[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 163 (Friday, October 20, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15390-S15391]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     EXTENSION OF MORNING BUSINESS

  Mr. COVERDELL. I ask unanimous consent that the period for morning 
business be extended for another 15 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, I think everybody would acknowledge 
that we are entering a very historical moment in America's history, 
certainly in the context of the Congress of the United States, because 
we are, over the next 4 to 6 weeks, going to be making decisions--very 
significant decisions--about the way the American people are governed.
  Of course, I always appreciate the remarks of my colleague from 
Minnesota. But it is almost as if he has forgotten that a new Congress 
was sent here this past November, and with startling results. The 
Congress was not sent here by any large corporation. This new majority 
was sent here by an overwhelming pronouncement by the American people--
all these folks he is talking about, such as the workers, who said, 
``We want something different done in Washington,'' and families, 
saying, ``We do not like what is happening in Washington.'' In 
overwhelming numbers, Americans went to the polls and said, ``We want 
things in Washington to change.''
  Every speech I hear from the other side of the aisle, including from 
the President and the administration, is saying, ``Leave everything the 
way it is, it is just fine.'' Every time you try to change it, we come 
out with some new class of evil Americans who try to frighten America 
from the change that has to be made.
  Let us talk about the President for a moment or two. When the 
President ran for President in 1992, he promised the American people, 
``I will give you a balanced budget in 5 years.'' Well, he has been 
here for a little over 2 years now, and he has not given us a balanced 
budget in 5 years, in 7 years, in 10 years, in no years. Why did he 
make 

