[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 183 (Friday, November 17, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H13280]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               WHAT DO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WANT US TO DO?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Tiahrt] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TIAHRT. Mr. Speaker, I believe most Americans are puzzled why we 
are at an impasse here in Washington, DC. All the bickering about these 
alleged cuts, and the Speaker in plane rides and the parliamentary 
procedure is all really distracting us from the main issue, and that is 
the business at hand, and that is carrying out the will of the people. 
So let us take a minute just to talk about what the American people 
would like us to do.
  Now I have a chart here that is the marching orders that the people 
of America have been giving Congress, and this is based on polling 
data, and all of it runs about 60 to 80 percent. The top one is balance 
the budget in 7 years, and we will talk more about that later, but 
basically this is what 80 percent of America wants us to do.
  Next is save Medicare from bankruptcy this year, reform welfare, 
another 80 percent issue, and the third is provide tax relief for 
families and for job creation. But I want to spend time tonight talking 
about the balanced budget issue. Let us concentrate on that because 
that is really what is pending now.
  The reason we have 800,000 Government workers off now is because the 
President is refusing to sign a continuing resolution that has been 
stripped from all the controversial issues except one, and that is the 
balanced budget, and the reason I say that is not controversial is 
because 80 percent of the Americans want a balanced budget. So what the 
Republicans are proposing is to balance it in 7 years, which is not 
unreasonable, but the President has already threatened a veto, and now 
he said many things about the balanced budget. He says he supports a 
balanced budget. During the campaign he was going to do it in 5 years, 
and then he said, well, we will do it in 10 years. Then he said, well, 
7 may be OK, but it could be 8 or 9. Are you clear on that yet?
  Well, I do know one thing, that he did send us a balanced budget, and 
I can show that to you. This is how it was scored. This is his budget, 
and you can see from 1996 through 2005 it runs about an average of $200 
billion a year deficit, $200 billion a year deficit, and, by the way, 
it did go to the Senate, and it received a ``no'' vote, or they voted 
it down 96 to zero. Not one person in the U.S. Senate supported the 
President's budget. But that is what he has proposed.

  This is the problem. The American people want to see a balanced 
budget.
  Now Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, says it is 
very important that we balance the budget, and he has a vision of what 
would happen if we could balance the budget. Let us just look at Mr. 
Greenspan's vision because he is very knowledgeable about these 
financial matters. He said our children will have a higher standard of 
living, that improvement in the purchasing power of incomes would 
occur, that there would be a rise in productivity, that there would be 
a reduction of inflation, that strengthening of financial markets, 
which we have already seen incidentally just from the hope of a 
balanced budget, the stock market is up nearly to 5,000 points. The 
bond market is up, all in the hope of balancing the budget for the 
first time in 26 years, and acceleration of long-term economic growth 
and significant drop in long-term interest rates.
  Well, now what would that drop in interest rates do? Well, it would 
help each one of us. A drop in interest rates would effect every 
individual in America and every family. A 2-percent drop in interest 
rates--and incidentally I just did not pick 2 percent arbitrarily. That 
is a number that came from Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the Federal 
Reserve Board. It came from Alan Greenspan himself.
  He said that a 2-percent drop in interest rates would, on a 30-year 
mortgage of $75,000, save $37,000 over the life of that mortgage. On a 
college loan, a 10-year loan at $11,000 would save $2,160. For a 4-year 
car loan for $15,000, it would save $900. A significant savings for 
each family of approximately $2,300 per year.
  So why is this a problem? Well, I think it is a problem because the 
President just does not think he can balance the budget, and the reason 
is he has members in his Cabinet who are really unable to control their 
own budget.
  For example, we have Secretary O'Leary at the Department of Energy. 
Now first it started out with the GAO report that said it was an 
ineffective agency. Then there was Vice President Gore in his national 
performance review that said she was 20 percent behind in her 
milestones, missing one out of five projects, she was 40 percent 
inefficient, it was going to cost us $70 billion over the next 30 
years. Well, then we found out that she travels extensively. She is the 
most expensive member in the whole Cabinet.

                              {time}  2145

  Then she spent $46,500 to hire a private investigative firm to find 
out who her unfavorables were, unfavorable people, so she could work on 
them a little.
  Mr. HAYWORTH. Could you repeat that?
  Mr. TIAHRT. She spent $46,500 a year to hire a private investigative 
firm to find out who the unfavorables were.
  Mr. Speaker, with people like that, it is going to be difficult for 
the President to balance the budget.

                          ____________________