[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 5 (Tuesday, January 10, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S737-S738]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. EXON:
  S. 189. A bill to amend the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to 
provide that any concurrent resolution on the budget that contains 
reconciliation directives shall include a directive with respect to the 
statutory limit on the public debt, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on the Budget and the Committee on Governmental Affairs, 
jointly, pursuant to the order of August 4, 1977, with instructions 
that if one committee reports, the other committee have 30 days to 
report or be discharged.


                      THE DEBT CEILING REFORM ACT

  Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the final two 
pieces of legislation that I believe are the building blocks for a 
sound and responsible Federal budget.
  For too long, Congress has been building castles in the sky. We owe 
our children and grandchildren a secure financial future. But that 
future is flimsily constructed on deficit spending and deficit in the 
form of mounting debt.
  It's High Noon on fiscal responsibility and the American people have 
asked us to rise to the occasion. And these are the weapons we will 
take to the showdown.
  The first piece of legislation I offer today is a Balanced Budget 
Amendment to the Constitution.
  When I was Governor of Nebraska, I had the benefit of such 
a mechanism. It forced budgetary discipline and kept my State fiscally 
sound.

  We should be able to deal with the deficit without a balanced budget 
amendment. But all evidence runs to the contrary.
  The statutory remedies have failed. They are riddled with back doors 
and loopholes. We have also proven ourselves incapable of controlling 
wasteful spending. The deficit numbers speak for themselves.
  We need this amendment to force responsibility upon the Federal 
Government. We need a bold approach--a new approach--to end the 
dangerous habit of deficit spending. This amendment is our best chance, 
perhaps our only chance, to turn back the tide of red ink that 
threatens to engulf us.
  A balanced budget amendment does not spare us from the difficult, 
hard choices. And that is why I cosponsored last week S. 14, the 
Legislative Line-Item Veto Act.
  Pork has become Congress' scarlet letter. Once again, Congress should 
demonstrate the type of self-restraint and sacrifice that would put 
this wasteful practice to an end. But I am a realist. While some 
Members would voluntarily refrain from pork barrel spending, others 
would continue with business as usual. Business as usual does not pass 
muster with the American people.
  Ideally, I would have offered a bill granting The President a 
constitutional line-item veto. As Governor of Nebraska, I also had a 
similar line-item veto and it was an invaluable tool to curb spending 
by my State legislature. However, those of us who have championed the 
line-item veto have always come away empty-handed.

  The obvious solution--the bipartisan solution--is to grant the 
President the authority to force Congress to vote on specific funding 
included in the appropriations bills.
  Congressional Members are less likely to pile on the pork if they 
know that they might have to defend each item on its own merits.
  Some might ask: ``what's the urgency? And that brings me to the 
second bill I am introducing today.
  Our Federal debt now tops a whopping $4.7 trillion and we are on 
schedule to reach the current debt ceiling of $4.9 trillion in 
September or October of this year. Too many Americans still confuse the 
annual deficit with our national debt. Even if we accomplish our goal 
of a balanced budget by 2002, we will still have a $5.5 trillion 
albatross hanging around our necks.
  Obviously, we are living beyond our means. When we raise our debt 
ceiling for more than we need in the coming year, we perpetuate that 
practice and risk plunging our Nation into financial ruin.
  My bill attempts to bring some sanity and control to this practice. 
it requires our budget resolution to state how much we intend to raise 
the debt ceiling each year. And any bill that would raise the debt 
ceiling to exceed the amount stated in the budget resolution would be 
subject to a budget point of order and a rollcall vote to waive that 
point of order.

  I have long believed that our Federal Government should balance its 
budget each year. The facts are, however, that we have not done so 
since 1969. During the 1980's and now the 1990's, we have become so 
accustomed to operating in the red that we look upon a $200 billion 
deficit as great progress. I, for one, take cold comfort in a $200 
billion deficit.
  Our Federal debt now tops $4.7 trillion and we are on schedule to 
reach the current debt ceiling of about $4.9 trillion in September or 
October of this year.
  We have now reached a point where we barely lift a finger to balance 
our budget. The much heralded Kerrey-Danforth Commission on Entitlement 
Reform attempted to forge an agreement upon lowering the deficit to a

[[Page S738]]

proportion of our total economy. It failed to even reach even that 
modest goal.
  What is even more discouraging and disenchanting is that Congress 
often fails to limit its deficit spending to the levels that are 
projected in our annual budgets. We no longer decide upon how much we 
are going to borrow and to limit ourselves to that amount over the 
coming year.
  Mr. President, if Congress cannot balance its budget, we should at 
least not give ourselves a blank check to borrow beyond our means. Yet 
that is exactly what we do when we raise our debt ceiling more than we 
need to for the coming year.
  My bill attempts to bring some sanity and controls to this practice. 
It requires our budget resolution to state how much we intend to raise 
the debt ceiling each year. To enforce that goal, any bill that would 
cause the debt ceiling to exceed the amount stated in the budget 
resolution would be subject to a budget point of order and a rollcall 
vote to waive that point of order.
  In previous years, I have proposed that the point of order be waived 
with 60 votes in the U.S. Senate. This bill will require only a 
majority vote. Yet, I believe it will do the job of highlighting this 
issue and alerting the American people to Congress' failure to live 
within its budget.
  I can well understand the reluctance of my colleagues to make raising 
the debt ceiling any more difficult than it is now. I am convinced, 
however, that we simply must change our process to insure some honesty 
and credibility in our Federal budget process.
  Doing so will be of paramount importance over the coming year as 
leaders from both political parties are promising tax break after tax 
break. This is an all too familiar scenario, an all too deplorable 
scenario. Tax breaks and spending cuts are promised yet only the tax 
breaks are delivered. The result was that our deficits climbed out of 
sight and had no resemblance to what we said they were going to be.
  Keeping some limits on our debt ceiling will go a long way in keeping 
everyone on both sides of the aisle honest. Let us force ourselves to 
do what we say we are going to do, and not, with a wink and a nod, 
simply hide our failure to do so.
  I have always believed that fiscal responsibility is a partnership 
between the Federal Governmental and the States. However, we are not 
living up to our side of the bargain.
  Washington passes mandates and regulations, and then drops them like 
a foundling on the doorstep of the States, forcing them to dig deep 
into their own pockets to pay for compliance. This cost shifting is 
killing the States.
  This game of budget tag has to end. And under the bipartisan 
legislation I cosponsored last week, it will. This fourth bill--the 
last building block--requires the Federal Government to provide direct 
spending for these mandates. If it cannot, the mandate requirements are 
scaled back to the amount of money appropriated.
  Others have proposed a more radical approach; names, ``no money, no 
mandates backstop.'' But I would caution my friends not to be 
headstrong. Their treatment would not only swell the ranks of the 
Federal bureaucracy, it could ignite a firestorm of law suits that 
would rage throughout the Nation.
  Ours is the right approach. Ours is the fair and reasonable approach 
that will get the job done.
  The $4.7 trillion debt was not built up overnight, and it will not be 
resolved overnight. However, we can no longer afford to sit back. As 
Gen. Dwight David Eisenhower said when ordering the D-day invasion, 
``OK, let's go!''
                                 ______