[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 111 (Tuesday, July 11, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H6820]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                THE FIRST 6 MONTHS OF THE 104TH CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Neumann] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. NEUMANN. Mr. Speaker, I stayed late tonight to tell the American 
people that we have come a long way in the first 6 months of this new 
Congress. We came here realizing that this nation was $4.8 trillion in 
debt, $19,000 for every man, woman, and child in the United States of 
America. For a family of five like mine, the nation faces a $95,000 
debt. In our district, the income, the average income is about $32,000 
a year and to do nothing but pay the interest on that federal debt, the 
families in my district will be saddled with the payment of over $6,000 
a year, $6,000 a year out of a $32,000 average household income going 
to do nothing but pay the interest on the federal debt.
  We came here, the 104th Congress, realizing that something had to be 
done about it. And after 6 months, I am happy to tell you that 
something has started. We have a long way to go but we have taken a lot 
of steps in the right direction.
  First, we have passed a seven-year balanced budget plan that at least 
is going to stop the continued growth of this debt that seems to be 
endless when we start looking at it and how big the numbers are. 
Although we have passed that, we have done some other things that I 
think are equally significant. We have talked about budgets that go 
even further than the seven-year plan.
  Out of my office we introduced a plan that would have balanced the 
budget in five years, and for the first time out here in Washington we 
started talking about paying off the debt. Our plan included a 
repayment plan so that in a 30-year period of time we could have repaid 
the entire federal debt.
  It did a third thing as we produced this plan on the floor of the 
House about 3 months ago, our first 6 months in office. For the first 
time we did not use the Social Security surplus as part of the 
computations to balance the budget. That is a significant step forward 
for this country.
  Our plan would have balanced the budget in five years, paid off the 
debt in 30 years, and not used the Social Security trust fund to do it. 
It is important the American people understand that the Social Security 
system every year collects more money in taxes than what it pays back 
out to our senior citizens in benefits and those extra monies that are 
selected should be set aside and our budget plan would have done just 
that.
  In addition to the budget plans that were debated here, we also had 
introduced by my good friend from New York a plan that actually would 
have balanced the budget in five years. The specific cuts were laid out 
item for item that would have gotten us to a balanced budget in a five-
year period of time. This bill is still pending in the House of 
Representatives and still may pass during this term of Congress. It is 
my hope and my desire that we see our way clear to actually passing 
those cuts that get us to a balanced budget in five years instead of 
seven.
  The best news of all is that the people that are here right now in 
this Congress realize that government cannot keep doing for people what 
people ought to be doing for themselves. It is with that note that I 
would conclude this evening. We have got a great start, folks. We have 
a long ways to go. I am happy to tell you that the first 6 months have 
been successful, and I look forward to continued successes here in this 
Congress.


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