[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 163 (Friday, October 20, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15384-S15386]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I want to get back to some of the points 
that the Senator from North Dakota was making with respect to the 
President's budget. I think it is significant that the Senator from 
North Dakota said that the President's budget does not come into 
balance in 10 years, as he is claiming it does all over the country. We 
should use the congressional budget numbers. In fact, the Democratic 
leader, Senator Daschle, shortly after the President introduced his 
budget, said that the President should use Congressional Budget Office 
numbers. They have been the most reliable. The President addressed a 
joint session of Congress on February 17, 1993. This was shortly after 
he was sworn in, inaugurated as President of the United States. He 
said:

       The Congressional Budget Office was normally more 
     conservative in what was going to happen and closer to right 
     than previous Presidents have been. I did this----

  In other words, he agreed to use Congressional Budget Office numbers.

     so that we can argue about priorities with the same set of 
     numbers. I did this so no one could say I was estimating my 
     way out of difficulty. In the last 12 years, because there 
     were differences over the revenue estimates, you and I know 
     that both parties were given greater elbow room for 
     irresponsibility. This is a tightening of the rein on the 
     Democrats as well as the Republicans. Let us argue about the 
     same set of numbers so that the American public will think we 
     are shooting straight with them.

  The President wanted to shoot straight back in 1993. In 1995, he 
wants to shoot any way he can to hit the target of getting reelected. 
He believes he needs to get reelected by campaigning that he has a 
balanced budget when he knows darn well he does not have one. He has 
done exactly what he said he would not do, which is ``estimating my way 
out of this difficulty.''
  He has reestimated what the growth of this country will be over the 
next 7 to 10 years and reestimated what the interest rates will be. You 
have to understand that if you reestimate just a tenth or two-tenths of 
1 percent more growth, what does that mean? If you say that instead of 
having 2.5 percent growth, actually, we are going to have 2.6 or 2.7 
percent, you might say that is close. Yes, it may be close, but it 
means hundreds of billions of dollars in differences to the Federal 
budget deficit, because that additional growth means more people are 
going to be working and paying taxes, and less people are going to be 
receiving Government benefits. Therefore, the deficit would be lower.
  I think it would be easy for me to balance the budget in 1 year. All 
I have to do is say the economy is not going to grow at 2.5 percent, 
but at 5 percent, interest rates will be at 2 percent, and I will have 
balanced the budget. I would not have to cut a thing or raise taxes, 
and just by estimating things differently for the future, I could 
balance the budget. The economy is a lot bigger than the Federal 
budget. When this multitrillion-dollar economy grows by even a little 
bit more, it has a tremendous ripple effect on this little part of the 
economy, which is the Federal Government.
  So what we are seeing here is the President trying to involve himself 
in debate, to become relevant to this debate, and he is using numbers 
that just do not add up. Now we are coming down to crunch time when we 
are going to bring up the budget reconciliation bill. We have a letter 
from the CBO that says it balances the budget. I want to make this 
clear, because people are saying that we have had Gramm-Rudman and all 
these things that were going to balance the budget. We have never 
passed a piece of legislation that, within its confines, has changes in 
law that will result in a balanced budget, if we do nothing else.
  We have passed budget rules that say, well, we have to do certain 
things every year and cut programs in the future and reduce spending in 
the future. And if we do not, we will have this mechanism in place to 
make you do it. That is what we have passed in the past. We have had 
procedures by which we are forced to make decisions to balance the 
budget. That is not what we are doing here. We have those in place just 
in case the economy does not grow as fast or just in case interest 
rates are higher, but what we have in place, given the conservative 
assumptions of the Congressional Budget Office, is a plan that will, in 
fact, result in a balanced budget, if we do nothing else. We do not 
have to make any more changes in law or raise any taxes or cut any 
programs. We will have done it all in one bill.
  It is fundamentally different than anything we have done here since 
1968, which I think was the last time we balanced the budget. We will 
have balanced this budget and put in place a law that does it--not a 
procedure that 

