Speeches and Testimony

Remarks by Senator Ted Kennedy
National Press Club Luncheon

National Press Club
Washington, DC

January 16, 2002

 

 

SENATOR EDWARD KENNEDY (D-MA): Thank you very much, Dick Ryan, for that most recent introduction that I have had. I am indeed honored to be with all of you today at the National Press Club. And I want to thank Bill Nightkirk (sp) for all that he did to arrange this luncheon. And I thank all of you for your generous and warm welcome.

Two years ago this month, we celebrated the beginning of a new century, indeed a new millennium. Many people called it the beginning of a new age. But a new age does not necessarily obey the calendar. A very different kind of new age was ushered in four months ago. The tragedy of September 11th changed America as few events have changed us before in our history. We were stunned by our vulnerability, shaken by the destruction, and touched by the terrible human losses. President Bush deserves high marks for his leadership as commander-in- chief in meeting this supreme challenge. Together with my fellow citizens and my fellow Democrats, I support him and I salute him. I salute his resolve in the faithful fight against terrorism and for freedom from fear.

A week from today, Congress returns to renew our part in serving and strengthening the nation. Our first priority is to stand with the president and our armed forces on the front lines overseas, and to do all we can to protect the home front against possible new acts of terrorism. But there is another challenge which also demands the best of all of us, and which I hope we can approach with a new bipartisanship. We must reinforce the nation on the home front by meeting the great domestic challenges here with the same determination that we all have brought to the great challenge from abroad. Despite all the dangers and difficulties, we enter this period with extraordinary possibilities for progress. A new spirit has taken hold in America, a new sense of community; a new willingness and new commitment to help others; a new understanding that we are all in this together; a new recognition of the helpful role of government; a new readiness on the part of a vast majority of citizens to ask what they can do for each other, and for our country.

In this new time, it is right to stand with the president on the war front, and it is just as right to stand up for fundamental principles on the home front. (Applause.) We can and should support President Bush's conduct of the war, and still ask the administration to join us in addressing the urgent needs of our people in areas like jobs, education, health care, and equal rights. Some suggest that the nation is returning to business as usual, to politics as usual. I reject that view. The spirit of September 11th is a mandate for new missions, not a summons to selfishness. If we accept less, we fail the innocent men and women and rescue workers who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks. We fail the courageous men and women in uniform who have served so brilliantly in the recent months.

We fail the spirit of September 11th -- we fail America itself.

Clearly our number one priority at home, now and in the years ahead, is the strengthen of our national economy. It makes no sense for anyone in Congress or the administration to try to blur the very obvious differences between the short run and the long run. Both are essential for our economic security, and we face major challenges on each.

The most urgent short-run need is economic recovery. I strongly support Senator Daschle's plan. I believe Democrats are ready to work with the president for the kind of immediate, temporary and fair stimulus that is essential to end this lingering recession and put our national economy back on the path of solid growth for the future. Neither side will get all it wants if we work together here. But surely we can agree to focus on the large numbers of laid-off workers and their families who are hurting and who deserve help, and most while they look for new jobs.

Surely we can agree on the tax incentives that will actually encourage business investment now, without letting them become a transparent pretext for unaffordable long-term tax giveaways, or special interest bonanzas that the country cannot afford.

In this new session of Congress we must also join together to do a better job of laying the ground work for meeting and mastering the long-run challenges before us. We are being called to action again, as we have been called before at decisive times in our history. We are fighting a war against terrorism, and we are also fighting for our values. Our resources may be limited. But 2002 can be a year in which we make progress on the great unfinished business of our society.

One essential priority is to continue our intense focus on education. For too long public education has been highly unequal, from kindergarten through twelfth grade. The new school reform law can go a long way to close the gap, but only if we stay the course and provide the increased resources and guidance essential for schools and students to meet and fulfill the high potential of this far-reaching and genuinely bipartisan achievement.

