncontrolled manner, and almost everyone, on both sides of the aisle, is troubled. Spending and tax cuts and borrowing just make no sense, but they are getting some results in stimulating the economy. I do think we have a good thing going on with regard to the Federal Reserve. We have had the lowest interest rates now for 15, 16, 17 months--the lowest interest rates in 45 years. That actually does put some stimulus in the economy. We could not do any more with regard to trying to stimulate. The problem is, we did not do it very efficiently. We put it in all at the top income brackets, and it sort of trickles down. And that may create jobs. But I want to go back to what I think maybe is as important as anything that needs to be analyzed in the job market. When we trade manufacturing jobs, white collar technology jobs, for service sector jobs, what happens to the American people? Their standard of income goes down. Madam President, $44,570 is the average wage for a job that was lost in 2001. And the average wage today, when you get a new job, is $35,410, according to this calculation. That is a decline of 21 percent. When you go from manufacturing and high-technology jobs to service jobs, you see a deterioration in the real earnings of the American people. That is happening. And we still have a major unemployment problem in this country: 8.4 million people, 2 million of whom are unemployed on a long-term basis. We have the longest average tenure on unemployment we have had in 20 years. So, yes, it is a good thing that we saw 308,000 jobs created this month. It is a good thing that we are starting to see some pickup. But by my calculation--and by anyone's calculation--we still have the worst job performance record of any President since Herbert Hoover. Those are the facts. People can talk about the facts however they want. We have not performed for the American people in creating jobs and creating real earnings that will make a difference in their lives. So I hope we do not start celebrating and spinning so much that we lose track of what the reality is for people in their own lives-- certainly what is the reality for those people in Edison, NJ, who just had their Ford plant closed. I can tell you, it is happening all across my State. We have seen the elimination of high-quality jobs, and people are replacing them with those lower earning ones. I think we have serious issues to debate as we go through this campaign season. We ought to stay focused on the facts--both the number of jobs created and the quality of those jobs. I look forward to having greater discussion about these issues in the weeks and months ahead. Thank you, Madam President.

Mr. CORZINE

Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, today we are talking on a series of issues where credibility is at stake. Frankly, I think the credibility of the Senate is at stake with regard to this jobs initiative we are debating on the floor of the Senate today. I understand it is very possible we will not be able to move this most important legislation that is about creating jobs in an economy where Americans are not getting access to available opportunities to protect their families, help their families, or improve their quality of life. We have seen far too little job creation. For us to back away from this initiative today would be extremely disappointing and, in fact, lead to a roughly $4 billion tax hike for American business and for job creation. I think it fits a pattern of failure and unfortunate emphasis with regard to the state of our economic affairs in this country. Apparently, we do not want to take a vote on providing overtime for 8 million Americans. That is what is keeping us from dealing with a fundamental jobs program. We already overwhelmingly voted in this body to pull back from regulations that would strip overtime pay for 8 million working Americans. Because we do not want to go on record about that, we are going to allow a $4 billion tax hike that is going to end up undermining jobs. It is just the latest in steps of failed economic policy. I think the administration, the President, ought to be demanding that we get this JOBS bill passed so we have the capacity to keep pushing forward on economic growth and, most importantly, job growth for individuals. This failure, in my view, comes against a backdrop that is remarkable for its, frankly, inanity and distorted perspectives with regard to economic policies that Senator John Kerry has proposed in his current campaign for the Presidency. I say ``remarkable'' because it is incredible to me that anyone with the economic record that this administration has, which has basically failed, would have the temerity to try to attack the policies that are very consistent with ones that produced 22.5 million jobs and created the greatest economic boon in the 20th century that this country had. There was growth in productivity, growth in real wealth, and growth in average median income for all Americans. It is hard for me to understand how, when we have gone from that kind of success to the failed policies we have today, that we are trying to attack some return to that effort. I will review the record in specific. Since President Bush came to office, we have lost about 3 million private sector jobs--I think it is about 2.2 million overall jobs because the Government was actually increased. So, literally, it is the worst jobs record since the Great Depression. Currently, the situation is not exactly getting better. In the month of February we created 21,000 new jobs in this economy. That is against a projection that was in the President's economic report to the country of presuming that we would produce 368,000 jobs per month. It was 21,000 in reality against a projection of 368,000; none in the private sector, by the way. What 21,000 were created were created in the governmental sector. I again contrast that with the fact that under the policies of the previous administration, we created 236,000 jobs a month on average. Right now, on average, we have negative creation under the current economic policies, and before we have done any kind of analysis, we want to attack the kinds of proposals that actually lead us back to fiscal sanity and responsible funding of our Government. We would get on with job creation. If we had the right leadership, we would pass this jobs bill that is on the Senate floor right now and get forward momentum building in our economy. By the way, if we were to continue that pace of 21,000 jobs, just to replace the jobs we have already lost under this administration, it would take us to 2013, a remarkably slow pace. This is not what President Bush promised when we saw these large tax breaks, particularly for those affluent in this society. We were told this was going to be a job creator. It has not worked. I think it is time for people to focus on the realities as opposed to trying to hyperventilate about what they would like to think is going to happen. The differences between projections and reality just continue over and over. So when it comes to jobs, this administration's record, in my view, is a complete failure. Sadly, though, that is just the beginning on economic policy. The President has not only produced the worst jobs record in several generations, in fact, he has created the worst fiscal situation we have seen in the history of the country. Frankly, it is shifting the tax burdens and the financial burdens of paying for Government from one generation to the next. The reality is that we are putting on the backs of our kids and their kids the responsibility to pay for the actions of the Government both today and obviously future responsibilities as we go forward, but particularly creating debt. There is $530 billion worth of debt being created this year. Actually, it is about $630 billion because we are using the Social Security trust fund which is going to have to get paid back to be able to fund Social Security as we go forward. Over the long term, in my view, this failure on fiscal policy is a more serious problem than even the job creation issue because it is going to undermine the capacity of our economy to be able to grow and be strong in future years, and we are going to get even greater resistance to job growth over a long period of time because the Federal Government is going to be out there competing for every dime in the private capital markets. That competition is going to end up dampening growth and creating a situation where we have very little opportunity to see job creation as we go forward. To put it in perspective, when this administration came into office there were projections that we would have $5.6 trillion worth of budget surpluses over the succeeding 10 years. Today, the budget projections are $5 trillion worth of deficits. That is a negative cash flow swing-- that is an old term I remember from business--of over $10 trillion. It is mind-boggling that we could see a flip of the switch in policies that would take us from $5.6 trillion surpluses that would allow us to pay down the debt.

