[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 183 (Friday, November 17, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H13291]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             BUDGET IMPASSE

  Mr. TALENT. Mr. Speaker, I think it is important to focus on not just 
where we are now, but how we got here. Several days the House passed 
and sent over to the Senate a continuing resolution which would fund 
every part of the Government that is now shut down, and fund it at a 
level that I take it the President does not object to, because he has 
not objected to that part of the continuing resolution.
  There was only one other condition attached to it: That the President 
agree to balance the budget of the United States in 7 years according 
to realistic numbers. The President has announced, before the bill was 
even passed the President announced that he would veto the legislation.
  Why? Because the President would shut the Government down rather than 
balance the budget in 7 years, and the Congress would allow the 
Government to be shut down rather than prevent the budget from being 
balanced in 7 years. A number of Members on both sides of the aisle 
have talked about the schism, about the philosophical differences.
  Mr. BALDACCI. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield for a question?
  Mr. TALENT. I yield to the gentleman from Maine.
  Mr. BALDACCI. Mr. Speaker, I think that the American would say that 
everybody is in favor of balancing the budget, but does your proposal 
have a $245 billion tax break on top of balancing the budget?
  Mr. TALENT. We provide family tax relief. Is the gentleman in favor 
of balancing the budget in 7 years?
  Mr. BALDACCI. Yes.
  Mr. TALENT. Did you vote that way?
  Mr. BALDACCI. Yes.
  Mr. TALENT. Did you vote for the balanced budget amendment?
  Mr. BALDACCI. I voted for the Stenholm budget. I voted for the Orton 
budget.
  Mr. TALENT. Did you vote for the continuing resolution?

                              {time}  2310

  Mr. BALDACCI. I support a 7-year balanced budget.
  Mr. TALENT. Did you vote for the continuing resolution?
  Mr. BALDACCI. Mr. Speaker, I want the gentleman to understand, our 
balanced budget did not have tax breaks in it. I think that the 
proposal that you put forward did.
  Mr. TALENT. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman 
from Ohio [Mr. Hoke].
  Mr. HOKE. Does the continuing resolution have a $240 billion tax cut 
in it?
  Mr. TALENT. No, I appreciate the gentleman saying that. The President 
has complained and several Members of this body have complained about 
certain parts of our budget that they do not like this aspect of it, 
they do not like that aspects of it.
  The continuing resolution does not say the President has to accept 
the congressional budget, does not say the President has to accept any 
budget. It says the President has to agree to balance the budget in 7 
years. One of the problems we have in this Congress is that instead of 
debating the import of the matters before us, we keep making contrary 
assertions about what is before us. We cannot even agree on what we are 
talking about.
  The continuing resolution says the Government will continue if the 
President will agree to balance the budget in 7 years. He does not like 
our budget. He can offer his own. In fact, he did offer his own budget. 
He did offer his own budget some months ago, I believe in the form of a 
22- or 24-page press release, which he claimed balanced the budget in 
10 years.
  This is how the Congressional Budget Office scored it. Continued 
deficits through another 10 years at $200 billion. It was a budget that 
no Member of either party in this House would even offer on the House 
floor. It was offered on the Senate and it was rejected by a vote of 96 
to 0.
  The President is not opposed to the continuing resolution. He is not 
trying to get the Government to shut down because he does not like our 
budget. He is shutting down because he does not like our budget. He is 
shutting the Government down because he does not want to balance the 
budget in 7 years. Why does he not want to balance the budget in 7 
years? About the only good thing about this controversy, Mr. Speaker, 
is that it does highlight the very major philosophical differences 
between the two parties here in Washington. The President of the United 
States and the leader of the Democratic Party believes basically that 
what is important about America is the Federal Government and its 
agencies and its instrumentalities, as if the United States was a 
pyramid with the Federal Government at the top of it. And the policies 
the President has followed and the national Democratic Party, not all 
Democrats to be sure, but the national Democratic Party have followed 
has sucked up that pyramid power and resources away from the American 
people for the last 30 years.
  But our party believes in the people and what they have built, their 
families their communities, their neighborhoods, their local schools, 
serve and civil and charitable organizations. We want power and 
resources located in the people, and what built in their communities. 
And we do not want the Federal Government to bankrupt everything that 
the people of this country have built and have worked for for the last 
several hundred years.
  Mr. Speaker, the President was against the balanced budget amendment. 
He is against the budget that we offered. He refuses to offer a serious 
budget of his own. And now he vetoes a continuing resolution that calls 
for him to do nothing except accept in principle that we will balance 
this budget within 7 years.

  Mr. Speaker, if some family or some business in the United States was 
awash in red ink the way the Federal Government is and their deal with 
their creditors and the bank was, we will get our budget balanced in 7 
years, not eliminate the debt, just eliminate the deficit in 7 years, 
people would laugh at them. That is all we are trying to do here. That 
is all we need to do to get this government open. The minute the 
President agrees to balance the budget in 7 years, according to 
reasonable numbers, this Government will open for business.

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