[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 192 (Tuesday, December 5, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H13936-H13937]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1300
           BALANCED BUDGET DEBATE IS A QUESTION OF PRIORITIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. Schroeder] is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, I am here to talk about the budget. The 
budget. Now, first of all, all of the appropriations bills were due on 
September 30. A year ago at this time, we had them all done, they were 
all signed and that was the end of it.
  So, we are now 66 days after the date that they were all due, and 
they are not done yet. We are still operating under this temporary 
thing. We had one government shutdown that was, I think, an absolute 
debacle, in which the Federal taxpayers paid $700 million more and got 
less, because they paid for people to be at work and they were not at 
work. They wanted to be at work, but they were not allowed to be at 
work.
  Mr. Speaker, that is really nuts. We are looking very much again at 
whether or not we are going to have another one of these in 10 days, or 
are we going to punt it until after the holidays and start this whole 
thing after the beginning of the new year?
  What in the world happened between last year and this year that has 
got us running round and round and round, screaming, yelling and 
hollering and looking like a third-rate ``I-don't-know-what,'' but we 
certainly do not look like any superpower legislature.
  Mr. Speaker, this has been a pathetic performance. I think taxpayers 
are angry with everybody in Washington. 

[[Page H 13937]]
The reason it has been so hard to understand this is because the budget 
is something that everybody's eyes glaze over the minute we mention it.
  Mr. Speaker, there is all sorts of rhetoric going around. I see 
people wearing the button ``2002,'' like one side is going to balance 
in the year 2002 and the other side is not. That is wrong. The issue is 
not are we going to balance the budget 7 years out; the issue is how 
are we going to balance the budget 7 years out? Who wins? Who loses? 
That is going to determine what kind of a country we are.
  Mr. Speaker, I think this debate is more important than any other 
debate we are going to have, because it is really going to set the 
country on a course for the next century. We are talking 2002, the next 
century. What kind of a country are we going to be? We say, ``Well, 
what are we? We are America. What is America? America is the flag. What 
is the flag? The flag is America.'' Let us break out of that circle. 
What does America mean, and what does the flag mean, and what do we 
stand for, and how do we invest our tax dollars?
  The huge fight between the two different sides of this aisle is 
whether or not we are going to have to whack away at that budget right, 
left, and sundry to do this tax cut; to do this tax cut for the top 1 
percent of America's families. See, if we do this tax cut, the top 1 
percent is going to be like winning the lottery. They are going to get 
$13,628, if they make over $600,000 a year. We know how they need it. 
They are having trouble buying all the new fancy presents they want.
  Mr. Speaker, to do that, we are going to raise the taxes of the 
lowest 20 percent and, boy, the next 20 percent they are going to get a 
whole $39 back. I am sure they are wondering right now how to spend it. 
Then the next 20 percent is going to get $226 back. This is not going 
to mean anything to the average American family; especially when we 
turn around and figure out what we have to cut out of the budget to get 
this money to fund this tax rebate.

  Again, that all sounds like Washingtonian blabberty-blab. Let me try 
to put it on a family level. Let us assume an American family is 
sitting around their table working on the family budget for the next 
year, and assume they had too much debt, that they put too much on that 
plastic card that tempts us all every single day, and now they have got 
to figure out how they get rid of that debt. So, they are looking at 
every member sitting at the table. What are the decisions going to be? 
Where do they cut back?
  Mr. Speaker, do you think there is an American family around that 
would say to the children, the 4- to 5-year-olds, ``We are going to 
have to take you out of Head Start?'' ``That is it. It is nice, but you 
are not even going to get to start, much less finish school.'' That is 
exactly what we are talking about doing, throwing thousands of kids out 
of Head Start. I do not think any American family would agree with that 
decision.
  Mr. Speaker, do you think there is any American family that would say 
to the young people sitting at the table trying to go to college, 
``Well, that is it. We are pulling the plug on you?'' I don't think so. 
Nor do I think they would do it to the elderly, nor do I think they 
would do it to anyone, just to send extra tax money to their rich 
uncle. That is what this is about.

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