[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 73 (Thursday, May 4, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6139-S6141]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          WHERE IS THE BUDGET?

  Mr. DASCHLE. I rise to commend my colleagues for their eloquent 
presentation this morning. The Senator from California could not have 
said it better.
  The Senator from California knows, as my other colleagues have also 
indicated they know, the ramifications of this budget resolution and 
the extraordinary problems we face as we consider some of the 
implications of the huge cuts in Medicare that are now being proposed, 
as well as the extraordinary link between those cuts and the tax cut 
for the wealthy that some of our Republican colleagues have proposed 
over the course of the last several months,
 and, as we have already indicated, the House of Representatives has 
already passed.

  The concern I want to address just briefly this morning has to do 
with what happens when nothing happens. What happens when the budget 
resolution does not come to the floor in the manner the law requires? 
What happens to the debt? What happens to the cost of running the 
Federal Government each and every day that we delay?
  It may come as a surprise to some who may be listening that each day 
we delay action on the budget, the Federal debt increases by $820 
million. The budget resolution, of course, was due on the 1st of April. 
The budget resolution was due almost 35 days ago. At that time, if you 
use the day before as the baseline, we increased the debt on that 
particular day by $820 million. On April 2, only 2 days after the 
budget resolution was supposed to have been reported, the debt increase 
was up to $1.6 billion.
  As you can see, in just the first 9 days since April 1, the debt 
increased by $8.2 billion simply because there has been no budget 
resolution and no opportunity for Congress to address the concern that 
so many of our Republican colleagues say ought to have the highest 
priority in the Congress today. Indeed, it should have that priority.
  The situation is beginning to look very serious as you go from this 
chart to the next one. The next chart indicates that 10 days after the 
budget resolution was due the debt had increased by $9 billion; 20 days 
after the budget resolution was due the debt had increased $16 billion. 
So, in just 20 days, because of inaction, because we have not had a 
budget resolution, because we have not been given an opportunity to 
address the extraordinary consequences of failure in leadership here, 
in just 20 days we have seen an increase of $16 billion in the total 
debt, directly attributable to the fact that we have not had a budget 
resolution.
  It gets worse, Mr. President. This chart begins to depict how much 
worse. On April 21 that debt increased to $17.2 billion. As you can 
see, slowly we are going off the chart now. The chart is not even big 
enough to show the debt that has accumulated by the last day of the 
month in which the budget resolution was due.
  As we all said, we knew the implications would be serious, but this 
chart shows just how serious. On April 30 we now see the debt, as a 
result of not having a budget resolution, go off the charts to $24.4 
billion. That is $24 billion more than it would have been had we been 
able to stop this growth, this excessive increase in debt, on April 1 
when the resolution was due.
  The real story then comes on the final chart. At least we hope it 
will be the final chart. The final chart shows that on May 1 the 
increased debt was $25.2 billion; on May 2 it was $26 billion; on May 
3, another $820 million more than the day before--$26.8 billion more 
than on April 1.
  Today I will add yet the newest bar, for May 4, $27.6 billion in 
additional debt as a result of the lack of action, as a result of the 
inaction of the Senate Budget Committee and our colleagues on the 
Republican side in failing to address this issue.
  This is what we are facing. We are going to need charts that I will 
not be able to reach here by the end of this week, simply because we 
have not been given the budget resolution that the law requires. We all 
understand. When the American taxpayer is told that he has to produce 
his check to pay his taxes by April 15, people join long lines at the 
post office in order to ensure that they get their return in the mail 
and comply with the law. American taxpayers go down to the post office 
at midnight sometimes, on the eve of April 15, to ensure that they 
comply with the law. The law says everybody has to pay their taxes by 
April 15, and, indeed, the vast majority of American people, as law-
abiding citizens, comply with the law.
  The law also says that the budget resolution has to be passed out of 
the Budget Committee by April 1, and out of the Senate, the Congress, 
by April 15. But we have now seen the cost of inaction. We have now 
seen what happens if nothing is done. We have now seen how it is 
compounded, day after day, with increases in cost, increases in debt, 
increases in the complexity of the problem we are going to have to 
address in the coming days.
  I must say, I think the biggest concern that many of my colleagues on 
the other side have as they consider all of the ramifications of a 
budget resolution is a promise that was made last November. We heard it 
time and time again. We heard that we can cut taxes, we can increase or 
at least maintain defense spending levels, we can balance the budget, 
and we can do all of that without touching Social Security.
