[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 160 (Tuesday, October 17, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15191-S15192]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE MISSION BEFORE US

  Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I rise to join today with my freshman 
and sophomore colleagues to talk about the mission before us here in 
the next several weeks. We here in the Senate, and in the House, and 
the American public are now focused on the mission at hand, which is to 
try to balance 

[[Page S 15192]]
this budget over the next 7 years and come up with a plan for reforming 
a number of areas of Government.
  It is, I think, one of the most important times in our country's 
history, certainly from a financial standpoint and a long-term economic 
security standpoint. I think this debate is as important as the debate 
that occurred during the Great Depression when we were trying to right 
the ship of state and preserve a long-term future during that crisis.
  We are at a similar crisis, I believe, in our country's time, with 
the mountains of debt that we continue to pile up, and, really, no end 
is in sight. The fact is that we have over half of our Government on 
automatic pilot, spending money without any idea of how much it is 
going to go up. We have projections that Medicare is going to go up 10 
percent a year, Medicare 8 percent a year, whatever the case may be. 
But we do not know what it is. We add up the bills at the end of the 
year and that is what we pay out.
  Can you imagine a family or a business saying, well, half of the 
money we spend, we have absolutely no idea what it is going to be at 
the end of the year because we promised people we were going to pay 
these things, and whether we have enough money or not, it does not 
matter because we promised we were going to pay it. That is the 
insanity we are in that causes the deficits to be at this level--now 
almost $5 trillion in the national debt.
  We have an opportunity to do something about that now. It is really 
the first time since I have been in the Congress--I was in the House 4 
years prior to coming to the Senate. This is the first chance I have 
had to seriously address the issue which, when I first got elected to 
the House of Representatives, I promised I would come down here and 
do--to do things differently, to put our fiscal house in order, to 
establish America--as many speakers here talked about the moral 
authority of a Government that lived within its means and understands 
that we cannot continue to tax and penalize and put through very 
difficult times, because of the excesses of today. I think we have that 
moral obligation to act from that perspective.

  We also have an obligation, I think, a moral obligation, to act from 
the perspective that we promised. We promised back in 1994--and many of 
us who ran for office promised many times throughout our careers--we 
promised to come to Washington and seek to balance the budget.
  It is not an easy thing to do. I think if it was easy, it would have 
been done a long time ago. It is difficult. I think the American public 
understands it is difficult. But we promised. We have a Contract With 
America that says we will balance the budget.
  I think almost every Member on this side, and I know many Members on 
the other side when they ran for election talked about how crucial it 
was for the long-term future of this country to get our fiscal house in 
order and to balance the budget. We promised.
  You can put up all the arguments, charts, and graphs and say we 
should do this because it will help future generations, we are going to 
do this because it will lower interest rates or it will create more 
economic growth, or we will get rid of wasteful programs or create more 
freedom and opportunity, we will reform the welfare system, we will 
save Medicare.
  Those are all very good reasons to balance the budget. All very good 
reasons why we should act on the reconciliation package that will be 
coming up in the next several weeks. I have listed only a few. There 
are innumerable reasons why we should balance this budget. Possibly 
paramount among all of those is the fact that we promised.
  One thing I have heard from people, whether it is Democrats or 
Republicans, liberals or conservatives, the reason they are so 
disgruntled with government, whether it is at the State or national 
level, is there is a lack of trust that people who get elected actually 
follow through with what they promised when they run their campaigns. 
There is a dislink. There is the politician the candidate, and then the 
politician the elected official. What one says during the campaign does 
not jive with what one does when they are elected to office.
  We elect leaders of this country who promise all sorts of things and 
come down and do exactly the opposite. Then you ask people, how can you 
support someone who does that? Well, they all do it. It does not make 
any difference. They all say what they need to say to get elected. But 
they all do it. Why is he or she any worse than the rest? We can 
forgive that, I guess.
  I think those days are gone. I do not think the public will forgive 
that any more. I do not think they should forgive it in the first 
place, and I hope they do not. I think the least people should expect 
out of their elected representatives is they keep their promises. We 
made 10 promises in a Contract With America. I think probably paramount 
of all those promises was to balance the budget.
  Promises are important. If people do not have faith in their elected 
officials and institutions, that erosion of faith in support of our 
Government has very long-term consequences to the future and safety and 
freedom of this country.
  This is a big one. This is not a little white promise, a little white 
lie that we will tell. This is a big one. This is a major promise that 
we made to the American public.
  I heard a preacher the other day tell the story about this subject--
not the balanced budget--but about the importance of that trust. He 
talked of a man who headed up a college, I believe it was in South 
Carolina, a Bible college.
  His father had started this school, and all throughout his life 
growing up his dream was to succeed his father and run this school 
where people would have their avocation to become preachers and 
ministers. This was very important for him. He felt it was a calling 
from God to do this.
  He did. He succeeded his father in that position and ran that college 
very, very well. Unfortunately, his wife of many years contracted 
Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's is a devastating disease that 
eventually deteriorates the mind to the point where a person is no 
longer able to take care of themselves and needs full-time care. This 
happened to this woman at a very young age, unfortunately. She did 
deteriorate to the point where she was simply not able to take care of 
herself and needed full-time care.
  This husband, the man who had been called to run this college, this 
passion of his, decided to resign as president of the college, to take 
the time and spend the time to take care of his wife, who was a victim 
of Alzheimer's.
  His friends and people on the board of the college came up to him and 
said:

       Why are you doing this? She has Alzheimer's. She has no 
     idea who you are. She has no idea who is taking care of her. 
     Anyone can take care of her. Anyone can take care of her. You 
     have a calling. You are serving the Lord. You are doing what 
     you are good at. You may be the only one who can do this. How 
     can you leave that to do something that anyone can do?

  He said two things. First, he said: ``She may not know who I am, but 
I know who she is and I promised her when we got married to be there 
until death do us part. I promised.''
  Promises mean something. Promises are important for relationships, 
for the future of this country, between its elected representatives and 
the people. We promised. Now it is time to deliver. I yield the floor.
  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I inquire of the Chair how much time is 
remaining on the time of the Senator from Wyoming?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time is 13 minutes 20 seconds.

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