[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 186 (Monday, November 20, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H13356]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HISTORY OF BALANCING THE BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Colorado [Mr. McInnis] is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, this is an opportunity today to visit with 
all of you. Of course the last 48 hours we have had a very busy 
weekend. I think we have come up to a compromise, but I am a little 
discouraged this morning to see some of my colleagues on the floor come 
to you and act as if they have been strong warriors for a balanced 
budget over the period of time that some of them have served in this 
office.
  Let me tell you that all of a sudden, some of my colleagues cannot 
rush fast enough to embrace the words ``balanced budget,'' so that they 
can say to the American people, you know, I have been for a balanced 
budget all this time. The question is not whether or not we balance the 
budget, the question is how we do it. That is their little wiggle room 
that some of these people are using.
  I think it is important that we look at the history of this country.
  A lot of these people that are talking to us, a lot of our colleagues 
that are talking that way, have served in previous Congresses. We have 
not had a balanced budget come out of these Chambers in 25 years. The 
Federal Government has not reduced Federal spending in 40 years. Look 
at what this deficit is doing and the debt is doing to the American 
people. Where are they, Johnny-come-latelies; where have they gone? It 
is about time they embraced a balanced budget.

  I tell you it is about time the President, who by the way said when 
he ran for office he would produce a balanced budget plan in 5 years, 
then he switched it to 10 years, then he dropped to 7 years, then he 
went to 8 years, then he went back to 7 years, then he was back to 10, 
and finally last night, finally last night, we got the President to 
commit to a 7-year balanced budget.
  Why is that so critical for the American people? What is the deficit 
doing to us? Take a look at what it accrues.
  It accrues at $30 million an hour. This Government spends $30 million 
an hour more than it brings in. The average person in America, each 
person in America, not the average, excuse me, each person in America 
owes $18,000 on the Federal debt. For a family of four, what is that, 
over $60,000, almost $60,000 in the debt for a family of four.
  Do you know that a child born this year, a child born this year, will 
owe out of their lifetime earnings, if we do not do something about 
this deficit, if the President does not keep his word to do it in a 7-
year period of time, that child will owe $180,000 of their lifetime 
earnings just to pay interest on the Federal debt.
  Now some of the preceding speakers have stood up here and said, take 
a look at the vets, take a look at Medicare, take a look at welfare, 
take a look at every entitlement program out there. What they are 
trying to convince all of you is that you could reach a balanced budget 
without touching entitlement programs. We can. We do not have to cut 
entitlement programs. We do have to control their growth.
  Do not let anyone stand up here in front of you and pretend that we 
are going to be able to balance the budget of this country without 
cutting growth on some of these Federal programs. You cannot cut the 
growth on every other program except entitlement programs, and even 
have a hope of ever balancing this deficit.
  Do you know that if we went out to every Federal agency next year, 
every Federal agency out there, and we said to those agencies, look, 
you do not have to cut one penny out of your budget, you do not have to 
cut one penny out of your budget, but next year your budget can only 
grow at a rate of 1 percent, you can only grow at a rate of one penny 
on the dollar, if we could get the Federal agencies to do that, we 
would balance this problem, the annual deficit, in probably a 4-year 
period of time.
  Now you are going to hear some of my colleagues say, well, where is 
this 7 years; where did they get 7 years? Did the Speaker just pull it 
out of the sky? I can remember when the Speaker explained to us why the 
7 years.
  You know what he said to us? I thought it made a lot of sense. He 
said to us, we could balance this budget this year, we could balance it 
in 4 years, we could balance it in 3 years. Then it would be so harsh 
on the American people that the hardships would overcome the benefit of 
the balance of the budget. Seven years is a period of time that, yes, 
everybody is going to have to pitch in, but it is not going to be 
especially painful for any particular group.
  I take that back, any particular group. We are going to have some 
pretty basic requirements out there on some groups. For example, we 
have some able-bodied people in our country who draw Federal benefits 
because they are not working. They ought to be working. I do not have 
any problem with saying to those people, you know something, you can 
work, you are able to work, and you ought to work. I do not think it is 
particularly harsh on you when we do welfare reform to say, look, we 
are not going to let this go on forever. So I encourage all of us to 
work together to get this balanced budget.

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