[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 196 (Monday, December 11, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S18310-S18311]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          BALANCING THE BUDGET

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, for just a few moments I would like to 
speak about the budget and the happenings of this weekend on all the 
talk shows and the Presidential and Vice Presidential messages that 
were delivered to the American people.
  I guess I can tell you, Mr. President, while I remain not surprised 
by the message of our President and Vice President, I can tell you that 
I am highly disappointed, for it is they who over the weekend 
threatened a Government shutdown if they could not get their way with 
the Federal budget. They would like to argue that it would be the fault 
of the Congress, but it was Congress that sent to the President this 
last week a budget, and it was the President who vetoed that budget, 
and then sent to the Hill a budget that was not even within the 
agreement that he had struck less than 2 weeks ago. As a result of 
that, he now proposes for the Congress to reconvene a budget conference 
with nearly a half a trillion dollars of difference between the White 
House and the Congress of the United States.
  The Washington Post, which is not known for its conservatism, I 
thought made an important observation in an editorial on the 12th when 
they said the President's latest budget proposal, his third this year--
in other words, twice he has not been able to get it right--is a 
disappointment. Even the Washington Post says it ``* * * is a 
disappointment. It retains the basic weaknesses of the one that he put 
forward in June that it pretends to supplant. Mr. Clinton continues to 
back away from the serious part of driving down the deficit. He tries 
to balance the budget wearing a Santa [Claus] suit, and the simple fact 
is that you can't.''
  Mr. President, I will tell you that the revelation over the weekend 
that there might be another $100 billion worth of spending, while the 
American people watch what you say and listen to what Congress says, 
they happen to fear that kind of Santa Clausism right on the eve of 
Christmas, because they are very fearful that the party that now clings 
to its past underpinnings of being spendaholics can simply not get away 
from it.
  The budget you have sent to us, Mr. President, clearly is reflective 
of the fact that the Democrat Party of America today cannot get away 
from the old habits that it had in the past, and that was, the solution 
to every problem was a new Government program and a huge chunk more 
spending of the Federal budget or, more importantly, the money of the 
taxpayers of this country.
  So, Mr. President, the American people on the eve of Christmas are 
watching and saying, ``What will the Congress do? What will the 
President do? Can they strike a budget agreement this week? Will they 
develop a continuing resolution that goes on after Christmas? Will they 
be able to break with the past and truly begin to reduce the debt and 
the deficit bringing the Government's budget into balance? Will they 
really remember that the taxpayers of this country are being taxed more 
than ever in the history of our country?''
  And yet, when we work the numbers a little bit, and we find an extra 
$100 billion between now and the year 2002, there appears to be no 
consideration to apply it to deficit, only to apply it to a Government 
program, largely because we have heard nothing but whining and crying 
out of the White House over the last month that we are destroying all 
these marvelous Federal programs, when in fact none of them is being 
cut; only the rate of increase is being reduced to try to bring the 
budget into balance.
  Mr. President, I challenge you to go dry, to take an Alcoholic's 
Anonymous approach to this--in other words, cold turkey it. That is 
what the American people are asking for, that you do not keep asking 
for more and more money, more and more spending, more and more of their 
hard-earned money, but leave it where it is. Come to the table, balance 
the budget, and start thinking on the positive side of a balanced 
budget instead of the negative side that somehow some Government 
program might be cut.
  What is the positive side? Well, as you know, Mr. President, there 
are many, many positives. A lot of us have talked about it in the last 
few days here about the ability of families to have more money to spend 
or to save, about the ability of the economy to grow and have a greater 
level of jobs, to see our unemployment rate continue to go down. Mr. 
President, I really believe that is what the American people would like 
to hear as a message from Santa Claus on Christmas, is that the budget 
is going to be balanced, that we are going to stay within our spending 
limits and that what new moneys might be found could be applied to the 
deficit.
  So, ho, ho, ho, Mr. President. It is not time to fool the American 
people with your Santa Claus tactics that somehow you can just keep on 
spending and keep on giving and the world will get a lot better. It 
will not work unless you make the tough choices, and the tough choices 
are to balance the budget and give the American taxpayers some 
consideration by a reduction in their overall tax rate.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, are we in morning business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 10 
minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  
[[Page S18311]]


                      KEEPING RECORDS ON CRIMINALS

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I am interested in the discussion that the 
Senator from California just had on the subject of crime. It reminds me 
again of the urge to ask all Members of the Senate to consider 
cosponsoring a piece of legislation I introduced last week on this 
issue. The issue of crime is one that concerns every American, and I 
introduced some legislation dealing with the issue of trying to 
establish a computer record of all people in this country who commit 
felonies.
  It is incredible that we have a circumstance in our country where we 
keep track of a couple hundred million credit cards, and if you take 
one of those credit cards and go to a department store and try to buy a 
shirt, they will run it through a magnetic imager, and in 20 seconds 
they discover whether the card is good or whether it has reached its 
limit. If they are able to do that in the private sector on credit with 
a couple hundred million credit cards, we ought to be able to, for a 
whole series of reasons, keep an updated, accurate computer list of 
everybody who has committed felonies in this country. That way, when 
judges sentence somebody, they know who they are sentencing. Did this 
person commit a crime in Idaho 5 years ago, Montana 2 years ago, North 
Dakota last year, and Kansas this year? That is the kind of criminal 
record history we ought to have in this country. Regrettably, we do 
not. We have the NCIC and the III, but 80 percent of the records needed 
to be in up-to-date criminal records files of everybody who committed 
felonies are not there. It does not take Dick Tracy to figure out who 
is going to commit the next violent crime in our country. In almost 
every instance, it will be somebody who has previously committed 
crimes, somebody who has been in the system, and somebody who has been 
in prison--maybe not to prison, but maybe in prison and is now out of 
prison and back on the streets.
  That is why we need, it seems to me, for law enforcement purposes, 
for judges, for a whole series of reasons, an updated computer listing 
of everybody in this country who has committed felonies. That ought to 
be updated every day across the country in order that we might 
effectively combat crime in America.

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