[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 161 (Wednesday, October 18, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S15295]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ORDER OF PROCEDURE

  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I understand that we are on automatic pilot. 
When I finish, we will go out?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
  Mr. DOLE. I will say, the Senate Finance Committee will resume markup 
of the $245 billion tax reduction bill. I am not certain precisely when 
that will be. I think somewhere around 5 o'clock. The chairman, Senator 
Roth, will be in contact with the committee members.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, Washington can be a scary place sometimes 
and pretty scary around the time of Halloween. But yesterday's 
announcement from Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin about expiration of 
the debt ceiling on October 31 brings Halloween scare tactics to a 
whole new level.
  I was dismayed to see the administration resort to this sort of game-
playing on the debt ceiling and the budget situation. And I am sure 
many in the financial community were as dismayed as I was.
  Mr. President, investors around the world are watching our 
performance here in Washington and they are particularly watching how 
we Republicans are handling the Nation's financial situation.
  So far the reaction has been very positive. Look at U.S. long-term 
interest rates, a key sign of investor confidence in the U.S. economy. 
The bond market has been strong and the rates have been steadily 
declining as the financial community sees our determination as a 
Republican Congress to finally deal with the problem of the Federal 
budget deficit once and for all.
  Last December--right after the Republicans swept the 1994 
congressional elections--the interest rates on 30-year bonds began 
their decline from 8.0 percent to 6.29 percent today. The interest rate 
on long-term bonds has declined steadily since this spring when we 
passed our budget resolution to get on a path to a balanced budget by 
the year 2002. It is our actions as a Republican Congress that have 
spurred confidence in our country's future economic security.
  Today we find ourselves in the ironic situation of a Secretary of the 
Treasury--the U.S. Government official with the primary responsibility 
of promoting confidence in the economy--actually trying to disrupt the 
financial markets.
  Secretary Rubin has politicized this debate. His actions yesterday to 
reduce normal, previously scheduled borrowing next week can only be 
interpreted as designed to disrupt the market. No Secretary of the 
Treasury should try to be destabilizing our financial markets.
  As Secretary Rubin said in his letter--about the only sentence in it 
I agreed with--``This is no way for a great Nation to conduct its 
financial affairs.''
  I hope that no one will be fooled by these Halloween scare tactics 
from the administration. In fact, even after yesterday's announcement 
the bond market was strong. The American people want us to do the job 
of getting the deficit under control.
  Mr. President, no one wants a default. And scare tactics are no way 
to prevent such a default. I can guarantee that we in the Congress will 
work hard to see to it that there is no default by the U.S. Government 
on its obligations.
  But make no mistake: We will not retreat in our battle to end the 
stranglehold that the Federal deficit has on future generations of 
Americans. This is the year to do the heavy lifting necessary to get 
our Nation's financial house in order and I trust the administration 
will choose to be helpful in the serious work ahead of us in the coming 
weeks.

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