January 10, 2006
Ringing in the New Year
By Jon Kyl
Americans rang in the New Year with hopes of peace and prosperity, goodwill, and resolutions to help improve themselves and their communities in 2006. Such New Year’s resolutions are a way for us to set worthy goals for ourselves. They are also a way for Congress to set goals and priorities for the nation. Here are some resolutions I believe Congress should make.
Resolution one: Congress should permanently extend the Patriot Act. While Congress should review the administration’s recently revealed surveillance program, it must also resolve to support rather than impede the President as he carries out his Constitutional duty to protect the nation.
The Bush administration’s success in preventing additional attacks in the four-and-a-half years since terrorists murdered nearly 3,000 innocent Americans may encourage complacency. Indeed, an administration that was once criticized for failing to “connect the dots” is now being criticized for doing too much to intercept communications with al Qaeda.
Unfortunately, some Senators used revelations of the administration’s limited surveillance program as an excuse to block renewal of the vital anti-terror tools contained in the Patriot Act. As a result, Congress passed only a short-term extension of the Act through early February.
Resolution two: Congress should continue strengthening border enforcement, consider a streamlined temporary worker program to meet our nation’s labor needs, and reject amnesty for those who have entered the country illegally.
We must secure our borders against illegal immigration. Before Congress adjourned last year, it approved significant new resources I sought for border enforcement, including an additional 1,000 Border Patrol agents (on top of funding already in place for 500 new agents), $1.4 billion for additional detention capacity, $1.3 billion for investigations and intelligence programs, $65 million for additional infrastructure in Arizona alone, and $3.3 billion for first responder grants and assistance, including implementation of the REAL ID Act to make it harder for illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. This funding complements the more than doubling of Border Patrol agents that I’ve helped secure since 1996.
The House of Representatives approved a tough immigration enforcement bill before the end of 2005, and the Senate plans to take up similar legislation soon.
Resolution three: Congress should permanently extend the tax reforms that have turned our economy around.
Congress and the President must take steps to ensure that our economy remains strong. Last week, the Labor Department reported that applications for unemployment benefits dropped to their lowest level since September of 2000. Gross Domestic Product grew a robust 4.1 percent in the third quarter, and economists are predicting that the economy will continue growing at a solid pace throughout 2006 - if tax policies remain in place.
The economy’s solid performance is due in large part to the 2003 reductions in income tax rates and capital-gains and dividend tax rates that have spurred business investment, expansion, and job creation. Since these tax-rate changes were enacted in 2003, our economy has created 4.5 million new jobs. In all, the Treasury Department estimates that 105 million Americans, including 1.9 million Arizonans, pay less in taxes because of these tax policies.
The problem is, the tax cuts are set to expire during the next few years, and, if they do, taxpayers will see their annual tax bills rise an average of $1,184 - the largest tax increase in history. Congress must not allow this to happen.
Resolution four: Congress should work on a bipartisan basis to implement the new Medicare law effectively to make prescription drugs available and affordable to seniors who need them.
Having helped draft the new Medicare prescription-drug benefit, I was encouraged by recent reports that an estimated 21 million seniors began receiving the benefit as of January 1. As with any new program of such massive size and scope, there will undoubtedly be glitches as it is initially implemented. But it is incumbent upon all of us to help seniors understand the new benefit, decide which plan is right for them, and solve problems as they arise. Seniors needing assistance should call my office, or call Medicare directly at 1-800-MEDICARE.
Sen. Kyl serves on the Senate Finance and Judiciary committees and chairs the Senate Republican Policy Committee. Visit his website at www.kyl.senate.gov.