I was proud to stand with President Bush as he signed that reform into law. But this is no time for any of us to rest on any laurels. We have only just begun to renew our education system. We have much more to do to realize the ideal of no child left behind.

The next great frontier of our commitment to reform should be early childhood education. (Applause.) The politics are complicated, but the goal is simple: every child should start school ready to learn. Science tells us that the roots of academic difficulty are established well before the first day of school. In the absence of intervention, children from low-income families score consistently lower on developmental tests by age two. And the difference increases over time. Children who fall far behind before they enter school have a far more difficult time catching up. But well designed programs can enhance their learning in the preschool years. And yet after nearly 35 years of investment in Head Start, only three out of every five children who are eligible are actually enrolled. And Early Head Start is the only federal program serving infants and toddlers who are living in poverty. Yet it reaches less than five percent -- five percent of eligible children.

I welcome Mrs. Bush's strong interest and dedication to this issue. She will testify next week before our Education Committee in the Senate. And I believe that she and the president can and will join us in working together to develop an effective strategy to promote learning in the earliest years of life.

Like elementary and secondary education, building an effective early education system for the nation will take time, commitment and resources. Therefore, I propose that we set a bold yet realistic goal. Over the next five years, we should develop the capacity to assure that every child has access to quality early education starting at birth. (Applause.) Success in this effort will be achieved if we meet three core objectives. First, we must demand value from our investments. In early education, value is reflected in the quality of important services. The most significant factors are the knowledge and skills of the service providers, and their capacity to form strong relationships with children and their families. These personal characteristics are influenced by training and compensation. Yet 30 states have no training requirements for preschool teachers before they begin to teach. Parking lot attendants are generally paid more to watch our cars than early education professionals are paid to teach our youngest children. On average, early education providers earn $15,430 a year. It can and must become a national priority to change this, to improve the skill, the pay and the retention of the professionals who teach our children at the dawn of life.

Secondly, we must acknowledge that school readiness is not only about promoting early literacy and other academic skills. Science tells us that how children feel is as important as how they think -- particularly if we are concerned about their capacity to succeed when they get to school. Knowing the alphabet and counting to 10 are not enough, if you can't sit still or pay attention in the classroom. All young children, regardless of their God-given abilities and economic circumstances must be engaged in caring relationships and provided with a variety of opportunities to learn in a safe stimulating environment. We already know what is needed to promote the intellectual, social and emotional skills required to learn in school. The time has come for this nation to use that knowledge to help all children achieve that competence, for their own sake, for the sake of their teachers and classmates, and for the sake of America's future. (Applause.)

Third, it is imperative to develop genuine partnerships among federal, state and local governments to create a more unified and effective system of early education services for all children, particularly those at greatest risk. Forty-one states are already investing in early education. The early childhood landscape includes a variety of programs from subsidized child care facilities and private nursery schools to Head Start centers and early intervention services for children with special needs.

Too few of the efforts are well coordinated with each other; but all are guided by the same underlying science: on this shared knowledge base we must now build stronger ties and eliminate arbitrary barriers. The time has come to coordinate and strengthen the capacity of Head Start, Early Start, child welfare, child care and agencies that administer welfare reform.

I have worked with other members of Congress on bipartisan legislation to provide resources to states and localities to bring existing early learning programs together, and to begin a universal initiative in early education. Although the selection of specific service priorities is best left to the states and communities, the federal government can provide greater incentives for the states to create more coherent systems: setting and implementing strategies to assure that young children, all young children, will be healthier and more secure and ready to learn.

We must narrow the gap between what we know and what we do, to give every young child in America the best possible start in life. And we must see to it that millions of children are not left far behind, even before they enter the first grade. In the next year we must address this vastly important frontier of education reform, the first five years of life. (Applause.)

Our goals for America also demand a higher priority for health care. One out of every six Americans has no health insurance. The problem is becoming worse, not better. Increasingly people with disabilities and other illnesses are being shut out of coverage. And as the cost of care increases and jobs become less secure, more and more Americans are losing the coverage they have, and they fear that the sudden illness of a child or a loved one will bankrupt their family.

