[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 179 (Monday, November 13, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S16967-S16969]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            BUDGET STANDOFF

  Mr. COATS. Mr. President, over the weekend, both in reading various 
newspaper accounts and watching the television accounts of the so-
called standoff between the Congress and the President over the 
question of the continuing resolution, funds to keep the Government 
moving forward, the debt limit, and the budget battle that is currently 
underway in this Congress, I was particularly taken by an article in 
Saturday's Washington Post written by Ann Devroy titled, ``For Clinton, 
the Battle Is To Stand Firm.''
  What was interesting is that apparently the President's advisers and 
pollsters have determined that, as Ann Devroy says, ``President 
Clinton's reputation for vacillation has made his political need to 
display strength of character now a silent partner in the 
nonnegotiation drama'' that is currently taking place here in 
Washington.
  It goes on to say that the President's closest adviser is exulting 
that polling has shown that the President is beginning to make progress 
on what he stands for.
  The article goes on to say that various sources that Ann Devroy has 
talked to say--and she quotes--``We were told that what people in their 
focus groups cite as what they disliked most about Clinton is he is 
weak, vacillating, opportunist, flip-flops constantly.''
  ``Pollsters of both parties have''--again, quoting from the article--
``Pollsters of both parties have throughout the Clinton presidency 
identified as a significant problem for the president the perception 
that he has no core beliefs.''
  So what we have seen here now in the past couple of weeks, 
particularly over this past weekend, and, undoubtedly, we will see this 
week, is an attempt by the President, on the advice of his counselors, 
on the advice of his pollsters, and on the advice of those conducting 
his focus groups, to shore up his character, to define something of 
what the President believes in and, therefore, ``Stand firm, do not 
negotiate with the Congress to find a break to the impasse that 
currently exists between the executive branch and the congressional 
branch.''
  That is what is guiding the decisionmaking process in the White House 
and the President's statements.
  So, all the President's protestations about the Congress trying to 
shut down the Government, denying opportunities 

[[Page S 16968]]
for Americans to work, holding America hostage, apparently are all part 
of a grand political design, grand political scheme to shore up, as the 
article quotes, shore up the fact that the President is perceived by 
most people in the focus groups as weak, vacillating, opportunist, and 
flip-flopping.
  We wonder why the American public is so cynical about the political 
process. We wonder why so few people today show up at the polls to 
vote. We wonder why the elections across the country--just this past 
Tuesday, in many cases, less than one-quarter of those eligible to vote 
even bothered to show up to vote, when they see this kind of political 
cynicism operating in Washington, DC.
  At the same time, I could not help but notice in Sunday's paper a 
statement that the House minority leader, Mr. Gephardt, said in a 
recent speech that the ``GOP budget goes to the very fringes of 
radicalism.'' And, of course, we have heard the Vice President and 
others in the President's Cabinet repeat that mantra now, that it is 
extremism that is driving the GOP agenda.
  So we have had the whole spin all weekend, the focus groups, the 
Cabinet members, the Vice President this morning on the news shows, and 
other Cabinet members on the news shows, all pushing the latest White 
House line. Unfortunately, what they push and the rhetoric that comes 
across is totally separate from the facts.
  This so-called radical, extremist Republican budget over the next 7 
years increases spending $2.6 trillion, increases in revenues to the 
Government of $3.3 trillion. Spending will grow between now and the 
year 2002 under the Republican radical, extremist budget, spending will 
grow from $1.514 trillion in this current year to $1.844 trillion in 
2002, a 22-percent increase. Medicare spending--which I am sure 
everyone has heard from the President and his spokespeople that is 
going to produce dramatic cuts, throw people on the street, throw the 
elderly out of their nursing homes, and so forth--Medicare spending 
will increase in that 7-year period 61 percent, from $178 billion in 
1995 to $286 billion in 2002. Medicaid spending will grow at a 41-
percent increase. Total welfare spending will increase 38 percent. Food 
stamp spending will increase 45 percent; supplemental Social Security 
income 69 percent; earned income tax credit spending 22 percent; foster 
care spending 86 percent. This is the radical, extremist Republican 
budget.
  If we look a little more specifically at Medicare, I think we can 
begin to understand the length to which the President and members of 
his party will go to radically alter the news that is being presented 
to the American people, to put their political spin on something that 
is totally opposed by the facts of the situation.

