[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 190 (Thursday, November 30, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S17836-S17837]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              PUT THE FISCAL HOUSE OF GOVERNMENT IN ORDER

  Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, I want to respond to the remarks of the 
good Senator and my colleague from Oklahoma who has closed his remarks 
by talking about the importance of a balanced budget. Let me take just 
a minute to frame where we are.
  It has been a rigorous year, and both the House and the Senate have 
now passed a Balanced Budget Act, just before Thanksgiving. This is the 
first time that this has happened in nearly three decades--a Balanced 
Budget Act in response to the American people. The American people have 
said over and over to put the fiscal house of their Government in 
order, like they have to do at home.
  We have done it. We came here with a promise, and we have passed a 
balanced budget. We are sending it to the President. This balanced 
budget balances it in 7 years, reforms welfare, saves Medicare and 
lowers taxes. That is our plan.
  There are currently meetings underway with representatives of the 
Senate and the House and the administration. They have not been 
productive as yet, because there is no balanced budget proposal from 
the President.
  The President says he is going to veto this first balanced budget 
that the Congress has sent him. He said, ``I will not accept it.'' That 
is his prerogative, but my question to the President is this: Where is 
your plan?
  We have done our job. We have made our best faith effort. We have 
sent a rational and reasonable plan to the President. With all the 
debate and discussions in Washington, you almost have to step back from 
it to measure the reasonableness of it because all the financial 
markets in America are responding positively. The stock market is up. 
Interest rates are dropping. The people in the real world, the people 
running businesses and running families all across the land, are 
responding positively to what we have done.
  It is time for the President to tell the country and to tell these 
conferees what his plan is.
  Back when I was in high school, they would say, ``The jig is up.'' We 
have done our work; we have laid the plan before him. He says it is not 
acceptable. Give us your plan, Mr. President. Then we can work the two 
plans together. But this business of criticizing our plan while you 
have none of your own cannot go on, and America will not accept it.
  Mr. President, I would like to talk just a moment about what our plan 
does and why it is so reasonable. Take Medicare. The trustees told us 
that Medicare will go out of business in 6 years--broke, bankrupt. It 
said that the Congress and the President need to step forward and do 
something about it. Our balanced budget plan does just that. It expands 
Medicare because it expands the investment in it over the next 7 years 
by 65 percent. It grows 65 percent larger under our plan. It takes the 
solvency of it and expands it from the 6 years that are left and pushes 
the solvency of the plan out almost a quarter of a century. And it 
expands the choices people can make about the kind of coverage they 
want.
  We increase Social Security spending 44 percent. We increase the size 
of Medicaid 65 percent. We increase overall Federal outlays 22 percent. 
The U.S. economy, we are told, will grow $32 billion in new disposable 
income. We will create 6.1 million new jobs. We will have $66 billion 
in new purchases and 100,000 new housing starts. Ten million more 
Americans will be able to purchase their first home. We will lower 
interest payments on the average family's mortgage by $1,500 to $2,000 
per year. We will lower the interest payments on their car $200 per 
year. We will lower the interest payments on their student loan or the 
back porch another $200 a year. Because of the tax credits of $500 per 
child, in the average family we are going to add another thousand 
dollars of disposable income.
  The bottom line here is, we are creating new jobs, new businesses, 
new homes, and we are putting between $2,000 and $3,000 of new 
disposable income on the kitchen table of every average American 
family. We depend on the family to nurture and grow America, to house 
America, to educate America. That is where we need to put our 
resources--on the kitchen tables in Hahira, GA, Denver, CO, or Keokuk, 
IA. That is where the resources need to be, not sent to Washington and 
redistributed by a bunch of policy mongers. We will help local 
government.

  In my State alone, the balanced budget amendment will create $333 
million over 7 years--$333 million; that is a third of a billion 
dollars--in lower interest payments for the State government of 
Georgia. In my capital city, Atlanta, we will save $100 million over 7 
years in lower interest payments. That is a boon to a city putting on 
the Olympics next year, which is pressed from every corner to meet its 
needs. And $100 million would be saved. In all, $29 billion will be 
saved by local governments over the next 7 years--$29 billion--because 
we have balanced our budget. 

[[Page S17837]]

  A lot of people, including the President, who talk about the balanced 
budget, talk about it as if it is a painful exercise, a dreadful 
experience that we have to drag America through. It is the exact 
reverse. By taking charge of our budget, by managing our affairs, we 
strengthen every quadrant of America, and we keep the country strong 
and healthy so that it can keep on taking care of those who fall 
through the safety net.
  Mr. President, this is history in the making. We have done our job. 
We have put forward a really solid plan to take charge of America's 
finances, to help every family in the country and to make America 
strong as it comes to the new century. Now it is on the President's 
desk. He promised America he would balance the budget in 5 years. He 
promised America the other day that he would join us in balancing it in 
7 years. It is time for him to fulfill that promise to the country.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. ABRAHAM addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan is recognized.

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