[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 86 (Tuesday, May 23, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7234-S7236]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       BUDGET RESOLUTION SUPPORT

  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I rise today to offer my strong support 
for the Senate budget resolution proposed and brought forward by 
Chairman Domenici.
  Let me first start by congratulating the chairman for the absolutely 
tremendous job he has done. I am sure that there is not a Member of 
this body who would write the budget the identical way that the 
committee has written. I do not suppose the chairman would, either. I 
think he has done a great job. I want to congratulate him.
  This is a historic moment. It is a moment where we will really 
determine whether this Congress has the courage, has the wisdom, to do 
what we all know we have to do.
  Let me also congratulate my friend from Ohio, John Kasich, chairman 
of the Budget Committee in the House of Representatives. He has done a 
great job, as well. For both of them and for the Senate this is a 
historic moment.
  What I would like to talk about this evening, Mr. President, is the 
issue of this budget and how this budget that we will be voting on 
tomorrow, affects young people, affects children.
  The truth is that we simply have to change the direction of this 
country. We have to face reality. We have to face the fact that America 
has a fundamental choice between two different futures: A future of 
responsibility and fiscal sanity on the one hand; or a future of 
economic catastrophe.
  Catastrophe is a pretty harsh word, Mr. President, but I think it is 
accurate. When we fail to balance the budget for 26 consecutive years, 
when we add to the national debt until we are paying more in interest 
than we are paying for national defense, and when we have a debt that 
is nearly $5 trillion--$5 trillion--and no end in sight, what we have 
is a catastrophe. A catastrophe in the making. No more, nor less.
  Mr. President, what we are really talking about is not dollars and 
cents. What we are talking about is our children and the quality of 
their lives. The sad fact is, Mr. President, that today to many of our 
children, America is a very tough place to grow up in.
  I have previously come to the Senate floor and discussed the issue of 
our children. What I think is the biggest crisis facing this country is 
what is happening to our young people. Many of our young children are 
growing up in good conditions, but too many of them live in an 
environment that makes it very, very difficult for them, very 
problematic, as to whether they can succeed.
  I have talked about this. I talked about the fact that this is the 
first generation in our history whose life expectancy is no greater 
than their parents because of deaths from auto accidents, deaths 
because of drugs, homicides.
  A generation where young children are being born, one-third of all 
children being born today to parents who are not married; two-thirds of 
the children born in our inner cities are born to parents who are not 
married.
  Probably, Mr. President, the most disheartening fact of all, is 
probably something that was encountered last year by the Presiding 
Officer as he traveled through the State of Missouri campaigning, as I 
found traveling the State of Ohio, and that is that people today do not 
believe their children will have a better life than they had. They do 
not believe the standard of living for their children will be even as 
good as they had. That to me is the most disheartening fact of all.
  What do we do? Government has a role. I introduced my crime bill last 
week. I talked about the fact I was targeting money for more cities and 
for police officers to go in there, because too many of our young 
people live in an unsafe environment.
  I will continue to talk about that in the months ahead. It is not 
just Government. We all have a responsibility. Communities have a 
responsibility. There are things Government can do and things that 
Government cannot do.
  What I want to talk about specifically tonight is one thing that 
sometimes we forget does impact on children. That is the huge spending, 
the huge national debt, and the huge tax burden that we are placing on 
this generation of parents and on the next generation of our children 
when they grow up.
  We are dealing, Mr. President, with a sad fact that the U.S. Congress 
makes the situation worse for our children by throwing away so many of 
America's resources in an utterly irresponsible manner. To pay for 
Congress' reckless spending, the Federal Government has to take far too 
much money from the parents of these children.
  When my parents were growing up in the 1930's, their families had to 
work on an average until March 8 of every year to pay for Congress' 
spending. By the time I was growing up, and my wife Fran was growing up 
in the 1960's, a typical family had to work until April 16 to pay the 
taxes. Today, 1995, American families have to work until May 6 to pay 
their taxes. That is money that is stolen from families, stolen from 
children.
  Sometimes it feels like America's parents are in a tug of war with 
the Federal Government for the resources they need to raise their 
children. Frankly, Mr. President, I am sure they feel on many days that 
the Government is winning.
  This budget begins the process of restoring the resources to the 
parents. It is only a beginning, but it is a necessary beginning. We 
ask parents today to do a lot.
