[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 146 (Tuesday, September 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H9223]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




IMPORTANCE OF A BALANCED BUDGET, WELFARE REFORM AND MEDICARE TO AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Kingston] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I have just returned from 4 days in 
Georgia visiting with constituents, meeting with a few civic clubs, and 
riding in a parade or two. In talking around the district that I 
represent, the coastal area of Georgia, Georgia's first district, the 
three predominant things that seem to be on people's minds are 
balancing the budget, reforming welfare, and the changes in the 
Medicare Program.
  On balancing the budget, even though the other body across the Hall 
failed to pass the balanced budget amendment, it is absolutely 
undeniable that the American people want us to balance the budget. As a 
member of the Committee on Appropriations I can say that we are moving 
in that direction. We have 1 appropriations bill left out of 13. 
Hopefully, we will pass that this week or next week. When we do, we 
will have all of our appropriations bills passed, which take us to 
having a balanced budget by the year 2002.
  The importance of this, Mr. Speaker, is that as we have these billion 
dollar deficits each year, it takes money away from other programs and 
we are unable to pay down the debt. Now all we are doing is servicing 
the interest. Currently, the interest on the national debt is the third 
largest item in our budget every year. In 2 years that interest is 
expected to exceed all of the military spending. Once we get rid of the 
deficit, we can start paying off the principal beyond the interest of 
the debt. Of course, it will take many, many years. We have a $4.8 
trillion debt.
  The definition, Mr. Speaker, of a trillion, to illustrate it, and, 
first of all, it is almost beyond comprehension, but if we spent 
$100,000 a minute, 24 hours a day, it would take 19 years to get to $1 
trillion. We currently have a debt of $4.8 trillion. We simply cannot 
pass that on to the children of the United States of America.
  I think it is very important that this House is moving toward a 
balanced budget as fast as we can. I certainly hope the folks in the 
other body feel the same way.
  We have passed welfare reform in the House. Our welfare reform has 
four significant planks to it.
  No. 1, a work requirement. If an individual is able-bodied, in order 
to get welfare, they should have to work.
  No. 2, a mechanism to discourage illegitimate births, since that is 
one of the biggest problems in America today.
  No. 3, State flexibility. We may do it differently in Georgia than 
the folks in New York, but let us make those decisions.
  And No. 4, no welfare benefits to illegal aliens. We want to help 
them if they are hurt in this country, but we also want them to get 
back home if they are not American citizens, so that they are not 
coming over to America to enjoy the benefits of our generous public 
benefits system.
  The third thing people are interested in, of course, is the Medicare 
Program. The current trustees in April said that Medicare is going 
broke. We have to move to save it. We are trying to slow the growth of 
it, trying to make the growth of Medicare inflation about 6 percent, 
which is closer to what it is in regular medical inflation. Actually, 
regular medical inflation was down last year. It was not even 
inflation. But the costs were down.
  The thing we need to do on Medicare is protect and preserve it by 
simplifying it. We want to give senior citizens a whole list of 
options: choice of doctors, choice of traditional fee-for-service 
plans, choice of traditional Medicare, and, along with that, some other 
options like Medisave accounts and so forth.
  We believe all this can be done, Mr. Speaker, and the result will be 
a better product to American seniors. Again, we want to protect and 
preserve it.
  The big frustration that the American people seem to be having is 
while we have done a lot of things in the House, across the Hall, in 
the other body, they are taking the route of inaction. It is true today 
they passed welfare reform, but we passed ours back in March. It is 
time to bring these issues to a question. Will the other body and will 
the executive branch join the House, the lower Chamber, in making the 
reforms necessary to preserve our country?
  I hope that they will, because we are clearly on the road to personal 
responsibility, personal discipline, balancing the budget, lowering 
taxes, decreasing Government regulation and micromanagement out of 
Washington, and, best of all and most importantly, increasing personal 
freedom. We cannot do it alone. We have to have the cooperation of the 
full legislative branch of Government, which means the other body, and 
we have to have the executive branch to sign this into law.

  Mr. Speaker, if we can get the cooperation of the folks across the 
hall, I believe we will have a balanced budget, we will have Medicare 
reform, and we will have welfare reform. This, Mr. Speaker, I believe, 
is what the American people are asking for.

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