[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 180 (Tuesday, November 14, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H12198]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     LET US BALANCE THE BUDGET NOW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Chabot] is recognized during 
morning business for 4 minutes.

                              {time}  0930

  Mr. CHABOT. Madam Speaker, my hometown newspaper, the Cincinnati 
Enquirer, I think got it just right this morning in their editorial. I 
would like to read from that editorial here at this time.

       To hear the overwrought, over rated White House experts 
     tell it a ``train wreck'' between the president and Congress 
     will shut down the federal government and end life as we know 
     it.
       Wrong. It would only interrupt life as they have come to 
     know it--by temporarily slowing the juggernaut that increases 
     spending with no regard to the future.
       To the real world, a backward crank on the federal spending 
     spigot would have a welcome effect: It could wake up 
     Washington with a dash of cold war in the non-stop shower of 
     taxpayer revenues.
       By the time this is printed this month's ``crisis of the 
     century'' in Washington may already be averted. But if today 
     marks the disaster that the White House has predicted so long 
     and loudly Americans should react accordingly by taking their 
     cue from the president. Go golfing.
       That's right. After he refused to negotiate and castigated 
     Congress for not working overtime to give him another blank 
     check, President Clinton laced up his spikes and left to play 
     a round of golf. Some crisis.
       Can this be the same president whose foaming mouthpiece, 
     Leon Panetta had the appalling bad taste to compare Congress 
     to ``terrorists'' who ``put a gun to the president's head''--
     this, in the aftermath of the assassination of Israel's prime 
     minister?
       Yes. Because no matter what happens to government, politics 
     goes on as usual.
       The game plan by Republican leaders Bob Dole and Newt 
     Gingrich is to box in the president by delivering a plan to 
     balance the federal budget and wipe out chronic deficit 
     spending in seven years as promised in the Republican 
     Contract With America.
       But Clinton, who once profusely promised to balance the 
     budget in five years has balked, threatening a veto unless 
     they restore enough of his spending to prolong the deficit 
     pain for nine years.
       So Republicans stapled the lid shut on the box around 
     Clinton. They offered a temporary credit line to restrain 
     spending but avoid a shut down until December 1 by continuing 
     Government borrowing.
       At first, Clinton refused to discuss it and would not even 
     take phone calls from Gingrich and Dole. Then he agreed to 
     negotiate if Republicans would scrub the key element of their 
     plan, Medicare reform. Republicans said no way.
       Both sides are playing politics, but at least Congress is 
     trying to accomplish what the majority of voters demanded in 
     1994, a balanced budget. If that goal is finally achieved, 
     short term pain is justified for long term gain.
       Stop the swelling of a $5 trillion debt that will be hung 
     on the necks of future generations. Besides, the pain is not 
     that bad. Even the worst-case train wreck is more of a bad 
     fender-bender. Essential Government services continue, and 
     despite the White House attempt to blame Congress, it is the 
     President's constitutional duty to negotiate a budget with 
     lawmakers. If Clinton refuses to negotiate, voters should 
     remember that he alone decided to risk spreading flu through 
     financial markets rather than balance the budget 2 years 
     sooner than his own cobbled budget would have achieved.
       In this overhyped showdown, this much is clear: For the 
     first time Congress has a plan to balance the budget, and the 
     President is trying to kill it.

  That is from my hometown newspaper, the Cincinnati Inquirer, just 
this morning.
  Madam Speaker, the Washington Post, on its front page this morning, 
also has it exactly right. I will quote from that. ``For all the 
vitriol, all the finger pointing, all the carefully staged photogenic 
events, the real issue is the Republicans' plan to balance the budget 
in 2002.''
  Let us balance the budget now.

                          ____________________