  Republicans are addressing the Medicare spending issue because the 
President's own trustees' report in April 1995 stated the following:

       The Medicare program is clearly unsustainable in its 
     present form. . . . We strongly recommend that the crisis 
     presented by the financial condition of the Medicare trust 
     funds be urgently addressed on a comprehensive basis, 
     including a review of the program's financing methods, 
     benefit provisions, and delivery mechanisms.

  That is the Medicare trustees' report of April 1995.
  Incidentally, three of those trustees are members of the President's 
own Cabinet. Our party has stepped forward in a responsible way to 
address this alarming report. It has done so by recognizing that unless 
we slow the growth of Medicare from its current three-plus times the 
rate of inflation, to around two times the rate of inflation, we will 
not successfully even begin to address the concern raised by the 
trustees' report.
  We are not the only ones who think that something needs to be done. 
On October 5, 1993, the following statement was issued:

       Today Medicaid and Medicare are going up at three times the 
     rate of inflation. We propose to let it go up at two times 
     the rate of inflation. That is not a Medicare or a Medicaid 
     cut. So when you hear all this business about cuts, let me 
     caution you that that is not what is going on.

  What Republican said that? because that is exactly what Republicans 
have attempted to do. So when you hear all this business about cuts, 
this person said, ``Let me caution you that is not what is happening. 
What is happening is that we are reducing the rate of growth from three 
times the rate of inflation to two times the rate of inflation.'' That 
statement was made by the President of the United States, William 
Jefferson Clinton, in October 1993. You would never know that today, 
because what is coming out of the White House is the exact opposite of 
that statement.
  We are also talking about the level of premium at 31.5 percent. That 
is what it is currently today. You see this country offers an 
extraordinarily generous benefit program for those 65 and older called 
Medicare. Part A of Medicare hospitalization is 100 percent covered. 
And part B, which provides for doctors' fees and other nonhospital 
costs, is paid for to the extent of 69.5 percent by the taxpayer. We 
are asking the elderly for that part B coverage only to cover 31.5 
percent. That is the current rate that we are asking them to pay, their 
part, their share of the program. And the GOP budget plan requires that 
that stay at that level, does not increase it but asks that it stay at 
that level. But what the President would like to do is revert it back 
to a level of 25 percent. We are saying, given this trustees' report, 
this is not responsible. Can we just ask those currently under Medicare 
to maintain their same level of support? That is the so-called cut that 
the White House and the President, or those who speak for him, are 
talking about. And it is not a cut.
  Ironically, in the year 2002, under the Republican plan, Medicare 
recipients will pay a $90-a-month premium, if current increases in 
Medicare costs are as projected. Under the President's plan, they will 
pay $82-a-month premium, an $8 difference. This is what is labeled as 
throwing people out of nursing homes, on the street, without medical 
care. These are the cuts, the so-called cuts, in Medicare.
  When we debated the balanced budget amendment earlier this year, we 
were told by member after member of the Democratic Party, on the other 
side of the aisle, that balancing the budget was an absolute 
imperative, and I want to quote some of them. I will not give their 
names:
  ``The budget is not going to be balanced in 2002 unless the 
responsible people, that is those of us in the Congress, in 1995 start 
to focus on their share of the work.''
  ``Words on a piece of paper cannot balance the budget, only 
legislators like you and I can,'' said another Senator.
  A third said: ``Let's go on the record, Democrats and Republicans 
alike, that we are serious about deficit reduction, we are serious 
about balancing the budget, because I think that we all are.''
  Another said: ``I believe a balanced budget is the correct policy 
decision for this country.''
  Another said: ``Let Senators get to work and show Americans we have 
the courage this amendment presumes that we lack.''
  Republicans had the courage. They came forward with a balanced budget 
plan enacted over a 7-year period of time, because a $4.9 trillion debt 
is irresponsible legislating. The rate of growth of our debt is 
staggering. It imposes a burden on the American economy and on the 
future and future generations that is immoral. We have come forward 
with a plan. Our friends and colleagues from across the aisle did not 
bring forward a plan, and what little attempt they made out of the 
White House was discounted by the very scoring agency that the 
President asked us to use.
  So now here we are with a plan, a plan to deal with one of the most 
serious financial crises this country has ever faced. It is not a 
radical plan. It is not an extremist plan. It is a responsible plan. 
And for the first time in decades, in response to the call of the 
American people in November 1994, we are beginning to rein in the out-
of-control growth of Government. For the first time in decades, we will 
actually limit the rate of growth of Government.
  Finally, the Congress, under the leadership of the Republicans, has 
proven that they can deliver on the promises made to the American 
people to balance the budget. 

