[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 4 (Monday, January 9, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H150]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            BE OPEN WITH REGARD TO BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT

  (Mrs. MINK of Hawaii asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mrs. MINK of Hawaii. Mr. Speaker, on January 19 the House will be 
considering the balanced budget amendment, which is a constitutional 
amendment and requires a two-thirds vote. The House has considered this 
amendment previously and as a member of the majority party then, 
although it could have passed at that time, we were not concerned about 
the details, because we felt as members of the majority it was our 
responsibility in committees to decide where these cuts would have to 
be made.
  Now the story is quite different. We have a majority party, 
Republicans, who are not only committed to the passage of the amendment 
but also are in control of the appropriations process and all of the 
committees, and they are not telling the American people or the 
Congress what kinds of cuts are going to have to come down the stream 
in order to make this $1 trillion cut which the Congressional Budget 
Office has now said will have to be made if we are to truly balance the 
budget in the year 2002.
  It is time for the majority party to tell the American people; are we 
going to have cuts in Social Security, are we going to have put caps on 
Medicare, is there going to have to be a cut in the education budget, 
food stamps, school lunch, and a whole series of others? Let us really 
have open Government.

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