[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 63 (Wednesday, April 5, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5185-S5187]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        NO ACTION IN THE SENATE

  Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, we are waiting around. Probably lots of 
people are wondering what we are doing while the House of 
Representatives is storming along at a rapid pace, accomplishing an 
enormous amount of work here in the first 100 days. They are over there 
right now trying to pass a tax bill--a tax-cut bill, not a tax 
increase. You get a tax bill around here and you think to reach for 
your pocket. No, this is a tax-cut bill.
  I actually wonder why the people are here. The action is over there. 
The action is not here. We are waiting here. We are waiting and waiting 
and waiting and waiting. What are we waiting for? We are waiting to 
hear from the leaders on the Democratic side as to how much more money 
they want to spend this year--not how we can get to a balanced budget 
but how much more money they want to pack into this appropriations 
bill, not how we are going to get the budget down to zero but how much 
more we are going to spend this year.
  And I can say that I speak for a large body of people on this side of 
the aisle who question the sincerity of folks who during the balanced 
budget debate got up and said, ``I'm for a balanced budget. I am just 
not for a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. But I am for 
a balanced budget. We have the power to make these tough decisions. We 
have it right now. The power is within us. We can do it. We do not need 
some phony baloney constitutional amendment to get us to face the tough 
decisions of getting this country back on track. We can do it.''
  And so they used that argument and the phony baloney about Social 
Security to oppose the balanced budget amendment. Well, as a sports 
announcer in Pittsburgh likes to say, ``The turkey is on the table.'' 
Right here is a spending cut proposal, a proposal that funds California 
disaster relief assistance that they need but makes further 
rescissions, cuts in spending, for this fiscal year and next fiscal 
year.
  So what do we see? We have seen for the past 2 weeks a filibuster. 
Oh, no, you will not see it called that in the national media. They 
would not dare call anything that the other side of the aisle is doing 
a dilatory tactic. They are delaying and delaying and delaying so we do 
not get this bill passed. This 
[[Page S5186]] is the game. The end game is do nothing. Let us not pass 
a rescission bill. Let us not cut spending. Let us not put a 
downpayment on deficit reduction. Let us, as the leaders of the other 
side want to do, trot out an amendment to spend more money.
  And so what are we doing? We are waiting. We are waiting--the 
unwritten story of the first 100 days. I have not seen it anywhere. It 
is absolutely unbelievable to me. The unwritten story of the first 100 
days is not that the House accomplished so much and what happened to 
the Senate? The unwritten story is the filibustering, delaying tactics 
of the minority in the Senate to stop what the November election was 
all about. That is what is going on here.
  You want to point to the folks who are trying to derail the train 
from happening in this country? Look across the aisle. Look at the 
empty desks. Look at the folks who want to delay, delay, delay. They 
know if they delay this bill over the recess, a lot of these spending 
cut proposals go away. Why? Because they are spending cut proposals for 
this fiscal year. And by the time we get back in May a lot more money 
will be spent because we are another month and a half into the fiscal 
year. And so the longer they wait the less we can cut. They know this. 
And so that is what is going on. Delay, delay, delay. Do not give 
anybody success. God forbid that we have any bipartisan effort to try 
to achieve anything around here. Let us play the partisan game of 
delay, and then stand up and say, ``Geez, these folks can't get 
anything done around here,'' when the fact is they do not want to 
change Washington. They do not want to change Washington. They built 
Washington, and they like it just the way it is. And any time you touch 
any of their sacred cows, oh, you are mean-spirited. You do not care 
about people. I care about kids born today who will be saddled, if we 
do nothing to reduce this deficit--and that is what this bill is all 
about, reducing the deficit--if we do nothing to reduce the deficit, 
who will be saddled with 82 percent tax rates--82 percent tax rates 
over their lifetime, 82 percent of everything you earn goes to the 
Government to take care of people.
  That is the message here in Washington today: You just give it to us 
and we will take care of everything you need. Folks, that has been 
rejected all around the world.
