[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 72 (Wednesday, May 3, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6025-S6026]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          WHERE IS THE BUDGET?

  Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, today is May 3. I think it is time to 
start asking the question of our colleagues on the other side, where is 
the budget? Where is the budget? We are supposed to have completed 
action on the budget in the Budget Committee by April 1. Today is May 
3. We still do not see a budget. I am on the Budget Committee. I still 
do not know when we are even going to start to work on the budget.
  Mr. President, I must say I am somewhat surprised because our friends 
on the other side of the aisle had a budget before the election. They 
told the American people that they had a budget plan. They said they 
could cut taxes, they said they could increase defense spending, and 
they said they could balance the budget. But now that they have assumed 
power and assumed control and assumed authority, there is no budget.
  Mr. President, it is amazing the difference an election makes. Before 
the election there was this plan. They had the Contract With America. 
They told everybody they had this miracle. It was not going to reveal 
the details but a miracle plan that was going to allow them to cut 
taxes dramatically, increase defense spending, and balance the budget. 
Now that they are in power their plan is missing in action. Maybe it is 
because the plan just does not add up. This chart shows what we would 
need to do to balance the budget over the next 7 years. We would have 
to have a reduction in spending of $1.2 trillion to begin with. Then if 
we were going to be true to the promise we have made to Social Security 
recipients, they would have to cover the $636 billion in Social 
Security surpluses that are going to be generated during that 7-year 
period.
  So now the hole to fill in is $1.8 trillion--not million, not 
billion, but trillion dollars. That is real money even in Washington 
talk. On top of that, of course, we are going to have to cover the 
massive tax cuts that the House has passed, $345 billion of tax cuts 
over the 7-year period. So that is the hole that we have to fill in, 
$2.2 trillion.
  Unfortunately, before they ever started to fill in this hole, they 
dug the hole deeper by passing these massive tax cuts.
  Let us see what they have produced so far by way of proposals to 
narrow the gap between the $2.2 trillion we need, and what they have 
actual done so far over in the House in terms of proposal. They are 
down here at a measly, anemic, $485 billion.
  Mr. President, I would say our friends on the other side of the aisle 
have a credibility gap that is opening up here. In fact, it is more 
than a gap. It is a chasm. They are $1.6 trillion short. No wonder we 
do not see a budget out here. No wonder they have blown the deadline. 
No wonder they have not even started in the Budget Committee and they 
were supposed to be completed a month ago.
  It is amazing. During the balanced budget amendment debate there was 
a rush to amend the Constitution to balance the budget. Boy, that was 
priority No. 1. But now when it comes time to actually do something to 
balance the budget, because of course, a balanced budget amendment will 
not cut one dime, will not add one dime of revenue, will not narrow the 
deficit by a dollar--now, when it comes time to actually present a 
budget, to actually do something about the deficit, the budget plan is 
nowhere to be found. This just does not add up. It does not add up, and 
not surprisingly our colleagues on the other side are more focused on a 
tax cut for the wealthiest among us than presenting a plan to reduce 
the deficit.
  It is very interesting. If you look at who benefits from the 
Republican tax bill, what one finds is if you are a family of four 
earning over $200,000 a year, you get an $11,000 tax cut. If you are a 
family of four earning $30,000 a year, you get $124.
  So the idea of our friends on the other side is to target tax relief 
in this country by giving 100 times as much to those earning over 
$200,000 a year than those earning $30,000 a year, and they call this 
middle-class tax relief. It is an interesting concept of the middle 
class. 
[[Page S6026]] It is an interesting concept of focusing tax relief.
  Mr. President, we have seen this plan before. We have seen it all 
before--back in the 1980's. If we look back at that time, we see what 
happens to the middle class. Do they benefit from this kind of plan to 
give big tax cuts to the wealthiest among us and explode the deficit? 
No. We can look back and see what happened in the 1980's. The top 1 
percent saw 62 percent of the wealth growth go to them. The top 1 
percent got 62 percent of the wealth growth in that period. The 80 
percent at the bottom saw their wealth growth of 1.2 percent. That is 
trickle-down economics. What we have learned is that wealth does not 
trickle down. It gets sucked up. The wealthiest 1 percent get all the 
benefits.
  Mr. President, let me just conclude by saying our friends on the 
other side have got to come up with a budget. Then we are going to see 
the gap between rhetoric and reality.
  I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.
  Several Senators addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, what is the pending business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana has 5 minutes in 
morning business.
  Mr. BAUCUS. I thank the Chair.

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