[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 204 (Tuesday, December 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H15179-H15180]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            NO MORE EXCUSES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Riggs] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RIGGS. Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to see you in the chair 
tonight. I very much appreciate the leadership of the gentleman from 
Maine [Mr. Longley]. In fact, perhaps we should leave this here at all 
time while we are proceeding with our business, the people's business, 
on the floor of the House; and I join my colleague from California, 
[Mr. Dornan] in saluting the gentleman from Maine for his leadership in 
the balanced budget fight.
  Mr. Speaker, it has been exactly 1 month, 30 days, since the 
President made a commitment in the form of a bill which he signed into 
law, a resolution to balance the budget in 7 years using honest numbers 
provided by the neutral, nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. In 
fact, Mr. Speaker and colleagues, it has been 1,293 days since 
candidate Clinton promised on the Larry King show to balance the 
Federal budget in 5 years.
  Sadly, the President has failed to keep his commitment, and now he 
says he will propose a 7-year balanced budget plan only if we go along 
with his Medicare charade.
  Well, let me just tell my colleagues, for months now, and I think the 
American people are beginning to see through this smokescreen, but for 
months the President has demagogued many of the people in his party 
here in the Congress, they have demagogued on the issue of Medicare.
  The President's real concern is to be able to spend billions of 
dollars to fund his liberal agenda and his liberal pet projects. He is 
concerned about keeping intact his political base. Of the $436 billion 
difference in total spending between the President's proposal and our 
plan, only about $32 billion is allocated toward Medicare. That would 
leave the President, if we did not insist on a balanced budget, with 
$404 billion to dole out to traditional Democratic social welfare 
programs.
  Of course, there is no way the President can admit this, and that is 
really why he has never proposed a balanced budget, even though again, 
30 days ago, back on November 19, he signed into law a bill that says, 
``The President and the Congress shall,'' mandatory, not discretionary, 
``shall enact legislation in the first session of the 104th Congress to 
achieve a balanced budget not later than fiscal year 2002, as estimated 
by the Congressional Budget Office.''
  Again, the President has failed to keep his word, and in the process, 
he has caused the Government, at least part of the Government, to shut 
down again. He has also defied the wishes of Congress, because last 
night, the House of Representatives votes 351 to 40 in favor of a 
resolution reaffirming our commitment to a 7-year balanced budget using 
CBO scoring. Mr. Speaker, 133 Democrats and one Independent crossed the 
aisle, this center aisle right here, to join us Republicans in an 
overwhelmingly bipartisan vote.
  Earlier today this House took a unanimous vote on the President's 
latest budget proposal, the Clinton budget ``IV'', if you will, which 
comes nowhere close to balancing the budget and projects annual 
deficits in the range of $200 billion well into the next century. So 
clearly, Mr. Speaker, it is not just Republicans who feel the President 
should be forced to keep his word.
  I would also like to point out to my colleagues that today the 
leaders of 80 major American companies, Democrats and Republicans, 
concerned about the economic cost of failure to achieve a balanced 
budget took out a 2-page newspaper ad endorsing nothing less 

[[Page H15180]]
than a balanced budget in 7 years, using Congressional Budget Office 
numbers.
  So Mr. Speaker and colleagues, we Republicans have kept our word. We 
have done our job. We have made good on our promise and our commitment 
to the American people to pass a balanced budget and to finally get our 
Nation's fiscal house in order. We have worked hard, fought many 
battles over these past 11 months to develop the first balanced budget 
in 26 years and to do it in a way that offers real deficit reduction 
based on honest numbers and does not entail a major tax increase 
imposed on the backs of the American people. To the contrary, we want 
to relieve and reduce taxes on the middle and working classes.
  So no matter how hard the President might try to wiggle out of his 
agreement, which again he signed 30 days ago, we Republicans are not 
going to settle now for a phony budget based on cooked White House 
numbers.
  The worst thing, the worst thing that we could do now is to go along 
with the White House in pretending to balance the budget, while leaving 
all of the difficult decisions to be fought out again in future 
Congresses. So that is why, Mr. Speaker and colleagues, we are 
insisting that in this session of Congress, before this month and this 
year are out, we work out a bipartisan agreement here in the Congress 
and with the President and his administration on a 7-year plan which 
balances the Federal budget, again using honest numbers provided by the 
Congressional Budget Office.
  This is so important because the American people lose faith in their 
political institutions when politicians fail to keep their word.
  Republicans in this Congress are establishing a new standard. We have 
said that from now on, any politician who makes a promise to the 
American people had better be prepared to keep it; and that certainly 
goes for Bill Clinton who again, 30 days ago, promised by signing this 
law to enact legislation in the first session of the 104th Congress to 
achieve a balanced budget not later than fiscal year 2002, as estimated 
by the Congressional Budget Office.
  So no more excuses, no more Washington gimmicks, it is time for the 
President and our colleagues, Democratic colleagues here in the 
Congress, to do the right thing for our children's future.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Dickey). The Members are reminded that 
the President is to be referred to with the proper respect accorded him 
under the Rules of the House.

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