As a result, too many too often go without the health care they need. In fact, those without health coverage are four times more likely not to get medical care than insured Americans. Lack of health insurance is the seventh leading cause of death in the nation today. Medical bills too often force the uninsured to default on their debts or lose everything they have. Inevitably, as medicine advances and as more and more medical miracles become available in this extraordinary new age of the life sciences, health care is increasingly beyond the reach of large numbers of Americans.erica cannot have the best work force in the world if we do not also have the healthiest work force in the world. (Applause.) Our failure to guarantee health care is one of our greatest failures as a nation. More than ever in our modern society, health security should be and must be a basic right for all. (Applause.)

The battle for quality and affordable health care has never been easy. If it were, we would have enacted it a generation ago. But as the new spirit after September 11th calls for the best in all of us, it challenges us to move forward to good health care for all Americans.

We saw what could be achieved in the education reform with genuine bipartisanship. There are disagreements on health policy, as there were and are in education. But at least we should be able to work together for goals widely shared by all Americans, and endorsed by both presidential nominees in 2000. We can and should take two major steps this year: pass the patients' bill of rights and pass prescription drug coverage for all senior citizens. (Applause.)

Too often today HMOs and insurance companies dictate treatment based on economic costs not medical needs. A good patients' bill of rights is nearing final approval, and we should complete it as soon as possible. Too many patients across the country have waited too long. It's time for Congress to give them the simple justice of basic protections against HMO abuses. (Applause.)

On Medicare, as prescription drug prices soar, the shameful gap in that basic and beloved federal program becomes increasingly unconscionable. Senior citizens are suffering, and needlessly, because they cannot afford the drugs that they need. Medicare is a solemn promise to every citizen. It says work hard, contribute to the system, play by the rules, and we will guarantee affordable health care when you are old.

But the world has changed since 1965, and the old ways of Medicare will not do. The power and potential of prescription drugs have revolutionized health care. We break the promise we made then if we leave senior citizens with a kind of half-Medicare that leaves them without medicines, essential to health or even life itself.

Some say that in light of the budget projections this nation cannot afford prescription drug coverage. But just as a family budget is a statement of a family's priority, a national budget is a statement of national priorities, and our national priorities are profoundly wrong if we continue to force senior citizens to choose between prescriptions and their food, or their heat, or a decent home. It's long past time to close the gap on prescription drugs. (Applause.) And 2002 can and must be the year when we can do it.

This effort and this plight of the elderly must not become the pretext for a partisan plan which disguises yet another attempt to privatize Medicare. Our seniors deserve better than that. So I am here today to say that we will not rest, we will not give up, we will not stop, until our senior citizens have a genuine Medicare prescription drug benefit that works well for all of them. (Applause.)

If we have the will, we can take three other steps this year to ease the growing national crisis over access to health care. We can build on the children's health insurance program, enacted in 1997, by passing the bipartisan legislation introduced last year to enable parents to qualify for coverage already available to their children. We can pass the bipartisan legislation now pending to provide affordable health care to families with disabled children. And we can begin on a bipartisan basis to fashion legislation that will require employers with more than 100 workers to be good corporate citizens and provide basic health insurance for their work force.

I know how hard it will be to hammer out an agreement here, but we must try. And if at first we cannot achieve a reasonable approach across party lines, then we must continue to press the case. I believe that we can and ultimately prevail, because I believe that the American people across the political spectrum are ready for national health reform. (Applause.)

We must act on the minimum wage as well. The downturn in the economy has placed strains on the lives of many families, and as wages stagnate workers at the bottom suffer the most. The current minimum wage is only $5.15 an hour. Americans earning the minimum wage earning 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, earn only $10,700 a year -- nearly $4,000 below the poverty level for a family of three. On this meager income they fail to earn enough to afford adequate housing in any area of this country. We must raise the minimum wage by $1.50 an hour -- raise it now. No one who works for a living should have to live in poverty in the United States of America. (Applause.)

