[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 180 (Tuesday, November 14, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S17010]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRAIN WRECK IS NO ACCIDENT

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, let me share the sentiments offered by the 
majority leader moments ago that both sides get together early today 
and resolve this issue.
  Let me also disagree on one statement. This is not about whether 
there should be a balanced budget. Of course there should be a balanced 
budget. I think all Members of the Senate agree there should be a 
balanced budget and a plan to bring the fiscal policies in this country 
into balance.
  The question is, how? How do we do that? Where do we make cuts? Who 
bears the brunt of those cuts? Who bears the brunt of the sacrifice?
  I will read from an editorial written by David Gergen, who served 
both the Republican and Democratic Presidents. He said, in giving the 
Republicans credit for pushing for a balanced budget:

       But in their eagerness to satisfy one principle, fiscal 
     responsibility, the Republicans would ask the country to 
     abandon another, equally vital, principle--fair play. This is 
     a false, cruel choice we should not make.
       When George Bush and then Bill Clinton achieved large 
     deficit reductions, we pursued the idea of ``shared 
     sacrifice.'' Not this time. Instead, Congress now seems 
     intent on imposing new burdens upon the poor, the elderly, 
     and vulnerable children while, incredibly, delivering a 
     windfall for the wealthy.

  That is what this issue is about, not whether the budget should be 
balanced. Of course it should. It is how it is balanced and whether 
there is fair play involved.

  I want to make one additional point. We come to a shutdown not by 
accident, in my judgment. Let me read some quotes. We have heard boasts 
in this town about shutdowns for some months. April 3, this year, Newt 
Gingrich, Speaker Gingrich, vowed to ``create a titanic legislative 
standoff with President Clinton by adding vetoed bills to must-pass 
legislation increasing the national debt ceiling.''
  April 3, Speaker Gingrich boasted the President will ``veto a number 
of things, and we'll put them all on the debt ceiling. And then he'll 
decide how big a crisis he wants.''
  June 3, Speaker Gingrich:

       We're going to go over the liberal Democratic part of the 
     Government and then we will say to them: We could last 60 
     days, 90 days, 120 days, 5 years, a century. There's a lot of 
     stuff we don't care if it is ever funded.

  June 5, Speaker Gingrich, speaking about the President:

       He can run the parts of the government that are left [after 
     the Republican budget cuts] or he can run no government. 
     Which of the two of us do you think worries more about not 
     showing up?

  September 22, Speaker Gingrich:

       I don't care what the price is. I don't care if we have no 
     executive offices and no bonds for 30 days--not this time.

  Investor's Business Daily, November 8, Gingrich said he would force 
Government to ``miss interest and principal payment for the first time 
ever to force Democrat Clinton's administration to agree to his deficit 
reduction.'' Budget Chairman John Kasich said:

       We'll probably have a few train wrecks, but that's always 
     helpful in a revolution.

  The point I make is we do not arrive at this issue accidentally. This 
is an issue that is planned by persons who, as David Gergen says in his 
analysis, have decided to balance the budget by adding to the burdens 
of the children, the poor, the vulnerable in society, and incredibly, 
he says, delivering a windfall for the wealthy.
  Some of us think that is not the way to do business. Others 
apparently think it is a perfect way for the Federal Government to 
behave and, if it does not behave that way, they want to force the 
Federal Government to shut its doors.
  That is not, in my judgment, a thoughtful way to do public policy. 
Rather, I think, it is a thoughtless, reckless approach to public 
policy, and I hope that sometime today in some way the leadership of 
both parties and the President will agree to this bridge or stopgap 
legislation to get us to December when we then clearly debate the 
larger reconciliation package.

  This is just the road on the way to the stadium. The main event, the 
main contest in December over the big reconciliation bill is not what 
this is about. This is the toll extracted on the road to the stadium. 
It makes no sense to me to see the Government shut down in these 
circumstances.
  I read these quotes from Speaker Gingrich and others to demonstrate 
it is no accident. I am sure there are people who take great delight in 
the fact that there is no agreement on a continuing resolution or on a 
debt extension; they take great delight in that because they have 
accomplished what they boasted about to some months.
  I think there is no credit for anyone in this kind of failure. I hope 
more thoughtful voices, more responsible voices in both political 
parties today will resolve to decide to bridge this impasse and provide 
a continuing resolution and a debt extension to take us into mid-
December when we finally come to grips with the continuing resolution.
  There is no disagreement among Democrats and Republicans about 
whether this country ought to balance its budget. There is profound 
disagreement among many of us in this country who believe you ought not 
kick kids off Head Start and take health money away from old folks so 
we can build B-2 bombers and Star Wars.
  There is profound disagreement about priorities, but not about goals 
of balancing the Federal budget. While we have speakers today trying to 
debate what this debate is about, I want people of this country to 
understand this debate is about priorities--not destinations or goals. 
We all want to balance the Federal budget.
  There is a right way and a wrong way to do it. On the road to finding 
the right way to do it, the wrong approach is to shut the Government 
down as boasted by Speaker Gingrich and others they would do for some 
months. That serves no one's interest and does not accomplish any 
useful purpose for this country, in my judgment.

                          ____________________