  It is just incredible to me, it is incredible to me that the very 
people who blocked the balanced budget amendment will now come to the 
floor and stop any further deficit reduction.
  How can you justify that in your own mind, unless, of course, you are 
not really for deficit reduction, not really for a balanced budget in 
the first place.
  I do not have any problem--and there are several Senators who come up 
to the floor, and I give them a lot of credit, who come up to the floor 
and looked into these cameras and looked around at their colleagues and 
said, ``I'm not for a balanced budget. I think the Federal Government 
can be just fine running a deficit and we will be fine.''
  That is being intellectually honest. I do not agree with it, but 
there is a body of economists out there who believe we can run a 
deficit and disaster is not impending. Again, I do not agree with it. I 
think the weight of the evidence is contrary to that. But at least they 
have the courage to come to the floor and say they do not want to do 
it.
  But quit double-crossing the American public by putting out these 
passionate speeches about how much you want to get this budget into 
balance and how the children of this country need it, and when the 
chance comes where the pedal is supposed to be put to the metal and the 
rubber hits the road, we call off the race. We decide, no, no, no, we 
cannot do that. Oh, we cannot cut that program; oh, no, we cannot cut 
that program. ``You know, oh, no, well, this is only .003 percent of 
the budget. You cannot cut that; I mean, it is so small. Why would you 
want to cut that?'' Or, ``We have got a brand-new program of 
AmeriCorps, which is a great program.'' Of course, we have increased 
funding on that. You can go down the list.
  I mean, how is the American public going to take this institution 
seriously? I mean, they are going to look at what happens here and they 
are going to say, ``Wait a minute.''
  Are we really serious about solving problems? What were we elected to 
do here? I do not think we were elected in the last election just to 
come down here and keep doing the same old thing. We were not elected 
to do the same old thing. We were elected to make changes. We were 
elected to get our house in order.
  And now we have this debate going on between the leaders of the 
Democratic side and us, the Republican side, about how much more they 
want to spend. And, do you know something? We made a proposal. We said, 
``OK. You want to spend $1.3 billion more''--that is what they came up 
with, $1.3 billion more--``fine.'' We made an offer. We said, ``How 
about if we give you half of what you want. You give us half of what we 
want, we will give you half of what you want. We will split the 
difference, and let us do the bill.''
  That is the art of compromise. I mean, not just here in Washington, 
but in everyday life. I mean, we do not always get everything we want. 
Sometimes you have to sit down and you have to have minds meet.
  And so we said, ``Let's hear the reasonable offer.'' Now, that is 
what we are debating right now--whether a reasonable offer will be 
accepted. Let us just each meet each other half way. In the end we will 
have a $15 billion deficit reduction. You can restore the programs that 
you say will jeopardize the health and safety of so many millions of 
people. We do not agree with that, but you are passionate about it. Let 
us put the money back in. We will provide some offsets--in other words, 
some spending cuts--to pay for these programs and we will be able to 
put it back together and move the bill.
  The leader just walked on the floor. I mean, the leader is spending 
day after day after day trying to get things done around here. All we 
have is people obstructing, obstructing, obstructing, obstructing, 
obstructing.
  Let us not let these folks succeed in what they want to do. My 
goodness, if they accomplish the Contract With America, the American 
public may actually like them; may actually support what they want to 
do. They may actually vote for them in the next election. We cannot 
have that. We cannot have them vote for them, because that means they 
will vote against us. And if they vote against us, then we will not be 
here. And if we stall, if we delay, maybe--maybe, maybe--we will be 
able to cloud the issue up enough, muddy the waters enough, that they 
will blame all of us. Since there are more of them now than there are 
of us, we will be OK. We may lose a little bit, they may lose a little 
bit, but we will not really get hurt.
  That is the strategy. That is what is going on here in the U.S. 
Senate.
