[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 205 (Wednesday, December 20, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H15310]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        A TITANIC BUDGET BATTLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington [Mr. Metcalf] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. METCALF. Mr. Speaker, is there anyone in America that believes 
that there is no waste in our budget today? That we cannot make cuts or 
decrease the increases which have been projected, in a $1.6 trillion 
budget?
  We spend over $1.6 trillion each year. Some say there is no way we 
can cut it at all. Every dollar we try to cut brings a chorus of 
screams. Any projected increase that we try to decrease, they say will 
devastate Medicare and will take food out of the mouths of children, it 
will put the poor right out on the streets.
  This is a huge system that has been built, a spending system that has 
been built over many years. It is producing deficits of hundreds of 
billions of dollars. Now we have come to the time we have to make the 
decision.
  Everyone in America knows that there is a lot that we can remove from 
this budget without serious harm to anything. What is going on, then? 
What is going on in this House? What is going on is a titanic battle 
that is being waged that will determine the destiny of this Nation.
  The question that will be answered in the next 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 
month or so, will we in this time be able to balance the budget or will 
we continue with the deficits that are destroying this Nation? This 
huge $5 trillion debt is strangling America. The interest on this debt 
will surpass the defense spending, the huge defense spending bill. The 
interest will surpass defense spending next year in the budget that we 
start on in the next few months.
  My wife and I have realized the American dream. We own our own home, 
free and clear. We run a small business in our home. It is not a large 
business, just a small business. But that, to me, and I think to most 
people, is the American dream.
  But let us look to the future. What chance do our children, what 
chance do our grandchildren have to realize the American dream? A child 
born in 1995 will pay $187,000 in taxes just to pay the interest on the 
debt. Just to pay the interest on the debt--$187,000 will buy a pretty 
good house today. The previous spending has destroyed the American 
dream for a lot of the children that will be born in 1995, because it 
is that $187,000 house that they are not going to get, because they had 
to pay that $187,000 just to pay the interest on the national debt.

  Every vote for an unbalanced budget over the last 40 years was a vote 
to destroy the American dream for our own children.
  We have got to look at this interest thing and the amount of money 
that we pay in interest. England is still paying interest on the money 
that they borrowed to fight Napoleon. They have paid that principal in 
interest over 15 times and they still owe that principal.
  Mr. Speaker, we have to balance the budget. We have no choice. This 
is not really negotiable. A balanced budget with honest numbers is the 
only way that we will protect the American dream for our children and 
grandchildren, and we must succeed at that.

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