[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 205 (Wednesday, December 20, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H15267-H15268]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       RECESSION LIKELY FOR 1996

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Volkmer] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. VOLKMER. Mr. Speaker, it has been interesting to listen to the 
various speakers today, especially from this side of the aisle, talking 
about how they are going to balance the budget.
  Earlier today we had a gentleman from Colorado [Mr. McInnis], and I 
think it was a slip of the tongue, I hope so, but we will find out what 
is in the Congressional Record tomorrow, and he says that we are going 
to have about a $200 or $300 billion deficit this year.
  Next year, he says, next year, we are going to have a balanced 
budget. Well, baloney. Next year under the Republican budget, the 
deficit goes up, it does not go down. This whole idea that they are 
saying, we want a balanced budget now, I have heard that so many times 
on this floor: We want a balanced budget now. Baloney.
  There is no balanced budget now. They are talking about down the 
road, and it is all projected; and all kinds of things can happen in 
that 7 years, and you will not have a balanced budget.
  Mr. Speaker, as one who was here in 1981, I can remember another 
group of people, including former President Reagan saying, under my 
budget in 4 years, it is going to be balanced. It is going to be 
balanced. Guess what, folks? Guess what? We had the largest deficit in 
the history of this country in that fourth year.
  Now, all of this yakity-yak, that is all it is, that in 7 years we 
are going to have a balanced budget, that is a bunch of yak-yak, a 
bunch of baloney. There is no truth to it at all. They do not know for 
sure that it is going to be balanced. If we have a recession next year, 
and I dare say, the way this majority is going under our imperious 
Speaker, Newt Gingrich, the way it is going right now, we could very 
easily have a recession next year. Because in my opinion, if our 
President stands where I think he should stand, and the Republicans 
stay where they say they are going to stay, we are going to hit the 
debt limit sometime in January, and then we will see what happens to 
interest rates.
  Then we will see what happens on interest rate. Because of activity 
of this Republican blackmail position of the majority, and that is just 
what it is, a blackmail position, you could very well end up with a 
recession this next year.
  I will guarantee you, going back in history again, going back and 
remembering our great President Ronald Reagan, in 1982, folks, I do not 
know how many of you remember, guess what happened? Because of his 
tight money policy, because of the Reagan tight money policy, we had a 
huge, a horrendous recession.
  We had parts of this country, including my district, parts of my 
district, 13 and 14 percent unemployment. Government revenues just went 
to pot, went way down. Expenditures, because of all of those people 
being out of work, went up. The deficit went way, real high, and what 
was the other part of that deficit? Well, remember the old theory that 
we could really stimulate the economy with a big tax cut? You have 
heard that again, too. That was Reagan's cause of the big recession.
  A guy named Bush, remember him? Back when he was running in 1980, he 
called it voodoo economics. They are playing the same game all over 
again. Voodoo economics did not work then; it is not going to work 
again, and this whole idea that this is all because we are going to 
help our children at the same time you are going to tell children they 
cannot eat, they are not 

[[Page H15268]]
going to get enough to eat, the poor kids, the school lunches, the food 
stamps, we are going to take care of our kids because we are going to 
balance the budget. That is a pipe dream.
  They say, according to their projections they are going to balance 
the budget. Let us be truthful about it. According to the projections 
of CBO, you are going to balance the budget in 7 years. Well, folks, 
you have not taken the time to look at those projections. You need to 
do that. You need to look at those projections, and if you do not agree 
with them, like I do not agree with them, and I do not agree with the 
cuts in Medicare and all of those things, you are not going to have a 
balanced budget. They are not going to have a balanced budget, but yet 
they want to shut down the Government.

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