Mr. CORZINE. It is absolutely essential that we get focused on reality. I hear people suggest that Senator Kerry, because he wants to propose a health care plan that over 10 years will cost $900 billion, is going to impose a tax increase on the American people just to fund that. That is flat out wrong. It would be like saying the Bush administration is proposing a $10 trillion tax increase because they have run up budget deficits of these kinds. There is a lot more to say about the economy--failure on jobs, failure on the deficit, and we ought to be passing this JOBS bill in this Senate today so that we put America back to work. I will come back at a later point and finish up with some of the other remarks. I yield the floor.

Mr. CORZINE

Mr. CORZINE. Will the Chair inform me when I have 1 minute remaining of the 10 minutes?

Mr. CORZINE. I thank the Chair.

Mr. CORZINE

Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation to ensure that displaced workers whose jobs have moved overseas have access to affordable health care coverage. Under the Trade Assistance Adjustment Act, unemployed workers who have seen their manufacturing jobs shipped overseas are eligible for Federal subsidies to help them maintain their employer-based health coverage through COBRA. Unfortunately, while these workers have access to these Federal subsidies for 24 months, they only have access to COBRA coverage for 18 months. This discrepancy means that displaced workers are unable to fully utilize these subsidies. Indeed, the discrepancy creates the anomalous situation in which displaced workers can remain in their COBRA plan for 18 months, using the Federal subsidy to help defray their costs, but once their COBRA coverage runs out, they have six additional months of Federal subsidy available but lose their existing health coverage. This leaves them no choice but to seek coverage in the expensive individual market where they are not guaranteed coverage and where their subsidy may not be sufficient to help them afford coverage. My legislation would fix this problem by making COBRA coverage available for the full 24 months that the subsidy is available. This will ensure that displaced workers can take full advantage of the assistance that Congress made available to them in 2002. As more and more Americans see their jobs outsourced overseas, many struggle to provide health insurance for their families. We have lost 3,000 manufacturing jobs in February alone and have lost a total of 2.8 million since 2000. Congress took a critical step in authorizing Federal assistance for those who have lost these jobs. Now we must ensure that displaced workers have access to health coverage so that they can utilize this assistance. My legislation will ensure this. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the legislation be printed in the Record.