  It is time for this Congress and this Government to stop hindering 
their efforts and to start helping. I think we sometimes forget, Mr. 
President, the tremendous burden the taxes place on the American family 
today and how many of the decisions of that family are made, forced to 
be made, because of that burden. Decisions about whether the mother, 
the father, both work; whether one spouse holds down two jobs or three 
jobs. All these things are impacted by the Federal tax burden. The 
Government impacts these families and puts a tremendous burden on these 
families.
  Mr. President, I have talked about the fact that for some children it 
is not easy being a kid in America today. We have a lot of problems. 
Yet we continue to let the Federal Government deprive young parents of 
the resources they need.
  Mr. President, if we do not act now and pass this budget resolution, 
it will get a lot tougher to change things in the future. If we keep 
spending at this rate, by the year 2012, 17 years from today, there 
will be nothing--nothing--left in the budget for discretionary spending 
on our domestic needs. Zero. Every last cent in the Federal budget will 
go to entitlements and interest payments. Think of that: Every cent 
will go to entitlements and interest payments.
  Mr. President, those interest payments did not go to our children. 
They do not go to the kids. I do not think it is a surprise or a secret 
to also indicate to this body that, frankly, neither does most of the 
entitlement spending, either.
  Mr. President, just a year before that year 2012, our grandson, 
Albert, will graduate from high school. In that year, our daughter, 
Anna, if things work out, will be in her first year of college. If we 
do not act today, Albert and Anna's generation will pay a severe human 
cost.
  Between today and the year 2025, the Federal debt per person will 
continue to rise year after year after year. Today the debt on each 
person is approximately $18,500.
  In the year 2025, it is going to be more than $60,000 for every 
single man, woman, and child in America.
  Look at the modest sacrifices this budget resolution proposes, so 
that we can balance the budget. Then look at the incredible sacrifices 
that our children will have to make if we do not.
  In this budget, we slow the rate of increase of fast-growing 
programs.
  The alternative is a $60,000 debt burden for every person in America.
  It is a clear choice, Mr. President. The longer we delay, the more it 
is [[Page S7235]] going to hurt. I say, let our day of reckoning be 
now, before it really hurts.
  Many of the Senators speaking here on the Senate floor have focused 
on the pain that is contained in this budget resolution. But here are 
the facts.
  We are not going to touch Social Security.
  We are going to let Medicare funding increase, by an average of 7 
percent. Each year, over the next 7 years. Let us look at children's 
programs.
  Chapter 1. No cut.
  Head Start. No cut.
  Special education. Spending actually increases.
  Women, Infants, and Children. Spending goes up.
  School breakfast. Spending goes up.
  School lunches. Spending goes up.
  Over the next 7 years, we propose spending $815 billion on the 
following major means-tested programs affecting child welfare: Food 
Stamps. Earned income tax credit. AFDC and child care. Supplemental 
security income. Child nutrition.
  For many reasons, this is a child-oriented budget.
  This budget is designed to make tough choices now, so that our 
children will not have to face a lot tougher set of choices tomorrow.
  Contrary to a lot of the rehetoric, we
   are not taking a meat-ax to this budget. What we have here is a 
scalpel.

  America's fiscal policy today is on a glide path toward total 
collapse. I think a better way of saying it is we are on a glidepath to 
crash the plane. Anyone who looks at this budget and complains about 
deep cuts is on a collision course with reality.
  If you think there are deep cuts in this budget--wait till you see 
the cuts that are going to be necessary, a few short years from now, if 
we do not pass this budget.
  On the Senate floor, this budget resolution has been called a lump of 
coal for America's children. To call that absurd would be an 
understatement.
  The alternative to this sensible, child-oriented budget is the 
bankruptcy budget that's already scheduled for the year 2012. That 
bankruptcy budget will become a reality for our children unless we act 
now.
  To leave our children flat busted broke, less than two decades from 
today, would be a cruel act of child abuse.
  Fortunately, the American people gave us a clear mandate last 
November. It was a mandate for change. When the debt is nearly $5 
trillion, and bankruptcy is less than 20 years away, it is time to 
change course; to choose the future over the past; to do something that 
will earn the gratitude of the next generation of Americans.
  Mr. President, the future of our children depends on the choices we 
make in this budget. Speaking for the people of Ohio, I think we are 
ready to do what is right.
  Let us rescue our children's future. The first step is to pass this 
courageous budget resolution.
