October 14, 1978
Page 37688
LEGISLATIVE REPORT
Mr. BAKER. Mr. President, as a legislative session draws to its close, it is customary for the Republican leader to give his assessment of the Senate's work during the year and, more particularly, of the Republican membership's contribution to that work.
This report of the Republican leader provides a welcome opportunity to commend my colleagues who have performed difficult and demanding leadership roles with an abundance of skill and diligence.
I must thank, first of all, my friend from Alaska, Mr. STEVENS, for his talented, loyal, and tireless service as assistant minority leader.
I commend, as well, the outstanding work of the gentleman from Nebraska, Mr. CURTIS, the wise and able chairman of the Republican conference;
The gentleman from Wyoming, Mr. HANSEN, the respected and industrious secretary of the conference;
The gentleman from Texas, Mr. TOWER, the forceful and erudite chairman of the Republican Policy Committee;
And the gentleman from Oregon, Mr. PACKWOOD, the outstanding chairman of the Republican Senatorial Committee.
I must also pay special tribute to the ranking Republican members of the standing committees of the Senate, whose generous agreement to meet with me in weekly sessions and whose faithful attendance at those meetings helped convert the Republican membership of the Senate from a loose assembly into an effective team:
Mr. DOLE, from the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry;
Mr. YOUNG, of the Committee on Appropriations;
Mr. TOWER, of the Committee on Armed Services;
Mr. BROOKE, of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs;
Mr. BELLMON, of the Committee on the Budget;
Mr. PEARSON, of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation;
Mr. HANSEN, of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources;
Mr. STAFFORD, who is ranking member of both the Committee on Environment and Public Works and the Committee on Veterans Affairs; and
Mr. MCCLURE, of the Environment and Public Works Committee.
Mr. CURTIS, of the Committee on Finance;
Mr. CASE, of the Committee on Foreign Relations;
Mr. PERCY, of the Committee on Governmental Affairs;
Mr. JAVITS, of the Committee on Human Resources;
Mr. THURMOND, of the Committee on the Judiciary;
Mr. HATFIELD, of the Committee on Rules and Administration.
And I would pay special commendation as well to the entire Republic membership of the Senate, whom I have often called — and who have repeatedly demonstrated themselves to be — the most effective political force in this city.
On the other side of the aisle, I have valued my cordial relationship with the distinguished majority leader, Mr. BYRD. My work with him in joint leadership endeavors has proven to be a very rewarding and always stimulating experience.
The distinguished majority whip, Mr. CRANSTON, has been a model of courtesy and accommodation to the minority, and we appreciate his good work and his diligence.
In addition. the Senate has been especially well served by the distinguished chairman of the Budget Committee, Mr. MUSKIE, and the ranking Republican member of that committee, Mr. BELLMON, for leading a successful effort to reduce the administration's proposed budget deficit of $60 billion to $38.8 billion — a reduction of more than one-third.
This reduction, and the major tax cut enacted this year at the initiative of Senate Republicans, represent a positive and encouraging response to the rising tide of dissatisfaction in this country with the way Government operates, with the amount of money it taxes and spends, with the power it wields over the daily lives of the American people, and with the meager results of its massive endeavors.
This monumental dissatisfaction found its most forceful expression in 1978 with the passage of California's proposition 13 — on its face a sweeping rollback of property taxes but perhaps more importantly an explosion of anger among people who want to get the Government off their back and out of their pockets.
Republicans in the Senate did not simply respond to this public outcry. We anticipated it.
Nineteen months ago, in March of 1977, Senate Republicans unanimously called for an across-the-board tax cut of major proportions. This call met not only with rejection but with ridicule within the Carter administration and on the Democratic side of the Senate aisle.
Not until proposition 13 did the Democratic Party awaken to the public demand for tax relief, and it must fairly be said that the driving force behind the tax cut adopted this year was the effort of Republican Senators.
Republicans in the 95th Congress have, in truth, changed the whole direction of the Federal Government.
In the realm of domestic policy, we have proposed — and the Senate has passed — major tax cut legislation.
The Senate has passed a much-changed Humphrey-Hawkins full employment bill free of such undesirable aspects as making government the Nation's employer of last resort, but retaining the goals of reduced unemployment and inflation, together with Republican initiatives promoting a greater involvement of the private sector in the creation of new jobs, and calls for a National Employment Conference of business, labor, government and others to provide better coordination of efforts to solve the unemployment problem.
Republicans provided a bipartisan basis for submission to the States of a constitutional amendment providing full voting representation in Congress for the District of Columbia.
On the impetus of a major Ford Administration initiative, airline regulatory reform was enacted this year, providing lower fares for air passengers and greater competition among carriers.
