[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 166 (Wednesday, October 25, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H10830]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            ITEMS RELATED TO THE BUDGET RECONCILIATION BILL

  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House 
for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I object to recognizing the 
gentleman.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair will alternate recognition for 5-
minute special orders.
  Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, did you run out of people for 
the 5-minute special order list?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair entertains requests on the spot.
  Mr. MILLER of California. For unanimous consent?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. For unanimous consent.
  Mr. MILLER of California. I object, Mr. Speaker. We have people who 
have been waiting who were on the list.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. All these special orders are 5 minutes.
  Mr. MILLER of California. I thought you had to be on the list.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. All names on the list have been completed.
  Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Tennessee 
[Mr. Duncan] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I want to briefly discuss several items 
which are directly or indirectly related to the budget reconciliation 
presently before us.
  First, let me say that no one has cornered the market on compassion. 
No one has a monopoly on virtue.
  Yet some around here seem to believe that they have.
  Every time any budget cut is proposed, we are told that it is mean 
spirited, or that it shows a lack of compassion.
  Yet what really lacks compassion is for the Federal Government to 
take so much money from families that they don't have enough money left 
to support their children in the way they should.
  This is what is happening in this country today where the average 
person has to pay half of his or her income now in taxes when you count 
taxes of all types, Federal, State, and local--sales, property, income, 
gas, Social Security, and so forth.
  What really shows a lack of compassion is an unwillingness to cut 
anything so that we can get federal spending under control.
  What really shows a lack of compassion is to continue running up 
large deficits so that we absolutely destroy the economic futures of 
our children.
  What really shows a lack of compassion is to tell the people of this 
country, through votes on this floor, that bureaucrats can spend their 
hard-earned money for them better than they can themselves.
  And let me say something else--almost every leading economist tells 
us that our $5 trillion national debt really holds this country back 
economically.
  Times are good for some now. But they could and should be good for 
everyone. People who are making $5 to $6 an hour could and should be 
making $10 or $12 an hour.
  It sure isn't compassionate to let our national debt get even higher 
so that the gap between the rich and the poor keeps growing.
  The choice is simple. Are we going to side with overpaid and 
underworked bureaucrats, or are we going to side with the average 
people who are footing the bill.
  Second, I could live with a lower tax cut than $245 billion. But 
let's put this in perspective.
  This is not an all-at-once cut. It is spread over 7 years.
  This cut comes out to less than 2 percent--less than 2 percent--of 
Federal spending over this period.
  This follows a 15-year period during which Federal spending has gone 
up almost 300 percent.
  The first Reagan budget was $581 billion. We're spending almost 
triple that now.
  Federal spending has gone up 300 percent in the last 15 years--is it 
asking too much to give back less than 2 percent?
  Seventy percent of this tax cut goes to people making less than 
$50,000 a year. Do we ever think about that?
  Most Republicans support flat tax which totally excludes people 
making less than $26,000 or couples making less than $38,000 from 
Federal income taxes altogether.
  Do you ever think about that? Who is really for lower income people--
someone who wants to keep their taxes high like now, or someone who 
wants to greatly reduce their taxes.
  Third, last week we passed a Medicare bill that provides for a huge 
increase in Medicare spending.
  In Tennessee, we now spend approximately $5,000 per year on the 
average recipient of Medicare. This will go up to over $7,000, an 
increase of $2,000 over the next 7 years.
  This bill provides for an increase in Medicare spending at twice the 
rate of inflation. And this is called a cut.
  There is no disagreement that Medicare is going broke. The 
President's own trustees tell us this.
  Is it compassionate to sit around and let it go under. Is it right 
just to fix it until after the next election.
  The Medicare bill we passed may not be perfect. But it is sure not a 
cut; it is a huge increase.
  Fourth, we will spend $4 billion in Haiti by the time our troops pull 
out next February.
  Now, the President wants to send 20,000 to 25,000 troops to Bosnia. 
We are already paying almost one third of the so-called peacekeeping 
costs there now. We will end up spending billions in Bosnia, too, if we 
are not careful, and the situation in these places is going to go right 
back the way it was as soon as we stop pouring our billions and 
billions into those places.
  We should not send young American men and women to fight and die on 
foreign battlefields, Mr. Speaker, unless there is a vital U.S. 
interest present, or unless there is a real threat to our national 
security. Neither of these is present in Bosnia.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, let me say that when I got home last Thursday 
night, I read in the USA Today that Allen Greenspan is planning through 
the Federal Reserve Board to spend billions to prop up the Japanese 
financial system. We should not be doing that, Mr. Speaker. Our 
obligation should be to the American taxpayers, and not to the big 
Japanese banks. They would not bail us out if we got in financial 
trouble, and we should not be bailing out their big banks with billions 
of our dollars at this time.

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