In addition, the spirit of September 11th calls for policies that not only help working men and women earn a decent living, but assure them time to meet their obligation to their families and communities. We must stop asking parents to solve the work-family conflict on their own. We are in a new time and a new place, and we need new solutions. We must ask private businesses to be partners in this mission. Our future depends on the development of healthy well educated responsible citizens. Yet our government provides far less support for working and non-working parents than the governments of other nations. And this abdication of modern responsibility contributes to the high rate of child poverty in the nation, and the tremendous pressures on today's parents to choose between the job they need and the children that they love. We must embrace a new model of the workplace, one that values the needs of parents and all others who care for children. Parents should have the right to leave work to care for a sick child, or participate in a parent-teacher conference. New parents deserve assistance so that they can afford leave to care for their newborn, or for newly-adopted children. Part-time work must become an affordable and valued alternative to full-time work. Businesses should employ technologies that offer the flexibility to work from home. No one should be required to work overtime when they know it is not healthy, safe or feasible. We must secure more affordable and more accessible high quality child care.

Next, we know that those who lost their lives on September 11th were not the only victims of that sad day. For every life lost there are children, wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, friends, colleagues, who will forever feel the pain of that day. And we have sought to reach out to them. And we have found out that the nation's safety net falls short of our nation's generous spirits. Survivors benefit under Social Security are inadequate to care for many of the children who lost their parents. Workman's compensation is insufficient to provide the injured with adequate support for a lifetime of pain. Unemployment insurance and health insurance do not go far enough to help laid-off workers. We must close the gaps in our safety net. The changes we make can be among the most meaningful memorials of all to those who lost their lives on September 11th. (Applause.)

At the same time, we must protect the pensions and retirement savings of all workers from the threats of future Enrons. We cannot allow corporate executives to cash in and take home millions while their workers' retirement savings disappear. (Applause.) We must continue our long-standing bipartisan support of the collective bargaining process, which enables workers and businesses to settle their disputes effectively and fairly. We must continue to advance the cause of civil rights by strengthening enforcement and oversight, not weakening it. And we should extend equality by prohibiting employers from using sexual orientation as a basis for hiring, firing, promotion or compensation. It is time -- long past time -- to write the Employment Nondiscrimination Act into the laws of this land. We know of victims in the World Trade Center contributing, hard-working citizens who were gay. So was one of the heroes of Flight 93. They died because they were Americans, and their memory should tell us all that all Americans should be able to live their lives as full citizens of a free society. (Applause.)

And now more than after, after the indelible sight of the horrors inflicted by hate on September 11th, we must pass hate crimes legislation. Let us send a strong unequivocal message that hate- motivated violence -- in any form, from any source, for any reason -- will not be tolerated anywhere in this country. (Applause.)

And we must continue to battle for responsible gun control -- by closing the gun show loophole, by reversing any misguided attempt to undermine the existing background check system, and by letting the FBI review federal gun records in the investigation of terrorism and other crimes.

As we work together to strengthen our immigration laws against terrorists, let us also move forward on lasting and long overdue reforms that will benefit immigrant workers and their families along with American business and the American economy. This is a time to stand up for freedom to heal hurt and injustice, and most of all serve others. The spirit of assisting others is at an all-time high in our history. It is a time for renewed national resolve, to enhance national and community service, so that far more opportunities and incentives will be available for Americans to give something of themselves to help others here at home and in other lands. (Applause.)

Effective action against international poverty must become a new national priority. We must do more and much more to ease the harsh conditions in so much of the world that are breeding grounds for despair, extremism and violence. To succeed, not just now but in the years ahead, the global war on terrorism must also be a global war on poverty. This is not only a matter of moral obligation; it is an urgent, practical, indispensable element of our future national security.

