[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 165 (Tuesday, October 24, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15557-S15558]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        FOUR CHANGES TO BE MADE

  Mr. THOMAS. I want to talk a little bit about the business that we 
are approaching this week. It seems to me it is the most important 
opportunity that we have had in 25 years, and the Senator and the 
previous speakers talked about the reasons why we cannot make these 
changes and the reasons why this is wrong and the reasons why it has to 
be some other way. The real test is that we have been talking that way 
for 25 years, and the results speak for themselves.
  We find all kinds of reasons why we cannot balance the budget. So 
what has the result been? A $5 trillion debt. It has resulted in the 
interest on the debt being the largest single line item in the budget. 
But we have been talking that same talk for 25 years: Cannot do it.
  I wish to talk a little bit about why we should do it and why we have 
the greatest opportunity we have had in a very long time to do the 
same, to complete at least four things that I think most of us, 
particularly most of us that are new here, apparently came here to do, 
and it is the first time there has been a chance to do that, and I wish 
to talk about the benefits of doing it.
  They are four changes that need to be made and four changes that can 
be made in the next couple of weeks, fundamental changes, not messing 
around the edges, not talking about change but never doing it. All of 
us have watched this Government for a long time. Most of us have 
watched this Congress talk about it; we want change. The fact is, it 
has not changed. The fact is, the debt has continued to grow. So we 
have a chance to make some fundamental changes, to not only turn around 
the arithmetic but to turn around the morality and the fiscal 
responsibility of making this Government sound within. Maybe more 
importantly than that, shaping the Government in the way that you would 
like to 

[[Page S 15558]]
see it be shaped when we go into a new century, that you would like to 
see it be shaped when you turn it over to your kids or your grandkids.
  Do we want a Government that is $5 trillion, $6 trillion, $7 trillion 
in debt? I do not think so. Despite all of the rhetoric, despite all 
the talk every year, the same thing has gone on, and I guess that is 
how you really measure it--by results, not by talk, not by whether it 
is CBO or whether it is OMB, but what are the results. And the results 
are that the debt has gone up each year.
  So we have a chance to make fundamental change, fundamental change in 
at least four areas. One of them is to balance the budget, a change you 
would not think we would even need to make, a change to make income and 
outgo the same. Can you imagine that? That is the way it has to be with 
families, the way it has to be with businesses. But we have not done 
that. We have spent more than we have taken in, and we put it on the 
credit card.
  Someone asked recently in a letter to a column called Ask Marilyn, 
and they talked about the problem with a credit card.
  Let me quote from it.

       Let's suppose you have an income of $125,760 that comes not 
     from work but from the contributions of all your friends and 
     relatives who work. You're not satisfied with what $125,760 
     can buy this year, so you prepare for yourself a budget of 
     $146,060 and charge the $20,300 difference to your credit 
     card, on which you're already carrying an unpaid balance of 
     $452,248--boosting that to $472,548, on which you pay 
     interest daily.

  Multiply that little scenario by 10 million, and you have the 
national budget.
  The second thing we can do is strengthen and save Medicare. We can do 
that. We can do that. Reform welfare, we can pass that here. We can 
reform welfare for the very first time. We can reduce the burden to 
taxpayers.
  Now, why is this the right thing to do? It is because that is what we 
said we would do when we came. That is what we told voters we would do 
when we came. That was in the contract for America. The President said 
he was going to do those four things when he ran. But he did not do it. 
So, that is what we need to do. These are key issues and these are 
attainable goals.
  There is great opposition to change always, mostly from people who 
have put the programs that are now in place in place, from people who 
talk about the failure of the present program and use as an example 
what is wrong now and the reason why we cannot change based on programs 
that are already in place and have been put in place by the folks that 
are opposing change. That is where we are.
  So, we need to make changes if we expect some different results. But 
guess what? Folks want to continue to do the same thing and anticipate 
that the results will be different. It will never happen.
  What are good things to be gained? Of course, we balance the budget. 
We will do something about that interest that is going on. The largest 
line item can go to something else, can be used for tax deductions, can 
be used for many things, put more money into the private sector because 
it will not take it out of the private sector to fulfill this. It would 
change the interest rates, reduce the interest rates. But maybe most of 
all it shows some responsibility in fiscal responsibility in terms of 
our future and the future of our kids.
  Welfare: We need to change the pattern of welfare. Everybody believes 
we ought to have welfare programs to help the people who need help, but 
then to help them back in, help them back in to the private economy. We 
need to move it to the States. The States are the laboratories that 
develop effective distribution systems.
  Medicare: We all want Medicare to continue to serve the elderly. It 
will not unless we make changes. There is no question that you have to 
make a change; there is some question, I suppose, how you do it. But it 
will go broke if we do not do something. We need to have choices. Why 
should not the elderly have choices? We have been able to contain some, 
the increased costs in health care costs--not in Medicare, not in 
Medicaid. It continues to go up at 10 percent. We can do that.
  Tax reductions: We ought to leave more money into the pockets of 
families. We ought to leave more money in businesses to be reinvested 
in jobs for the economy. We have a chance to do these things and a 
chance to do them in the next 2 or 3 weeks. Mr. President, I hope that 
my associates will take that opportunity and cause that to happen.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. ASHCROFT addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.

                          ____________________