Mr. CORZINE

Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation to ensure that displaced workers whose jobs have moved overseas have access to affordable health care coverage. Under the Trade Assistance Adjustment Act, unemployed workers who have seen their manufacturing jobs shipped overseas are eligible for Federal subsidies to help them maintain their employer-based health coverage through COBRA. Unfortunately, while these workers have access to these Federal subsidies for 24 months, they only have access to COBRA coverage for 18 months. This discrepancy means that displaced workers are unable to fully utilize these subsidies. Indeed, the discrepancy creates the anomalous situation in which displaced workers can remain in their COBRA plan for 18 months, using the Federal subsidy to help defray their costs, but once their COBRA coverage runs out, they have six additional months of Federal subsidy available but lose their existing health coverage. This leaves them no choice but to seek coverage in the expensive individual market where they are not guaranteed coverage and where their subsidy may not be sufficient to help them afford coverage. My legislation would fix this problem by making COBRA coverage available for the full 24 months that the subsidy is available. This will ensure that displaced workers can take full advantage of the assistance that Congress made available to them in 2002. As more and more Americans see their jobs outsourced overseas, many struggle to provide health insurance for their families. We have lost 3,000 manufacturing jobs in February alone and have lost a total of 2.8 million since 2000. Congress took a critical step in authorizing Federal assistance for those who have lost these jobs. Now we must ensure that displaced workers have access to health coverage so that they can utilize this assistance. My legislation will ensure this. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the legislation be printed in the Record.

Mr. CORZINE

Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize the women of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., a service sorority dedicated to promoting sisterhood, scholarship and service, for their efforts in the battle against HIV/AIDS. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as of the end of 2002, an estimated 42 million people worldwide--38.6 million adults and 3.2 million children younger than 15 years of age--were living with HIV/AIDS. Approximately 70 percent of these people, 29.4 million, live in Sub-Saharan Africa; another 17 percent, 7.2 million, live in Asia. Of the estimated 15,603 AIDS- related deaths in the United States in the year 2001, approximately 52 percent were among African Americans and Hispanics. Racial and ethnic minority populations constitute more than 57 percent of the more than 800,000 cases of AIDS reported in the United States since the epidemic was discovered in 1981. Further, the Centers for Disease Control reports that as of December 2001, African Americans and Hispanics represented 52 percent of AIDS cases reported among males and 78 percent of those in females. Fifty-eight percent of all women reported living with AIDS that year were African Americans and 20 percent were Hispanic. African American children represented 58 percent of all pediatric cases. Of the 175 pediatric AIDS cases reported in 2001, 139, 79 percent, were African Americans and Hispanic. AIDS is one of the leading cause of death among African-American men ages 24 to 44. Recognizing the urgency of the issue, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. has taken a leadership role in educating the global community on how to decrease the AIDS pandemic, thus promoting health and wellness. Delta Sigma Theta's effort focuses on an intense HIV/AIDS Education Campaign beginning with encouraging local Delta chapters to implement internal education awareness workshops. This enabled the sorority members to better understand the drastic impact HIV/AIDS is having on African American women of all ages. In addition, for the past 3 years, chapters have participated in the sorority's International Day of Service for HIV/AIDS, a public awareness program in which a day is committed to providing HIV/AIDS education and prevention services to communities around the world. On Saturday, March 13, 2004, the more than 900 chapters of the sorority located in 44 States, the District of Columbia, and in 6 countries abroad will conduct forums and seminars, provide counseling and testing, raise funds for research and services, and petition lawmakers to enact legislation that effectively addresses HIV/AIDS issues. In my State of New Jersey alone, the Central Jersey Alumnae chapter will sponsor a community forum entitled ``Why Not Me? The Affect of HIV/AIDS on Our Families.'' The event will include key sessions for citizens of diverse age groups, helping participants to clarify perceptions/myths about HIV/AIDS and encouraging them to speak openly about the impact of the disease on their communities. There also will be an open general session in which TEEN PEP of Somerset County will perform some powerful and thought-provoking pieces. The Montclair Alumnae chapter will provide direct services to the Academy Street Firehouse After-School Project. As part of the AIDS Resource Foundation for Children in Newark, the Academy Street Firehouse addresses educational, vocational, social and medical needs of children and teens who are dealing with the loss of a parent due to AIDS. Approximately 50 children between the ages of 7 and 17 will receive services. The North Jersey Alumnae chapter will hold three seminars on topics related to the HIV/AIDS: (1) The Secret Lives of AIDS; (2) The role of the church in the fight against HIV/AIDS; and (3) How individuals can protect themselves. There will be free testing and counseling. Speakers will include community activists and church leaders. There also will be a dramatization by the ``POWER'' group, a youth organization that teaches about HIV/AIDS and its affects. The Rancocas Valley Alumnae chapter will partner with the Township of Willingboro to present workshops for men, women and children on (1) HIV/AIDS prevention; (2) Functioning as a person living with HIV/AIDS; (3) Caring for people with AIDS; and (4) Volunteerism with HIV/AIDS organizations. The day will be filled with a variety of activities such as panel discussions, videos, dramatic presentations, praise dancers, and step teams. The Trenton Alumnae chapter along with the Rho Epsilon and Tau Kappa collegiate chapters will host Trenton's 2nd Annual Aids Walk. The Walk will begin at a local school and end at City Hall where the chapters will host a rally and speakers who will discuss the impact of HIV/AIDS. Donations will be collected to benefit the Rainbow House, a nonprofit organization that provides housing for children and adults living with HIV/AIDS in the city of Trenton. The membership of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. provides an extensive array of public service programs and projects through the sorority's Five-Point Program Thrust: Economic, Development, Educational Development, International Awareness and Involvement, Physical and Mental Health, and Political Awareness and Involvement. The ``International Day of Service'' is an activity of the sorority's mental and physical health focus ``Summit V: Let It Continue--Heal and Healing: Promoting Health and Wellness on HIV/AIDS.'' Summit V is a means through which Deltas throughout the world assist in informing and educating the public and families about women's health issues, develop community partnerships to help inform the public and provide access to services; provide leadership for supporting policy development and promoting and enforcing legal requirements that protect the health and safety of women; and support research and political efforts to gain new insights and innovate solutions to health problems impacting women. Delta Sigma Theta Sorority was founded on the campus of Howard University in 1913 by 22 visionary college women. Notable members include our colleague in the other Chamber. Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio, civil rights pioneer and Congressional Gold Medal recipient Dr. Dorothy I. Height, and former Labor Secretary Alexis Herman. I invite my colleagues to join me in saluting the women of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., for their global efforts in the battle against HIV/AIDS, and I urge fellow Americans to participate in the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., ``International Day of Service'' projects in their communities on March 13, 2004.

