[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 160 (Tuesday, October 17, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15205-S15206]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             RECONCILIATION

  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I would also like to talk about another 
issue this afternoon, and that is an issue that I discussed briefly 
this morning, an issue that we in the Senate will be debating for the 
next few weeks and an issue that has, I believe, historic importance, 
not just in this Senate but to this country, not just to this 
generation but to our children's generation and our grandchildren's.
  I rise specifically today, Mr. President, to discuss the 
reconciliation bill that we expect to reach the floor sometime in the 
next 2 weeks.
  This bill embodies the decision that the American people expressed 
last November. The American people last December decided that we need 
to make a fundamental change in course for our U.S. Government
  Many of us ran, many of us talked about these issues, and what were 
the commitments? I think we can summarize them as follows. There are 
many, but four essential commitments were made last November, four 
commitments that we will work over the next few weeks to carry out:
  First, we need to balance the budget.
  Second, we need to replace the welfare system with a system that 
rewards work and creates opportunity.
  Third, we need to rescue Medicare from bankruptcy.
  And fourth, we need to give some tax relief to the hard-working 
families of this country. Four basic simple things that I believe, if 
passed, if enacted, will fundamentally change the direction of this 
country.
  While these are simple, I think it is fair to say that this is really 
an extremely ambitious agenda. Even to consider an agenda of this 
magnitude would make this a truly historic Congress. But in this 
reconciliation package, the Senate is about to pass this agenda, to 
actually pass it, and to send it on to the President of the United 
States.
  Except for a few days at the beginning of 1953, the last time a 
Democratic President had to deal with a Republican Congress--with a 
Republican Congress--was from 1947 to 1949. In the 1948 election, the 
Democratic President accused the Republicans of running a do-nothing 
Congress. The current President is very well equipped with rhetorical 
ammunition. They work very hard on this at the other end of 
Pennsylvania Avenue, but I think that the charge that this is a do-
nothing Congress is not one the White House will be using any time 
soon, or at least the White House will be using successfully any time 
soon, because the fact is, this Congress has stepped up to the plate 
and made some extremely tough decisions.
  This Congress has passed a balanced budget plan for the first time, 
if we carry it out, since 1969. This Congress is fundamentally 
overhauling the welfare system, and just a few weeks ago on this floor, 
this Senate passed a historic welfare bill.
  I believe this Congress will take the steps to save Medicare from 
bankruptcy.
  This Congress is working to relieve the tax burden on working 
families.
  Mr. President, this is the historic agenda the 104th Congress is 
prepared to send to the President of the United States. Let us make no 
mistake, this reconciliation package is the only proposal on the table 
that will achieve the goals of the American people.
  Our national goals are to balance the budget and to let working 
families keep more of their own money. The Republican reconciliation 
package accomplishes both of these goals. Indeed, Mr. President, if you 
look at it a certain way, these two are, in fact, the 

[[Page S 15206]]
same goal. If we do not take action now to balance the budget, the tax 
burden will only get worse and worse for American families in the 
future.
  The report of the bipartisan entitlement commission could not be more 
clear: If we do not change our present course by the year 2012, every 
single penny in the Federal budget will be consumed by entitlements and 
interest on the national debt. If in the year 2012 we want Government 
to do anything at all, such as run the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, 
run a program for women, infants, and children, the WIC Program, or any 
other things we consider important, it would have to mean a tax 
increase, a huge, staggering tax increase. You would have to have a tax 
increase, because there is no money left to do these things.
  Let me try to put our present course in historical perspective and 
talk about an American family.
  When my parents graduated from high school in early 1940's, the debt 
on each child who graduated that year was approximately $360. By the 
time my wife, Fran, and I graduated in 1965, it was up to $1,600 for 
each child.
  When our older children, Patrick, Jill, and Becky, graduated in the 
mid-1980's, that figure had risen per child. The debt for each child 
graduating those years was $9,000. If we continue to go the way we have 
been going, by the year 2012, just 1 year after our grandson, Albert, 
graduates from high school and just 1 year after our daughter, Anna, 
enters college, by that year 2012, that figure will be $25,000. That 
will be $25,000 in debt for each person--each man, woman, child--in 
this country.
  What a staggering debt, what a horrible legacy we would be leaving to 
our children and our grandchildren. Clearly, the longer we wait to 
change course, the worse it will be for the American people.
  The reconciliation package that we will be considering balances the 
budget by slowing the rate of growth of Federal spending. Let me repeat 
that. It balances the budget by slowing the rate of growth.
  Columnist James Glassman of the Washington Post has proposed a useful 
way of looking at this bill, this package. Add up all the spending by 
the Federal Government over the last 7 years and compare it with the 
total this budget proposes to spend over the next 7 years. The result: 
Spending over the next 7 years will increase over the last 7 years by 
$2.6 trillion.
  Let me repeat that. Spending will increase. The truth is that by 
limiting spending growth to just a little more than the expected rate 
of inflation, by doing this, what would seem to be, simple act, we can 
balance the budget.
  If we as a nation cannot summon the will and the courage to make that 
relatively small sacrifice, how on Earth can we expect the next 
generation to face a budget with no money in the discretionary account, 
no money for defense, no money for social programs, and $25,000 of debt 
owed by every single American?
  Mr. President, over a working lifetime, the interest alone on the 
national debt will cost an American child born today a total of 
$187,000.
  It is clear to me as well as to the American people this could very 
well be our last chance to solve this problem before it is really too 
late. This is a grave responsibility, and I do not believe that we can 
back away from it.
  Is there an alternative? Is there anything else we can do? The 
President has proposed a different approach. His budget, according to 
the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the budget office that he 
told us we should be following, contains deficits, according to their 
calculation. His budget, the President's budget, contains deficits of 
$200 billion as far as the eye can see, for the foreseeable future. His 
budget never gets to balance. Let me repeat that. According to CBO, the 
President's budget never gets to balance. In other words, no balanced 
budget, staggering deficits as far as the eye can see.

  Mr. President, I do not believe that is how America wants to begin a 
new millennium. For over 200 years, we have given hope to all the 
nations of the world--hope that free men and women are, in fact, 
capable of self-government, capable of making responsible choices to 
ensure a prosperous future for our families, our children, and for our 
country.
  Mr. President, a vote for the Republican reconciliation package is a 
vote to balance the budget so that we can start reducing the national 
debt and so we can put America on course toward a future we can be 
proud to leave our children.
  The administration's budget proposal would take today's staggering 
deficits, add 24 percent, and then ask our children and grandchildren 
to pay our bills. Often in the past, Americans have faced up to a 
choice, a choice between two futures. The choice we make in this 
historic Congress will rank with some of the most important in our 
Nation's history. As Congress decides and as America decides, I believe 
we should stay true to our national calling. We should prove, Mr. 
President, that America is in fact capable of responsibility. We must 
balance the budget so that our children and grandchildren do not have 
to pay our bills. We must, we should, put the future first and support 
the reconciliation bill.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I 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. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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