[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 204 (Tuesday, December 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H15169]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      CORPORATE LEADERS SHOULD SHARE SACRIFICES TO BALANCE BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Miller] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MILLER. Mr. Speaker, Members of the House, this morning we woke 
up to an advertisement, a full-page ad in today's New York Times and in 
the Washington Post that called on President Clinton and the 
congressional leaders of both parties to expedite agreements on a 
budget plan that would balance the budget within 7 years.
  The advertisement, which echoed much of the frustration felt by many 
Americans, was signed by the presidents and the CEOs of America's 
largest corporations. However this budget dispute is resolved, millions 
of Americans and, in all likelihood, Americans with the very least are 
going to be asked to give up more. Working families, children, 
students, the elderly and the sick and the poor and the disabled are 
going to be asked to give up more in this dispute than anyone who 
signed this ad from these corporations.
  What is at stake in this debate is how the burdens of reaching a 
balanced budgeted are apportioned, how will we share the pain, how will 
we share the burden?
  The Republican party and their budget is grossly unfair, placing the 
overwhelming burden of cuts, rollbacks and denials of services on the 
backs of vulnerable Americans.
  I recognize that the corporate officers who signed yesterday's 
advertisement are sincere in their desire for a balanced budget, but 
there is something unseemly, something unfair about some of the richest 
men in America who lead some of the biggest corporations in America 
lecturing us to pass a budget that, when all is said and done, 
preserves many of their privileges, their profits and their perks on 
the backs of the average working man and woman in this country.
  The wealth of these corporations is due not only to the hard work of 
their employees, including their very generously compensated CEOs, but 
also to billions of dollars in the Federal spending that underwrites 
them. Most of that Federal spending remains untouched in this budget 
proposal. In fact, for many, the passage of the balanced budget will 
mean a multibillion dollar windfall as millions of Americans are denied 
basic medical care, education, nutrition, child care, and income 
support.
  The signatories to this advertisement are questionable spokesmen for 
tightening our belts. These are men who have made many millions of 
dollars, in some cases many millions of dollars in just the last year.
  Allied Signal's Lawrence Bossidy was reportedly paid $12.3 million. 
American International's M.R. Greenberg was paid $12 million. 
Chrysler's Robert Eaton was paid $6.1 million. Nation's Bank Hugh 
McColl earned $13 million. Xerox's Paul Allaire made $6.8 million. They 
all signed this ad suggesting that we could arrive at a balanced 
budget.
  Most of these others earn between $1 million and $6 million a year, 
who sign these ads. Many of these companies are not only doing well 
because of their product line and their marketing skills, but because 
they very same government that they ask now to balance the budget is 
showering them with benefits.
  The pharmaceutical companies like Abbot Laboratories and American 
Home Products and Baxter International and Johnson & Johnson enjoy 
multimillion dollar tax breaks through the 936 subsidy program which is 
preserved in the balanced budget that they want others to pay for.
  Major corporations like AT&T, Exxon, Ford Motor and GTE Corporation 
have enjoyed millions through foreign sales assistance through the OPIC 
program that is a subsidy provided by the Federal Government to some of 
the wealthiest corporations in the country.
  Financial corporations like the Blackstone Group, the Bloomberg 
Financial Services, Dean Witter, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, all are 
expecting the windfalls that they believe will arrive from the capital 
gains tax, most of which goes to the wealthiest people in this Nation, 
and yet these people who are paid millions have said to us that others 
should pay to balance the budget.
  The energy corporations like Amoco and Exxon and Chevron benefit from 
a royalty holiday, a holiday from paying the people of the United 
States a royalty for the oil and the gas that they extract from the 
people's lands in the Gulf of Mexico. ASARCO benefits by not paying a 
royalty on the minerals it extracts from the public lands, and yet they 
sign an ad and tell us how easy it is to balance the budget. Alcoa, the 
aluminum company, will profit from continued subsidizing of the 
hydroelectric power that allows them to make aluminum in the Pacific 
Northwest subsidized by the taxpayers.
  These gentlemen are not suggesting that they offer up this corporate 
welfare to help us balance the budget, this perk, this privilege. No, 
they are suggesting that others should have to pay to balance the 
budget.
  These corporate leaders have got it wrong. They too must help to 
contribute to balance the budget. They too must put their perks and 
privileges on the table.

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