[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 190 (Thursday, November 30, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S17837-S17838]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          THE BALANCED BUDGET

  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I want to rise to speak, as many of my 
colleagues have, on two very important issues that the Senate is facing 
right now.
  I think there are great differences between the administration's 
position and the position of Congress. The first, of course, is the 
balanced budget. We are trying to keep the promise we made to the 
people that we will have a balanced budget in 7 years. The President 
has altered his position, starting in his campaign with a 5-year 
balanced budget, but then after he was elected saying, ``Well, 10 years 
is good enough, 9 years, 8 years.''
  Now he has committed to a 7-year balanced budget. The only problem is 
the President is doing what he has been doing for the last 2\1/2\ 
years, and that is giving lip service now to a 7-year balanced budget, 
but his offer on the table is, ``I need $7 billion or $8 billion more 
in spending.'' Fine, Mr. President. Where are we going to take that 
spending from? Silence from the White House.

  That is not the kind of leadership that we need if we are going to 
truly sit down with a commitment to a 7-year balanced budget and say, 
``All right, here are the parameters, here are the spending limits. Now 
let's negotiate within these parameters.'' You cannot say, I need $7 
billion out of the sky, but yes, I am committed to a 7-year balanced 
budget, but I am not going to suggest where we would take it from. That 
is because the tough decisions are always the decisions on where you 
have to cut or slow spending or eliminate programs that do not work.
  When it comes to the rubber meeting the road, we have to cut 
spending. That is how we are going to meet the test. Mr. President, $7 
billion more to spend, without saying where it is going to come from, 
is always the easy position.
  I would love to spend the money on these programs. There is probably 
not one of them that is not a good program. But does it meet the test 
of our taxpayers feeling that it is worth their hard-earned dollars to 
put money in these programs rather than live within our means, like 
every household and every small business in this country must do. That 
is the question, and that is the test we are facing right now.
  When I am home, people say to me, ``Don't blink.'' I am here to say, 
we are not going to blink. We are going to do what is right for this 
country. I hope the President will come to the table and say not only 
where he would like 

[[Page S17838]]
to spend more money but from where he believes we should take it.

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