[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 182 (Thursday, November 16, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S17200-S17201]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       THE CONTINUING RESOLUTION

  Ms. MOSELEY-BRAUN. Mr. President, thank you.
  Mr. President, I would like to speak briefly. And I want to be brief 
because I know the pages are anxious, and so is the Presiding Officer. 
But I would like to speak for a moment on the continuing resolution, 
the debate that was just concluded, and make a few brief comments about 
it. And then I will file a more expansive statement at a later time.
  Mr. President, this is the third day of the Government shutdown, and, 
quite frankly, this is a disgraceful way to conduct the people's 
business.
  The Government is shut down because, in my opinion, macho posturing, 
pique, and those things are being substituted--attitudes and old 
grudges are being substituted--for substantive debate and serious-
minded search for compromise.
  And we are here also because this Congress has not done its work. 
Over 6 weeks into this fiscal year, and only four appropriations bills 
are now law. Most of the bills are stalled here in Congress, not 
because of disputes over funding levels and philosophical debates, and 
the like, but frankly because of the efforts by the majority party to 
attach unrelated riders that are designed, in some instances, to erode 
women's right for choice, or to deregulate pollution, or to cut away 
workers' collective bargaining rights.
  So we have to resort to a continuing resolution. This continuing 
resolution that we just passed funds the Government for roughly 5 
weeks. It also calls on Congress and the President to balance the 
budget in 7 years.
  Frankly, that provision does not belong in the bill. That issue 
should be left to negotiations between the President and the Congress 
on the permanent budget, not on this temporary, partial budget.
  That was, however, why I supported the amendment offered by the 
minority leader. And, frankly, that is why I supported the amendment 
offered by the majority leader. But, quite frankly, it was the wrong 
place. Quite frankly, also, Mr. President, there is nothing 
particularly magic in 7 years. What is important is the objective. What 
is important is meeting our obligation to leave our children something 
more than a legacy of debt. And what is important is balancing the 
budget in a way that helps both individual Americans and our country 
generally.
  Mr. President, I believe we can balance the budget while not 
undermining health care for the elderly or for the poor, without 
pushing millions of children into poverty, and without denying access 
to a college education to additional millions of young Americans.
  I think it is possible to balance the budget over 7 years in a way 
that will make the future brighter for our children and that will help 
create prosperity for all of us. I hope the parties will seek and find 
common ground with that in mind.
  We have to reduce Federal deficits, but there are other objectives 
that cannot be forgotten. We cannot just on the one hand transfer costs 
from the Federal balance sheet to the balance sheets and the budgets of 
American families. We cannot cut back on essential investments in areas 
like education on which our competitiveness and, therefore, our 
economic strength, security, and wealth ultimately depend. We cannot 
make cuts that  close more doors to more Americans who are already 
anxious about their futures, and who are very hard pressed because, 
while the cost of achieving the American dream is rising, their incomes 
are not.

  Mr. President, this continuing resolution is not a balanced budget 
plan. It simply buys Congress and the President a little more time to 
produce a plan. It is all too clear that we need that time because the 
budget priorities reflected in the reconciliation bill that we will act 
on tomorrow are clearly mistaken, in my opinion.
  That reconciliation bill contains a foolish $245 billion tax cut. And 
I think one of my colleagues responded by saying to talk about a tax 
cut at a time that you are talking about reducing the deficit and 
balancing the budget is like announcing that you are going on a diet 
and asking someone to pass the dessert.
  Even though the President has cut the deficits in half over the last 
3 years, given the scope and the extent of our deficit problem, this is 
not the time for a tax cut. I add, Mr. President, parenthetically with 
regard to the specific parts of the tax cut--and I serve on the Finance 
Committee--there is nothing objectionable--well, there is little 
objectionable--about the tax cut with the specific ingredients in it. 
But, quite frankly, the tax cut is very much like a chicken in every 
pot, the oldest political ploy in town, to give a little bit of 
substance to the constituents. It could not come at a worse time. The 
timing and context is wrong. I believe it does not belong as part of 
reconciliation when we are talking about balancing the budget and 
cutting protections that are vitally dear, if not vital to Americans.
  Mr. President, the reconciliation bill that we are going to take up 
tomorrow unnecessarily jeopardizes the elderly, the poor, the children, 
and students by asking them for a hugely disproportionate share of 
budget savings that the bill requires over the next years 7 years while 
at the same time protecting tax expenditures, and many other business 
subsidies and loopholes from the clever.
  I believe we need a new plan, one that meets the needs of ordinary, 
hard-working Americans, and one that embraces opportunities for 
Americans in the future rather than diminishing them. What we need to 
do, therefore, in my opinion, is to end this temporary budget crisis, 
and to put the Government back to work.
  What we need to do is to defeat the reconciliation bill tomorrow, and 
vote against it, because we have to, given the technicalities of it, 
act on it before we can get to the compromise. Kill the reconciliation 
bill tomorrow, and go back to work on a more balanced, more fair, and 
more workable budget plan that does not treat millions of Americans as 
expendable people.
  Most of all, we need to act to meet our obligations to the American 
people by crafting a budget based on their needs, and that is based on 
the American priorities of all of our community, a budget built on the 
proposition that people's futures--and not just abstract accounting 
numbers--is what is really at stake here.
  We have a chance to define ourselves as one community, to recognize 
that we are all in this together, and to fix our budget problems by 
sharing the sacrifice and addressing our collective needs as Americans. 


[[Page S 17201]]

  Mr. President, this Congress can decide to be like so many corporate 
CEO's, laying off millions of Americans, discarding them, and ignoring 
the contributions that they have made in the past, and that they can 
make in the future. Or, we can recognize the truth--that our only 
permanent asset lies in the talents and the abilities of our people--
and we can construct a budget that helps Americans utilize their 
talents, and create wealth for all of us today, as well as for 
tomorrow.
  Mr. President, in that case, I believe the choice is obvious. I hope 
we will commit to coming together to find a common ground, and to 
recognize that we are indeed all in this together, and we need to have 
a budget that reflects that.
  Thank you. I yield the floor.

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