A Republican amendment, offered by the distinguished gentleman from Arizona, Mr. GOLDWATER, increased the amount of money a social security recipient may earn without losing benefits, and lowered from 72 to 70 the age at which the earnings limit ceases to apply.
Senate Republicans formed an ad hoc committee to recommend new forms of assistance to American farmers, including a more aggressive pursuit of export opportunities and an increase in target prices, and unanimously backed a farm credit bill to permit family farms and partnerships to apply for real estate and operating loans.
Republicans also provided a valuable public service by insuring the defeat of costly or otherwise ill-conceived Democratic initiatives.
A labor law revision was defeated by Republicans who felt the bill would have had devastating consequences for thousands of small business concerns throughout the Nation.
Republicans successfully resisted adoption of a Carter administration welfare "reform" proposal which would have cost the taxpayer an additional $20 billion a year.
Foreign policy gives the Senate minority a more difficult role to play. Bipartisan cooperation in foreign affairs has been a tradition of the Republican Party for almost four decades.
But we believe it equally important to express our disapproval, with respect to administration decisions which we consider detrimental to the interest of our Nation's security.
Three major foreign policy achievements of 1978 were the culmination of policies set by Republican Presidents and skillfully implemented by a Republican Secretary of State.
The Panama Canal treaties ratified by the Senate this year represented the fruition of efforts of six consecutive Presidents, three Democrats and three Republicans. The treaty amendments adopted by the Senate this year for improved American defense of the Canal and the guaranteed rights of first passage for American ships in time of emergency were also Republican initiatives.
The resumption of arms sales to Turkey, strongly urged by President Ford to repair a dangerous debilitation in the southern flank of NATO, was approved by the Senate this year.
And the Carter administration finally made a 180 degree turn in its Middle East policy, abandoning its insistence on a comprehensive Geneva conference co-chaired by the Soviet Union and reverting instead to the step-by-step diplomacy of the last two Republican administrations.
The Camp David summit conference could not have succeeded without the groundwork laid by Presidents Nixon and Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger.
And had it not been for the decision to sell arms to the moderate states of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as well as Israel — had the United States fallen short of a truly balanced approach to peace in the Middle East, allowing this Nation to be the honest broker in sensitive negotiations — there would have been no Camp David summit conference at all.
But none of this diminishes the great new hope for peace which the Camp David summit represents, nor the praise that is due President Carter, President Sadat, and Prime Minister Begin for their courage, their persistence, and their ultimate success.
The unfortunate fact is that the initiatives remaining from Republican administrations are almost at an end, and the new initiatives of the Carter administration have not inspired the confidence of the Nation or the world.
The administration's decisions to cancel the B-1 bomber, to defer the MX missile, to withdraw American forces from Korea, to defer the neutron warhead system, to slash the Navy's shipbuilding program, to veto the defense authorization bill — all at a time when the Soviet Union is engaged in the most massive arms buildup in the history of mankind — cannot be accepted in the context of bipartisanship.
The foreign policies which this administration can truly call its own have featured little more than visionary goals, reckless pronouncements, and a dangerous departure from the pursuit of a moderate solution and the support of moderate elements in the conflict of southern Africa.
The defense policies of this administration have emboldened our adversaries, encouraged their aggression in central Africa, endangered the fragile balance of power between East and West, and shaken the confidence of our best allies.
The energy policy of this administration has made its tortuous way through the Congress this year, but all that remains is a distant promise of deregulated prices, an impenetrable maze of new regulations, and the same heavy dependence on imported energy this policy was supposed to reduce.
The farm policies this administration has chosen to pursue have resulted in a serious decline in farm prices, a persistent failure to exploit lucrative export opportunities, a thundering outburst of frustration among the farmers of America, and the forced exodus of thousands of those farmers — our most productive citizens — from their farms and their cherished way of life.
The economic policies of this administration have generated a surge of inflation which threatens the standard of living of every American family, warps our balance of trade, and undermines the American dollar in financial centers throughout the world. And even at so great a price, the battle against high unemployment has met with bitter defeat.
What is more, the administration which came to power promising a more harmonious relationship between the executive and legislative branches now finds itself increasingly at odds with the Congress.
The Democratic Party's domination of the Congress over the past 24 years must also share the responsibility for the American people's sweeping disaffection with their own Government.
Each year seems to find the Senate at a farther remove from the deliberative, policymaking body which the framers of the Constitution envisioned, and nearer instead to an august assemblage of elected bureaucrats.
Each year finds us trying to fathom legislative bills so thick, so complex and convoluted we can scarcely claim to understand them ourselves, bills that go far beyond policy and law to deal with the minutiae of bureaucratic rules and regulations.
