Don Nickles

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, will the Senator yield?

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I wanted to clarify. I heard my colleague say increase in copays. You are aware, I am sure, under the resolution we are not assuming any increase in copay for categories 7 or 8, and we are also not assuming the $250 deductible.

Mr. NICKLES. I thought I heard my colleague say you were opposed to these increase in copays. I was trying to make sure you are aware we did not assume an increase. We did not have that in our budget. I wanted to make sure you knew that. If you didn't, I will read it to you. It says the committee resolution does not assume the President's proposal to establish a new $250 enrollment fee for priority 7 or 8 veterans or to increase the insurance for prescription drug copayment for priority 7 and 8 veterans from $7 to $15. That is not in our resolution. I wanted to make sure you knew that.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I want to remind our colleague to go through the Chair. I warned other people. I think I need to do that. Our resolution, to answer my colleague's question, has a $1.4 billion increase in VA care. It assumes an increase in VA--and it is mandatory--from $61 billion to $70 billion--a 14.3 percent increase, so my colleague will know.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I have a couple comments. We did not have the assumptions; they were not revenue raisers, as I understand from the administration's perspective. What they were trying to do is get high-income nonservice-connected disabled veterans to not clog the system or at least have them pay a little more. If they were not injured by military service--maybe they were playing basketball or whatever and they had high incomes, shouldn't they pay a greater percentage of the prescription drug? That was the assumption. It is more to change behavior than to raise money. We did not make that assumption in our resolution. I yield the Senator from Texas as much time as he desires. I know there is a reception tonight. If the Senator could keep his remarks to 10 or 15 minutes. For the information of our colleagues, I suspect we will have a vote probably about 5:45, hopefully not much later than that.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I yield the Senator from Iowa such time as he desires.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, my colleague and good friend from South Dakota said: This budget increases copays on veterans on drugs from $7.50 to $15. That is not correct. Read the resolution. The resolution has a paragraph that we did not assume either the $250 deductible or the increase in copays for category 7 or 8 veterans. It is not in the budget. I have only said that about three times. Maybe my good friend missed one of my great speeches. Look what we have done. I venture to say that whatever we do is never enough. Mr. President, I say to Senator Byrd, many times he talked to me about mandatories. Mandatory spending on veterans and discretionary are growing under this budget from $61 billion to $71.4 billion. That is a 14.5-percent increase. Not too many categories in this budget will be growing 14.5 percent. I want people to know we are doing a lot. We have assumed a $1.4 billion increase in VA health care. So we have a lot already in this assumption that we are already expanding. I looked at the amendment of my colleague from South Dakota, and where is the increase for outlays for veterans? It is not in this amendment. It assumes maybe there is a trust fund, and if the appropriations bills come in and if they spend a certain amount, then maybe it will be increased and then we will increase the caps. It has a lot of assumptions. The only thing for sure is that it increases taxes. It is very hypothetical, at the most, to say we think that is only going to be on millionaires for a certain amount. That is not what the amendment says. The amendment says increase taxes next year by $5.4 billion over the budget resolution. I also tell my colleagues the taxes that we are assuming for next year will be continued to make sure taxpayers do not have a tax increase are really the marriage penalty relief of $5.4 billion, and the 10-percent tax bracket. That is $4.3 billion for 2005, and the child tax credit is $2.6 billion. That is really what we are assuming. This idea we are going to rewrite the Tax Code is just not going to happen--I think my colleagues know that--not in this election year, not in this environment. What we are assuming are some profamily tax credits. It just so happens veterans are also taxpayers. If we do not do some of these things, a lot of veterans are going to have an increase in their taxes, if they have kids, to the tune of maybe $1,200, $1,600, $2,200, depending on how many kids they have. The marriage penalty alone, if they have taxable income of $58,000, a husband and wife, is $900. The only fact we are sure about in this amendment is we are going to increase taxes and maybe veterans might get some of it if it goes through this process of a reserve fund and then the reserve fund is released and then, depending on appropriations--that is an interesting way to say we are trying to help veterans. This budget tries to help veterans. It tries to be responsible, to give a significant increase, a $1.4 billion increase for veterans when we have very little increases period in nondefense, nonhomeland. I urge our colleagues to vote no on the amendment. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, for the information of our colleagues, that will be the last rollcall vote tonight. Senator Conrad and I have indicated we are willing to stay to do additional business tonight, maybe well into the night. That remains to be seen, depending on the amendments that will be offered and/or discussed. If there are rollcalls on the amendments to be offered tonight, we will hold those over for tomorrow at a mutually agreeable time with our leaders. For the information of our colleagues, I am not sure how late we will work tonight. We will see. I think we are making progress on the resolution and on the amendments. I know Senators Lindsey Graham and Jim Bunning have an amendment. I don't believe it is quite ready. I believe Senator Murray has an amendment. I also believe Senator Bennett wants to speak on a report. We will have additional business probably for some time tonight, for the information of our colleagues. Some of our colleagues have said they would like to speak tonight. That is fine with this Senator. We would like to get as much work done on this resolution as possible so we are not crammed into the last day and a half with a lot of votes. I do thank our colleagues. We are off to a good start in working through this resolution. I thank our colleagues for their cooperation.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I appreciate the comments of my very good friend, Senator Conrad. I will suggest the absence of a quorum and see if he and I can work out an arrangement for finishing tonight.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I want to make a couple of comments. I heard my very good friend, Senator Reed from Rhode Island, call President Bush's economic policies failed. I take issue with that. Last year we passed an economic stimulus package and it happened to work. The proof is in the pudding. We have the results. The last three quarters have been phenomenal growth. The third quarter of last year grew at over 8 percent. That is record growth for the last 20 some years, which is phenomenal growth. A quarter after that, it was 4.4 percent. So if we look at the GDP, we can see real significant growth as a result of the growth package we passed last year. Look at the stock market. The stock market was a precursor for the decline in the economy that happened in the year 2000-2001. NASDAQ, as I mentioned a few times, declined by almost 50 percent in the year 2000, kind of sending a signal there was a recession coming. Subsequently, we saw two or three quarters of negative growth in 2000- 2001. We made these changes last year in economic policy by accelerating the rate cuts by saying we should not tax individuals more than corporations. I thank my colleagues for their vote on that last amendment saying we really should not tax individuals, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, or self-employed individuals at a rate higher than Exxon. That was one of the things that was voted on just a minute ago, and I thank my colleagues. I think reducing the tax on dividends has helped the economy. The stock market has now shown significant growth. Dow Jones a little over a year ago was at 7,700. Now it is at 10,500. NASDAQ went up by 50 percent last year. The stock market has sent some good signals and we have seen good economic growth for the last few quarters. When my good friend, and he is my good friend, my marine buddy, Senator Reed from Rhode Island, said President Bush's economic policies are a failure, I beg to disagree. I think we have evidence the changes we made last year have caused very significant, positive economic growth, and I mention that with great respect, but I wanted to give a different viewpoint. Momentarily, we are going to be locking in an order for tomorrow. We made good progress on the budget today. We worked a lot of the day. Senator Conrad and I both have been on the floor since 9:30 this morning, and we are really starting to work our way through the budget. I thank all of our colleagues, Democrat and Republican, for their cooperation in doing so. Tomorrow I believe Senator Ensign from Nevada wishes to make a speech, and shortly after that I believe Senator Murray will be recognized to offer an education amendment. After that, I believe Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator Bunning have an amendment, and we will consider that. There will be a mutually agreeable time to vote on those amendments. We do not expect the debate on those amendments to be too prolonged. That is not in our interest. Our interest is trying to complete this budget and to conduct business in an appropriate, orderly manner so we can avoid the vote-aramas that have happened in the past. I want to let our colleagues know there will not be any more votes tonight. We will be on the floor for a little while longer. We do have in the queue a couple of the amendments ready. It will be Senator Murray's amendment and Senator Lindsey Graham's amendment tomorrow morning.

