[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 57 (Tuesday, March 28, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4676-S4677]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     OUR NATION'S STRIKING DILEMMA

  Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, I want to begin by thanking the members 
of the bipartisan commission that concluded its work last year--the 
entitlement commission and the Congressional Budget Office and the 
Senate Budget Committee, and others, who have contributed to my purpose 
and reason for speaking to the Senate this morning.
  In perusing their work--and we do get inundated with information in 
this Capital City--but as I was going through the material they had 
provided, I suddenly fell upon a page for which this chart is a near 
replica. It has been improved and modified with new information. But 
this single page riveted my attention, and I think if known, it would 
command the attention of every American, every American family, and 
every American business. It poses for our Nation a striking dilemma.
  Mr. President, what it points to is this fact and this condition: 
Within 10 years--maybe 8, maybe 12--the entirety of all U.S. revenues--
all U.S. revenues--are consumed but by five outlays, five expenditures. 
You just have to think for a moment of the thousands and thousands of 
Federal expenditures that we accrue each year. When you start saying 
that, within a decade, I suppose most everybody within the sound of my 
voice, with God's permission, expects to be here in 10 years. In 10 
years, all of our Government's revenues are consumed by just five 
expenditures.
  Mr. President, those expenditures are Social Security, Medicare, 
Medicaid, Federal retirement, and the interest on the United States of 
America's debt. Those five things will consume every dime the country 
has.
  This chart shows those five expenditures and U.S. revenues meeting in 
the year 2006, but 10 years away. I believe it will occur sooner than 
that.
  But, in any event, on or about this date, we are confronted with this 
calamity. We were just listening to the Senator from Minnesota talk 
about a program for children in which he has great interest. The point 
is that if we allow this to happen to ourselves, within 10 years, 
anything the U.S. Government wanted to do either could not be done 
because there would be no revenue to do it, or we would have to borrow 
it. In short, we would be saying that to run the U.S. Government, the 
Defense Department, to build a road, a canal, to widen a port, to take 
care of the program for children mentioned by the Senator from 
Minnesota, and the School Lunch Program which has been debated in the 
House, it would either have to be discontinued, or we would have to 
borrow to do it. Think of it--borrow to run the entirety of the U.S. 
Government, or not do it, because all the money will have been consumed 
but by five outlays.
  Mr. President, from time to time, in America's history, Americans 
have been called upon to do extraordinary things--those that founded 
the Nation, those that fought to keep it a union, the Americans that 
went to Europe in the name of freedom in 1918, and again in 1940. Mr. 
President, my view is that no generation of Americans--none--will have 
ever been called upon to do more than the current generation of 
Americans as they face this staggering crisis.
  I repeat that: I do not believe there is any generation of Americans 
other than those living today that will have been asked to do more in 
the name of saving this Union.
  Mr. President, this is not a message of gloom. Mr. President, this is 
a message of challenge. Challenge. I have never known a generation of 
Americans that would flinch or cower from facing a crisis that had to 
do with the saving of the Union.
  First, Americans have to know about this problem, which I do not 
believe they do. I think Americans understand that we have difficulties 
and problems. But they do not know that the problem is at their back 
door. They have heard policymakers for years talk about the growing 
crisis of our fiscal affairs.
  What they do not realize is that there is not another generation to 
pass 
[[Page S4677]] this problem to. We cannot pass the baton to someone 
else. It is our problem. We are going to have to confront it now. We 
are going to have to try to prevail. That means move to a balanced 
budget. That means it has to be done fairly and evenhandedly.
  Mr. President, we are going to have to take steps in these Chambers 
to remove the burdens of business so that we can expand our economy.
  I contend that when we look at this conversion of but five outlays 
that consume all of our revenues, we are going to have to confront what 
I would characterize as generational contracts. We are going to have to 
take these entitlements and honor our agreements to those who are at 
the end of their work careers. But for those coming into the work 
career, we are going to have to entertain and shape new agreements.
  Mr. President, this generation of Americans has a choice. It can do 
those things I just talked about--tighten the belt, move to a balanced 
budget, expand the economy, move to generational contracts on 
entitlements. If we do that, the American dream, which has been a part 
of this country since its inception--that life would always be better 
for the new generation, that the new generation would have more 
opportunity, be better educated, it would be a stronger nation--is 
still possible. If we do the tightening of the belt, if we enter into 
generational contracts, if we do the things to expand the economy, we 
will create millions of new jobs for America's future. If we do these 
things, we will create thousands of new businesses. And in forming the 
new businesses, we will generate new ideas and better ways to live, and 
we will elevate our standard of living in this country.
  But what if we choose to flinch? What if we ignore what we have been 
told--that five expenditures will consume all of our revenues in but a 
decade. What if we ignore this, while history is full of nations in 
ruins because they failed to confront this kind of crisis?
  If we let this happen, the future generations will have to bear an 
82-percent tax rate to pay for our failure to confront this issue. Mr. 
President, 82 percent of earned wages would be consumed just in order 
to take care of our fiscal abuse.
  We would be saying to the future that the present is all we are 
worried about. We do not care about those jobs in the future. We do not 
care about the burden of the working family in the future.
  Mr. President, I began these remarks by saying that I believe that 
this generation of Americans will be called upon as no other. We are at 
a unique crossroads in the history of this Nation.
  The other enemies were outside our borders. They were easier to 
identify--Hitler marching. Across America, the great divide in our 
Nation, this is a battle amongst ourselves. This is an insidious, 
creeping development that is much harder to recognize.
  Just as sure as the Sun comes up in the morning and sets in the West, 
this generation of Americans will have to confront this crisis or we 
will undo our own Nation.
  I want to add one other thing, Mr. President. There is only one world 
power today. We all acknowledge that we are still living in a very 
dangerous world. If we destabilize our currency, if we wound ourselves 
because we lack the discipline to manage our fiscal affairs, we will 
make the world a very dangerous place for the future families of 
America. It will not be difficult for our world adversaries to know 
that if we do not care for our financial health, we will be unable to 
defend our freedom here or anywhere else in the world.
  I have but one request, Mr. President. I hope that every American 
family will take a look at this very simple chart that says within 10 
years, we will consume all U.S. revenues with but five expenditures--
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Federal retirement, and the 
interest on debt--and put that chart on their kitchen table and 
contemplate what that means to the planned retirement of the parents, 
to the aspirations for education and jobs of the children, and the 
future of their country. I believe, from around that kitchen table, 
will come the will and the resolve to confront this great moral 
challenge for the United States.
  I ask them to do this for themselves, Mr. President, and for their 
families, and for this Union.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. THOMAS addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming [Mr. Thomas] is 
recognized to speak for up to 35 minutes.

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