As our legislative burden grows, so grows the size and influence of — and our dependence upon — congressional staff.
In the raucous din of special interest pleadings and one-issue constituencies, the true voice of the people grows fainter and more difficult to discern with certainty.
We have witnessed this year — and not for the first time — a mad rush of legislative activity at the end of the session. Important legislative measures, some involving billions of the taxpayers' dollars, have been considered in such haste in recent weeks that this might well be called the "assembly-line Senate."
My colleagues have heard me speak more than once on the need for a "citizen's Congress," but I become more certain every year that a thorough restructuring of our work here, and a drastic reduction in the time we spend here, is the most pressing business of the Senate.
We stand today at a crossroads between the politics of tradition and the politics of innovation.
For the past 45 years, since the darkest days of the Great Depression, the powers of Government have been significantly on the increase.
When economic or social problems have arisen, the American people have turned more and more habitually to Government for solutions. They have, frankly, been encouraged in that direction by five Democratic Presidents and two generations of Democratic Congresses.
This growing reliance has, in turn, given the Federal Government more and more power to dictate how each of us must live and work, and has resulted in the establishment of an extravagant and enormously expensive Federal bureaucracy.
The colossal cost of Government has seriously inflated our national economy, reducing the investment capacity of private industry and the purchasing power of every American family.
Government has also developed an insatiable appetite for paper and red tape, and it is choking the life out of free enterprise and individual initiative in America.
The inescapable fact is that Government has grown too large, too powerful, too costly, too remote, and yet too deeplyinvolved in the daily lives of the American people.
We cannot be content with the present state of affairs. The towering discontent of the American people demands of us not only a new boldness of action but a revolution of thought.
The time has come for this generation of political leadership to create a new republic — more worthy of people's confidence, more responsive and adequate to the Nation's needs.
We must move away from the traditional policy of creating a new bureaucracy for every new Government initiative.
We must search instead for means of achieving public goals through a more creative partnership with private enterprise.
Through specifically targeted tax incentive programs, for example, we can create permanent jobs in private industry, rehabilitate housing in the central cities, and achieve a great many more public goals even as we revitalize the private enterprise system that is the source of our national wealth.
And while the Central Government provides the framework for these programs, individual projects will be adaptedby local people to local needs.
In international affairs, the Nation would do well to abandon the policy of unilateral disarmament which has thus far characterized the Carter administration, and a return to a policy of reciprocity. Above all, we must insure that the United States remains so undoubtedly strong that we will never be tested by even the most powerful of enemies.
Senate Republicans this year issued a unanimous declaration on national security and foreign policy, which revealed in detail the growing imbalance of forces between East and West, and called for a national defense of sufficient strength "to deter aggression against ourselves and others, to ensure the freedom of political and economic intercourse in the world, to foster a climate in which people everywhere can aspire to self-determination and have some reasonable hope of realizing that dream."
There are indications that a new Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty may be nearing agreement and that it will be submitted for consideration by the Senate, though I suspect we will not see it before we adjourn.
While I have pledged to examine the proposed SALT agreement carefully when it is submitted, my concern will not be limited to the four corners of the agreement itself. It is possible to take a chance with a treaty, but I will not take a chance with the lives of 220 million Americans.
The consideration of this treaty will present the Senate with an excellent opportunity to debate the sufficiency of our current status of forces, and to construct a national defense policy for the last two decades of the 20th century.
It must be such major and fundamental issues which command the attention of the 96th Congress.
We must contend for the survival of a political system that has served this Nation well over the last 200 years, but which has fallen into disrepair.
We must revitalize an economic system which has made us the richest Nation on Earth, but which staggers now under the heavy weight of taxation and regulation.
We must begin in earnest to reduce the size and cost and power of Government, or we will find all too soon that Government has become our master and not our servant.
Two hundred years ago, the British historian Alexander Tytler gave this bleak forecast of the future of democracy.
A democracy, he said cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority will always vote for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy and is always followed by a dictatorship.
We can escape that fearful destiny, but not by standing still or continuing on our present path.
The American people have been remarkably right in their judgments over the last two centures, adapting in their collective genius to changing times and circumstances.
Without forsaking the basic political framework which has made us the oldest continuous democracy on Earth.
The underlying meaning of the political events of 1978 may well be that the time has come in America for a political transition of historic proportion.
The Democratic Party is tied to the past, emotionally and philosophically. But the Republican Party is prepared to lead the American people boldly into thefuture. We are prepared to create with them a new Republic in which the people may reassert their sovereignty over Government, and where the policies of an age that is past will yield at last to the demands of the present and the challenge of the future.