[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 204 (Tuesday, December 19, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S18907-S18908]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           A BALANCED BUDGET

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I would like to also talk a little bit about 
the joint resolution. An effort was made to call it up tonight. This 
joint resolution passed the House of Representatives just yesterday by 
an overwhelming vote of 351-40; over 130 Democrats voted for it. This 
joint resolution is pretty simple and direct and to the point. It just 
says that as we voted a month ago on a similar resolution, which the 
President signed, that the Congress is reaffirming its commitment to a 
balanced budget in 7 years with honest numbers, as scored by the 
Congressional Budget Office. That is all it does.
  Now, when the distinguished majority leader attempted to bring this 
joint resolution up in the Senate that passed the House overwhelmingly 
yesterday, there was objection to it by the minority leader, but he 
indicated if we could add the additional language that we had in our 
earlier resolution, perhaps we could get it worked out and get it 
passed. I think we should be able to do that. We worked on that 
language earlier. We are all committed to making sure that Medicare is 
protected and, in fact, strengthened. We are all committed to a strong 
national defense and agriculture programs, along with the whole list of 
issues that we included in that earlier legislation. So I think we can 
probably work that out and get it agreed to tomorrow. I hope so.

  We have had the additional development now that it appears that maybe 


[[Page S18908]]
the principals of the Congress and the administration--the President, 
and the distinguished majority leader, the Speaker, and the Vice 
President--have met now and it appears that they have made some 
progress. I thought they said they had reached some agreement, among 
other things, to in fact have scoring by the Congressional Budget 
Office. I am not quite sure if that was exactly what was agreed to. But 
there is a supplementary meeting now occurring with the Chief of Staff 
of the President, along with the chairman of the Budget Committee in 
the House and Senate, and I am sure there will be some further 
development of exactly what was discussed and what was agreed to. There 
will be meetings that will follow on tomorrow. That is good. I wonder 
why it has taken so long to get this serious meeting. I think it is 
appropriate, when you are talking about the future of your country, 
that the President be directly involved and not be speaking through 
agents. Our leaders are willing to get together to talk about this very 
important matter.
  So it looks like we are finally making some progress right here as we 
approach this holiday season. I think it is worth staying here a little 
longer and coming back a little earlier because we are talking about a 
balanced budget. We are talking about taking actions now that will lift 
the burdens from the backs of our children and our grandchildren. We 
are talking about taking an action that will lead to lower interest 
rates and more jobs and a stronger economy. We are talking about 
getting some agreements on controlling entitlements.
  I have always wondered why we call these programs entitlements 
because, in America, you should not say that regardless of what money 
is available or what parameters should be placed on these various 
programs, people are entitled to automatically get them. They are only 
entitled to them because Congress said they are.
  This reform is long overdue. Reform in welfare--everybody said we 
need it. The President says we should change it as we have known it. We 
are on the verge of doing that. We have a welfare conference report 
that would, in fact, really reform welfare. We should get that done 
before we leave to go home for Christmas, or certainly before this year 
is out. Medicare, Medicaid, all of the so-called untouchables must be 
reformed, not to try to weaken them, but to control the rate of growth 
so we can guarantee they will be there in the future, not just for this 
generation, but for the next generation.
  I really resent some people saying, my goodness, you have various 
agencies or park programs that are being temporarily closed down and 
that is so bad. Yes, we do not want that to happen, but it trivializes 
what we are trying to do here. This is a major effort we are trying to 
accomplish with this balanced budget. We should not quit. We will not 
quit until we get a balanced budget that has some effort to encourage 
growth in the economy, that reforms these programs. It can be done. It 
should be done, certainly, within the next week or 10 days.
  I am pleased that it looks like we may be able to get an agreement on 
this Joint Resolution. I am pleased finally, finally, the President of 
the United States is meeting with the leaders of the Congress to get an 
understanding about how we will draw this to a conclusion, which would 
lead to a balanced budget with real and honest numbers before this year 
is out. I hope it happens. We will all be waiting and watching and 
hoping to participate as this process goes forward. I yield the floor.

                          ____________________