Americans are Stronger, Safer, and Better Off

AMERICANS ARE STRONGER, SAFER, AND BETTER OFF

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I was sitting in my office watching on television the proceedings in the Chamber, and I was inspired to come to the Chamber to respond to some of the comments I heard on the Senate floor. I expected to be watching debate about reform of the oversight that this body provides for the intelligence community and homeland security but instead watched what appeared to be part of the Presidential campaign playing out here on the Senate floor.

I just want to respond to some of the things that I heard, and not at great length. But I think in fairness to the American people they should not be fed just one side, which I think is fraught with inaccuracies. So I think a few facts are pertinent.

First of all, I would say that after listening to the distinguished Senator from Illinois, you would wonder why in the world anyone would want to live in the United States of America today because things are so bad we might as well give up and depart for somewhere else. And you may have noticed, Mr. President, people are not knocking down the door to leave the United States of America because somehow we are no longer the land of opportunity and freedom and hope.

Indeed, just the contrary is true. People are literally dying to get into the United States by any method they can because they recognize that America still is the last best hope of freedom-loving people anywhere in the world.

For example, we heard some very dire statements made about job figures. Well, it just so happens that since August 2003, we learned today, 1.9 million new jobs have been created in the United States of America-1.9 million new jobs. That is not because the Government created the jobs, but it is because Government created the conditions that allowed the risk takers and the hard-working people all across this country to create jobs, by investing and building opportunities for those who wanted to find work.

Now, the truth is, as we all know, we came out of a very difficult time at the beginning of President Bush's first term in office when he started his Presidency because during the end of President Clinton's term we were going through a recession.
The recession had just started then. Then we know that the terrible events of 9/11 followed on shortly thereafter, with tremendous negative impact on our economy in addition to the terrible loss of human life.

Then there were the corporate scandals at the highest level of corporate America which caused the public to lose confidence in the marketplace.

Thanks to the efforts of this President and this administration, this Congress, thanks to the fact that we lowered taxes for hard-working men and women, it allowed them to save more, invest more, and for small businesses to create more jobs. Indeed, we are coming back with 1.9 million jobs being created since August 2003.

If we had agreed with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle about what course to take, the recovery would have been killed in its infancy because their solution was to raise taxes, not to lower taxes and let people keep more of what they earn.
Yet what they want to do is play the card of class warfare and accuse this President and this administration of favoring part of the population, the wealthiest, over the rest of America.

The fact is, the tax cuts that were passed by this Congress affected every taxpayer, lowered the tax rates for even those of the most modest means, and are responsible for creating 1.9 million jobs.

We continually hear criticism about this President's policy in Iraq and in the global war on terror. Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have a short-term memory because the only reason we took Saddam Hussein out of Iraq, as the bloodthirsty dictator that he was, and put him in a prison cell, is because of the authorization of this Congress. An overwhelming majority of the Members of this Congress, of this Senate, voted to authorize the use of force in October of 2002, to enforce U.N. resolutions which Saddam Hussein had defied since 1991.

I was at the same Senate Armed Services Committee where Mr. Duelfer testified a couple of days ago. While he confirmed that the intelligence the President relied on and this Congress relied on with regard to weapons of mass destruction proved not to be correct-and we are working in this bill to correct those deficiencies in our intelligence gathering and analysis capability-he did confirm Saddam Hussein had corrupted the Oil for Food Program, was evading sanctions, chased the inspectors out of his country because he didn't want them to know he was in the process of rebuilding his capacity to rearm himself with weapons of mass destruction as soon as those sanctions failed.

Indeed, former Ambassador Paul Bremer, who served as the head of the coalition efforts to rebuild Iraq, said:

The president was right when he concluded that Saddam Hussein was a menace who needed to be removed from power. [The president] understands that our enemies are not confined to al Qaeda, and certainly not just Osama bin Laden, who is probably trapped in his hide-out in Afghanistan. As the bipartisan 9/11 commission reported, there were contacts between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's regime going back a decade. We will win the war against global terror only by staying on the offensive and confronting terrorists and the state sponsors of terror-wherever they are. Right now, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Qaeda ally, is a dangerous threat. He is in Iraq.

I hope those who listen to the debate and the politics of this season and the attempt to score political points by criticizing this Nation's policy with regard to the global war on terror understand exactly what is going on. We are in the silly season, where sometimes the statements being made in pursuit of scoring political points stray way too far from the facts.

The fact is, America is stronger and safer and better off as a result of President Bush's leadership and as a result of the leadership of this Congress. We have created opportunity for more Americans. America is more secure than we were on 9/11. We are constantly working, including here today, to make it safer. We have created 1.9 million jobs since August 2003 as a result of the policies of this Congress and this President. If we had accepted the rationale of our colleagues across the aisle and raised taxes and let spending run amok, then we would still be in very dire straits, indeed, and not on the road to recovery.

I yield the remainder of the 20 minutes allotted to our side to the Senator from Missouri.