[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 4, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H4161-H4162]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


  TAX CUTS--JUST WHEN WE ARE BEGINNING TO MAKE PROGRESS ON THE DEFICIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bilbray). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Meehan] is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Mr. MEEHAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to talk about the budget 
deficit, and I have heard comments made back and forth about demagogic 
conversation, speeches. I ran for Congress because I felt that the 
Federal budget deficit was out of control and threatening future 
generations of Americans. We are paying $240 billion a year in interest 
on the national debt. If you look at projections of Federal spending 
from now until the year 2002, and 2005 and beyond, it is not easy to 
see that we are going to bankrupt future generations of Americans. 
Long-term economic growth will be impossible if we do not get our 
Federal budget deficit under control, and we must have the courage to 
act and the courage to make tough choices. Getting the Federal budget 
deficit under control is not about easy choices, and hear all the talk 
about tax cuts; those are the easy choices.
  I had a plan when I got to Congress, my own plan to actually balance 
the budget. It was not easy to put together. It was put together 
through a combination of increases in revenues, in cuts, in spending. I 
have been committed to cutting the deficit since I got to Congress. It 
is why I got the fourth highest rating in the country from the Concord 
Coalition on deficit reduction. I believe that the future growth of 
this country 
[[Page H4162]] and the opportunity for future generations of Americans 
to enjoy the prosperity that this generation has enjoyed hangs in the 
balance as to whether or not politicians here can make tough choices 
about how to get our budget deficit under control.
  One way that we will never get our budget deficit under control is to 
give tax cuts just when we are beginning to make progress on the 
deficit. I am fortunate to have been in the U.S. Congress fighting for 
deficit reduction, and we have seen, for the first time in 3 years--3 
years in a row, first time since Harry Truman was President--where the 
deficit has actually been cut, we have begun to make progress.
  I voted for a balanced budget amendment, a Democrat voting for a 
balanced budget amendment. That was the easy part. Anyone can vote for 
a balanced budget amendment. The difficulty is actually balancing the 
budget, and there is no way that you can balance the budget by the year 
2002 if these ridiculous tax cuts are approved by the Congress.
  Now the revenue losses to the year 2000 are significant, but the 10-
year losses approach $700 billion. It is impossible to balance the 
budget while providing tax cuts to the tune of $700 billion at the same 
time, and the irony is everyone in America gets it. People across 
America do not really think that you can balance the budget by 
drastically cutting taxes. But what makes this tax cut so tragic is 
that it cuts the taxes for the wealthiest Americans while enduring a 
deficit reduction.
  Let us balance the budget to a plan to make tough choices over the 
next several years, and all you have to do is look at projected Federal 
spending to realize that nonsense about cutting discretionary spending, 
that we can even balance the budget by cutting children further or by 
cutting education programs. There is not enough discretionary spending 
in the budget to do it.
  We need to get real about how we are going to cut this deficit. If 
the choices were easy, politicians in past years would have done it 
already. This is about difficult choices, and a bidding war over tax 
cuts for the middle and upper classes has to be avoided if we are going 
to confront these issues.
  The pandering over tax cuts is threatening any chance for deficit 
reduction. We need to make investments in certain areas, and cutting 
school lunch programs, and cutting child care, cutting worker 
retraining, is not the way to prepare future generations to compete.
  The Carnegie Corp. did a study last year that showed we are not 
investing nearly enough in children. You do not balance a budget by 
cutting children and giving tax breaks to those who are the wealthiest 
in society.
  The Republicans claim that their tax cut will be fully paid over the 
next 5 years. Let me tell you they have only come up with enough cuts, 
$189 billion, to pay for the first 5 years, and $100 billion of those 
are not even specific.
  I would hope that we would get real in this discussion. Let us cut 
taxes and have a debate about cutting taxes after we balance the 
budget.
  Mr. Speaker, the American people get it. I do not know why the 
Republicans in this House do not get it.


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