[[Page S15391]]
that promise? He made the promise because he knew that the American 
people overwhelmingly are demanding that this city, this town, this 
Congress balance the budget. But once he got elected, he started 
listening to speeches like we just heard. We will just keep everything 
the same. No one will notice.
  But the new Congress came here and said that we are going to balance 
the budget in 7 years. I think, somewhat to their surprise, that is 
exactly what we are doing. What is more--and he knows this--it is 
exactly what the America people want us to do. They want us to balance 
the budget.
  Well, first, the President said he was not going to offer any budget 
at all after this new Congress got here. Then he went back out into the 
country and found out that the American people did not like that, so he 
offered a budget. That budget did not receive a single vote in the 
Senate--from our party or his. It was 99 to 0. No deal. It is not a 
balanced budget, Mr. President.
  So then he came and said, well, I am going to offer a budget that is 
balanced in 10 years. The Congressional Budget Office, who the 
President says provide the most reliable numbers we can get, said, ``We 
are sorry, Mr. President, but your budget does not balance in 10 
years.'' In fact, it never balances. The President has been traveling 
the country back and forth saying he is giving us a budget. ``Theirs is 
7, mine is 10.'' But that is just not so. His budget never balances. I 
know this morning the Senator from Pennsylvania suggested that the 
other side of the aisle go ahead and introduce that budget if they 
believe so strongly in it. No one is willing to introduce the budget. 
Why? Because they know it does not balance. It does not do what the 
President said.
  And then, last week, he said, ``Well, maybe I will do one that is 9 
years or 8 years.'' So now we are on about the fifth or seventh 
reincarnation of the President's budget. It is not really that 
complicated. It either balances or it does not. The Congressional 
Budget Office can tell us. It has now told us that the Republican 
budget will balance in 7 years, just like the American people are 
asking us to do.
  I was fascinated listening to the Senator from Minnesota, because he 
was talking about students and student loans. I wonder if the Senator 
is aware of the fact that if America--if their Congress--balances the 
budget, what happens to students who have to borrow money. Let me tell 
you what happens. A student that borrowed $11,000, or the family that 
had to borrow $11,000 for that student, if we had balanced budgets, 
would pay so much less interest for the loan that they would save 
$2,000 on the student loan in lower interest payments. If we balance 
our budgets, interest rates, according to DRI/McGraw, interest rates 
will drop between 2 and 3 percent. That means that the American 
families that the Senator from Minnesota is talking about will save 
billions. Well, billions gets to be a number that is so big, it is kind 
of hard to bring down home. But let us say we are talking about an 
American family that had a $75,000 home and mortgage. That family, 
because we balanced the budgets and because we had lower interest 
rates, would save between $1,500 and $1,700 every year. And here you 
have an average family. The average family income in America is 
$40,000. The Government is already taking half of that money between 
Federal, State, and local, leaving them only half to deal with all 
their needs, and we can take an act up here that will lower their 
interest payments on their home $1,500 to $2,000.
  We have increased their disposable income by 10 percent--increased. 
There is nothing we could do, there is no Government program, there is 
no new bureaucracy, no new system taking care of people from Washington 
that will do so much good for the American family--the average family--
than lowering the financial burden on that family, which happens if you 
balance the budget. It does not happen if you do not balance the 
budget.
  Mr. President, balancing the budget will do more for every American 
than any Government program we can think of. We will save them $1,500 
on a home mortgage of $75,000. We will save them $900 in lower interest 
rates if they buy a car. We will save them $2,000 in lower interest 
rates if they are borrowing money to send students to school.
  The American family knows this. That is why 70 to 80 percent of them 
have been banging on the door of this town saying, ``For Heaven's 
sakes, get your spending under control. Quit taxing us to death. Quit 
spending money you do not have. Quit spending the future opportunity of 
our children.''
  Balancing the budget will produce a rainbow and a nest egg in the 
checking account of every average family in America. Make no mistake 
about it. The great burden of running this Government falls on the 
average American family--not on the rich. You could take all the money 
the rich produce and you could not run this Government.
  In the end, it is the average American that bears the burden--not the 
poor. It is the average American. The greatest good that we can do for 
that family is to balance our budget.
  Now, Mr. President, several days ago the President admitted--which I 
was shocked about, but he did--the President said in speaking to a 
fundraising audience, ``I will surprise you, because I think I raised 
taxes too high in 1993.'' That is a pretty big mistake, Mr. President.
  We raised taxes at a historical level--$250 billion-some-odd in new 
taxes--the highest in American history, and now the President says 
maybe that was a mistake. Not maybe it was a mistake, it was a mistake.
  Why did he raise taxes? So that the Federal Government could spend 
more so that our deficits would continue to increase, so that interest 
rates are higher on every family, and they are paying thousands upon 
thousands of dollars because we do not have a balanced budget.
  The President has now said that tax increase was a mistake. We agree 
with him. What we are saying is we are going to help the President fix 
that mistake. We are going to lower the economic burden on the American 
family.
  He raised taxes $255 billion. We are going to lower it $245 billion. 
A lot of people try to connect that to the Medicare argument, which is 
a totally separate thing. The real connection here is between the 
President's tax increase of 1993 and the Republican tax refund of 1995. 
He raised them $255 billion and we are going to lower it $245 billion.
  He said it was a mistake. It was. It has affected the economic 
stability of every middle-class family. Now we are going to lower it. 
We are going to help those very American families by lowering the 
economic pressure on them and relieving them from the pressure that he 
exacted in 1993.
  We are going to balance the budget. We are going to lower interest 
rates in every American home. We are going to, therefore, expand the 
economy and therefore people are going to have shorter lines waiting to 
get a job. We are going to put hundreds of thousands of Americans to 
work because we balanced this budget.
  Mr. President, we are going to reform welfare. Every American knows 
it needs to be done. Mr. President, we are going to secure Medicare for 
a quarter of a century. The trustees said it will go bankrupt in 6 
years, but we are going to change that and strengthen it and keep it 
healthy for 25 years, according to the CBO yesterday. We are going to 
lower the economic burden and pressure on the American family by 
lowering taxes.
  Every one of those things that we are talking about, every one of 
them, the American people want to have happen. Mr. President, it is 
time the Congress did what the American people wanted up here.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I may speak not 
to exceed 20 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. As in morning business?
  Mr. BYRD. It does not matter.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BYRD. I did not mean to give the Chair a short answer. I thought 
my request covered the situation very well.

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