  This is a moment of history. Each one of us in our daily lives, in 
our public lives, does things. We do things that we think are 
important. Frankly, I do not know there is anything we as individuals 
in our public life, or we collectively in the U.S. Senate, can do that 
will do more to change the direction of this country to have a positive 
impact on our children and their children, than to pass this budget.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I wish to compliment our distinguished 
colleague. It was well delivered, the set of comments. Indeed, I felt 
he explained with great clarity precisely what it is, namely the 
objective on this side in trying to proceed to reach a balanced budget.
  I would like to address another aspect of this budgetary problem. 
Today, under the leadership of the chairman of the Armed Services 
Committee and Senator McCain, we had a debate regarding the need for 
additional funding in this resolution for our national defense. I 
participated in that, as did every single Republican on the Armed 
Services Committee. I am pleased to say the distinguished ranking 
member of the Armed Services Committee, the Senator from Georgia, Mr. 
Nunn, likewise participated and indeed supported the amendment. The 
amendment was also coauthored by the Senator from Texas, [Mrs. 
Hutchison].
  I would like to expand on some of the points that we made during the 
course of the debate today. I commend particularly the Senator from New 
Mexico, Senator Domenici, for his courageous proposal to balance this 
budget in 2002, but I regret that Senator Domenici was not able to put 
in that budget for the Senate, a level of funding which more closely 
matched that arrived at by the House of Representatives.
  Mr. President, I am concerned about the security of our Nation as is 
every Member of the U.S. Senate. We face a world that has dramatically 
changed in the period that I have been privileged to serve here in the 
U.S. Senate. During the period where we had the cold war with the 
Soviet Union, we were able to make calculations with considerable 
precision as to the risk this Nation faced from communism led by the 
Soviet Union and its satellite Warsaw Pact nations, and develop in the 
course of time the exact weaponry that we believed was necessary to 
deter that risk. And, together with our allies in NATO, we did achieve 
the goal of maintaining peace in the European Continent in that period 
at the close of World War II until today. But with the demise of the 
Soviet Union, the risk became more difficult to calculate, and indeed, 
the range of weapons that this Nation needs and the level of the Armed 
Forces required to put in place the deterrent is far more complicated.
  We now have experienced 10 consecutive years of lowering defense 
numbers. I repeat that--10 consecutive years. And we are now faced with 
a budget resolution that would make it 11 consecutive years.
  As we speak here tonight, our Armed Forces are preparing, in a sense 
on standby, for the possibility of a mission quite different than that 
we envisioned during the days of the cold war, but no less inherent the 
risk of the men and women in the Armed Forces who may be called on to 
perform this mission. And that is the mission to assist the United 
Nations and NATO in withdrawal of the forces from that geographic area 
once known as Yugoslavia, namely the UNPROFOR forces.
  I happen to be of the opinion that those forces have performed a 
successful mission. It is true that combat still rages, tragic 
killings, particularly in Sarajevo still go on. But had it not been for 
the presence of the UNPROFOR ground forces--and I wish to include, Mr. 
President, the very valuable and essential contribution of the U.S. 
forces in the air, protective role, and the sea role--which closed the 
ports going into the Pelagruz.
  This past Friday, for an example, an article appeared in the Virginia 
Pilot. That article was entitled ``Naval Reserve Jets Activated for 
Duty in Bosnia Combat.'' That should really have read, ``activated for 
standby duty''. But, nevertheless, they were activated. May I read just 
a paragraph or two?

       For the first time since the Vietnam War a squadron of 
     Naval Reserve warplanes is being activated and sent to the 
     Mediterranean to join military operations over Bosnia. The 
     deployment is part of the Pentagon's plan to rely more on the 
     select Reserves during the military's downsizing.

  That is a decade of downsizing that I addressed earlier.
  This particular squadron is one I am familiar with, given they are in 
my State, and operate EA-6P's, which have a critical role in the 
suppression of what we call ground-to-air threats. They are few and far 
between, these aircraft in our inventory today. When a special mission 
like this occurs, we have to call on the Reserves and the Guard. I 
certainly wish to commend the role of the Reserves and the Guard in 
many operations in that conflict.
  For example, I made two trips down into Sarajevo, and each time the 
transportation was provided by C-130's from Zagreb, Croatia, into 
Sarajevo and Air Guard units operated those aircraft. The crews were 
Air Guardsmen who had volunteered to come back on a period of active 
duty, some 6 months, some 12 months, and fly those dangerous missions. 
