[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 205 (Wednesday, December 20, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H15264-H15265]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       BALANCING THE BUDGET IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE CAN DO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Torkildsen] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. TORKILDSEN. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the chance to talk a little 
bit. I want to applaud my colleague, the gentleman from Massachusetts 
[Mr. Kennedy], who was here a few minutes ago when he talked about 
Aaron Feuerstein who runs and owns the Malden Mills in Methuen, the 
factory that very tragically burnt down and literally hundreds of 
people, thousands of people were left without a job. Several people 
lost their lives in that fire, and Mr. Feuerstein very generously, 
first, committed to rebuild the factory in Massachusetts; second, the 
next day told employees that they would be paid for at least 30 days 
and also that their health insurance would be continued for at least 90 
days, and in the holiday season everyone in Massachusetts appreciated 
that. Even though the factory is not in my district, many of my 
constituents work in the that factory because it neighbors the Sixth 
District of Massachusetts, and I just wanted to, first, applaud Mr. 
Feuerstein for what he has done. I have not met him personally, but I 
have called to congratulate him and offer assistance, and I think it is 
something that all of us nationally do across the country. Any time 
there is a tragedy like that, we all pull together.
  I would disagree with my colleague from Massachusetts though in just 
what enables a very generous employer to do what was done in this 
particular case. In the case of the United States we have had a deficit 
in this country now for 26 consecutive years. If any company had run a 
deficit for 26 consecutive years, they could not have offered employees 
pay for 30 days, they probably would not even be in business. And so 
the situation for the United States of America is something that we 
have to address because instead of a one-time immediate calamity, the 
calamity for the United States has been a long time in coming and will 
not be resolved overnight.
  I give people the analogy of the situation with the debt in the 
United States and why it is so important to balance the budget. I 
compare it to someone's personal finances. Imagine that you had four 
credit cards and you had charged the maximum amount you could on each 
of those four credit cards. Well, if you wanted to go and make 
payments, you would hope to pay down the balance, but if you, instead 
of doing that, you went out and applied for a fifth credit card so you 
could start paying the other four credit cards, it would not take 
someone long to figure out that indeed it would be a very quick amount 
of time before that fifth card was also run up and, indeed, the debt 
would be much, much worse.
  That is very close to the situation where the United States is right 
now. It has borrowed and borrowed and borrowed. Now the debt is 
officially just below $5 trillion, but if you add all the money that 
has been promised to Social Security recipients and others, the debt is 
even larger than that, and at some point there will not be enough money 
to make all those commitments which have been made, those things which 
are called mandatory spending, and that is why it is so important that 
now we take steps necessary to have a balanced budget. I am someone who 
believes that we could not do it in 1 year; I mean even that would be 
too drastic, and that is why a 7-year plan is very reasonable. If we 
can do it in 5, all the better, but a 7-year plan certainly would be 
very, very positive.
  Now we are in a situation now where we are debating the 7-year 
balanced budget, and not too long ago we thought we had an agreement 
between the White House and Congress that we would use Congressional 
Budget Office numbers, that we would protect certain things like 
Medicare, education, the environment, provide for an adequate defense, 
provide for fair tax policy for working families, and even though we 

[[Page H15265]]
thought we had that agreement, the White House did not respond with 
Congressional Budget Office numbers, and instead came back and said, 
well, no we have what is called a rosy scenario, we think everything is 
going to be better. Indeed when you cannot even agree on the 
parameters, it is very difficult to have negotiations if one side comes 
to the table with apples and the other side comes to the table with 
oranges, and you cannot figure out why you cannot have any type of 
negotiation. I think it is probably because the two sides have come to 
the table with different measures of what they are talking about.
  That is why I think that resolution, the continuing resolution we 
have voted for, was so important, and I would call on the White House 
to go back to its agreement and say please live up to your agreement. 
If you do not like the budget that passed the House and Senate, and 
that is your option, please submit your own balanced budget using the 
same estimates. If you do not want any tax cut, take the tax cut out. 
If you do not want any defense spending, take defense spending out. If 
you want a lower amount of defense spending, put in a lower amount of 
defense spending. But please submit your own balanced budget so we can 
have a comparison and we can actually have legitimate negotiations.

  Now a lot of people say, well, the Government shut down at least some 
departments; is that not the fault of the Congress? Well, the President 
was sent the appropriations bill for the Interior Department, and he 
vetoed that. That was his option, but if he had signed it, the Interior 
Department would be open now. The President would sign the 
appropriations bill that covered the Veterans Administration. If he had 
signed that, the VA would be opened now. He choose to veto it. The 
President was sent the appropriations bill for Housing and Urban 
Development. He vetoed that bill as well, and HUD remains closed. He 
was sent the appropriations bill for the Commerce Department. He vetoed 
that bill, and Commerce is closed. Also with the Department of Justice 
and the Department of State.
  I would call on the President to submit an honest balanced budget so 
we can balance the budget for our children's future. That is the most 
important thing we can do.

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