Paul Coverdell: “as we have heard, there is a great national debate in the making with regard to the anxiety in the American workplace…”

“as we have heard, there is a great national debate in the making with regard to the anxiety in the American workplace, anxiety particularly among middle-class working Americans. I have often talked about a snapshot of an average family in Georgia that makes about $40,000 to $45,000 a year. Several months ago, when I took the snapshot of that family--a family of four, with both parents now working, with two children--we added up the Government obligations that that family had to pay, the total cost of Government. At the end of the day, they had 48.2 percent of their gross wages left. I can think of no institution, including Hollywood, that has had a more profound effect on the behavior of middle-class America than their own Government. This morning, I have just been given data that show that now they only have 47 percent. Just in the last 12 months, they continue to lose the power of the wages and the independence of what those wages mean to that family. Maybe the First Lady and Senator Dole have defined our disagreement. In Chicago, she said, very defiantly, that it does take a village to raise a child. Of course, 'village' is the Government. Senator Dole said that it takes a family. All year, we have been debating the subject about whether the resources should go to the village--the Government--or whether the resources should be left with the family.”