  You know, I ran for U.S. Senate and I was told this was the upper 
Chamber, a more deliberative body, where, you know, you had statesmen 
actually come here and do what was right for the country--do what was 
right for the country--not worry about partisan advantages or playing 
politics, but do what was in its best interests of this country.
  And so what we have seen is the House of Representatives follow 
through with a promise they made to America. They promised the American 
public that they were going to do these 10 things. Imagine that. 
Imagine. Politicians making promises. Oh, we have heard a lot of 
promises from politicians around here. All over the campaign trail, we 
make promises.
  But think of this: Politicians who made promises who lived up to 
their promises. Is not that amazing?
  That is exactly what they are doing over in the House of 
Representatives. These 10 things they said we were going to bring to 
the floor of the House of Representatives and, darn it, did they not? 
Every single one of them came to the floor for open debate, for 
amendments.
  And, do you know what? After today, when they vote the tax bill--
which I understand is supposed to pass--they will have passed 90 
percent of the Contract With America. Not only did they live up to the 
promise of bringing all the stuff to the floor--and that is what the 
contract said, we will bring it to the floor. They brought it to the 
floor not saying, well, we are going to promise a tax cut and then 
bring a tax bill that was a tax increase. No, no. No bait and switch 
here. No ``read my lips'' 
[[Page S5187]] here. No middle-class tax cut that turned into a middle-
class tax increase.
  But elected officials, people in Washington, Congressmen, who 
actually lived up to what they said they would do. Amazing. Amazing.
  And so here we are in the U.S. Senate, looking at the model over 
there, and saying, ``Boy, wouldn't it be nice if we could come to the 
U.S. Senate floor, and we could stand up''-- and we do not have to vote 
in lockstep with the House. I would not suggest it. It is a different 
body; different rules; different procedures; and different ideas.
  But to stand here and play politics and delay on an issue that is--of 
all the issues that we are dealing with here in Washington, the one 
that is highest above all is getting our financial house in order. That 
is what the American public want us to do. They want us to get our 
house in order.
  And so, we have our first chance, right here--the first spending cut 
bill since the balanced budget amendment. The first chance for the U.S. 
Senate where the vote of the balance budget amendment occurs, right 
here--all of us, all 100 of us were sitting in our chairs. We stood up 
one at a time.
  It was a very impressive moment for a young--I know the Presiding 
Officer, the Senator from Michigan, was just as impressed in casting 
that vote. It was a very awe-inspiring moment.
  But we lost. And we lost because of the argument that we did not need 
the amendment to force us to make tough decisions. OK. Fine. You say we 
do not need the amendment. We do not have the amendment.
  Now we have the tough decisions. And where are we? We are nowhere. We 
are waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. And they 
are delaying and delaying and delaying, just like they did--you know, 
the amazing thing is they just are not delaying on this bill. The 
Democrats have delayed on every bill--every single bill. Even bills 
they liked.
  I have heard the leader stand up here many times and say, you know, 
we passed a bill here earlier in the year, the congressional 
accountability bill, that makes us live by the laws here in Congress 
that we impose on other people's lives around America. It was over a 
week of debate, of delay, of dilatory tactics. It passed 98 to 1--98 to 
1. It took us better than a week. It took the House an hour--98 to 1.
  The next bill was the unfunded mandates bill, another bill that 
passed 86 to 10, 2 weeks or more. Two weeks of endless debate, delay. 
Why? Did they disagree? Of course not, 86 to 10. Was the bill changed a 
lot? No.
  So what was the point? What was the point there? Why did we do that? 
Why did we go through that? Why have we gone 2 weeks on this rescission 
bill?
  Are there a lot of amendments substantive to the bill? Oh, a couple.
  Have we had lots of interesting debate? Some.
