[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 189 (Wednesday, November 29, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S17757-S17758]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           A BALANCED BUDGET

  Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, as we are here, I think, close to 
completing a very important piece of legislation on safe drinking 
water, we, as Members of this body, recognize that in another sense we 
are marking time during negotiations between the Republican leadership 
of the House and Senate and the President of the United States on the 
question of the balanced budget.
  There was, just a few weeks ago, a crisis in the course of our 
Government as the President vetoed a continuing resolution and thus put 
out of work many hundreds of thousands of Government employees. Crisis 
negotiations led to a further continuing resolution under which each of 
the agencies of Government will continue in operation until the 15th of 
December while the various parties negotiate a long-term budget.
  One of the conditions of that return, a part of the law signed by the 
President of the United States, was an agreement to reach before the 
end of this session of Congress, that is to say, before the end of the 
year, a budget which would be projected to be in balance by the year 
2002 under figures and statistics provided by the Congressional Budget 
Office, so that each of us knew the parameters within which that debate 
would take place.
  At the same time as these temporary arrangements were being made, 
this body and the House of Representatives passed, and is about to send 
to the President of the United States, a bill, the Balanced Budget Act 
of 1995, which accomplished precisely that goal. Many of the elements 
of that proposal are controversial, though it does for the first time 
truly reform our entitlement programs, including Medicare, Medicare in 
a way that preserves its financial security, keeps part A from going 
bankrupt, fairly continues the present percentage of premiums paid by 
the beneficiaries of part B, and adds to the premiums only of very 
well-off Americans.
  The President has announced--and in this case we have no reason to 
doubt him--that he will veto that Balanced Budget Act of 1995. So far, 
in spite of that announced intention, in spite of his signature 
solemnly affixed to a bill which calls for just such a balanced budget 
under just such a set of statistics, the President has submitted no 
alternative budget which would be balanced under those rules by 2002.
  As a consequence, the negotiations, which began abortively more than 
a week ago and seriously just a couple of days ago, have not even 
produced an agreement on an agenda. This is not surprising. We have 
produced and sent to the President the Balanced Budget Act of 1995. We 
believe that it covers all of the conditions asked for by the 
President: that it properly and appropriately funds Medicare, Medicaid, 
welfare, the national defense, the environment, and a wide range of 
other activities.
  The President disagrees. That is the President's prerogative. But, 
Mr. President, it is not an appropriate response to that disagreement 
to simply sit still and say, ``Give me another alternative.'' The 
President has a duty, if he is serious at all about the budget crisis 
facing this country, to say,

       Here is my proposal for a balanced budget by the year 2002, 
     based on these same propositions. Here are the differences 
     between the two parties. Let us negotiate those differences.

  To this point, every economic indicator since the election of just 
more than a year ago is in a positive direction. Interest rates are 
lower, inflation is down, employment and the gross domestic product are 
up, based, as we understand, primarily on the proposition that our 
financial markets believe that the budget will be balanced.
  In my opinion, if the President continues to refuse to propose any 
alternative, if he believes that the politics of scare tactics about 
Medicare and other programs are a better election platform on which to 
run than an actual balanced budget, we will almost certainly suffer a 
loss in each one of 

[[Page S 17758]]
those economic indicators, which will not help the President--for that 
matter, will not help the Congress, and certainly will not help the 
country.
  We are bound and determined to have just such a balanced budget. The 
President has now, by his signature on a bill, agreed to just such a 
balanced budget. It is time--it is well past time--that the President, 
who so eloquently disagrees with ours, produces his own so that we can 
work constructively toward a solution.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Gorton). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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