[[Page S 16969]]

  Several weeks ago, Mr. President, I stood on this floor discussing 
and debating the reconciliation bill which we were about to pass, that 
bill that combines a number of efforts to reach our goals for putting 
in place the process of responsible spending and balancing the budget, 
and I said:

       The reconciliation bill we are debating not only makes 
     sense, it makes history. For many of us, a balanced Federal 
     budget is a distant memory. For decades it has been an empty 
     political promise. All that remains is one final act of 
     courage and vision.

  I went on to say:

       That courage will be tested in the Congress by some 
     difficult choices, and that vision will be measured in the 
     President as he becomes either a partner or a partisan. If 
     either he or we are unequal to the task, the patience of the 
     public will be exhausted, and we will have squandered a 
     unique opportunity, and we will feed a dangerous 
     disillusionment with American politics.

  That moment is here. That time for courage is here. The courage has 
been met by the Republican budget plan. Republicans stand today and 
say: Mr. President, we have a plan. We have responded to the call--your 
call, our colleagues' call--to be responsible and balance this budget.
  But the vision called for and necessary on the part of the President 
has not been met. There is no vision beyond November 1996. The vision 
is to reelect the President at whatever cost. The vision is to make 
sure that the President's campaign succeeds, regardless of what he has 
said in the past, regardless of his rhetoric.
  Just a few short weeks ago, it appeared we were on a path to 
negotiating a sensible plan to balance this budget with the President's 
support. If you looked at what the President said and what he called 
for, it was very close to what the Republicans enacted. But then 
someone determined that the President needed to have his weak, 
vacillating character firmed up. And so the whole plan was thrown out 
the window.
  Now we are in an exercise of what I think is the utmost in political 
cynicism: Of making sure that the President's political posture is the 
kind of posture that will be necessary to inch him up in the polls so 
that he can be reelected in November of 1996.
  The courage of the Republicans in providing a plan which, yes, 
includes tough choices but, yes, responds to a desperate need, a need 
to get control of a government that for years and years and years has 
been simply out of control, that plan is before us, but that plan is 
before us without the vision of the executive branch and particularly 
of the President.
  So while the Democrats continue their efforts to tear this bill apart 
piece by piece, we have to remember that the centerpiece of what we are 
attempting to do is to balance this budget. In the future, this will be 
recalled as our contribution to history. If we ignore this budget 
crisis, this country and future generations will pay dearly.
  I think the argument for a balanced budget comes down to something 
simple. It is one of our highest moral traditions that parents 
sacrifice for the sake of their children, and it is the depth of 
selfishness to call on children to sacrifice for the sake of their 
parents.
  If we continue on our current path, we will violate a trust between 
generations, and we will earn the contempt of the future. This is our 
moment. This is our time. It will take courage and it will take vision. 
Let us trust that both the Congress and the President will have an 
ample amount of each in order to accomplish what I think we all know 
needs to be accomplished.
  Mr. President, I thank you, and I yield the floor.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.

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