[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 180 (Tuesday, November 14, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H12197]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         RESOLVING THE IMPASSE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from New Mexico [Mr. Schiff] is recognized 
during morning business for 4 minutes.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, we are now at the impasse and I would like 
to review how I believe we got here and how I believe we can get out of 
it.
  I think that this impasse is due in part to both sides, Republicans 
and the administration, wanting to get some short-term advantages in 
the polls over the other. I think that the congressional leadership has 
put measures into these budget resolutions concerning the death 
penalty, concerning regulatory reform because we know that these are 
popular with the American people. However, these are not issues which 
should be mixed at this time with the budget issue. We should stay 
focused on the budget goals.
  I recommend that those issues dealing with death penalty, regulatory 
reform, anything that is not budget, be taken off the table and 
addressed at another time. At the same time, the administration made 
its biggest argument that it was vetoing the bills to protect Medicare. 
The details of the Medicare provision, I respectfully suggest, were not 
of great interest to the administration. Their pollster simply told 
them if the President is seen fighting for Medicare, the President will 
go up in the polls at least on a short-term basis.
  What is that fight about? Right now the Government, that is, the 
taxpayers, pay 68.5 percent of part B premiums of Medicare. On January 
1, the law is scheduled to raise that to 75 percent of the payment 
coming out of the treasury. The administration knows full well that we 
do not know where the money is going to come from out of the treasury 
to pay that increased percentage and that the Republican congressional 
proposal is to freeze the percentage, not to raise the percentage on 
senior citizens but just to freeze it where it is. Nevertheless, they 
are fighting to save Medicare and they think that helps them in the 
polls.
  What, therefore, is the solution? I think that what is called a clean 
bill is not a solution. A clean bill means a spending authorization 
with no conditions attached, a borrowing authorization with no 
conditions attached. That is how we got into this mess. We have had 
business as usual for 25 years, where there was no restriction on 
borrow, borrow, borrow, and spend, spend, spend, and that is why we 
have a national debt of almost $5 trillion.
  I respectfully suggest that the solution is to offer the President a 
continuing resolution today with one condition, and, that is, we agree 
on the common goal of reaching a balanced budget in 7 years using 
Congressional Budget Office figures. We would take all of the details 
off of the table at this time. I thought Senator Domenici made a good 
suggestion with respect to a Medicare compromise. But if necessary, I 
would take all that off the table for the moment and concentrate on the 
goal, and to say that to keep the Government operating, the President 
must agree with the Congress that we will balance the budget in 7 years 
and use the common numbers provided by the Congressional Budget Office 
to match our comparative budgets.
  Both of these provisions the President has previously agreed to. 
During the campaign, the President said the budget could be balanced in 
5 years. So presumably the President would have no objection to 
balancing the budget in 7 years. Second of all, the President lectured 
Congress 2\1/2\ years ago, telling us that the Congressional Budget 
Office had consistently the best figures for budget analysis. So the 
President has previously agreed to these provisions.

  It seems to me, Madam Speaker, that if the Congress passes a 
continuing resolution to keep the Government going, break the impasse, 
allow Federal employees to do their jobs, with only the condition that 
we agree to a balanced budget in 7 years with the same method of 
getting there and that all the details can be discussed and if 
necessary argued out in another forum, we will know for certain whether 
the President of the United States really wants to balance the budget 
or was using Medicare as a screen for not doing so.

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