[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 45 (Friday, March 10, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S3776]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE DAY-TO-DAY ACTIVITIES OF CONGRESS

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I have before me at this moment the 
National Journal's Congressional Daily. It is a report of the 
activities of Congress on a daily basis, referring to what committees 
are doing both in the House and the Senate and also reporting on the 
executive branch of Government. It is one of those documents that many 
of us often refer to as an accurate accounting of the day-to-day 
activities of the U.S. Congress.
  I thought it was appropriate to bring before us at this time. A week 
ago, we finalized debate and voted on a balanced budget amendment to 
our Constitution. At that time, we failed to get the necessary 67 votes 
by 1 vote. Immediately following that, we saw a precipitous drop in the 
value of the dollar on world currency markets, which actually continued 
through most of this week, only to be abated by Alan Greenspan coming 
to Capitol Hill and talking to a House committee on the need for 
congressional action as it relates to deficit reduction. That seemed 
to, at least for a time, level out the decline of the dollar.
  One of the things that has concerned me--and I see the Senator from 
Illinois on the floor at this moment, who was one of the major leaders 
in the balanced budget amendment issue--and has concerned the Senator 
from Illinois for so long is the inability of Congress to manage the 
deficit. And even though there have been many tries made over the last 
several years, it was this inability that brought me, several years 
ago, to the conclusion that only a constitutional amendment to balance 
the budget would change this scenario.
  I am not going to speak of the intentions of this President, but I 
will only say that this President, since he came to office, convinced 
this Congress that with a major tax increase in what was called a 
deficit reduction package, that he could reduce the deficit, he could 
control the out-of-control Federal budget.
  Yet, this year we saw this President bring to the Hill a budget that 
is not reflective of a declining deficit. In fact, most assume that 
this administration has largely given up on their ability to bring the 
deficit near balance and that it is now moving up again. The reason I 
thought it was appropriate at this moment to mention that is that, in 
today's Congressional Daily, it says President Clinton's fiscal 1996 
budget would cause the Federal deficit to climb $82 billion higher by 
the year 2000 than the administration has estimated, according to the 
Congressional Budget Office.
  The article goes on to talk about preliminary studies or examinations 
which show that, by 2000, the deficit will still be in the $276 
billion-and-climbing range.
  The point I want to make is very simple. Once again, it is clearly 
reflective that this Congress and this President cannot and have not 
been able to control the Federal deficit. While this President may have 
tried, it is obvious that, under their own budget figures, whether it 
is lack of an adequate estimate or whether simply a failure to make the 
necessary cuts, he, too, is missing a Federal budget deficit projection 
in his own budgets by $82 billion.
  That is a phenomenal amount of money under anyone's estimation and 
certainly it is by ours. If the budget were out of balance by $82 
billion, then I think the Senator from Illinois and I would say, well, 
that is a major and a good-faith effort. But this is the estimate of a 
budget that is out of balance by nearly $300 billion, as it will be $82 
billion higher.
  Those are the problems we face that I think so clearly dramatize, day 
after day, year after year, why we need a constitutional amendment to 
balance the Federal budget.
  Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, I want to join my colleague from Idaho in 
his efforts in this area. I would give the President a little more 
credit than he might in terms of what the President did in 1993. There 
is no question we made some progress on the deficit.
  But the budget that has been submitted by the administration is 
illustrative of the fact that these things kind of ebb and flow. They 
go up and down like a roller coaster. Right now, I think the mood in 
Congress, after our lengthy discussion of the constitutional amendment, 
is we want to do something. And I think we may pass some statutory 
action to move us in that direction. I have no confidence, however, 
that statutory action this time, any more than in the past, is going to 
get us there. Because while today the mood is ``Let's do something 
about the deficit,'' tomorrow, who knows what the mood will be? And so 
we will move away from that.
  So I join my colleague in believing that that is the direction in 
which we have to go and one of these days, I believe it will happen.
  Mr. President, if no one else seeks the floor, I question the 
presence of a quorum.
  Mr. BYRD. Will the Senator withhold?
  Mr. SIMON. I withdraw my request.
  (Mr. CRAIG assumed the chair.)
  

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