As night follows day, some will of course say that we cannot afford to move America forward in all these ways. But it is clear that we can afford to do what is right, if together we return to fiscal responsibility. Many fiscally responsible voices, including a number of leading members of the business community, have said we cannot now afford, if we ever could, the $1.7 trillion cost of the tax cuts enacted last year. The doubts that many of us had -- (applause) -- the doubts that many of us had before the nation was attacked about the affordability of those tax cuts have become certainties in the wake of September 11th.

The spirit of this new time is placing major new demands on our national resources, and those demands must take priority. We cannot meet them while making all of the planned future tax cuts, unless we raid Social Security and Medicare, and cut health and education and other vital goals. To me, that is not only unacceptable; it is a violation of the fundamental pledges that both parties gave in the 2000 campaign.

So why can't we come together, without recrimination or placing blame, and agree on a simple basic proposition: Whatever the merits or demerits of the last year's tax bill, it was enacted in what now seems a very different and distant time? Today, for the sake of our country, we must transcend the old boundaries of debate. We must think anew and act responsibly.

We can and should postpone a portion of the future tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest taxpayers. Those tax cuts are not scheduled to be made until 2004 and later. We should put them on hold until we are certain that we can afford a prescription drug benefit for senior citizens, make the needed investments in education and health care, protect Social Security,and fully provide for the common defense. (Applause.) My proposal -- please -- my proposal would put on hold approximately $350 billion in future tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans during the next 10 years; over one trillion dollars of tax cuts will still take effect as schedule. Families earning less than $130,000 a year and filing joint returns would not be affected. No taxpayers -- no taxpayers would pay a higher tax rate than they pay now. In fact, income tax rates for everyone -- everyone -- will still be lower in 2002 and in succeeding years than they were in 2001. The child tax credit would be increased as planned; the marriage penalty relief would be provided as scheduled. We can achieve $350 billion in savings by avoiding these future reductions in the tax rates paid by the wealthiest taxpayers in the highest income brackets, and by maintaining the tax on estates above $4 million. These wealthiest taxpayers will receive less of a tax reduction than they anticipated; but they still will be receiving billions of dollars in new tax breaks. These future tax cuts for those at the top are not part of the fight against the recession. They are not scheduled to occur until long after the economy emerges from the downturn. In fact, taking fiscally responsible action now will help the economy, by leading to reductions in long-term interest rates that have remained stubbornly high because of the fear that unaffordable tax cuts will lead to growing federal deficits. Reducing that threat will reduce the cost of long-term hiring for businesses, and provide a stimulus for new job creation.

Future additional tax breaks for the wealthy do not deserve higher priority than strengthening education, covering prescription drugs under Medicare, or protecting Social Security, or meeting other urgent national priorities. (Applause.)

I have no illusions that the work ahead will be easy or that the debates in Congress will be easily resolved. We had to disagree and discuss and listen to each other to reach the historic reform in education that the president just signed into law. Positions that were once regarded as non-negotiable had to give way. We will not end all our differences; nor should we yield on fundamental principles in which we believe. Of course some will disagree with some of the proposals I made today. Some no doubt will disagree with most or all of them. (Laughter.) But surely -- but surely, for example, a future tax cut for the wealthiest, which they have not yet received, is not a matter of high principle. We have more urgent needs at home as well as abroad, and we cannot be strong abroad if we are weak at home.

So I look forward to this new session of Congress and to the dialogue ahead and the progress we can make. This is a time of testing unlike any other in our history. Our adversaries thought they could force us to retreat, but we will not and must not retreat abroad or at home.

The American people have shown that they are ready for great missions that meet the demands of this new age. They are the creators of the new spirit of September 11th. Now we in public life must match the standard the people have set. I intend to do my best to see that we do what is best -- not just for one political party or the other, but for America and its enduring ideal of liberty and justice for all. (Applause.)

MR. RYAN (MODERATOR): Well, senator -- (applause) -- Senator, it is clear that 39 years in the Senate has not diminished your passion one bit. (Laughter.)