Indeed, those missions were dangerous. On my first trip in, 
regrettably, the aircraft right behind us--and they were staggered 
about every 30 to 40 minutes to an hour. They were staggered. The 
aircraft behind us was shot down with the loss of life. That is the 
type of risk that the Guard and Reserve units have taken. 
[[Page S7236]] 
  Whether or not you believe that we should put U.S. forces at risk to 
carry out this ground mission, namely to help extract UNPROFOR, if the 
decision is made--and as yet it has not been made by the United Nations 
nor NATO--I am certain that the Members of the U.S. Senate will want to 
support the President, and provide that aid that is necessary to 
perform the extraction of those troops from the ground areas.
  I am also certain that every Senator in this Chamber would support 
funding to ensure that our forces are trained and equipped to 
facilitate that extraction. That is the type of thing we are talking 
about here.
  Last year we had to provide a supplemental. There is no way the 
President nor the Secretary of Defense can anticipate the contingency 
operations and the level of funding associated with those operations. 
That is why we must fully fund the basic budget of the Department of 
Defense and rely less and less on the supplemental type of funding.
  We learned in Operation Desert Storm that well-trained troops 
equipped with modern weapons and equipment suffer fewer casualties if 
they are properly trained, properly equipped, and properly supported 
logistically. That is what we are talking about in seeking this added 
funding.
  I regret that the Senate did not adopt that amendment today, and 
somehow we will have to revisit this issue and do the very best we can 
to make sure that the men and women of the Armed Forces today are as 
equipped, trained, and otherwise supplied as we have done historically 
throughout these many years since World War II for our forces who 
volunteer, All Volunteer Forces.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Santorum). The Senator from Texas.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I want to commend the Senator from 
Virginia. I agree with him wholeheartedly. I think when we are here on 
the floor debating some of the toughest decisions that we are ever 
going to make in our lifetime, that these things, like the defense 
budget that lost today on the floor, will be coming back. We will be 
able to continue to debate the role of defense, and I think when we 
finish this bill that we will see a little shifting of the priorities 
towards stronger national defense for just the reasons that the Senator 
from Virginia states, that we have things coming up that were 
unforeseen that are not put in the budget, like the need for American 
troops to help with the U.N. evacuation of Bosnia, which seems to be a 
possibility on the horizon.
  But the point is that these things are going to happen, and we are 
going to have to budget in a way that allows for those eventualities 
and those emergencies.
  So, I think the point here is that we are here tonight talking about 
some of the toughest decisions that we are ever going to make. We are 
trying to do the responsible thing.
  I appreciate the Senator from Virginia and his leadership in the 
national defense area. I appreciate his coming out tonight to talk 
about those priorities.
  So, I thank the Senator.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, if I could ask the Senator from Texas to 
yield just for a moment.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. I am happy to yield.
  Mr. WARNER. We are fortunate that we have the services of the Senator 
from Texas on the Armed Services Committee. She was one of the three 
sponsors of the amendment today to try to adjust this funding upward. 
As we talked, she did so because of the briefings we had before the 
Armed Services Committee. Indeed, the Presiding Officer this evening is 
a member of the Armed Services Committee, the Senator from 
Pennsylvania. We have been briefed on the proliferation of weapons of 
mass destruction, an ever-increasing threat, the proliferation of 
short-range ballistic missiles.
  We have also been advised by General Clapper, of the Defense 
Intelligence Agency, that there are no less than 60 geographic areas in 
the world today which he considers--repeat, which he considers--could 
erupt into the type of combat which might require the necessity for the 
intervention of our allies, or, indeed, possibly the United States.
  So I thank the Senator from Texas for joining this debate tonight, 
and particularly commend her for her leadership today on an amendment 
to try to restore some of the funding.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. I thank the Senator from Virginia. I am very pleased 
to have him in support.
  I want to yield the floor to the Senator from the State of Washington 
because I know he has been very active in the budget debate trying to 
save the Medicare system for the people of this country.
  That is what we are doing. That is what we have been doing this week 
and what we are going to be doing in the next few days. We are going to 
be doing the things that are necessary to save the Medicare system so 
that when our future generations need this care, it will be there 
because we have done the responsible thing this week in the Senate.
  So I am happy to yield to the Senator from Washington.
  Mr. GORTON addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.

                          ____________________