[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 181 (Wednesday, November 15, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S17086-S17087]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           A BALANCED BUDGET

  Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, I yield myself 10 minutes. There is so 
much to be said on this subject and not very much time. I want to begin 
by following up on what my good friend from Nebraska, Senator Exon, 
said a moment ago. I do hope that we do not have any further abuse of 
the rules by trying to silence the minority and put in a quorum call 
and object to it being called off, because there are Senators on this 
side who want to speak. That is the kind of things they do in Third 
World nations, Mr. President.
  We are a body of Senators who are supposed to be deliberating. We 
cannot deliberate if we do not get the floor to speak, and we cannot 
speak when this place is in recess. We all know what is going on here. 
There is an obvious effort to silence people. I am not going to be 
silenced. I am like Patrick Henry--I'm willing to sit here all night to 
say what I am going to say.
  The other thing the Senator from Nebraska brought up is that no 
Democrat--not one--has been invited to participate in a conference on 
the so-called budget reconciliation bill. We are not even permitted in 
the room. The first time, probably, in history, that the minority has 
been completely shut out of conference. I have only been here 21 years, 
but it is the first time I have ever seen anything like it in my life. 
Normally, when the House and Senate pass different versions of a bill, 
they select conferees--and there are more Republicans when they are in 
control and more Democrats when we are in control. The conferees 
resolve the differences between the two bills and they send the 
conference report to both Houses.
  This body is going to be asked to vote on Friday on the budget 
reconciliation bill, on which not one Democrat has even been offered 
the opportunity to amend, or even offer an amendment. So when the 
President says, no, I am not going to accept the Republican so-called 
7-year budget balancing act, it is not because he does not favor a 
balanced budget.
  I heard the Senator from Tennessee earlier tonight say that is what 
all of this is about. I say to all Senators, if that is all this were 
about, we would be recessed and home by now.
  The President wants a balanced budget. The House and the Senate want 
a balanced budget. The American people want a balanced budget. But the 
President is not going to sign a bill with garbage on it which has no 
place on it. And he is not going to sign a bill which commits him to a 
reconciliation bill that is absolutely devastating to the values of 
this country.
  What are we doing? Here is that sacred document called the 
Constitution. It is the reason we are still a free nation. What does it 
say about the Presidency? Just so you will not think I am making this 
up, I will read it.

       Every Bill which shall have passed the House of 
     Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes a 
     Law, be presented to the President of the United States; if 
     he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it 
     with his Objections to that House in which it shall have 
     originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their 
     Journal.

  The mother tongue is English. I just read, in English, the 
Constitution which says if the President approves, he will sign it. If 
he does not approve it, he will send it back.
  I will not take the time to read the rest of it, but then it says the 
bill shall go back to the House where it originated and that House 
shall vote to override the President's veto by a 67 percent vote. And 
if they do it, it will be sent to the other House.
  What are we doing here? The President vetoed the continuing 
resolution. There is no effort to override it. They 

[[Page S17087]]
have an AK-47 to the President's head, saying, ``You will accept a $20 
billion cut in school lunches; you will accept a $40 billion cut in 
education; you will accept a $270 billion cut in Medicare; you will 
accept a $182 billion cut in Medicaid; you will accept a $32 billion 
cut in the earned-income tax credit; you will accept a $245 billion tax 
cut for the wealthy.''
  People on this floor stand up and solemnly talk about a tax credit 
for our children. Let me tell you about the tax credit for our 
children. The people who work in this country who have children do not 
get it. If that is the House Speaker's idea of a revolution, deliver me 
from it. I hope the Speaker keeps using that term revolution. It scares 
people. It scares me.
  When I hear people talking about a revolution, I might also say there 
are a lot of people who have never received the full benefits from the 
first revolution. And an awful lot of them do not want the benefits of 
his revolution, including me.
  This is not about who wants a balanced budget. This is who believes 
in elemental values of fairness. What the reconciliation bill says is: 
Eight percent of the people cheat. Let us kill the whole program. Put 
another 1 million people in poverty by adopting the welfare reform 
bill. Educate 1 million fewer children in college by cutting student 
loans and student grants. So far as that child tax credit is concerned, 
Mr. President, listen to this. They act as though the parent of every 
child in America is going to get a $500 tax credit. Mr. President, 
there are 5 million households in this country, with 11 million 
children, that will receive part or all of the $500 tax credit.
  Listen to this. There are 8 million households with 15 million 
children who will not get one dime, not even a nickel. Who are they? 
Who are these 15 million children? I will tell you precisely who they 
are. They are the people who ought to get a tax cut because they are 
from the families who do not make enough money to even pay income tax. 
A husband and wife that make $20,000 a year and pay no tax won't 
benefit from the so-called family tax credit. If you pay no tax, you 
get no refund. What kind of value is that?
  I have never seen so much political chicanery in my life. It is 
scary. Some of the things that have gone around here have been 
absolutely shameless.
  I know exactly where we are headed. We are headed to the point where 
the people in this country are beginning to get nervous about the 
Speaker's revolution. They are uneasy.
  I tell you, the election a week ago yesterday was not that big a 
deal. We Democrats got some satisfaction out of it. To me, that 
election just simply said we are not sure this is what we voted for in 
1994. We want a balanced budget but we did not know you were going to 
assault the elderly and the poor children by cutting school lunches, by 
cutting education funds, by cutting funds for the elderly, by a $182 
billion cut in Medicaid which affects the health care of the poorest 
children in America. Mr. President, the Republican budget would impose 
a $2.6 billion Medicare cut on my little State of Arkansas. I promise 
you we will be lucky to even have a program worthy of the name 
Medicaid. We cannot do it if you cut $2.6 billion, and for what? For 
this miserable, for this awful $245 billion tax cut which the wealthy 
do not want and which the poor will not receive.
  So I can see it coming now. The polls are going to continue to show 
the President doing very well and the people getting terribly upset 
about what we have done here. So what will happen? We will bring up 
desecration of the flag. That will take their mind off of it. Everybody 
loves the flag. And everybody is for prayer in school, so we will bring 
up prayer in school. That will get their mind off of it.
  Is it not interesting? I have fought a line-item veto ever since I 
have been in the Senate, and this year I lost. We passed a line-item 
veto, and what happens? There happens to be a Democrat in the White 
House and we cannot get anything done.
  What about term limits? Everybody was for term limits as long as the 
Democrats were in charge. Now all of a sudden term limits are not such 
a hot idea. I wonder if that has anything to do with the Republicans 
gaining majorities in the House and Senate?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair would like to remind the Senator 
from Arkansas he has consumed 10 minutes.
  Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I yield myself--we have 18 minutes 
remaining?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. You have 17 minutes 45 seconds.

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