[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 183 (Friday, November 17, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H13292-H13293]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      ON THE CONTINUING RESOLUTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Fox] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Riggs].
  Mr. RIGGS. Mr. Speaker, to return to the colloquy with the gentleman 
from New Jersey, I simply want to point out that one of the concerns, 
one of the frustrations that I have had is that the closer we have 
gotten to the actual moment of truth, the moment of truth being that 
time which actually came today, when we voted on the final version of a 
7-year plan to balance the Federal budget using honest numbers, this is 
an agreement scored by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, it 
balances the Federal budget in 7 years by limiting the growth, the 
increase in Federal spending to 3 percent per year, the closer we have 
gotten to that moment of truth, the fewer Members on your side of the 
aisle who have been willing to stand up and cast that tough vote.

                              {time}  2320

  Now let me point out that the gentleman is the exception to the rule. 
The gentleman from New Jersey not only voted for the Democratic 
alternative, the substitute version offered by the Democrats to balance 
the Federal budget, he also voted for the continuing resolution a 
couple of nights ago, but let me point out, because I have here in my 
hot little hands, as they would say, the three rollcall votes that I 
consider most pivotal.
  First is the vote the gentleman referred to as the vote earlier this 
year, in the first quarter of the year, on the balanced budget 
amendment, which was part of the Contract With America; that was 
rollcall vote 51 in the House of Representatives. Voting yes were 228 
Republicans and 72 Democrats, including the gentleman from New Jersey.
  And later, rollcall vote number 741, this was on the so-called 
coalition budget, the version of a balanced budget offered by the more 
moderate conservative Democrats which was officially offered on this 
floor as the Democrat substitute or the Democrat alternative on a 
balanced budget. Out of 199 Democrats, 68 voted for the concept and the 
plan for balancing the budget at that time; 131 Democrats were opposed.
  And then just 2 nights ago in rollcall vote, and I have got it as 
well, rollcall vote number 8002 in the House of Representatives, only 
48 Democrats, again including the gentleman from New Jersey, voted for 
the continuing appropriations which stipulated only that we would be 
committed, in passing that bill into law, to the concept of balancing 
the Federal budget in 7 years using honest CBS numbers.
  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Reclaiming my time, Mr.. Speaker, the fact 
is this does show bipartisan support, that the gentleman from New 
Jersey [Mr. Andrews] has well established himself as someone who is 
going to work with the Republican majority to, in fact, pass a balanced 
budget. What we need is enough of those Democrats on the other side of 
the aisle to talk to the President, and the fact is we would not have 
these furloughs, we would not have these agencies not funded, we would 
not have programs stopped now, if the President would only sign a 
balanced budget that the said on no less than six occasions that he 
would sign.
  Mr. ANDREWS. If the gentleman would yield, I will be very succinct. I 
do not want to intrude on his time.
  Frankly let me try to answer your question. Here is how I think we 
can get the 300 votes, and everyone has their own version of this. The 
tax cut will be smaller, the money taken from the tax cut will be put 
back into Medicare. There will be a little bit more taken out of 
agriculture and energy, put back into the environment and education, 
and there is your 300 votes, and it will take us 15 minutes.
  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Reclaiming my time, I yield to the gentleman 
from Ohio.
  Mr. HOKE. I would like to engage you just a little bit longer on this 
because I think the questions you raised are more than rhetorical, and 
I really appreciate your sincerity, and I have to say that I reject 
your conclusions. I mean, cause you know you have clearly been 
absolutely consistent, and I looked at the votes earlier, just like 
Frank did, and I think that this is not about policy--well, it is 
ultimately about policy, but I really do believe that it is about 
politics and that politics is about power, and I do not know how else 
you can explain the voting patterns.
  You know, one of the things that I saw by looking at this is that 
there were 24 Members of your side who voted for the balanced budget 
amendment on January 26, an amendment to 

[[Page H 13293]]
the Constitution, who voted against the continuing resolution 2 nights 
ago. Forty-eight Members voted for it, but 24 of the ones that had 
voted for the BBA back in January voted against this continuing 
resolution. I mean how do you explain that?

  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Reclaiming the time, I appreciate the 
comments of my colleague.
  The fact of the matter is a balanced budget is going to help everyone 
in every region of the country, all ages, and the fact is by decreasing 
the cost of mortgage payments for the balanced budget, decreasing costs 
for car payments, decreasing costs of college tuition, we are going to 
do what every other government is required to do, school government, 
local government, and families.
  So the balanced budget is an idea whose time has arrived. We need to 
have the political will to make sure we talk to the White House, that 
we have more of both sides of the aisle working together.
  Mr. HOKE. Well, we clearly have the political will, and the gentleman 
from New Jersey [Mr. Andrews] clearly has the political will, but you 
are trying to get to the question of what is really going on, and you 
are saying, if we reduce some of the tax cuts, reduce some of the tax 
cuts and tinker a little bit with the environment and some of these 
educational things--I do not know who else has time here.

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