cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients during a period of letting the wealthy reap the benefits of the general income tax cut for a third year. Byrd stated that he did not "want a six-month delay in Social Security while leaving in place the third year of the tax cut for upper-income people" and stated that Reagan's speech had been "'rhetorically good, but substantively lacking in measures that would deal now with the crises that millions of people are experiencing." At the beginning of February 1983, House Democrats committed themselves "to an emergency economic assistance program that would create public service jobs, provide shelter and soup kitchens for the destitute and avert foreclosures of homes and farms." Concurrently, Byrd pledged to work with the House Democrats in developing legislation concerning jobs, proposing $5 to $10 billion be spent and introducing legislation intended to form a national investment corporation that would assist with underwriting faltering basic industries and starting new ones in areas of high unemployment. In March 1984, Byrd voted against a proposed constitutional amendment authorizing periods in public school for silent prayer, and in favor of President Reagan's unsuccessful proposal for a constitutional amendment permitting organized school prayer in public schools. In June 1984, Byrd was one of five Democrats to vote against the Lawton Chiles proposal to cease MX production for a year during study in search of a smaller and single-warhead missile. The 48 to 48 tie was broken by then-Vice President George H. W. Bush. In September 1986, Byrd endorsed the death penalty for some drug pushers in anti-drug legislation that would order President Reagan to end drug trafficking within 45 days through using the military as a means of intercepting smugglers, and imposing the death penalty on those pushers who intentionally cause a death as part of their operations while providing funding for prevention, drug abuse treatment, and anti-drug laws enforcement that was estimated to cost $3 to $4 billion over three years. Byrd admitted that calling for the death penalty seemed harsh, but cautioned that children in some cases had their entire lives destroyed through using drugs and that Congress had been soft for too long without seeing a change in results. In December 1986, Byrd announced that the Senate would convene a Watergate-type select committee to investigate the Iran-Contra affair the following year and that he had reached an agreement with Bob Dole