[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 205 (Wednesday, December 20, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H15280-H15281]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                AMERICANS WANT AN HONEST BALANCED BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Upton] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to say a couple of things during 
this span, as we wait for the rule to come down from the Committee on 

[[Page H15281]]
Rules. On this side we want a balanced budget. I believe a lot of 
Members on that side want a balanced budget, too. They want it honestly 
scored, and that means by the Congressional Budget Office. We are tired 
of smoke and mirrors and phony numbers and the CR that we had last 
time. A lot of us were optimistic that something was going to happen, 
and it did not. That is why we are in the situation that we are in 
today.
   Mr. Speaker, I reminded a colleague of mine earlier this afternoon 
that I was one of those who voted against the Bush budget back in 1990. 
I remember being down in the White House and meeting with a number of 
his advisers, and I said then that his assumptions and statistics that 
he was showing us in 1990 were wrong, because he told us that if that 
budget passed in 1990, and it did, despite my opposition, that we would 
have a surplus in 1995 of $65 billion. The OMB was off $225 billion.
  We are tired of that. We are tired of trying to hoodwink the American 
public in terms of making tough decisions, and when the pie is finally 
taken out of the oven, it is not done. We want it done. The end product 
every one of us on this side wants and a good number on your side, and 
I hope including yourself: that pie done in a balanced fashion by the 
year 2002.
  One of the things we are trying to do now is to get the sides 
together, put them in a room, lock the door, call out for Domino's 
Pizza on whatever you are going to do, and not let them out until we 
get a deal.
  Mr. HEFNER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. UPTON. I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina.
  Mr. HEFNER. Mr. Speaker, just to make two points on the scoring, I do 
not think the American people are sitting out there having dinner and 
saying they are talking about a score by OMB rather than CBO. But CBO 
was off $135 billion. I will agree with you, get some people together 
that want to balance this budget. I am for balancing this budget. But 
we are being told they are not going to pass a budget in this House 
unless it is Democrats that go your way. You say, ``You do it our way, 
or it will be no way,'' and that is no way to negotiate.
  Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. UPTON. I yield to the gentleman from Illinois.
  Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Speaker, I agree with the gentleman about the point, 
I think there are probably a lot of people out there eating dinner and 
probably some of them watching C-Span, and I doubt if very few of them 
understand all the scoring. But I will tell you one thing the American 
people understand. I think it is reflected in votes that have been made 
on this floor throughout the year. The fact that we passed a balanced 
budget amendment with 300 votes, it included a lot of Democrats, and 
maybe some of the people who are sitting here this evening. We passed a 
balanced budget resolution with the vast majority of Democrats voting 
with us.
  The reason is that our people who are elected to these jobs, whether 
they be Republicans or Democrats, know that the American people want a 
balanced budget. The reason is because of the fact they balance their 
budget year in and year out, they know how to do it, they look at their 
ledgers, they see how much money is coming in, and they say, ``Why 
can't you do this in Washington? What is the problem? Why do we have a 
$5 trillion debt?'' Because we have overspent.

  So the average person watching television out there, eating dinner, 
for those people that are, they understand how this works.
  Mr. HEFNER. If the gentleman will yield further, Mr. Speaker, I am 
not disagreeing with him. But it boils down to this: we can have 
negotiations, but it cannot be ``My way or no way.''

                              {time}  1815

  That is no way to negotiate.
  Mr. UPTON. Reclaiming my time, I think that we can reach a bipartisan 
accord. The vote that we had here 2 nights ago, it passed big time: 7 
years, CBO numbers, most of us, again. I think only 40 Members voted 
against it. I think that there is room for a bipartisan agreement, and 
there are a number of us that want to do that.
  Mr. HEFNER. Mr. Speaker, I do not mean to sound sarcastic, but if we 
could put together a budget, get to a budget in 7 years scored by CBO, 
is the gentleman at liberty to deliver some Republican votes if it met 
with your approval?
  Mr. UPTON. I believe so, and I think that is what we all ought to be 
working here tonight to try and do, and tomorrow night and the next 
night, until it is done.
  Mr. HEFNER. Because we understand and have been told that the only 
budget we are going to get will be a Republican budget with enough 
votes over here to override a veto. If we cannot get some support to 
where we can come as a bipartisan group, we have very serious 
reservations about it. But I am asking if you and I could sit down as 
honest brokers.

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