You talked so eloquently and gave us a wish list of what things should be accomplished this year. But many people sent up questions saying this is an election year. What is realistic? I mean, you've got a lot of people thinking about what's going to happen in November. What can you get done? And particularly this questioner asks about the bipartisan coalition, as you did on education reform, assembling a similar (one) for early childhood education.

SEN. KENNEDY: We had a remarkable coming together in the latter days of this session. We had some important differences, primarily in the economic stimulus program. But we had strong support for the president, not only in the conduct of the war, for redirecting the intelligence services, for the investigation of the financial services, funding of international terrorism; in the area of bioterrorism, Senator Frist and I; in the areas of immigration reform, the principal elements deal with the war. And we came together in the area of education reform.

I believe that the American people understand these issues on prescription issues. They understand the issues on investing in education. And they understand the importance of preserving Social Security and Medicare. I think there is overwhelming support among the American people in those areas. And although the political parties may come to these issues differently, I think, as you get closer in terms of the focus and attention of the election, I think the possibilities of coming together on these matters is very hopeful.

I certainly hope that we would be able to do it on the areas of early education. I think this is an area that we have a great opportunity of hopefully working with the administration, after three studies by the National Academy of Sciences, in terms of understanding the development of the brain, particularly the children's brain, of reading the books, "Neurons to Neighborhoods," all of the compelling, overwhelming scientific evidences are there.

What is happening in the states now? You have, in one form or the other, the advancement of different programs that are taking place there. This is really an enormous opportunity, I think, for the administration to move ahead in terms of their commitment of no child left behind. I think there'll be very good and strong bipartisan support for that.

So we've got important areas of difference, but I, as one who believes that you can make progress by working together and having strong views, think that we can do it in these other important areas of public policy.

MR. RYAN: This questioner would like to know if the new Kennedy- Bush friendship, the relationship you two have developed, can do the same for the patients' bill of rights that it did for education.

SEN. KENNEDY: Well, I had hoped that we would have been able to, when we established a process with the education program, that we would have established a similar parallel progress in the area of the patients' bill of rights. We were not able to do so. And we have now -- at this time we are stalemated in terms of that issue.

The issue is not stalemated, because, in one form or another, it'll come back to the Congress. It'll either come back in the Congress having worked through and working in a way that results in not only protecting the patients in this country but also ensuring that there's going to be accountability for the patients as well. But it's going to be back, one form or another.

I'm very hopeful that we can work it out. It's not finished in any form yet, but I'm hopeful that this could be an area that we could work out.

What was the other part of it?

MR. RYAN: The other part of the question?

SEN. KENNEDY: It just was on the patients' bill of rights.

MR. RYAN: Just patients' bill of rights.

SEN. KENNEDY: And I think it's important that we do. I mean, the principal arguments have been -- against accountability has been virtually the issue of the additional kinds of costs of liability. But as the time goes on and you look either at Texas, that has had a patients' bill of rights, and see that there's been maybe a dozen cases that have been brought there in the time it has been in the last over the period of the last two years, if you look at California that has also had a recent -- the passage of patients' bill of rights been in effect maybe 15, 18 months, and less than one hand has been where they've actually gone to the courts -- the estimation about rush to the courts, I think, was vastly overestimated and inflated. I think we've got more information that's available to policymakers, and hopefully we can find a way to work that through. It would be clearly in the public's interest if we can.

MR. RYAN: As you clearly know, the national health care policy or universal health care didn't make it through the Clinton administration. This questioner wants to know if there's a different political landscape this year than then that might help it get through now.

SEN. KENNEDY: I remember -- and maybe Mr. Ball (sp) remembers, since he goes back to a long time ago -- (laughter) -- that we talked about a universal health care program. The estimates were that that program was going to cost $100 billion and it was going to bankrupt the country. We're spending $1,400,000,000,000 now. There isn't a health economist that hasn't looked at it and said anywhere from 25 to 30 percent of that is in administrative costs.

