[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 169 (Monday, October 30, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2067-E2068]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         THE 7-YEAR BALANCED BUDGET RECONCILIATION ACT OF 1995

                                 ______


                               speech of

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 26, 1995

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2491) to 
     provide for reconciliation pursuant to section 105 of the 
     concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 1996:

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I rise on behalf of the American family, 
America's children, and restoring the American dream and will support 
budget reconciliation which will bring our burgeoning budget deficit 
into balance by the year 2002 and provide needed family tax relief. 
This is the right thing to do.
  Consider this. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, a child 
born today will have to pay $187,000 in his or her lifetime in interest 
on the national debt. That money won't be spent on education, 
nutrition, medical research, national defense, or roads. Rather, our 
children will be forced to pay for the present generation's profligacy. 
That is unfair; it is unwise; and it offends traditional notions of 
justice.
  For all the things the 104th Congress will do, this is the most 
important. We are at a historic crossroads, and I will choose the path 
of lower interest rates, lower taxes, and job creation, thereby 
preserving America's greatness for present and future generations. It 
is time to end the gluttonous consumption of America's precious and 
scarce resources. We can ill afford the relentless spending and 
borrowing 

[[Page E 2068]]
binge of the past which mortgages the future of America's most precious 
resource--her young people--because we are unwilling to exercise 
restraint needed to forego immediate gratification.
  We have a solemn duty to provide a better world for future 
generations. Will Allen Dromgoole, in his poem ``The Bridge Builder,'' 
describes an old man's effort to cross a river flowing through a vast, 
deep, and wide chasm. Even though the old man never had to repeat the 
treacherous journey, he built a bridge over the river. A fellow 
traveler asked the old man why he was wasting his strength building a 
bridge he would never use. The builder lifted his old gray head and 
responded:

     There followeth after me today
     A youth, whose feet must pass this way.
     This chasm, that has been naught to me,
     To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
     He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
     Good friend, I am building the bridge for him.

  Mr. Chairman, I implore all Members to be like the selfless bridge 
builder and vote for this legislation which will build a bridge to a 
better world for those who follow.

                          ____________________