[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 164 (Monday, October 23, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15504-S15505]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, am I the one holding the Senate up here 
now? I do not want to do that. I thought there was something else to 
do, because I would very much like you to go home also, Mr. President.
  I want to say how grateful I am, however, that 12 Members of the 
Budget Committee started this battle for a balanced budget January and 
February and March of this year. They have stuck together. They 
produced a very exciting budget resolution for America's future. It had 
a real chance for the first time of making America's Government decide 
that you could not just spend willy-nilly on anything that anybody 
wanted, but that you had to stop spending beyond what you were taking 
in in taxes so our children will have a future, so they will not be 
paying our bills.
  This afternoon, after an hour and a half of debate, 12 Republican 
Senators, in spite of all of the talk across this land, much of it 
overstating the case on the Democrat side, voted aye to bring that 
budget resolution not only to the Senate, but to the American people.
  Sometimes it is hard to explain the future. Everybody would like to 
talk about now. Or they would like to talk about the past. But I do not 
think you can be a leader and not talk about the future--especially 
when it is not 100 years. That may be too far for any of us. But the 
next 10, 15 years are going to bring absolute chaos to the U.S. money 
supply, to the value of our dollar, to interest rates and to our 
standard of living if we do not stop spending what we do not have.
  So we are sending a very good message tonight that we are proud, 
very, very proud that our committee has put together this package which 
will get the American budget moving downward in a permanent manner. I 
submit, in the next few days, as we debate each component, you should 
not be frightened to death by those prophets of gloom who, I believe, 
are thinking in the present and trying to frighten you about the 
present while they hide their eyes and their minds from 10 years from 
now, when some of our children are going to be in this society.
  I close by saying we are very pleased the American Revolution--not 
the one we are involved in now, the one that started with the Boston 
Tea Party--was built on a premise that is absolutely sound: No taxation 
without representation.

  What we are doing with deficit spending is taxing the next 
generation, taxing the teenagers--taxing everybody that cannot vote, 
excluding generations yet unborn. We are taxing them without any 
representation for they cannot vote, and we are saying we are going to 
put more burden on your shoulders, on your brains, and on your 
productivity. You are going to just have to pay all these bills even 
though you did not get to vote. That is the issue.
  Then a second issue is: Are the reductions fair? Mr. President, I 
suggest that the seniors of America, before they get so concerned and 
frightened by those who want everybody to worry about today and the 
status quo and no change, let us present our Medicare in its totality. 
And you are going to find that it is very fair. There will be some 
seniors who have money--more than Social Security--$50,000, and even 
more, will have to pay a little more for Medicare. But that is not 
really unfair. 

[[Page S 15505]]
When we unfold it and show you precisely what it is, it is very, very 
fair.
  So, as we look at this, we want to insert a new word in the 
vocabulary of those who represent America. And that is what we can 
afford, not what we can promise--not what we have already promised, and 
not what we feel compelled to continue giving to people because they 
need, they want it, and they contend they cannot do without. Our 
position is we cannot do that unless we can pay for it. It is not too 
complicated for average folks. They are doing that every day in the 
United States. It is time we do it. That is what that budget resolution 
is going to do.
  I thank the Chair for yielding time. I yield the floor.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, if I might for just a moment respond 
to the statement of the distinguished chairman of the Budget Committee, 
on which I sit.
  I hear the intonation that we are trying to take care of our budget 
responsibilities so that our children in the future have not sacrificed 
their opportunities, that they have not been burdened with debt--and so 
the story goes--because of expenditures like Medicare and Medicaid.
  But, Mr. President, are we burdening our children when we spend more 
on defense than was requested by the President, or is necessary in the 
judgment of many to preserve the strength of our military? Are we 
burdening our children, our future generations, Mr. President, when we 
give sweetheart leases for mineral development in the West, when there 
is a recent story about a sale for something less than $10,000 for a 
piece of property that can produce $1 billion worth of ore recovery? Do 
we burden our children when we give tax breaks to people of substantial 
means, when we give $20,000 to someone who earns $350,000? I think that 
is a darned burden for our children. I really do.
  So the only response to the growing deficit is not simply to put a 
dagger in the hearts of Medicare, or to deprive Medicaid recipients of 
their sustenance in many cases for life.
  So that is just to set the record clear from this Senator's vantage 
point, Mr. President. I know that we are close to, as they say, closing 
shop for the day. The distinguished Senator from Mississippi is on the 
floor, and is in the chair. I shall relinquish the floor to the 
Mississippi delegation.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, perhaps we should vote since this is an all-
Mississippi presence at this time.

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