[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 179 (Monday, November 13, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H12171]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          BALANCING THE BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Fox] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I think it is important to take 
stock at this time, while we have a lot of focus on what the Congress 
is trying to do, to look at where we have come from in this first 
session of the 104th Congress.
  We passed the regulatory reform that Congressman Tauzin was speaking 
of. We passed the line-item veto to take care of eliminating the pork-
barrel legislation and excessive spending. We have passed the 
prohibition of unfunded mandates so that our local governments will not 
have items we passed back to the local government without the funding 
that goes with it.
  We have already passed $90 billion in deficit reduction, $190 billion 
in spending reductions, and now we have the possibility, if the 
President agrees, to balance the budget, something that every other 
government has to do, every family has to do. The State government has 
to balance its budget, county governments, school governments.
  The economic experts, Mr. Speaker, have told us that if we can 
balance the budget so we do not have to spend so much of the tax 
dollars to pay for the debt, we will have a reduction of mortgage 
payments for our fellow Americans, we will reduce the car payments, we 
will reduce the college payments. We will be able to make sure that our 
goal will be that we are taking care of essential services for people 
and not the Government waste and fraud that we have seen that the 
Federal Government has had for years.
  We will also see with our tax reform proposals, if they get adopted 
again and signed into law by the President, a $500 per child tax 
credit. We will have the new IRA programs with $2,000 for individuals, 
$4,000 for a couple. We will roll back that unfair 1993 Social Security 
tax on our senior citizens. We will give our seniors the opportunity to 
make more than $11,280 who are under 70 without having a bite out of 
the Social Security. Under our new proposal, it will be up to $30,000 a 
year.
  We will also have capital gains tax reductions for individuals of 19 
percent, 25 percent for businesses. This will allow us to have new 
jobs, expansion of businesses, and also increase savings. Adoption tax 
credit is included within this proposal, as well as an elder care tax 
credit.

  We are on our way, Mr. Speaker, with many new reforms in this 104th 
Congress, but the balanced budget awaits the President's signature. He 
has said he is committed to a balanced budget. Both sides of the aisle 
have supported the concept of a balanced budget. It works in business. 
It works in our families. It can work for the country. But we need the 
President to come to the table to work with our congressional 
leadership in the House and Senate in a bipartisan fashion. If we do 
that, we are going to help our senior citizens, we are going to help 
our working families, and we are going to help our children. We can 
make a difference. We ask for the President to come to the table and 
help us make it happen.

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