And if we are not able to see what -- trying to work through a health care system, we're spending now more than any other country in the world in terms of GNP. We're increasing now in numbers. We've reduced the numbers of health care coverage, primarily because of the CHIP program in the recent time, which we can also make some additional progress in a bipartisan way, which we almost did in the last Congress. But we are trying to move incrementally.

But there's an inevitability about health care. This is a core concern to families across this nation, every family in this country. And it isn't going to go away. It's not going to go away. A number of years ago, we passed the recodification of the criminal code. Probably no one remembers it. And we have only passed it once in the 200 years of our history, and it'll take another 200 years before we try and do it again, because when we didn't pass it, that's the end of it for 200 years.

Health care isn't going to go away. It's going to be there every single year and it's going to be in every single campaign till we get it right. And hopefully we can try and find a way of dealing with it. I happen to be now an incrementalist. (Laughter.) I think we could have taken the bipartisan bill for extending it to the parents of the CHIP program, which would have reduced it 7 (million) to 8 million.

I think you can continue to expand the CHIP program. It was working effectively. We're down to about 3 percent of all children in Massachusetts who don't have health insurance. Rhode Island is just about the same. Virtually all children are covered.

Between Medicaid and the children that are covered privately and the CHIP program, we ought to be able to cover all the children. And if you have the Medicare and Social Security, you've got all the elderly. And if you have an effective employment-based system, you've got all the workers.

A great percent of these, about two-thirds -- John Sweeney could correct me -- you've got great numbers of those that haven't got it are still on the employer-based. So, you know, there's still great possibilities to try to get it if we have the will. (Applause.)

MR. RYAN: Do you consider it to be a Republican big-lie technique to charge that the Democrats are actually going to try and raise taxes?

SEN. KENNEDY: Well --

MR. RYAN: There's a softball.

SEN. KENNEDY: A softball. (Laughter.) In the United States Senate, one of the things I observed in the early days -- and it's still used -- and that is that you take someone's argument and then you misrepresent it and misstate and disagree with it. (Laughter.) And it's very effective. I've done it myself a number of times. (Laughter/applause.) But eventually, eventually people catch on. (Laughter.)

The clear question and choice for the American people is very fundamental and very simple, and that is, are you going to defer the scheduled kinds of tax reductions to 2004 and beyond for the wealthiest individuals and begin to address the essential national concerns of educating our children and prescription drugs and ensuring the Social Security and Medicare?

That is the clear question and choice for the American people. It's going to take time for that clear choice to be understood completely, but I think it is out there. And I think if we take the intermediate steps, which are essential, in terms of bringing our economy back, as Tom Daschle has mentioned, which will provide the economy to begin to sort of move back, and if we take this step here that I have suggested, which moves us irrevocably towards fiscal responsibility, it makes a down payment in those areas, I think we are moving on the road which this country is capable of, and that is having a strong home front as well as a strong war front.

MR. RYAN: Do you believe that the federal government failed the employees of Enron by not doing more to protect their pensions funds? And what do you see as the government's role in investigating Enron?

SEN. KENNEDY: Well, first of all, the American people are entitled to know what happened, and those investigations are being conducted by the Justice Department, the SEC, eight committees in the Congress. And I welcome those investigations of accountability.

My principal concern is what happened to the workers and how their interests were so dramatically compromised, where those that were in the power position were able to effectively enhance their financial situation by millions and millions and millions of dollars and left these workers, who had worked for the company for years, high and dry.

Enron is not the only company that faced -- we have a somewhat similar, in terms of the pension aspects, not the other aspects of it, in terms of Polaroid, one of the great companies formed by Ed Land, who was an absolute genius, and we have seen what has happened to those workers. That's happening in other companies as well. And we have to have a thorough review about how workers' interests are going to be protected. Our Labor Committee will have hearings in February on this issue. There'll be other investigations by our colleagues, and I'll look forward to the outcomes of those investigations.

