[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 165 (Tuesday, October 24, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15558-S15559]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          SAVING OUR CHILDREN

  Mr. ASHCROFT. Mr. President, this week we will have an opportunity to 
save our children's future. Time and time again there are individuals 
that have come to the floor of the Senate to speak to this deliberative 
body about the rights of the children. But the truth of the matter is, 
we have been spending the inheritance of our children, not just their 
inheritance, but also we have been spending their yet unearned wages at 
an alarming rate. We need to begin consideration of a budget 
reconciliation bill which indeed will save our children from having 
their resources consumed in advance of their having earned them.
  Our current national debt is $5 trillion. Children born this year 
will have to pay interest of about $200,000 over their lifetime. That 
is just interest--not principal. When we think about the children, I 
think we ought to think carefully about what we do to the children when 
we displace the costs of our consumption to the next generation, to the 
children born and yet unborn. For decades now the Federal Government 
has spent beyond its means and lived beyond its resources. It has done 
so at the expense of the next generation.
  During the debate over the current plans to limit the size and growth 
in spending, I have been reminded of the philosopher's words, ``They 
sought to heal by incantations a cancer which requires the surgeon's 
knife.'' We cannot react to the countries' fiscal crisis by saying a 
few rosy words. We cannot make a few incantations and heal the problem 
we have in terms of the finances and resources of this country. We need 
to take the surgeon's knife.
  It is important to note that the surgeon's knife is an instrument of 
therapy, not an instrument of destruction. It is an instrument which 
will provide for better health. I believe we will do that, and we will 
make responsible--yes--difficult choices. We take the knife to the 
cancer and we take the knife where it is necessary to pare back the 
increase that would otherwise happen too frequently, with the kind of 
wasteful increase we have had in the past.
  We have to stop an ever-increasing spiral of debt, a spiral which is 
a spiral of abuse against the next generation. In the past few months, 
we have made some difficult choices surrounded by the familiar 
incantations of those still clinging to the discredited and 
irresponsible philosophy of spending without consequence or budgeting 
without accountability.
  Mr. President, I believe in the purpose for which we were sent to 
Washington. The people were demanding and expecting that we would 
balance the budget and they are expecting that we will end business as 
usual. They are expecting us to listen to them. We must continue. We 
have made progress, but we must continue on this historic journey 
toward meeting their demand--we represent them. We must fulfill their 
expectation by passing a balanced budget reconciliation bill that puts 
us on a path to fiscal responsibility.
  Now, there are those who came here in this session of the Congress 
who decided that two rules have to be changed; therefore, we cannot 
call the budget balanced. They say now, we must use different figures, 
different procedures than we would have used in the past. I think it is 
time for us to balance the budget according to the rules and to get 
that behind us. There are other things we might do in the future to 
improve our fiscal health.
  Let us take this directive from the American people. Let us balance 
the budget. We could put our heads in the sand rather than to face this 
Nation's fiscal realities. We could produce a plan, I suppose, that 
would allow minor changes. We could only tinker with the operations so 
that we stave off the Medicare bankruptcy for several months or a 
couple of years. We need 

[[Page S 15559]]
to set our system on a sound footing for long-term growth and 
development. Congress could continue the ingrained habit of treating 
taxpayers' funds as the key to the candy store. We could wait until the 
year 2015 to address our problems like the national debt. In 2015, at 
the rate of current spending, the Government would only be able to 
spend on four entitlement programs and interest on the national debt--
that would take the entirety of the budget.
  Then there would be no money for defense for the country, no law 
enforcement, no food safety, no highways. It would all be just for the 
entitlements and interest. We cannot do that. We must act now. We must 
protect the children. We must protect their opportunities.
  We live in a global economy where productivity and competitiveness 
are the hallmarks. We will succeed, we will sink or swim based on 
whether or not we are productive and competitive. We cannot swim with a 
debt load on the back of each citizen in the next century so great that 
they cannot compete in the world marketplace.

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