Sam Gejdenson: “It is astounding to me, when we listen to this debate, where the division is once again. There is no debate about the…”

“It is astounding to me, when we listen to this debate, where the division is once again. There is no debate about the underlying bill. And what has been ignored by our colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle again is whether, in this time of great surpluses thanks to the Clinton-Gore economic plan, whether we are going to be able to get a few resources for the poorest of the poor, for women, and for small businesses. That is the real debate. It is kind of like the pension debate. The Democrats were ready to give $4 million estates tax exempt. On the Republican side they had to go to Bill Gates, $70 billion tax exempt. It was not enough that Bill Gates would pass his kids $35 billion, he had to go to $70 billion. We are not arguing with helping people who are better off in this society and making it easier for people who own the companies to do better in pensions. What we are frustrated by is the failure to support the chairman and the gentleman from Massachusetts by reaching out to the poorest of the poor, to working poor people; making sure that those who have the least in this society get a little bit of assistance. For a long time the Reagan-Bush deficits prevented us from having the resources to do that job. Now, with the fiscal situation we are in today, we have some resources.”