[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 205 (Wednesday, December 20, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H15260-H15261]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    A BALANCED BUDGET IS THE MOST SERIOUS CRISIS OF THIS GENERATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Colorado [Mr. McInnis] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, we need a Government that keeps on ticking, 
but we do not need a Government that keeps on giving. This balanced 
budget is the most serious crisis of this generation. there is not a 
family in America that finds themselves in a situation where they spend 
more money than they bring in that they do not call it a crisis. There 
is not a family in America that if they got them selves into the same 
kind of situation as this Government, spending more than they bring in, 
would not sit down at a table and say, you know something, somewhere we 
are going to have to reduce the amount of money that we are spending.
  Our problem back here in Washington, D.C., by the way, is not a lack 
of money. We have plenty of money in Washington. We have twice as much 
as we did 10 years ago. Our problem back here in the Nation's Capital 
is spending. We are spending more money than we bring in. Our problem 
back here is not a lack of taxes. In fact, the average person in this 
country spends the first 2 hours and 45 minutes of every working day 
just paying their taxes.
  Like an old farmer one time told me, before you put more water in the 
bucket, you better plug the holes. That is what is happening in this 
Government. We need to plug the holes. We need to reduce this spending. 
You cannot tax the American people anymore.

                              {time}  1500

  And the American people have every right to expect this Government to 
conduct its business as we expect them, the constituents, our bosses, 
to conduct their business.
  Mr. Speaker, what will happen if we can balance this budget? First of 
all, let me tell my colleagues that the President, regardless of all of 
the rhetoric that goes on, regardless of what the President says right 
now, I can guarantee my colleagues that this President will be forced 
to accept a 7-year balanced budget; I can guarantee my colleagues that 
this President will be forced to have that scored by the Congressional 
Budget Office; and I can guarantee my colleagues that the President is 
going to have to address entitlement programs.
  Mr. Speaker, if my colleagues think entitlement progarms in this 
country are run well, ask anybody how well our welfare system is run. 
Imagine winning $100 million in the lottery and wanting to give $50 
million of it to the poor people in this country. Would anyone send 
that to Washington, DC for distribution to the poor people in this 
country? Of course they would not. The system is broken, and the 
President is going to have to be part of the solution in fixing that.
  Mr. Speaker, another thing we have got to do is we have got to 
restore confidence in the American people. How confident can the 
American people be that business in Washington is changing when we have 
the Secretary of Energy traveling around the country in one of her jet 
rides that costs $400,000 just for the jet, taking an entourage of 50 
or 60 or 70 staff people with her, having 500 people to handle public 
relations?
  We cannot allow that to go on. How confident can the American people 
be when we stand by and let that happen? The President should 
immediately ask for, and the Secretary of Energy should immediately 
submit, her resignation. We need to look at the scare tactics that are 
being deployed, and we have heard some of them on this floor today.
  Mr. Speaker, we are not ending Medicaid. We are doing it in a 
different way. We are sending the money to the States and bypassing the 
bureacruacy in Washington, DC. Medicare is not being eliminated.
  Mr. Speaker, if we listened to some of the scare tactics, we would 
think there will be no more school lunches for kids. That is obviously 
false. Not one kid who got a lunch this year is going to be denied 
lunch next year. We would believe that students will not get loans and 
the senior citizens are going to be thrown out in the street to starve. 
We would think all of these dramatic things are going to happen.

  Mr. Speaker, a year from now, after this President is forced to 
accept a 7-year balanced budget and after this President is forced to 
have it scored by the CBO, a year from now we are not going to find any 
of that having occurred.
  In fact, what we are going to find is lower interest rates. We are 
going to find that the next generation has got this generation paying 
off its credit card so that we do not send that debt on to the next 
generation. That debt right now accrues at a rate of $30 million an 
hour. This next generation is watching our generation overspend the 
budget by $30 million an hour.
  What will we see a year from now? We are going to see that come to an 
end. We are going to see the U.S. Government in Washington, DC do as 48 
States do, and every family in America is expected to do, and that is 
to balance their budget, to not spend more money than they bring in.
  Mr. Speaker, let me say that our issue back here is spending. We are 
not cutting Medicare; we are reducing the growth of Medicare. The 
President's proposal, by the way, on Medicare is very similar to ours. 
If some of these people get up talk about the Republicans and want to 
use the word ``cut,'' they better talk about their own President.
  Mr. Speaker, we need to stop the spending in Washington and we need 
to 

[[Page H15261]]
control. With that, I would just urge and tell the American people I am 
positive and optimistic that we will have a balanced budget and all of 
us, including the next generation and especially the next generation, 
will be better off for it.

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