[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 185 (Sunday, November 19, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S17479-S17480]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       THE CONTINUING RESOLUTION

  Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, about 3 days ago when we began to debate a 
continuing resolution which would have caused the Government to go back 
to work while we attempted to reach a balanced budget, the leading 
member of the Democratic Party on the Budget Committee, the Senator 
from Nebraska, pleaded with us for what he called--and I quote him--a 
``simple extension.''
  Mr. President, this standoff is taking place because--between a 
``simple extension'' and the dramatic change represented by the formal 
7-year budget passed by this body 2 nights ago that would balance the 
budget by the year 2002--there is a great gulf fixed. This is not a 
petty difference. This is not a minor difference in opinion on a slight 
change in direction for the Government of the United States. It is 
reflected in what the majority leader said if that bill passed. That 
profound difference was reflected by the remarks of the majority leader 
to the effect that the vote that he cast to cause the budget to be 
balanced was probably the most important that he had cast in all of his 
many years in the U.S. Senate.
  We on this side of the aisle wish to end the practice of spending 
$200 billion a year on programs which we like and support eloquently 
but refuse to pay for and, therefore, send the bills to our children 
and grandchildren. Members on the other side wish for a simple 
extension of the present course of action. They argue eloquently for 
the status 

[[Page S 17480]]
quo. They like what Government is doing at the present time, and they 
are quite content to spend money and send the bills to someone else in 
some future generation.
  We have been informed that, if we do in fact pass a set of laws that 
will balance the budget by the year 2002, the Federal Government itself 
will receive a dividend of $170 billion in lower interest rates on the 
debt and in higher tax collections because people are making higher 
incomes. The dividends to the people of the United States is some half 
a trillion dollars in lower interest rates on their homes, their 
automobiles, in better job opportunities, and in higher wages. We look 
to the future. They look to the present and to the past.
  The President now in the present negotiations is willing to set a 
goal of a balanced budget, a dream of a balanced budget, the thought 
that the budget might be balanced sometime long after he ceases to be 
President, but he is unwilling to state it as a policy.
  Even if we are to go to a balanced budget, there is another struggle 
which is not at all petty, Mr. President, between whose figures we will 
use, those of the Congressional Budget Office, the very Congressional 
Budget Office which the President himself said was the neutral arbiter 
just 2 years ago, and the figures that the President himself through 
his own office comes up with to suit his own purposes.
  Many, including some otherwise thoughtful commentators on national 
television, say, ``This is $1 million difference. Why are you 
quarreling over it?'' Mr. President, we are quarreling over it because 
the difference in those estimates in the next 10 years is $1 trillion 
in spending. This President wants to use estimates that will allow him 
to spend $1 trillion more in the next 10 years, half a trillion dollars 
more in the next 7 years, the 7 which separate us in the debate on the 
balanced budget. That is not a modest difference, Mr. President--half a 
trillion dollars in the next 7 years.
  What is the difference given the fact that neither side can be 
certain that it is right? If the White House is wrong and the 
Congressional Budget Office is right, and we adopt the White House 
figures, we will never have deficits lower than $150 billion or $200 
billion even at the end of the 7 years. If, on the other hand, we are 
wrong, we are too conservative and they are right but our policies are 
adopted, what happens then? We balance the budget in 5 years rather 
than 7. We simply reach our goal more rapidly with a larger fiscal 
dividend.
  Let us put it very straightforward. Two days ago this Congress passed 
a continuing resolution, one which would have put all Government 
employees back to work with the single requirement that we state that 
we would come up with a budget that would be balanced by the year 2002 
using the honest and realistic figures of the Congressional Budget 
Office. It did not confine the President or the other party to any 
particular tax cut, to any particular defense budget, or to any 
particular reductions or slowing of growth in any program at all. It 
simply said that we would debate from the same set of figures, and we 
would reach the same desired end. That is all.
  So this is an important difference. If you want to spend another half 
a trillion dollars in the course of the next 7 years, you should favor 
the President's course of action. That is what he wants to do. That is 
his budget. If you feel that it is immoral, as well as economically 
wrong, to spend money today and to bill your children and grandchildren 
for it, and you can accomplish those goals while still allowing 
spending in the U.S. Government to go up by an average of 3 percent a 
year, then you take our side of this debate, Mr. President.
  The debate is an important one. It is a vital one. It is, as the 
majority leader said, at least the single most important debate in the 
last 10 years, if not longer. It is a debate between those who believe 
that the budget ought in fact to be in balance at the end of 7 years 
and those who have other and higher priorities and want to continue to 
spend money that they do not put up themselves but that they will bill 
to their children and their grandchildren.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California is recognized.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. I thank the Chair, Mr. President.

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