[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 40 (Friday, March 3, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3459-S3460]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       MANDATE OF SELF-DISCIPLINE

  Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I would like to reflect on what I 
consider a reality. It seems to me that we have managed to do it again. 
We have put off taking the medicine necessary to correct the 
accumulated deficits that we have been running because we have again 
refused to impose a balanced budget mandate in our Constitution. Let me 
just reflect a little bit on how this body seems to work with 
unsolvable problems.
  We all remember the extended debate on base closures, the fact that 
we could never agree whose base would be closed. So we finally 
consented to bring about the creation of a commission staffed by 
knowledgeable people who would independently evaluate priorities of 
base closures. The Commission would examine all relevant evidence 
presented by the individual military services and then make specific 
recommendations on a package. Congress would then be given the 
opportunity to vote up or down on that package.
  We saw what happened to that Commission yesterday. We voted 
unanimously to extend the Commission because it has worked. It worked 
simply because the other alternatives did not work.
  I am kind of a bottom-line person, Mr. President. It seems to me that 
we have attempted to address our deficits by statute in the past. You 
remember back in 1985, we had Gramm-Rudman I. And it was our conviction 
that this would bring about control of runaway spending and it would 
bring about an end to the continued deficits.
  Under Gramm-Rudman I, we were going to have a zero deficit by 1991, 
at least we were supposed to. Then we had Gramm-Rudman II in 1987. That 
was supposed to bring about a zero deficit by 1993. It did not work. 
Then we had the 1990 budget agreement and that was supposed to bring 
about the decline of the deficits. Under that agreement, the deficit 
was supposed to be $83 billion. In reality, the deficit for 1995 is 
more than 100 percent higher--$205 billion.
  If we look at our short history relative to trying to correct this 
matter since 1985, one has to come to the conclusion that statutes do 
not worked.
  I was somewhat amused by the editorial in the Washington Post this 
morning which suggested that amending the Constitution was the wrong 
way to do it; we have the capability to do it and, therefore, we should 
do it. But the fact remains, Mr. President, we did not do it then and 
we have not done it now. It simply is not going to be addressed. I 
think the attitude of the American people is that we simply do not have 
the self-discipline to reduce spending, we do not have the self-
discipline to reduce the rate of growth of entitlements, we have simply 
left the entitlements on automatic pilot.
  I reached the conclusion some time ago--and this is the basis for my 
support of the balanced budget amendment--that since nothing else has 
worked, this obviously would bring about a mandate to the Congress, and 
that mandate would be self-discipline.
  There is one other factor that I think is important, and that is how 
the American people are going to view this. Social Security has been 
mentioned, but it would seem to me that the people of retirement age 
that are dependent on Social Security, and those who are about to be, 
have a conscious awareness of the realities associated with the 
monetary system of this country. We can look at Mexico and see what 
happened--too much debt.
  I do not know, Mr. President, if you have observed what is happening 
in Canada, but 29.6 percent--29.6 percent--of the Canadian budget is 
interest on their debt. That is nearly one-third.
  We are running deficits each year, Mr. President, but the difficulty 
with it is that the interest on the accumulated debt now is more than 
the deficit. So the reality of this action, or lack of action taken by 
this body is really one that has to be addressed.
  Mr. President, I think we have a situation where we have to recognize 
we do not have the self-discipline to eliminate the deficit. Our 
monetary system, as we know it, is very much at stake. We should have 
given the American people, through their State legislatures, the 
opportunity to decide whether the Constitution should be amended. It 
takes 38 States to amend the Constitution. There would have been a 
great debate.
  I think by not giving the American people the opportunity to be heard 
on this matter, we have done a great disservice to them and to 
ourselves, and we have not corrected the problem that has been 
addressed in this body over the last several weeks. I think that is, 
indeed, unfortunate.
  I thank the Chair.
  [[Page S3460]] (The remarks of Mr. Warner pertaining to the 
introduction of S. 496 are located in today's Record under ``Statements 
on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')

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