[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 204 (Tuesday, December 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H15092]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  MEANS OF CALCULATING BUDGET NUMBERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Doggett] is recognized during 
morning business for 2 minutes.
  Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, I guess the question I have this morning is 
when will our Republican friends propose a balanced budget? Yes, that 
is right, when will they propose a budget that is in true balance?
  You see, they think that a balanced budget can be balanced using a 
calculator; that is the only tool that you need to see whether the 
numbers add up, whether you can add, subtract, divide, and multiply 
them. But a budget is more than a collection of numbers. It is a 
statement of a country's priorities, and not everything in that budget 
can be measured with mathematical accuracy.
  How do you measure in mathematics what it costs to deny one young 
child the opportunity to participate in Head Start, to get all the 
education that he or she needs in order to be a productive member of 
this society and share in the American dream?
  How do you measure with a calculator what it means to a family to be 
ripped asunder when suddenly they have the burden of having to care for 
a senior who has to be placed in a nursing home, and, under this 
Republican plan, you reach down and dip into the resources of the 
middle-class family that is already struggling to make ends meet to pay 
for that senior who has to be provided nursing home care?
  How do you measure with mathematical accuracy the burden on the 
senior who has to choose between health care and being able to eat?
  Those are the questions that have to be raised when you look at 
balancing the budget. Yes, it is an important objective to be sure the 
mathematics balance, but it is critical that any balanced budget have 
true balance. And that is what this is all about, because our 
Republican friends think as long as you take from those who are on 
Medicare and give to those corporations more tax breaks, do not ask the 
corporations to sacrifice, do not ask the wealthy to sacrifice, just 
ask the young children, just ask those who want clean air and clean 
water, just ask our seniors to sacrifice, put all the burden on one 
side, that is not a balanced budget.
  I say it is time for our Republican friends to come forward with the 
first balanced budget, because all the ones they have given us up to 
now may add up in the numbers, but they do not add up when it comes to 
the future of America.

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