  Now, given the circumstances, it is becoming increasingly apparent 
that that is not possible, that there is no way to do all of that, as 
was promised last November. So, as we look at ways with which to begin 
to address it, they are coming to the conclusion that one of the 
biggest pools of resources from which to draw to pay for the tax cut 
they promised is Medicare. In the name of reform, some of our 
colleagues on the other side are suggesting that is really what we must 
do. Let us reform Medicare. And in reforming Medicare we just happen to 
see this new pool of resources so that we can pay for a tax cut for the 
wealthy.
  Cutting Medicare benefits for the elderly in this way has nothing to 
do with reform. That is not reform. Certainly there has to be some 
appreciation of the difficulties we are facing in Medicare with the 
trust fund. Everyone is willing to concede that. But, to say in the 
name of reform we are going to cut benefits, in the name of reform we 
[[Page S6140]] are going to do it in the context of a budget 
resolution, in the name of reform somehow we are going to reduce 
Medicare but then increase the tax cuts for the wealthy, all with the 
same stroke of the pen, I think defies credibility. I think most 
Americans understand the fallacy of that kind of logic and that kind of 
budgeting.
  So I do not think there is much support for that proposal. I think 
people are beginning to understand that the promises made last November 
are coming home to roost. The promises made about cutting taxes and 
cutting the budget and maintaining defense spending and not touching 
Social Security--all in a very short period of time, without any pain. 
The American people are coming to realize that it just cannot be done.
  So we hope to have a good debate about the budget. We hope we can 
talk about our priorities. We can talk about the need for reforming 
Medicare. But, as we said over and over on this floor over the last 2 
years, you are not going to resolve the Medicare problems until you 
deal with the health care problems in this country. We all understand 
that, to a large extent, the increase in Medicare costs is being driven 
by the same forces driving across-the-board health care costs. 
Medicare's increases in costs this year are no greater than the 
increases in cost in the private sector. So we all understand that, 
indeed, if we are going to get a handle on Medicare, if we really are 
going to reform Medicare, then we have to reform the overall health 
care system. Otherwise, there will be no real reform--only cost 
shifting.
  So I am hopeful we can stop this steady rise in the debt. I hope we 
can begin to see these bars go back down as we deal with the budget 
resolution. But it is now the 4th of May. We have seen from past charts 
just what has happened with each day, the daily incremental increase of 
$820 million leading in less than 45 days after the date set for the 
Budget Committee to produce a budget resolution to a proliferation in 
debt of $27.6 billion.
  We will bring this chart out again. We will continue to show, as we 
have already been able to show, that we cannot afford delay. We cannot 
afford the lack in leadership that we have seen on the Senate Budget 
Committee with regard to a budget resolution. We need to get on with 
it. We want to work in a bipartisan way. But we certainly appreciate 
the extraordinary complexity the Republican Party and our Republican 
colleagues have created for themselves as we try to grapple with the 
promises made last November.
  You cannot cut taxes, you cannot increase defense, you cannot balance 
the budget and not touch Social Security, all at the same time. Thus, 
we are left with what we see on these charts. We want meaningful budget 
management. We want an opportunity to see a resolution that will turn 
this chart around, that will bring this debt down, that will do what 
the American people want us to do, and that will protect Medicare, that 
will protect those investments in people that we believe in so 
strongly.
  So, Mr. President, again let me commend my colleagues for their 
participation this morning, for the work that they have done in laying 
out the facts as we see them relating to the budget, Medicare and the 
implications of doing nothing. We need leadership. We are very hopeful 
that, in the not too distant future, we will see a lot more of it 
coming from the Republican side.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. DORGAN addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota is recognized.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I enjoyed listening to the minority leader 
and others ask the question this morning, ``Where is the budget?'' I 
indicated yesterday that I thought the majority party in the Senate had 
ridden into a box canyon. All of us have watched the old spaghetti 
westerns, old-time cowboy movies in America and understand what riding 
into a box canyon is. In fact, they usually show them as riding into 
the box canyon whistling and happy-go-lucky. And they ride into that 
box canyon, look around, and understand they are in very big trouble.
