[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 65 (Friday, April 7, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E876-E877]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


              THE BALANCED BUDGET ENFORCEMENT ACT OF 1995

                                 ______


                        HON. PETER J. VISCLOSKY

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, April 7, 1995
  Mr. VISCLOSKY. Mr. Speaker, today, I am joined by our colleagues, 
Representatives Charlie Stenholm, Calvin Dooley, and Tom Barrett, in 
introducing the Balanced Budget Enforcement Act of 1995. This 
legislation would put in place tough, new measures to reform the budget 
process and eliminate the Federal budget deficit by the year 2002.
  I cosponsored the predecessors to this bill when they were introduced 
in the 102d and 103d Congresses by our former colleagues, Leon Panetta 
and Tim Penny. This Balanced Budget Enforcement Act of 1995 would force 
us to start now and begin bringing the budget into balance by the year 
2002. It would do so by setting spending caps and using across-the-
board cuts if the caps aren't met. Here's how:
          The Balanced Budget Enforcement Act of 1995 Summary

       (1) Deficit Reduction Targets (in addition to the amounts 
     required by current law) to reach balance in 2002.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                      1996         1997         1998         1999         2000         2001         2002        Total   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Discretionary caps..............................         12.9         30.1         53.9         73.8         98.9        121.7        144.6        535.9
Entitlement/revenue scorecard...................         31.9         59.6         80.6        105.6        125.3        147.4        169.4        719.9
Debt service....................................          1.7          6.2         13.6         24.2         38.4         56.2         77.9        218.1
                                                 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Grand total...............................         46.5         95.9        148.1        203.6        262.6        325.3        391.9      1,473.9
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

       (2) Setting Sound Economic Estimates: The President 
     appoints a ``Board of Estimates,'' consisting of the Chairman 
     of the Federal Reserve and four private citizens nominated by 
     House and Senate party leaders. The Board must choose either 
     CBO's or OMB's estimates of how much deficit reduction is 
     needed in that Session. The Board's choices would be binding 
     on the President and Congress, so that the deficit reduction 
     requirement for each would be identical. Finally, the Board 
     would meet again after adjournment to pick either CBO's or 
     OMB's estimates of how much deficit reduction was actually 
     accomplished by Congress during the Session.
       (3) Requirement of President to Submit Balanced Budget: The 
     President must propose a budget that will reach balance by 
     2002. Further, the President's budget must use the 
     assumptions chosen
      by the Board of Estimates, meet all discretionary caps and 
     entitlement/revenue deficit reduction targets, achieve 
     balance in 2002 and each year thereafter, and be voted on 
     by Congress.
       (4) Requirement of Budget Committees to Report Balanced 
     Budget: Likewise, the congressional budget resolution must 
     lay out a plan to reach balance by 2002. Budget resolutions 
     also must use the estimating assumptions chosen by the Board 
     of Estimates, meet all discretionary caps and entitlement/
     revenue deficit reduction targets, and achieve balance in 
     2002 and each year thereafter.
       (5) Enforcement:
       A. Discretionary savings--Appropriations. The discretionary 
     savings will be achieved by keeping appropriations bills 
     within a single annual cap, and enforced by across-the-board 
     sequestration of discretionary programs.
       B. Entitlement/revenue savings--Reconciliation. The 
     entitlement/revenue deficit reduction priorities will be set 
     through the annual budget process. The budget resolution 
     (conference agreement) will include a reconciliation 
     directive targeting by committee the dollar amount of deficit 
     reduction to be achieved from entitlements and/or revenues 
     and will generate a ``spin-off bill'' (to be sent to the 
     President) putting those targets into law.
       C. Sequestration: Overall reconciliation requirements will 
     be enforced by sequestration; the type of sequestration in 
     any year depends on whether a spin-off bill has been enacted.
       (1) Targeted sequestration to enforce reconciliation: 
     (applies if a spin-off bill has been enacted, either as a 
     result of a budget resolution or, later, as a title in a 
     reconciliation bill). If a committee misses its entitlement 
     target, entitlement programs within that committee's 
     jurisdiction will be sequestered by a uniform percentage to 
     meet the target. If revenues do not meet the revenue target, 
     a uniform personal and corporate surtax will be imposed to 
     meet the target.
       (2) Comprehensive sequestration: (applies if a spin-off 
     bill has not been enacted; this would generally occur if the 
     President first vetoes the spin-off bill, then vetoes a 
     reconciliation bill containing the committee targets). There 
     will be a comprehensive sequestration of entitlement spending 
     and some revenue provisions in the amount needed to hit the 
     overall target for entitlement/revenue deficit reduction. For 
     revenues, a surtax would be imposed upon personal annual 
     incomes greater
      than $250,000 and corporate incomes over $10 million. This 
     formula will produce $4 in entitlement spending cuts for 
     every $1 in revenue increases.
       (6) Tax cuts/Investment: Tax cuts and/or investment 
     policies can be enacted if they are paid for.

  I believe that balancing the budget is our moral responsibility as 
Members of Congress. I have always supported a balanced budget, and the 
responsibility to achieve this is not one that I take lightly. Over the 
years, I have frequently taken the political road less traveled in the 
name of deficit reduction. When I am in northwest Indiana, I tell my 
constituents that I am opposed to cutting their taxes because it would 
undermine serious efforts to reduce the deficit. In March, I was one of 
only six Democrats to support the rescissions bill because I believe we 
need to start making tough spending decisions now. In January, I 
supported a constitutional amendment to balance the budget for the 
first time because I finally lost 
[[Page E877]] faith that the Congress has the resolve to balance the 
budget without being required to do so.
  Regardless of the amendment's defeat in the Senate, we must not give 
up the fight for a balanced budget. We have the power to do this 
without a constitutional amendment, and it is critical that we now 
demonstrate the collective courage necessary to eliminate deficit 
spending. A majority of the House and Senate has demonstrated its 
support for balancing the budget, and it would be a cruel hoax on the 
American people to fail to do so simply because we do not have a 
constitutional imperative.
  Nations, like families, have to plan for the future. As a nation, we 
have failed to plan. We have borrowed to achieve a false sense of 
security today, leaving the bills for our children to pay tomorrow. In 
1994, alone, we spent $203 billion more than we had. This means that 
$783 was borrowed from every single person in America. Over the past 20 
years, the average budget deficit has grown from $36 billion in the 
1970's, to $156 billion in the 1980's, to the unprecedented $248 
billion hole we have dug for ourselves so far in the 1990's. This 
irresponsible spending has resulted in a money pit so deep that this 
year's interest payment--$235 billion--will be larger than this year's 
deficit of $176 billion. The Balanced Budget Enforcement Act of 1995 
would stop this destructive trend. It would set us on the path to 
achieve a balanced budget by 2002.
  In closing, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to cosponsor this 
important legislation. The sooner we begin a serious effort to balance 
the budget, the better off our children and grandchildren will be.


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