[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 205 (Wednesday, December 20, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H15274-H15275]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 PRESIDENT SAYS IT IS POSSIBLE TO BALANCE BUDGET BY 2002 AND MEET GOP 
                                  GOAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Hoke] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, I saw this morning in the Baltimore Sun this 
report, and it was so stunning to me that I just have to read part of 
it to you, Mr. Speaker. I want to be sure not to offend the gentleman 
from Texas, and I want to make it clear that I am addressing my remarks 
to you, Mr. Speaker.
  In the paper it says, ``In a positive signal, Clinton told reporters 
before the meeting'', this is before yesterday's meeting with Speaker 
Gingrich and with Majority Leader Dole, says ``In a positive signal, 
Clinton told reporters before the meeting that he now thinks it is 
possible to reach the GOP goal of a balanced budget by 2002 using the 
conservative economic calculations by CBO.''
  Let me read that again, Mr. Speaker, It says, ``In a positive signal, 
Clinton told reporters before the meeting that he now thinks it is 
possible to reach the GOP goal of a balanced budget by 2002 using the 
conservative economic calculations by CBO.'' He said this yesterday. At 
that point, it had been 29 days since he had personally signed his name 
to a piece of legislation known as a continuing resolution that 
included the language that said that he agreed to work with the 
Congress to achieve a CBO-scored balanced budget by 2002 and that he 
would do this before the end of this term.
  Now, here he told reporters yesterday that now he thinks it is 
possible to reach that goal using CBO numbers. What is going on? Did he 
not read the legislation that he himself had signed?

                              {time}  1715

  Was the President not aware of what he had signed? Did the President 
not read that paragraph in the continuing resolution that said that he 
was agreeing to actually come forward with a CBO-scored balanced budget 
by the year 2002? Did he not read it? Does not he read the legislation 
he signs?
  Mr. Speaker, I cannot understand this. Here he acts with complete 
surprise that now he is saying that gosh, he thinks it is possible to 
reach that 

[[Page H15275]]
goal of a balanced budget by the year 2002.
  Mr. de la GARZA. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. HOKE. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. de la GARZA. Mr. Speaker, I keep hearing about CBO and OMB, and 
they are all projections. No one for a certainty can say what the 
accurate final result would be. But I would like to inject into the 
discussion the name of Sister Rosa. He tells the future by reading 
cards. I think she could do better than OMB and CBO.
  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his suggestion.
  Mr. de la GARZA. Mr. Speaker, she is a lady that does that back in my 
district.
  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I think that maybe Sister 
Rosa do a better job than CBO or OMB. But the fact remains that the 
President did not agree in a piece of legislation that he signed into 
law to take the projections of Sister Rosa. He did not agree to take 
the projections of the OMB. He agreed to use the projections of the 
CBO, and then yesterday he acts as though it is a completely novel idea 
and he says: Gosh, maybe it will be possible to reach that goal. I 
think maybe we will do that. This is something new. I had not thought 
about that. I think we can put it all together.
  Well, for heaven's sakes, Mr. Speaker, that is what he agreed to 29 
years ago. It seems to me that what is really going on here is a 
stalling tactic. It is an amazing thing. The President thinks that for 
his own political good that he will do better by putting this off 
longer and longer and longer and longer.
  We see the same thing going on right now with respect to the subpoena 
on the Whitewater papers in the Committee on the Judiciary or the 
Whitewater committee over in the Senate. What the President has done is 
that he has said: I am invoking an attorney-client privilege. He knows 
there is no good attorney-client privilege on this matter, but he has 
invoked the attorney-client privilege, knowing that he will spin that 
one through.
  Mr. Speaker, that will take some time, and then he will go to an 
Executive privilege that he will call up and ask to spin that one 
through, all the while, delaying, delaying, delaying.
  The President seems to think that time is on his side, but the fact 
is that he did agree to and we will insist on and we will come up with 
a balanced budget using honest numbers.

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