[[Page S15385]]
does it, but changes in programs in Washington that balance the budget.
  That is what the public has asked us to do. No more gimmicks, no more 
processes to do it. We have done it. We have made the tough decisions, 
and we have stepped up to the plate and taken a good swing at it.
  Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Anyone who suggests that anything that 
comes out of the House and Senate is perfect does not understand the 
House and Senate. It is a compromise. It is putting things together to 
get the number of votes that are necessary to move the ball forward.
  Are there things I would like different? Absolutely. But we made the 
tough decisions. We brought a group of people, hopefully, I believe, 
the majority of people, together to pass a budget and send it to the 
President.
  What we want out of the President is simply honesty. If the President 
wants to claim he will be involved in this debate, then he better come 
up with a budget that is real and quit running around saying that the 
Republicans are mean and Draconian and all these things. ``I want to 
balance the budget.'' He cannot have it both--mean, Draconian, nasty 
cuts from the Republicans and say, ``I want to balance the budget, 
too,'' and not do it.
  If you want to balance the budget, balance the budget, put forth a 
plan that does it. He has not done that.
  I have in my desk, and some may remember these numbers, I had a chart 
here that had a question about where the President was in balancing the 
budget. The previous campaign, several on the other side of the aisle 
were asking the question, where is George? Why is he not involved in 
solving the problems of this country?
  So I asked the same question. I put up, day after day after day, and 
the President refused to come to the table and balance the budget. 
Those number are still adding up. He still has not done so. Well, he 
has a chance. He has a chance. We are willing to sit down with the 
President and work through what it will take to pass a balanced budget. 
We understand we cannot pass a balanced budget on our own. The 
President has to sign the budget. He has to sign the reconciliation 
package.
  We want him to do that. We are not going through this as a political 
exercise to get one-upmanship on the President. I can tell you, I am 
not anxious to vote for changes in a lot of laws, many of which I 
support and do not necessarily want to see reductions in, just to see 
the President veto it and nothing happen. It is not a particularly 
satisfying thing to have happen. If you are going to make the tough 
votes, at least you want to see it happen. You want to see the changes 
that you put forward go into law.
  No one over here wants to do this as a political exercise. We want to 
do it because we want to see this country be saved for future 
generations. We want to see that person who is sitting out there now 
listening, who is at home and does not have a job and cannot find a 
job, have a better chance to get a job because the economy will be 
better. Everyone--the President, Democrats, Republicans--knows if we 
balance the budget, the economy will be better. Interest rates will be 
lower. Growth will be higher. More jobs will be created. We all know 
that.
  The people listening who think, how am I going to get this employment 
opportunity? What will happen to turn this economy around? This is 
probably the most important thing we can do to turn that economy 
around.
  This is not an esoteric debate about balancing the budget, but about 
affecting people's lives. This is the young child who may be sick from 
high school and sitting at home at night and maybe just surfing around 
on the channels and happens to stop here--probably not long--stop here 
and listen for a few minutes. That is for that person who wonders 
whether they will have a job when they get out of high school or 
college, whether they will have the opportunity to be able to raise a 
family and buy a home at a reasonable interest rate.
  That is what this is all about. This is about real people and real 
lives. This is not just about balancing budgets and numbers and charts. 
It is about real people, and giving them the opportunity that this 
country was founded on.
  We have the chance to do that. That is what this is about. We need 
the President. We need the President. This should not be about 
politics. This should be about working together for the common good of 
this country. We want to do that. We have put forward planned 
specifics.
  Want to talk specifics? I remember listening early in the year when 
the budget resolution was out there and they said, ``You guys are 
throwing these numbers out. You do not have specifics.''
  Folks, the Senator from New Mexico will come down next week with a 
whole bunch of specifics, tell you exactly how we get from A to Z, how 
we balance. The specifics are there. Here is how it happens.
  Want to make some changes? We can make some changes. We are not going 
to make a change on this. We are not going to make a change on 
balancing this budget in 7 years. That is something we will not change. 
We are committed to the American public to do that.
  I implore the President to stop waving this budget around. I know it 
may look good in the polls today. People may believe he has a balanced 
budget, and I know his polls are saying that people now believe he has 
a balanced budget. All he does is go around talking about it, and 
unfortunately, the American public sometimes believes the President 
even when he is not telling the truth. I think it undermines the 
credibility of the office.
  Tell the truth. Tell the truth. Want to balance the budget in 7 
years? The opportunity is here. You do not have to run around the 
country and campaign that you will balance the budget. Stay in 
Washington and you can sit down with the people who are working on this 
problem and you can balance the budget. You do not have to go around 
and raise money all over the country for your next campaign and talk 
about how you should not raise taxes and all these things.
  You can come here and solve the problem. This is the time for work. 
This is a time when this body, in a bipartisan fashion--I think the 
Senator from Nebraska talked earlier, Senator Kerrey. I do not question 
his sincerity at all about trying to balance this budget. I think he is 
one of the real statesmen when it comes to dealing with the problems of 
entitlement reform and changing the way the Government does business.
  We differ on priorities, but I think he is one who is sincere about 
the final objective. I think he knows the importance of that final 
objective. I think he is someone who we can negotiate with and sit down 
with.
  But we need the President. We do not need politics. We do not need 
waving around budgets that do not balance. It is not the time for 
politics. You have a whole year, Mr. President, where you can campaign 
for reelection. The time now is to get serious about doing the business 
of the country. You were elected President. It is time to serve the 
Presidency. It is time to serve your Presidency, not politics. Roll up 
your sleeves. Come on down here, send your people down and we can get 
going. Quit playing games with the American public and trying to 
manipulate the polls. You may win this November, but if you keep 
playing that game, you will not win next November.
  The country will not win, which is a heck of a lot more important 
than either of those things. We should get down to business. We are 
open. We are here. We are open for business. We are ready to go. All we 
need is someone who is willing to step to the plate and make it happen.
  Later today if we end up getting an agreement to have a bill before 
the Senate today, I will put forward the President's budget and we will 
have a debate. I want to make it very clear, as I think we are hearing 
from both sides, that this budget is not real. This budget does not do 
anything to balance the budget for the next 7, 10, 20, or 30 years.
  Get that out of the way. Get the politics and the charades and the 
broken promises out of the way. Deal with the facts. The fact is, Mr. 
President, if you want to balance the budget, get up here and do it. 
Quit running around the country campaigning on what you do not have, 
not telling the truth to the public about your budget, and get up here 
where the action is, where history is being made, and make a 
difference. 

[[Page S15386]]
Serve your Presidency, not your reelection.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Grams). The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I may speak 
up to 10 minutes as in morning business, ending before the 12 clock 
deadline.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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