[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 8, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S2278]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                URGE ADOPTION OF RIGHT-TO-KNOW AMENDMENT

  Mr. BREAUX. Mr. President, I thank the Chair.
  I would like to use just a couple of minutes in morning business to 
comment on a very important vote that the Senate will engage in, 
sometime around noon today. That is on the motion which I guess will be 
made to table the right-to-know amendment or to send it back to 
committee, and why I think it is very important that this body adopt a 
right-to-know amendment so that the people back in the respective 
States, when their legislators have to vote on this very important 
balanced budget amendment, will know what they are voting on.
  I support a balanced budget amendment. I have supported it in the 
past. I have voted for it in the past. I hope to be able to vote for it 
again.
  The thing that really concerns me is that we would expect that 
someone who proposes a balanced budget amendment, like our colleagues 
on the other side of the aisle, one would expect if they propose this, 
they would have an idea about how they will do it; that they have a 
plan that allows them to get, in the year 2002, to a balanced budget. 
Surely, they are not just proposing a balanced budget amendment without 
any plan, or without any idea as to how they are going to get there.
  I have not seen the plan. That is what I think the American people 
are entitled to. Is there a secret plan on how to balance the budget 
that they do not want to share with the American people, that they do 
not want to share with the Governors of the respective States who will 
have to live by it, as well as us? Is there a secret plan they do not 
want to tell the members of the legislatures about, because if they see 
it, it may be so devastating they will not vote for it? Is there a 
secret plan to reach the year 2002 that cuts Social Security, slashes 
spending on Medicare, health programs for the elderly? Is there a 
secret plan, for instance, which wipes out State highway programs?
  I do not know. I do not think anybody knows. Surely those who propose 
a balanced budget must have in their heads an idea of how to get there. 
The only thing that we are suggesting is that before we send the 
balanced budget amendment to the States and say, ``Vote on it,'' that 
we share with them the secret plan. If there is a plan that proposes 
how we get there, let Members see it.
  What is wrong with it? If the balanced budget amendment is a good 
thing, and I think it is, certainly how we get to that balanced budget 
is something that is equally important. It may be that there is a 
golden secret plan that does not cut defense, that does not have any 
tax increases, that does not cut Social Security, that does not cut 
Medicare, that does not cut highway programs, and yet gets to a 
balanced budget by the year 2002. If there is such a plan, let me see 
it. Let me show it to the States so that when they vote on it they will 
know exactly what they are voting on.
  I think the bottom line, Mr. President and my colleagues, is that the 
American people not only have a right to know, but in the real world, 
they have a need to know. I want my legislators in Louisiana, when they 
vote on this balanced budget, to say, ``Now we know how it will be 
achieved. Here is what we have to do as a State in order to make it 
work.''
  This is a partnership, I say to my colleagues. We are not doing this 
by ourselves. This is a partnership arrangement between the Congress, 
the Federal Government, and the States. We all will have to share in 
it. Maybe States will have to increase taxes. It might be they will 
have to slash State programs that the Federal Government cannot assist, 
as in the past, with many of these programs. But the bottom line is 
that the only protection the American people have is the right to know 
what we are talking about.
  I will say, once again, that surely the people who have proposed a 
balanced budget have a plan. It should not be a secret plan, it should 
be a public plan. The only thing that we are asking is that it should 
be made part of this effort so that when the States are called upon to 
act on this, they will be able to do it intelligently, and not have to 
do it in the dark.


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