[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 185 (Sunday, November 19, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S17475-S17476]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            WORKING TOGETHER

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I know that the distinguished Democratic 
leader is going to speak here on the floor in a few minutes to describe 
the offer that was made and, apparently, rejected by the Republican 
leadership. And I would hope that Senators and the public would listen 
to it. I say this because I have a feeling in many, many ways that if 
we were left to the situation where the Democrats and Republicans in 
the Senate were able to work together on this, with the White House, we 
would have a solution to this impasse.
  Certainly, we would have a solution that would put a lot of hard-
working men and women back to work, people who cannot afford to miss 
paychecks and who want to be at work, people who have mortgages to pay, 
children to educate, parents to care for, have medical bills to pay, 
car payments to make, and can ill-afford to lose paychecks, especially 
when there are jobs that need to be done and people want to do them.
  I say that I think we could work it out between the Senate and the 
White House. It appears to me, however, that the other body and its 
leadership do not feel it is possible and that they say there is 
nothing that can be done. I see this remarkable situation where the 
other body simply recessed even though appropriations and spending 
bills begin--spending bills by custom; revenue bills by Constitution--
begin in the other body. They have left.
  They have this fiction of waiting for the call of the Chair. But, in 
fact, their leadership has decided they would recess and that they 
would leave. They are shirking their duty. They are shirking their 
duty. They are being paid. They ought to stay. They ought to stay and 
work this out for those tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of men 
and women who are not being paid, who are loyal Americans, who have 
given a great deal of their life and effort to this country and want to 
keep this country going.
  We have a situation where we have become the laughing stock of the 
world. The President of the United States cannot go to a major economic 
summit in Japan at a time when perhaps a greater danger to this Nation 
is perhaps not the deficits we now face but our trade deficit. At least 
much of the deficit we owe to ourselves, but our trade deficit involves 
countries abroad who are eating our economic lunch.
  Every time we have $1 billion more in our trade deficit, we lose tens 
of thousands of American jobs. The President was going to represent 
this country at a meeting in Japan where we could at least talk about 
that with the country that has the greatest trade imbalance with the 
United States, but he has to remain here. He is remaining here at work. 
The distinguished Presiding Officer is remaining here at work. I am 
here at work.
  I wish the Republican leadership in the House would let the House 
come back to work, because, Mr. President, there is one thing that 
ought to be very evident to everybody: We are not going to pass a 
Gingrich budget. We are not going to pass a Clinton budget. We are not 
going to pass a Dole budget. We can pass a budget for the American 
people. We will pass a budget that reflects the views of both 
Republicans and Democrats of the House and of the Senate and of the 
President because, frankly, under the Constitution, under the laws and 
under the history of this great country, we are all in this together.
  So I urge everybody to stop thinking there is going to be one party 
that is going to win everything in this. That may work in a game of 
marbles on a playground in kindergarten. That does not work here. This 
is not a playground, even though it may appear that way to some. It is 
not kindergarten, although it may appear that way to some. It is not a 
game of marbles, even though it may appear that way to some. This is 
the budget of the country, the most powerful, greatest Nation on Earth, 
the most significant democracy history has ever known, the largest 
economy in the world, and we are standing here because some feel they 
may have been slighted or some feel that they must make a point that 
will fit on a bumper sticker in next year's election, congressional or 
Presidential.
  Mr. President, I am one Democrat who says let us have Democrats and 
Republicans sit down. Set aside short-term political gains and do what 
is best for this country. Stop thinking that we will have a Speaker 
Gingrich budget, or a leader Dole budget, or a President Clinton 
budget, but rather that we will have a budget that can take the best of 
the proposals of each of the three, and let us work at it.
  We have had proposals here. The distinguished Senator from North 
Dakota and I have voted for a budget that would give us a balanced 
budget within the 7 years. We all want that. But before we balance a 
budget that intends, in large part, to slash very needy programs so 
that a tax break can be given to people at the highest level, let us 
ask if that is what the American public really want.
  Do they want to see money for education cut so that the most wealthy 
in this country can have a tax break? I doubt it.
  Do they want to see nutrition programs for the most needy in this 
country slashed so that the wealthiest can get another tax break? I 
doubt that the American people want that.
  Do they want to see Medicare and Medicaid attacked to that the 
wealthiest in this Nation can have a tax break? I doubt that very much.
  If we are going to be saving money, let us protect the most in need. 
And if there is extra money left over, let us apply it to the deficit. 
Let us apply it to the deficit, not to another tax break for the 
wealthiest who already pay less in taxes than any industrialized nation 
on Earth. We do not need to put it there. If we really want to do 
something for our children, rather than giving it as a tax break for 
the wealthiest, apply it to our national debt, apply it to our deficit.
  In the deficits that grew up during the Reagan and Bush era, today we 
spend nearly $1 billion in interest--in interest alone --almost every 
day, $1 billion just in interest on the deficits and the increase in 
the national debt built up during the terms of only two Presidents, 
Ronald Reagan and George Bush.
  Let us be honest about that. Some who were the greatest proponents of 
the Reagan deficits have stood in the last 2 days on the floor of this 
Senate and said, ``We have to do something about this terrible 
deficit.'' Well, I tell them that virtually our whole deficit is caused 
just by what we pay in interest on those profligate days in the 
eighties where we made huge tax cuts and huge defense buildups and 
borrowed the money from the next generation to pay for it.

  That is what happened then, Mr. President. What happens now, though, 
is what happens now. Today, we have hundreds of thousands of people out 
of work needlessly. We have hundreds and hundreds of thousands more who 
will be out of work because of the ripple effect, whether it is the 
people who want to get into our national parks, whether it is those who 
will not be able to borrow money for their mortgage, VA loan, or 
anything else, whether it is those who want to make new claims in 
Social Security.
  Think of the hundreds of thousands, even millions of people who will 
be out of work because of the Government programs that have stopped, 
Government programs that all of us, Republicans and Democrats, have 
supported, whether it is in the VA or whether it is in our various 
mortgage programs or Social Security or anything else.
  Let us say, OK, everybody has made their political point. They can 
use them in their ads next year. Let us sit down and remember, we are 
not going to have a Republican House or Republican Senate or a 
Democratic House or Democratic Senate budget or Presidential budget, 
but together we can 

[[Page S 17476]]
have one that serves the best of this country.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. ABRAHAM addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Gorton). The Senator from Michigan.

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