[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 185 (Sunday, November 19, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S17471]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




[[Page S 17471]]


                           BALANCE THE BUDGET

  Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, I, too, commend all the Members of the 
Senate and the House that have labored to try to resolve this dilemma, 
but I take just a moment, if I might, Mr. President, and step back from 
it.
  I have just returned from Georgia, and many of the citizens I talked 
to are somewhat concerned. There is an anxiousness as to just what is 
happening here. I think it is very important that we remember that the 
ultimate issue that has driven all of these events for the last several 
days is whether or not the United States is going to balance its budget 
or not after 30 years of not doing so.

  Just the other evening, in a very historic vote, 52 to 47, the U.S. 
Senate passed a balanced budget, the first one in 3 decades. The House 
has done the same.
  The President has said he will veto this balanced budget, which is 
perplexing because, first of all, if any message came out of the last 
election it was that the American people want their budgets balanced. 
They deal with it in their family, they deal with it in their business, 
and they simply do not understand a Federal Government that cannot 
manage itself. They want the budgets balanced.
  The President, in 1992, as he ran for President, promised the 
American people that he would balance the budget in 5 years. The 
proposal that he has been sent balances the budget in 7 years.
  This Congress, the 104th Congress, came from the elections to balance 
the budgets. They have fulfilled that promise. It is time for the 
President to do the same. He has said repeatedly, as I said, in 1992 he 
was for a balanced budget in 5 years. He then said he would submit a 
balanced budget in 10 years. I think he has mentioned every number in 
between at one time or another.
  The point is that he has never--never--submitted a budget in balance, 
which is, of course, why, when his budget came before the Senate, it 
was rejected, on one occasion, 99 to 0, and on the next, 96 to 0.
  This is not just a contest or philosophies and the like, Mr. 
President. The Bipartisan Entitlement Commission appointed by the 
President, chaired by a member of his own party, Senator Kerrey of 
Nebraska, cochaired by Senator Danforth of Missouri, told the Nation in 
the beginning of this year that within a decade--that is on all of our 
watch--within a decade all the vast resources of the United States will 
be consumed by only five of our programs.
  It is almost difficult to imagine all the vast resources of the 
United States being consumed by just five programs, but they are. They 
are Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Federal retirement, and the 
interest on our debt--and then there is nothing else. That would be a 
travesty, for this generation to be the first generation of Americans 
that gave the country to the future crippled and unable to manage 
itself. How could we even imagine doing that to future generations, the 
children and grandchildren yet to come? No generation of Americans has 
ever willfully--willfully given the future a country crippled, 
stumbling into the next century.
  As sober a message as that is, we need to be reminded that if we 
seize control of our destiny, if we manage these financial affairs as 
proposed in this balanced budget, we will enter the next century with 
more opportunity than one could even imagine or has ever known or seen 
before. We will be putting resources back in the American family 
because we will lower the devastating interest rates they pay on their 
home mortgage, on their car, on borrowing, on their student loans. We 
will dramatically shorten the lines for employment because we will have 
an expanding economy with vast new opportunities. And, I might say, we 
should remember that, as the world's greatest power, we will then enter 
the new century with the muscle to back it up. What would some of these 
world rogues rather see than the United States crippled economically, 
stumbling into that century? We should never give them that 
opportunity.
  I saw a fact sheet just the other day and I have asked it be 
expanded. The balanced budget that we have submitted, if ratified, 
would save, over the next 7 years, my State of Georgia $333 million in 
debt service. It would save my capital city, in which I live, $121 
million in debt service.
  As I said a moment ago, it will save every Georgia family nearly 
$2,000 to $3,000. That means we, in effect, will have increased their 
disposable income between 10 percent and 20 percent. Who else is 
getting a raise like that? What a bonus we could give the American 
family by simply being responsible.
  So, while we are talking about shutdown and the like, and the 
disputes and the meetings that are going on, let us just remember, this 
is about a Congress that is intent on balancing the budget of the 
United States so we can save the integrity of the Union for the future, 
for a new century.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.

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