[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 204 (Tuesday, December 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H15099]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                USE HONEST NUMBERS TO BALANCE THE BUDGET

  (Mr. COX of California asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COX of California. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the stock and bond 
markets sent a unmistakable signal to Washington: Balance the budget. 
Congress, the House and the Senate, have passed a balanced budget, the 
first in decades. The President has vetoed it, claiming that it cuts 
Medicare spending. In fact, as Hillary Rodham Clinton testified on 
Capitol Hill very recently, the President's own proposal was to reduce 
the rate of growth in Medicare spending from around 12 percent to 
around 7 percent. The budget that was passed by this Congress increases 
Medicare spending more than 7 percent in every year.
  The President of the United States is hiding behind this distortion, 
this lie, about Medicare, because he wants to avoid balancing the 
budget.
  Yesterday this Congress sent him another message: Balance the budget 
using honest numbers. Do not cook the books. Do as you promised, 
standing right here; use the Congressional Budget office figures. The 
budget the President submitted is $115 billion out of balance. Let us 
get to work. Let us do it for America's future, for our children, and 
for our grandchildren.

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