[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 159 (Friday, October 13, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15164-S15165]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                THE FISCAL AFFAIRS OF THE UNITED STATES

  Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, I also appreciate your accepting the 
duty of presiding so that I might make a comment or two about a number 
of the speeches that have been made as amendments and commentary at the 
time of discussing your bill that had nothing whatsoever to do with 
your bill.
  From the other side of the aisle, we have heard repeatedly criticism 
of the efforts of the new majority to take charge of the fiscal affairs 
of the United States, even though the vast majority of the American 
people sent this new majority here to do just that. They have rejected 
the status quo. They have rejected the concept of spending money we do 
not have. They have rejected the prospect of robbing the future of its 
opportunity because there are no resources left. They have rejected the 
idea that this Nation not stumble into the next century 5 years from 
now. Yet, all we hear is the same song sheet--leave everything the way 
it is, and reject the pleas of the American people to take charge of 
our own financial house.
  I tell you. It is mind-boggling.
  We have said there are four things that must happen. We must balance 
our budgets. Eighty-eight percent of the American people say we must 
balance our budget. Are we deaf? They want the budget balanced, and for 
good reason. They have to balance their own checkbooks. They have to 
balance the checkbooks of their businesses. And they know nations have 
to do the same thing.
  I was reading in the bipartisan entitlement commission report just 
the other day where it said--and it ought to be a loud wake-up call for 
every American, and certainly for the President and for every American 
policymaker. It says this: It says that within 10 years--that is a snap 
of a finger--within 10 years all U.S. resources will be exhausted by 
just five programs. Just five--Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, 
Federal retirement, and the interest on our debt. And there is nothing 
left. We will not be debating a B-2 bomber. There will not be one, nor 
anything else to defend the Nation, nor a school lunch program nor a 
Transportation Department nor a Commerce Department nor any of them. No 
American, no Member of this Senate, not a person who has abused their 
financial affairs can carry out their mission--not a person, not a 
family, not a business, not a community and yes, Mr. President, not 
even nations. No generation of Americans has ever given the future a 
country crippled. But we are perilously close to doing just that.
  Mr. President, we have said we must balance our budgets so that we 
quit adding debt. We have said we want to save Medicare because the 
trustees have said it is going bankrupt, and we want to protect it and 
preserve it. And we want to save $270 billion, not for a tax increase, 
but by law to keep it in the Medicare Trust Fund so that its solvency 
is pushed out years from now so that it does not go bankrupt, so that 
the current beneficiaries will not have the program closed, and, 
importantly, so the beneficiaries to come will have it in place.
  We said welfare as it is known must come to an end. You would be hard 
pressed to find a single citizen in this 

[[Page S 15165]]

country that would not agree with that--balance the budget, protect 
Medicare, alter welfare, and, Mr. President, the fourth item is lower 
taxes.
  You would think that was a travesty from what we have heard on the 
floor; that it is an absolute sin to talk about lowering taxes on the 
American working family.
  When Ozzie and Harriet were the preeminent American family, Ozzie 
sent 2 percent of his paycheck to this town. If Ozzie was here today, 
first of all his family would be completely different and not look a 
bit like what it was then, mainly because he would be sending 25 
percent of every dime he earned to this town. Would it be any wonder 
that Harriet would not be in the house? She would have to be working.
  Balance our budget--America wants that done; protect Medicare--
America wants that done; change welfare--America wants that done; lower 
the financial burden on middle America so that it can do the job it is 
supposed to do with its own family and without a Washington caretaker--
America wants that done.
  Boy, you would never think that from what we have heard the last 2 
days. I tell you. Where America is and where those speeches are is 
totally different.
  A couple more things, and then I will allow the Presiding Officer to 
get on with his business of the day.
  One, where has the President been in this debate? First, during the 
campaign, he said he was going to balance the budget in 5 years. I do 
not know what happened to that promise. He was going to balance the 
budget in 5 years. Then we offered a balanced budget, and he said, I am 
not offering any budget.
  That is real leadership. That did not play very well in America.
  So he says, OK, I am going to offer a budget. I will balance it in 10 
years, and it will be easier to do. He has gone all over the country 
saying that. There is only one problem. That budget never balances, 
ever--not in 7 years, not in 5 years, not in 7, not in 10; never.
  How do I know that? Because the Congressional Budget Office, which he 
told a joint session of Congress is the numbers we should use, says it 
will not. The only thing that says it will is the President and his own 
budget makers.
  Mr. President, your budget does not balance, and that is not 
leadership, and it is not what America is asking for.
  The last thing I am going to say is this, Mr. President. That is a 
sober message, that all our money would be gone for five things in less 
than 10 years; that Medicare is going bankrupt. We have to really get 
tough on managing our financial affairs.
  That is a tough message, but America needs to know that at the end of 
the day, if we take charge of our business, if we run this country the 
way our forefathers would have us do it, the way those who went to 
Europe to defend it would have us do it, we will send America into the 
next century with more hope and more opportunity than is even 
describable. We will lower interest rates. That will affect everybody 
who buys a car or a refrigerator or a home or has to borrow money to 
send kids to school. We will lower the economic pressure on those 
families. We will leave more money for them to manage their education, 
their housing, their retirement. We will create millions of new jobs--
millions of new jobs. We will be strong. We will be the only 
superpower, and we will have the muscle to defend it.
  This happens very quickly if we just start taking charge of our 
business. If nothing else would motivate you to do it, the kinds of 
results that come from managing our affairs ought to make every 
American be calling their Congressman, their Senator, and, yes, the 
President and say: Get on with this. Do this for me. Do this for my 
family. And, yes, do this for our country.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coverdell). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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