[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 72 (Wednesday, May 3, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H4526-H4527]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


    THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE HOUSE AS IT DEALS WITH THE BUDGET ISSUE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. Schroeder] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to talk a bit about 
some of the things that are in some of the newspapers today about the 
difficulties this House is facing as it forces itself to deal with the 
budget issue. For the last 4 years, we had the budget done on time. 
That was before April 15. This year, for all the magic done and all the 
things that got going, guess what, we do not have a budget, and 
everybody is saying ``Just do it. Where's the budget?''
  I think the budget happens to be the most important thing, and we 
should have done that first, before we did all the giveaways and all 
the tax cuts and all the other goodies, but the goodies have been given 
out, and now it is time 
[[Page H4527]] to take the medicine. The first issue that I thought was 
so interesting was the Hill newspaper, which said, guess what,

       The Republicans are having trouble with their own appointed 
     head of the Congressional Budget Office.

  Luckily, the Congressional Budget Office is there. When the Democrats 
appointed the head of the Budget Office, we had trouble. Mr. Reischauer 
pointed out that we had underestimated the cost of the health care 
proposals that were out there. Thank goodness he did that, because I 
think he brought real reality.
  Now they are very angry because the new head that they appointed is 
telling them their Medicare stuff does not add up, that they have put 
in all sorts of little amendments, and they want to tinker a little bit 
with it, and it is going to be a whole lot more costly than they 
thought. That is not the news they want to hear, but Americans want to 
hear what is really going to happen to the budget, so I am glad that 
both under Republicans and Democrats that Budget Office has worked to 
be nonpartisan and look at the numbers, not poll numbers, but budget 
numbers.
  This budget fight goes on and on and on because, as you see in the 
other newspaper, you see both Republican leaders out pleading with the 
President to join them in the rescue of Medicare. They want the 
President to join them in the rescue of Medicare after they have 
proceeded to raid Medicare. What a deal. They get to raid it, we get to 
rescue it. There is something wrong with that picture.
  The President and his administration were very responsible in the 
last 2 years. They have dealt with Medicare in our last budget. We 
bailed it out for the next 3 years, added solvency to it. We did it 
without one Republican vote. We have been talking about how not only 
Medicare but all health care should be looked at, because of the rising 
costs. We have had many proposals. Guess what, we didn't get a lot of 
bipartisan help.
  In this last election people went out and said, ``It is so easy. 
Those silly Democrats, they just mess everything up. Just give it to 
us. We can do tax cuts, we can balance the budget, and we can increase 
defense.'' I guess people forgot they had heard that once before in 
1981. It didn't work then, and we see it isn't working now.
  I really hope we get on with business, we get a budget out here. The 
No. 1 issue people want is doing something about that deficit, doing 
something about that deficit as rapidly as possible. All the other 
stuff was frill. We got the frill out of the way. We still don't have 
the main course, the budget. I hope we don't see politicization of the 
budget office.
  We saw earlier this year the Speaker taking on his own budget 
nominee, saying he didn't like the way that they were responding. They 
are supposed to respond neutrally and according to real numbers. That 
is the way it should be. I salute Director O'Neill for continuing that 
tradition, and I must say, let's stop whining about that and let's get 
on with the real budget. Just do it. Let's stop whining about how the 
President should rescue them from their own raids that they made to do 
tax cuts for the wealthy. Hey, they gave it away, now they have got to 
figure out how they pay. I don't think they should blame it on the 
President. He didn't get the credit for giving it all away.
  Let's get on with it, let's see that budget, and let's get on with 
the real hard tasks of government.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. Speaker, will the gentlewoman yield?
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. I am delighted to yield to the gentleman from 
Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. I think I have heard some speculation that the 
Republicans want to cut somewhere in the neighborhood of $350 billion 
out of Medicare spending, which would mean, of course, that there would 
either be higher payments by senior citizens, or lower reimbursement to 
hospitals and doctors and clinics and the like.
  What I find curious about this is that $350 billion figure is very 
close to the figure that we hear will be the cost of the tax cut bill, 
which was part of the Republican Contract With America. So this tax cut 
that took the money out of the Treasury is obviously being plugged with 
some cuts in Medicare. Maybe I have missed something here, but the two 
figures are very similar.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. The gentleman from Illinois listened very properly 
and very correctly. That is exactly right. They raided it, they gave it 
away, and now they are screaming to the President, ``Rescue us, rescue 
us from our own craziness.'' If you remember, when these tax cuts went 
into effect, the Speaker attacked the same budget director who came out 
with this analysis on what those tax cuts were going to cost: ``Did you 
write the numbers the same,'' and said it looked like she had 
socialists doing the analysis. Really.
  That is why I think the rhetoric has gotten too high on this, and the 
gentleman has gotten right to the core of the problem, as he usually 
does.


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