Byron Dorgan: “let me try to summarize what brought me to the floor. A colleague arrived on the Senate floor and said the reason we are…”

“let me try to summarize what brought me to the floor. A colleague arrived on the Senate floor and said the reason we are in the circumstance in which, at nearly the end of a legislative session and only 2 of 13 appropriations bills have been completed by the Congress, and not much of the major legislation we had hopes for in the 106th Congress has been passed, is that Senator Daschle is stalling, causing problems, is just not going to wash. It is sheer nonsense to suggest somehow that the minority leader of the Senate is determining the schedule of the Senate. There are times when one has to be repetitious in the Senate. Let me give an example: increasing the minimum wage. When it comes time for increasing the tax benefits for the highest income groups in America, we have people rushing to the floor, standing up and talking about tax cuts. Good for them. If you happen to be in the top one-tenth of 1 percent of the income earners, there are people here coming to the floor of the Senate saying: Let's give you a big tax cut. They won't call it that. They will say it is for the little guy. But just unwrap the package and see what is there. If you are in the top one-tenth of 1 percent of the income earners, good for you. You have great representation in the Senate. At least on a half dozen occasions this year, you had people coming over to vote for big tax cuts for you. But what if you are at the bottom of the economic ladder?…”