  Have there been agreements to move the bill along, to actually come 
to votes on some of these things? No, no; we cannot do that. Well, 
tomorrow we have a vote on cloture on this bill. Cloture means to end 
the debate. Let us get this thing done. Let us end the debate tomorrow 
and let us stay here and finish the bill. We will see how many of these 
deficit hawks, these people who really are concerned about getting the 
deficit under control--and I will guarantee you, every one of the 
people delaying this bill will go back home to their States over the 
recess and talk about how they are for deficit reduction; how they are 
for changing Washington; how they want to make things different here; 
how this just happened to be a bad bill; how this just went a little 
too far.
  Folks, this is $15 billion in deficit reduction--excuse me, $15 
billion in spending cuts and deficit reduction. That is out of $1.6 
trillion, and this goes too far? Get serious. Nobody believes it goes 
too far. These are the decisions we have to make that we are no longer 
forced to make, that we are not going to be forced to make because the 
balanced budget amendment did not pass.
  So the unwritten story, the story that may be written here--I hope 
not--but the story that may be written here in the next couple of days 
is going to be how 46 Senators conspired to stop the train, did 
everything they could, everything they could to make sure that 
elections do not matter. That is right, that elections do not matter; 
that what people on November 8 said is irrelevant, that it did not 
happen. Denial and hope that if they just keep muddying the waters, if 
they just keep deflecting away the real issues before us, that maybe 
they will just blame the whole lot of us and not them.
  I had to come out here today and just say the buck stops there. You 
want to change Washington? You know where the change has to happen. It 
is very simple. Do not let all these cries about, oh, how this is going 
to be so terrible--offer your amendments. You want to put back money 
for WIC? I will offer an offset. I will pay for the increase, and I 
will vote with you. I will increase money for WIC--Women, Infants, and 
Children. I have no problem with that. That is a good program. We will 
put more money back in. You will get a lot of Republicans to vote for 
that. Just come up with the money to offset it. Just pay for it. Keep 
the deficit reduction at the same level so if you want to add in $50 
million for it, fine, we will take $50 million out of, oh, let us pick 
the AmeriCorps Program and offset it.
  Set your priorities. Is that not what you want us to do? Do you not 
want us to set priorities? Do you not want us to say this program is 
more important than this program? We, obviously, would love to give all 
the money to every program and everything we want to do. But as 
everybody in America, maybe outside of 46 people in this room, believes 
and knows, we do not have all the money to give for everything. So we 
have to set priorities.
  Let us set them. Come on down to the floor. Offer those amendments. 
Put that money back in for WIC. I will be right there with you. Take 
the other programs you say are just outrageous cuts; come on, let us 
talk about them and let us set priorities. Let us offset that money. 
Let us do it. Let us show the American public we really do care, that 
the deficit is really important.
  You have the chairman of the Budget Committee here, the Senator from 
New Mexico. I know he cares about the budget. I know his family has not 
seen much of him because that is all he is doing probably is working on 
how to get to that balanced budget, and he is making a lot of tough 
decisions. Folks, we are ready to make the decisions. You told us in 
the balanced budget debate you were ready to make the decisions. Why 
are you not here? What is the problem? Is it just politics? Is it just 
partisanship? Do you not want to come here and solve problems? We 
deserve better. This institution deserves better.
  Eleven freshmen Republicans did not come here to let the status quo 
continue. You want to fight; you do not want to come here and make 
things happen. We are ready. We are ready. We will stand here as long 
as it takes. We are ready to do battle.
  We are ready to let the American public decide what direction they 
want this country to take: More spending, more Government, more power, 
more control in the hands of the people in Washington; or more money, 
more power, more control, more freedom in your hands on Main Street, 
America? That is the issue. We are ready. We are waiting. And we will 
wait, and we will wait, and we will wait.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. DOMENICI addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I want to commend my friend from 
Pennsylvania, the new Senator, for his remarks, and I hope that I have 
a few minutes. I inquire what the parliamentary situation is, Mr. 
President?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Morning business has been closed, but if the 
Senator seeks consent, he can speak as in morning business.
  Mr. DOMENICI. I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning 
business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________