  What has happened here with respect to box canyons? The majority 
party promised the American people that they were going to increase 
defense spending. In fact, they are going to rebuild now a new star 
wars program, increase defense spending, cut taxes and balance the 
Federal budget. But, of course, that does not add up. Most people know 
it does not add up. So they had an urgency about this program. Was the 
urgency to cut spending to balance the budget? No. The urgency was to 
cut taxes in what they called a middle-class tax cut.
  The middle-class tax cut turns out to be not so middle class after 
all. The middle-class tax cut does the following. If you are a family 
below $30,000 in income, you get a big old tax cut from those folks 
over there of $124 a year. If you are a family with over $200,000 in 
income, those folks say, ``Guess what? We have a check for you for 
$11,200, if you are such good Americans.''
  I think everybody is a good American. So I am not saying we ought to 
discriminate. But it seems to me, when you are up to your neck in 
Federal debt and the first job is to cut spending to balance the 
budget, and if with the first jump out of the chute you run over with a 
tax cut, the bulk of which goes to the wealthiest Americans, then come 
to the floor of the Senate and claim it is a middle-class tax cut, you 
need an award for fiction. Get your tux on. We will give you a prize 
for fiction. The truth is that this tax cut is not a middle-class tax 
cut. This gives the cake to wealthy and the crumbs to the rest.
  Once they decided they were going to do this and started adding up 
numbers, they discovered the laws of arithmetic--which most of us 
learned early in life--do not allow them to balance the budget after 
all. So then they said to us. Now that we have done this, we want you 
to join us in cutting spending for Medicare and Medicaid. I guess our 
response is we certainly ought to join together to reform Medicare and 
Medicaid to make that solvent, whole, for the long term. But my 
response to the majority is, the first thing you ought to do is find a 
place to deep-six nonsense. Get rid of tax cuts for wealthy. Then let 
us talk about reforming the rest.
  All of us have a responsibility. The urgency of cutting spending and 
the urgency of balancing the budget is not in question. Why were those 
who were most urgent here on the floor of the Senate to change the 
Constitution now walking around scratching their heads wondering, 
``When will we get a budget?'' The question ought not be much cause for 
wonder. The date was April 1. It is in the law. We can read the law 
books to understand when the requirement to bring the budget to the 
floor of the Senate was--April 1 and April 15. Those are the two 
statutory dates. Now it is May.
  Those folks who said it was urgent to do something about the Federal 
budget deficit have only had time to pass a tax cut, a big tax cut, 
over in the House. And then this morning we see people standing on the 
floor of the Senate justifying it as a middle-class tax cut. That is no 
middle class in any town I am familiar with--middle class, $200,000 or 
more, $11,200 in tax cuts, and $120 for $30,000 or less, for families 
that earn that amount of money. No. I think the lessen here is clear.
  I do not think we have a budget on the floor of the Senate because 
the folks who must produce the budget in the Budget Committee 
understand that the dilemma they have is they want to give tax cuts for 
the wealthiest Americans and then ask us to help them cut spending on 
health care for the elderly and the poor people. That does not add up. 
It is not going to happen.
  What we ought to do is back away from this ideological nonsense and 
decide to start over completely. We ought to join hands and say, let us 
stop this agenda stuff that we have, the Contract With America agenda 
that says let us make the rich richer and let us cut the health care to 
the poor and let us decide to do this together, in a sober, serious, 
thoughtful way. All of us understand. Yes. Federal spending must be 
cut. Let us cut it in real ways. Let us do it together and let us do it 
first. When we have done that job, we have cut spending and reduced the 
Federal budget deficit and have a plan to balance the budget, then let 
us talk about tax cuts. And, when we do, let us talk about tax cuts for 
real American families. Let us do it in the real way. That is the way 
to approach this budget dilemma.
  [[Page S6141]] I end as I began. The question is, ``Where is the 
budget?'' Let us find that answer, bring it to the floor, pass it in a 
reasonsible way, and put this debate on the course it should be on.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey is recognized.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I understand we are in morning 
business. Unless specified, the time permitted for debate is 5 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. I believe we have requested 10 minutes of time for 
the introduction.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that be 
extended for 5 minutes so that my colleague from California, Senator 
Feinstein, can also make her remarks.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Thank you, Mr. President.
  (The remarks of Mr. Lautenberg and Mrs. Feinstein pertaining to the 
introduction of S. 757 are located in today's Record under ``Statements 
on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. I thank you, Mr. President, and I yield the floor.
  Mr. HOLLINGS addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Carolina.

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