[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 189 (Wednesday, November 29, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H13770-H13771]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    BALANCING THE BUDGET IN 7 YEARS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Maine [Mr. Longley] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LONGLEY. Mr. Speaker, I did not rise to defend this Congress. But 
I can vouch personally for the fact that the overwhelming majority of 
Members of this body are working quite hard, thank you.
  I did want to speak and address some of the remarks that were made by 
the gentleman from Hawaii [Mr. Abercrombie] because I think he has 
raised a very important point relative to the role and interaction of 
the Social Security trust funds with the deficit. I do not have the 
precise numbers, and I am sure I am going to be looking forward to the 
Members' discussion over the next several days and weeks. But I would 
be interested to know the extent to which the Social Security trust 
funds actually comprise a significant percentage of our $5 trillion 
national debt.
  I would suggest that there are clear implications to that which 
relate to how, in fact, we are dealing with balancing the budget and 
whether, in fact, we are using the type of honest numbers we have come 
to expect.
  I have confess that, having spent the Thanksgiving weekend, frankly, 
with two of the most important people in my life, my two children, I 
have got maybe a little bit of a different perspective of what we have 
been doing over the past several months, particularly as it relates to 
the deficit. Again, I think we all agree there is no issue that is more 
important than balancing this country's budget once and for all.
  I for one was very pleased to see that the President agreed just 
about 2 weeks ago to the concept that we are going to work together, 
Republicans and Democrats, to come up with a 7-year plan to finally 
once and for all balance the Federal budget.
  But I have to confess that I think the public expects an awful lot 
more of the Members of this body on both sides of the aisle with 
respect to how we work toward that objective, and specifically I was 
very distressed to know that barely was the ink dry on the agreement 
when the President's chief of staff made the comment that, well, he was 
not sure we were really going to balance the budget in 7 years, that it 
might take 8 years or longer.

                              {time}  1415

  Then over the weekend, Mr. Carvel, the President's chief political 
strategist, made the comment that from his perspective, the President 
might just as well drive a hard line that would result in a continuing 
resolution or even a Government shutdown until November of 1996, almost 
over a year from today.
  I have got to say there is no more important issue in this body than 
our once and for all coming to grips with many of the petty, partisan 
differences that stand in the way of our doing the work that the people 
elected us to do, which is to find a way to honestly get the Government 
spending under control so that we can move in the direction of a 
balanced Federal budget.
  Again, I respect the points that are being made by the gentleman from 
Hawaii [Mr. Abercrombie], and I would suggest that they are very much 
factors that need to be considered in how we go about doing it. But the 
bottom line is that we need to work toward balancing the budget, and 
that means making tough decisions relative to cutting spending.
  Yesterday, again, the chief of Staff of the White House made the 
comment that the White House was not going to be willing to agree to 
any 7-year plan to balance the budget unless we obtained the support of 
100 Members of the Democratic side of this House. While as laudable a 
goal as that is, I think what it is suggesting to me is that, frankly, 
we may be wasting our efforts, Republicans and Democrats, attempting to 
work with the White House, and perhaps it is the responsibility of this 
party, this body, to come to grips together as Republicans and 
Democrats, to finally get the heavy lifting done on the budget, because 
I interpret the Chief of Staff's comments yesterday as a suggestion 
that the White House, frankly, is not really serious about working 
together to get to a balanced Federal budget.
  When we cannot even agree on the number of people who are 
participating in the negotiations, I would suggest that this is a major 
embarrassment on everybody involved in the process. As I said, I think 
the public expects an awful lot more than they are receiving. When we 
have a government that over the next 7 years is going to spend in 
excess of $12 trillion, some $3 trillion more in the next 7 years than 
we spent in the last 7 years, and that is using the numbers from the 
Republicans budget, then I think that we need to take serious stock of 
where we are and how seriously we are committed to making the tough 
decisions that need to be made.

  I was pleased this morning to be part of a group from my side of the 
aisle of Republican Members who are going to be trying to work with 
Democratic Members, with the Coalition, to try to find a common ground 
that we need to finally get the type of accommodation, the type of 
agreement, that will allow us to make the serious decisions we need to 
make.

[[Page H 13771]]

  With respect to the comments of the gentleman from Hawaii [Mr. 
Abercrombie], and I think it is an important issue that we need to 
address, the fact that some percentage of our $5 trillion deficit 
actually consists of funds loaned by workers who were paying into the 
Social Security trust fund, again we have some serious issues. We need 
to address it. But first of all, we need to work together to finally 
get Government spending under control.

                          ____________________