[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 186 (Monday, November 20, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H13634]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   COALITION BUDGET IS THE PLACE TO BEGIN NEGOTIATING FOR A BALANCED 
                                 BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Roemer] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROEMER. Mr. Speaker, about 17 minutes ago, Mr. Speaker, we passed 
through this body a continuing resolution that will fund Government, 
reopen Government, and fund it until December 15. It was very important 
to pass this because the American people, I think, have spoken very, 
very loudly through the last year and the last several years for 
Congress to work together; to not engage in gridlock, in posturing and 
political partisanship and blame games and ultimately deadlock. For us 
to pass, in a bipartisan way with an overwhelming vote, legislation 
that not only reopens Government, but establishes some parameters for 
us to move forward and negotiate a balanced budget agreement for the 
next 7 years; to achieve a balanced budget by the year 2002.
  Many of us, Mr. Speaker, worked together over the course of the last 
few weeks, particularly late last week, to try to forge a consensus, a 
commonsense middle ground restart to these negotiations that seem to be 
stalled for a host of reasons.
  Mr. Speaker, we are delighted that the parties came to an agreement 
over the weekend. I want to commend the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. 
Upton], a Republican, who I worked very closely with in circulating a 
letter that was signed by 50 Republicans, and we were able to achieve 
50 Democratic signatures.
  The gentleman from Oklahoma [Mr. Largent] and the gentleman from 
Michigan [Mr. Stupak] also worked on very similar language to try to 
get the House to help the leadership to move forward on this bipartisan 
agreement.
  Mr. Speaker, I would salute the President and Mr. Panetta at the 
White House for their hard work, and I would also salute the gentleman 
from Ohio, Mr. Kasich and Senator Domenici for their very hard work in 
carefully negotiating this pact over the last few days.
  Mr. Speaker, the hard work is ahead of us. The hard work, once we 
have established these parameters to try to balance this budget in the 
next 7 years, is just starting. I would recommend that the starting 
place, Mr. Speaker, be the coalition budget, the only budget that has 
received bipartisan votes on this floor, where over 300 people have 
voted for a blanced budget plan over the last 2 months.
  This plan achieves a balanced budget by the year 2002. It does it in 
a fair way with equitable outcomes. It says to the American people we 
all have to participate in the sacrifice of balancing the budget. But 
it also says to the politicians and the people in Washington, we are 
not going to pander for votes. We are not going to provide tax cuts 30 
days out from an election, or to the tune of $245 billion, that we must 
then cut education and farm programs to pay for. We are going to do 
this by balancing the budget first and then providing tax cuts later.
  I think this is a reasonable, prudent, fair budget agreement, Mr. 
Speaker, and I would encourage this body to start with the coalition 
budget, which is a bipartisan budget, to move us forward in the next 
few weeks toward December 15, to a goal that I think 85 percent of the 
American people want us to achieve, and that is balancing this budget.
  It is going to be a very difficult task. It is going to be a very 
arduous task, but if we continue to work in a bipartisan way for 
fairness and not devastating Medicare programs, and for opportunity 
where we provide for education, for student loans, and in terms of 
providing a father to our children, by not cutting too deeply into 
programs so that farm can be passed on to the next generation of young 
Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, I think that coalition budget achieves that. I think 
that coalition budget is the place to start, and I think that coalition 
budget has the best opportunity to bring America together to make sure 
that we balance this budget in the next 7 years and to have fair, 
equitable outcomes.

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