Frank Lautenberg: “If you look at the chart and see what has happened in terms of the difference in the wage scales, it is atrocious. The…”

“If you look at the chart and see what has happened in terms of the difference in the wage scales, it is atrocious. The wage scale gap at the top of the ladder goes up $186,000 and the people at the bottom of the ladder are at $6,000. Once again, we see a failure of responsibility. I see on television a message that says, ``My name is George W. Bush and I approve of this message.'' We see talk about the number of votes John Kerry has missed but we don't see in the same message what John Kerry did when he was in Vietnam. Even though he disagreed with the war, he went there and served bravely. He got three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star, and a Silver Star--medals of bravery. One of the instances that got him that medal was pulling out of the water one of his colleagues who was practically drowning as bullets were flying overhead. He stopped that boat he was in command of and pulled his friend and subordinate out of the water. We don't see that. Instead, it says John Kerry missed these votes. Yes. John Kerry is a man who is always devoted to duty. Right now what he is doing is important. All of us think the votes are very important here, but very often these votes are already predetermined by the numbers in the majority and the numbers in the minority--not that we should miss votes. But he has a more important task.…”