Mr. NICKLES. I am happy to enter into such an agreement. That would be fine. I can state the agreement. I think the staffs are working on it. Why do we not let staff complete it because we will also yield back some time and complete that. I am happy to agree to such a request.

Mr. NICKLES. I thank my colleague from Oregon, Senator Wyden, for his gracious comments. It is a pleasure working with him on a multitude of issues, this being one, forest fires.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I ask unanimous consent the Senate now proceed to a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc, and any statements relating to the resolution be printed in the Record.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate now proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 314, submitted by Senator Voinovich today.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 12, treaty document 108-14 on today's Executive Calendar. I further ask unanimous consent the treaty be considered as having passed through its various parliamentary stages up to and including the presentation of the resolution of ratification, that any statements be printed in the Record, and the Senate immediately proceed to a vote on the resolution of ratification; further, that when the resolution of ratification is voted upon, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, the President be notified of the Senate's action, and that following the disposition of the treaty the Senate return to legislative session.

Mr. NICKLES. I ask for consideration of the resolution before the Senate by a division vote.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further action on S. Res. 299, and the Senate now proceed to its consideration.

Mr. NICKLES. I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table en bloc, and any statements be printed in the Record.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, March 10. I further ask unanimous consent that following the prayer and pledge the morning hour be deemed expired and the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate then resume consideration of S. Con. Res. 95, the budget resolution; provided that when the Senate resumes consideration of the resolution tomorrow morning there be 27 hours equally divided remaining for debate under the statutory limit. I further ask unanimous consent that upon proceeding to the resolution, Senator Ensign be recognized for up to 30 minutes to make a statement on the resolution; provided that following his remarks Senator Murray be recognized to offer an amendment, with the next amendment in order to be an amendment to be offered by Senator Graham of South Carolina or his designee.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, tomorrow the Senate will resume consideration of S. Con. Res. 95, the budget resolution. When the Senate resumes debate tomorrow morning, there will be 27 hours remaining under the statutory time limit for debate. I believe we made good progress today on the resolution. We were able to dispose of two very challenging amendments. The ranking member and I will return to the floor tomorrow morning to continue to work through amendments during the day. It is my hope that Members who wish to offer amendments will do so as early as possible, present their amendments to both my colleague, Senator Conrad, and myself early so we can have a chance to examine and understand those amendments, and we may be able to dispose of them in a very intelligent and favorable way. I also would like to inform my colleagues that we expect several rollcall votes throughout the day. Senators will be notified when we jointly agree upon having the first rollcall vote or two.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order following the remarks of my colleague and friend, Senator Conrad.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.