[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 204 (Tuesday, December 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H15175-H15176]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        LET'S BALANCE THE BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Goodlatte] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, the President has now had four tries at 
sending the Congress a balanced budget, and he still has not gotten 
close to honoring the commitment he made to the American people and the 
law he signed 29 days ago agreeing to a balanced budget in 7 years 
using real numbers, not smoke and mirrors. President Clinton's latest 
budget keeps piling on the debt, an estimated $265 billion in the red.
  Mr. Speaker, we voted on that budget here in the House today, and 
Democrats and Republicans alike combined to reject it 412 to zero. That 
is right, not a single Member of the House in either party voted for 
the President's latest budget.
  Yesterday we had a similar bipartisan vote in favor of a 7-year 
balanced budget using realistic assumptions about economic growth.
  While the President cannot send us a budget that actually balances, 
he can stand over at the White House and scare our seniors, scare our 
families, scare our veterans with dire rhetoric and self-serving 
political posturing that lacks one essential element, the truth. He and 
his allies have spent an estimated $30 million attempting to mislead 
the American people about Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the Earned 
Income Tax Credit.
  So let us look at the facts. He says Republicans are devastating 
Medicare, destroying Medicare. Here are the facts:
  In this current year we are spending per senior citizen $4,816 on 
Medicare; in the year 2002, $7,101 per senior citizen on Medicare. 
Where is the cut? I would suggest to my colleagues that only in 
Washington, DC, can a $2,300 increase in spending on Medicare be called 
a cut. Only in Washington, DC, and on negative misleading ads such as 
the one the United Mine Workers are running in my district on the radio 
this week, absolutely false, totally intended to try and scare senior 
citizens, and for what? Purely political demagoguery and nothing else.
  Medicaid. We are increasing the amount of money spent on Medicaid by 
nearly 50 percent over the next 7 years.
  Education. The chairman of the committee is going to speak on this at 
great length, but let us take a look at just one example, a very 
important part of education, student loans. Cuts to student loans they 
say. Well, here in 1995 the total amount of money made available for 
student loans this year is $24.5 billion. In the year 2002 under our 
budget that has been sitting on the table waiting for a budget from the 
President to negotiate over we increase it to $36.4 billion over the 
next 7 years, more than, or nearly, a 50-percent increase in student 
loans, and yet the President would have the students of this country 
and their parents scared with the idea that we are trying to cut 
education. Nothing could be further from the truth.
  The Earned Income Tax Credit. The President says we are being unfair 
to hard-working, low-income families in this country, yet we are 
increasing the amount of money that is spent, that the amount of tax 
credits that are available for the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-
income families by $5 billion in the 7th year of our budget, increasing 
again, and overall in the last 7 years we spent $9\1/2\ trillion. That 
is the total amount of money the Government spent; in the next 7 years 
with our budget, $12 trillion, a $2\1/2\ trillion increase, and yet the 
President wants to spend more, originally proposing to spend nearly $1 
trillion more, still wanting to spend $300 billion more than what is 
necessary, more than what it takes to balance the budget in 7 years, 
and we cannot balance the budget using his smoke and mirrors.

  Mr. Speaker, the President has got his seasons mixed up. It is 
Christmas, not Halloween, so maybe he should put away the senior scare 
tactics and bogie-man budgets and join the Congress in actually helping 
our Nation by balancing the budget.
  Today each and every Member of Congress had a crystal-clear decision. 
Members could vote for President Clinton's fourth budget, and with 
their vote they would say to their folks back home, ``I agree with 
President Clinton; we simply don't want to balance the budget. So let's 
not even try. Let's just keep piling on the debt that our children and 
grandchildren will be stuck with, and we'll keep playing the tried and 
true Washington political game of saying one thing and doing another, 
saying we want a balanced budget, but voting to keep up the outrageous 
spendathon.''

[[Page H15176]]

  Mr. Speaker, clearly that was rejected by the Members of this 
Congress today. Members today who voted no voted no and said, 
``President Clinton, it is really time to finally balance the budget. 
The American people are waiting and watching.''
  No more Washington, D.C. gimmicks. No more political games. No more 
divisive grandstanding. Let's do the right thing. Let's balance the 
budget. Let's put our government back to work.
  The vote was unanimous. Republicans and Democrats voted ``no'' and 
sent a bipartisan message to President Clinton that we are moving 
forward to balance the budget and it's about time that he joined us.
  The American people are waiting and watching.

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