[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 204 (Tuesday, December 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H15094]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 BUDGET MUST BE MATHEMATICALLY BALANCED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Souder] is recognized during 
morning business for 3 minutes.
  Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, it is tough during this time of year, when 
we should be home with our families and celebrating the birth of our 
Savior and having the time of a wonderful holiday season, to be pinned 
down here with this acrimony. And I know many Americans throughout the 
country are fed up, but we are at a real crossroads.
  It is especially cruel, I believe, to be putting out the false 
information and scaring the most vulnerable in our society, the senior 
citizens, who do not have a lot of their life to look forward to in 
many ways, and yet when they hear this type of thing, to be scared with 
the false information that is out is especially disturbing and 
especially cruel at this time of year.
  I also heard an earlier speaker say that we should not just 
mathematically balance the budget. My question is what will we do, 
emotionally balance the budget, rhetorically balance the budget, 
demagogically balance the budget? Of course, we have to mathematically 
balance the budget. Every American in this country has to 
mathematically balance their budgets.
  I guess there is a real difference between the two sides. They 
believe in Santa Claus and we do not. We have to mathematically balance 
the budget. That is why we are sent to Congress; $12 trillion is enough 
over the next 7 years. We are not cutting the budget. The previous 7 
years was $7 trillion. That is, in any terms, real growth. The question 
here is how far is the Government going to grow, how big is the 
Government going to be?
  For example, one of the other negotiations we are having with this 
President is he has been told, in effect, and I think most Americans 
can relate to this, that this bank account has been overdrawn for years 
and by big amounts. An average American, if they were told their bank 
account was overdrawn $20,000 would work with the bank immediately to 
try to address that. We have compromised and said, OK, we will do this 
over 7 years to balance it. He refuses to come back with a proposal to 
actually balance it. He basically wants to go, OK, how about if we just 
leave it overdrawn by $10,000? OK, how about if we just leave it 
overdrawn by 8,000?

  The fact is we cannot have negotiations unless both sides agree on 
the fundamental principle that the budget has to be balanced, and the 
President has not put a proposal on the table that balances the budget. 
Once he puts a proposal to balance the budget on the table, then we can 
get into real discussions about how we will prioritize that spending. 
And that is a legitimate thing for the American people to expect, that 
we would have such a discussion as to how to prioritize that spending. 
But it is also legitimate they expect to have a budget on the table.
  The stock market is not collapsing because of a CR, the stock market 
is worried we will not balance the budget. As Allan Greenspan has 
already said, they have factored in that we were going to balance the 
budget. Now they are afraid. They see the President going back on the 
agreement that we made, and there is a real concern in this country 
that we might be so gridlocked, that one party is not committed and our 
President is not indeed committed in spite of the rhetoric to a 
balanced budget.
  The reason people cannot get into our national parks is he will not 
sign the appropriations bills. It has been nice to hear for months that 
we do not have the appropriations bills done, but basically, there are 
three over there now to be signed. Hopefully, another one will move.
  I want to conclude by saying I realize that most Americans would be a 
little shocked, but it is time for the President to keep his word and 
put a budget on the table.

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