[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 163 (Friday, October 20, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15383-S15384]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    DEBATING THE PRESIDENT'S BUDGET

  Mr. GRAMS. Mr. President, I want to join in and congratulate my 
colleague from Pennsylvania for bringing this issue to the floor today.
  I just want to make a few statements in support of his effort, to put 
the President's so-called balanced budget on the table for debate, 
because I think we do need a healthy debate on both sides of the issue.
  I would like to read from what the President has had to say in the 
last 2 weeks in his radio addresses, when he talks about continually 
maintaining that he does have a balanced budget.
  He said on October 7, ``I am deeply committed to balance the Federal 
budget.'' A week earlier, on September 30, he said, ``I strongly 
believe we must balance the budget.'' He said, ``Let's be clear. Of 
course, we need to balance the budget.''
  Well, of the three budgets that the President has put on the desk 
this year, none actually balances, according to the CBO, even his 10-
year plan which he again touts as a balanced budget. It still leaves 
$200 billion-plus deficits as far as the eye can see. So the President 
really does not have a balanced budget at all. But at least we would 
like to have the opportunity to talk about it.
  We would like to give the other side of the aisle an opportunity to 
put those figures on the table. Let us debate them. Let us talk about 
them. Let us let the American people see the difference between the 
Republican plan and the Democratic plan.
  As you remember, back in 1993--this week the headlines have been 
talking about the budget of 1993 again. In fact, the President has been 
coming from both sides of the issue again, flip-flopping on whether he 
raised taxes too high. Yes, he did raise them too high. Did he make too 
many cuts? No. It was the spendthrift Democrats, that he could not stop 
their spending. So he had to raise taxes in order to balance the 
budget.
  If you look back at that balanced budget in 1993, the President has 
said many times we did not get one Republican vote in favor of that 
budget. And he is right, not one Republican voted for the President's 
budget.

[[Page S15384]]

  But what did Republicans do? As a Member of the House in 1993, I 
introduced a budget called Families First, which, by the way, now makes 
up much of what is in the Republican budget this year, including the 
$500 per child tax credit. And many of the others--Congressman John 
Kasich of Ohio, now the Budget chairman in the House, also introduced a 
budget plan in 1993. Congressman Jerry Solomon of New York, Republican, 
also introduced a budget of his own in 1993.
  So we had three definite Republican budgets on the table proposed and 
were voted on. We got 178 votes on my alternative Families First 
budget. So what we are saying is Republicans did not vote in 1993 for 
the President's plan, but we did vote for a budget plan that we had 
proposed.
  So what I would advocate here today, and my colleague from 
Pennsylvania has talked about, let us put the Democratic or the 
President's plan on the table so we can have a healthy debate and at 
least a comparison of the two plans. And then, hopefully, let us get a 
vote on it so the American people know where the numbers really lie and 
where they are.
  I know we are talking a lot about, and we are going to hear a lot in 
the debate, about the Social Security trust fund. This is a complicated 
issue. But the American people should know that the way the budget is 
set up, that all the funds from the Social Security trust fund has been 
used by past Democratic Congresses for the same purpose.
  The President's proposed budget that he maintains balances uses every 
dime, the same as the Republicans' do at this time for the unified 
budget. But what remains in the Social Security trust fund are IOU's. 
As my colleague from Pennsylvania pointed out, we are going to have to 
repay those IOU's in the very near future. That is going to mean new 
tax revenues in order to do it. That is the only way the Government can 
pay it back.
  So we do have a problem. We do have a luxury right now for the next 
few years of maintaining a surplus. But it will be easier to address 
this problem that we are going to be confronted with in Social Security 
if we stay on course and balance the budget by the year 2002.
  So I just hope that over the next couple days, and probably yet 
today, we are going to get a chance to look more at what the 
President's plan is, what he advocates, and get a healthy dialog and 
debate going on these budget issues so the American people do get a 
very clear picture of what the President has proposed and what 
Republicans propose, because this is going to be the most important 
issue, for not only this Congress, but for the Congresses to follow, 
for our children and grandchildren, because what we cannot do, morally 
or financially, is to leave them our debts. We have to address this 
problem with every ounce of energy that we have.
  So I hope we get a healthy debate on these issues. I thank you, Mr. 
President.
  I yield the floor. And I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SANTORUM. 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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