MR. RYAN: Do you think Vice President Cheney should release the members of that energy task force to develop the program? He's been asked to do by Congress, but so far has not done so.

SEN. KENNEDY: Well, I think it would be useful. Yes, I support that. That's an easy one. Did you really want me to go the other way on that one? (Laughter.) Let's get 'em out there and see who is in that thing. (Laughter.)

MR. RYAN: That's good. I like that. Here's another easy one, I think. During this current congressional recess, President Bush has appointed Eugene Scalia to be solicitor general of the Department of Labor. Mr. Scalia, of course, is the son of the Supreme Court justice. What's your thoughts about that? (Laughter.)

SEN. KENNEDY: I should have kept quiet on the other one, or given a longer thought of it. The president has made that judgment, and we'll live with it. And we will try and work with Mr. Scalia in that position. It is an extraordinarily important position, particularly for this reason, and that is, like the other Cabinet officials, the solicitor in the Labor Department has to initiate private cause of action to protect workers' rights. That's true on wages and hours. It's true in terms of range of discrimination cases. And it's true about a range of other kind of legislation.

That's unlike most other legislation that we pass, where we let individuals bring those cases. That's not true. That's not true. And therefore, the role of the solicitor general, I think, should (have?) demonstrated something in his background, some interest, some concern, some demonstration for workers or their rights in the past. I could not find it there. If I had, I think my vote would have been different. But it wasn't there, and I don't think the record shows it.

I mean, I differed with him on the ergonomics, and it's been interpreted, because of that -- I think he was wrong on that issue, but it's the higher order of responsibility for that position, which is really very special and very unique. And in the interest of the workers, and particularly at a time of economic plight, where there are so many workers' interests and are facing such difficult and challenging times, it seemed to me that he was not the man for the job. He has it, and I'll welcome the opportunity to see if we can't find ways of working together. I look forward to it.

MR. RYAN: We're nearing the end, but not there yet. This is a hometown question that asks that a number of prominent former staffers, your staffers, are now involved in the candidacy of Robert Reich, the former Labor secretary, for governor of Massachusetts. And they want to know if you are supporting Mr. Reich.

SEN. KENNEDY: Secretary Reich is a formidable figure and a gifted person. But we're lucky in Massachusetts to have a number of candidates that are formidable figures and gifted and talented individuals. And I've certainly encouraged all those that -- having been around for a period of time, there are a number of people who have worked with me over that time, and they are in different campaigns. And I wish them all well, and I'll look forward to supporting the nominee. (Laughter/applause.)

MR. RYAN: I suppose you could say ditto for this answer, but the question is, do you have a favorite Democratic candidate for the 2004 presidential election? (Laughter.)

SEN. KENNEDY: I think the time is up, according to the other -- (laughter). I'll come back next year and answer that one. No, we have a number of very talented -- (laughter) -- it's the same old answer, gang. (Laughter/applause.)

MR. RYAN: And the last question. Given your remarks today and your questioning about the president's tax plan and other proposals, how do you expect your newfound friendship is going to be?

SEN. KENNEDY: Only a couple of minutes. (Laughter.) I welcome the opportunity to work with the president. The president works with many members of the Congress, Senate. I've been fortunate to be in the position in the Education Committee to work with him. I look forward to working with him in other areas.

I think the way that we worked in the education area is really the best that we can -- the way that we should work in terms of having different positions and being willing to find the common ground. I'd like to do that in health and I'd like to do it in prescription drugs. I'd like to do it in the minimum wage. I'd like to do it in a number of other areas as well.

And if we can, I think that'll be helpful. And if we can't, we'll agree to differ, and still have a high regard and respect for the presidency.

Thank you. (Applause.)

MR. RYAN: Thank you, Senator. I'd like to thank all of you for coming today and all of you who are listening on National Public Radio or watched the program on C-SPAN. Thank you very much. We are adjourned. (Applause.)

END