Mr. CORZINE

Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, has the chairman and the ranking member been able to resolve the question on the floor with regard to the other withdrawals? If that is the case, I will be prepared to withdraw the amendment.

Mr. CORZINE

Mr. CORZINE. Madam President, I thank the Senator from California for both raising the issue and addressing it with resources through this budget resolution. There is hardly an issue in America that is more important than that which has been very ably demonstrated by the series of charts the Senator from California has provided. We have before us the worst record of job creation in the last 70 years. It is one that is not getting better anytime. The only observation I will add to the presentation of the Senator from California is that not only are we losing jobs, but when we lose those jobs it makes the competitive market for wages and real income for Americans go down. The reality is for those people who lose their jobs--and there have been roughly 3 million in the private sector--their likelihood of retaining another job that pays the same as the one they have lost or the benefits they had in the job they have lost is virtually nil. You see about 75 or 80 percent of the equivalency of the compensation for individuals who lose their jobs. The problem is, we are putting more people on the job market. The normal economics of supply and demand are undermining the real wages of the people who remain in the workforce. So not only are we getting more unemployed and fewer people working in the overall workforce, but we are seeing a reduction in real wages in the economy. This is an extraordinarily negative cycle that is being set up. It is absolutely important that we reverse it. That is why this amendment is so important. It will encourage the creation of American jobs in a way that begins creating greater demand which is going to raise the wage of what we pay for the jobs we have. Certainly, we need to stop this mad rush of sending jobs overseas which is undermining also not only the number of jobs in America but, as I say, is lowering the real cost of real wages, which is undermining the quality of life for everyone, not only the people who are unemployed but those who are working. This is a dangerous phenomenon. The Senator from California has absolutely focused on the right thing, making sure we are using our tax system to generate jobs. It is one of those issues that is going to resonate most strongly with the American people in 2004 because it matters in people's lives more than anything else. We have the worst job creation record in 75 years. Contrast that with what went on in the previous 8 years up through 2000, where we created 22.5 million jobs with an entirely different tax structure. We were focused on making sure we were increasing the real wages, increasing the earning power of Americans. We did it by increasing the demand. The Senator from California has focused on just the right issue. Frankly, as the chart now before us illustrates, in job creation not only for the 1990s but all the way back through President Bush 1 and President Reagan as well, there was a serious effort to try to create jobs. We have a series of economic policies right now that are undermining not only job creation but the real wages of American workers. It is time we all take steps to try to correct that.