[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 205 (Wednesday, December 20, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H15315]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE PEOPLE'S WORK

  Mr. HAYWORTH. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the 
House for 1 minute.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Arizona?
  There was no objection without objection.
  Mr. HAYWORTH. Mr. Speaker, I would just simply like to point out that 
this is more evidence that this House is about the work of the American 
people. It is this House that has passed appropriations bills that this 
President has vetoed. He has put Americans out of work. It is his 
decision; the mantle of leadership rests uneasily on his shoulders.
  We are here in the Congress of the United States to lend a helping 
hand to inject a dose of honesty and reality into these proceedings, 
and that is why even now, as our friends in the Committee on Rules 
labor, they are doing so for the highest of purposes: to restore the 
ideal of limited and effective Government and to achieve the balanced 
budget which we all have said we want to achieve, for our children 
deserve no less.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. HAYWORTH. I would be happy to yield to my friend from Georgia.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, what is curious about this whole process 
is that we are not cutting spending, unfortunately. We are not freezing 
spending, unfortunately. We, over a 7-year period of time, are 
increasing spending 3 trillion new dollars, and the President wants to 
increase it 4 trillion new dollars.
  Mr. HAYWORTH. Would the gentleman from Georgia please repeat those 
numbers?
  Mr. KINGSTON. We, over a 7-year period of time, we being the 
Republican Party, are suggesting increasing spending 3 trillion new 
dollars over the next 7 years. The President wants to increase spending 
$4 trillion over the next 7 years.
  Mr. HAYWORTH. The $4 trillion in additional spending is what this 
President would like to do, and that is the reason he is against a 
balanced budget?
  Mr. KINGSTON. The gentleman talked earlier about the 73 new freshmen, 
and I assume not 1 of you ran on a platform of increasing spending 3 
trillion new dollars. The point being is I really and truly believe the 
American people want a balanced budget. I believe the time has come for 
it, and I also believe, to paraphrase Dwight W. Eisenhower, that once 
the American people make up their mind to do something, there is not 
much you can do to stop it.

  So I believe, thank the Lord, that this is beyond the President, this 
is beyond Congress, this is beyond the Senate. This is something the 
American people want, and therefore, I think we are going to get a 
balanced budget.
  Mr. HUNTER. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. HAYWORTH. I am happy to yield to our friend from California.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman just hit the nail on the head, 
because you mentioned the time. A number of our friends on the other 
side of the aisle call a balanced budget a noble goal, but it is never 
the right time to have it. It is always the right time to increase 
another program by 50 percent, because if you increase it by less than 
40 percent, they will call it a cut, but it is never quite the right 
time to have a balanced budget.
  I think you are exactly right. The American people think that this is 
the right time. If we leave this Hill without having a balanced budget 
over this next 5, 10, 15 days, we will have failed the American people.
  Mr. KINGSTON. On that subject, I want to mention that I know Mr. 
Hayworth knows this story, because I have told it before, about the guy 
that goes to the farmer and wants to borrow his friend's ax and he goes 
next door and he says, ``I want to borrow your ax today; I have to chop 
some wood.'' The guy says to the farmer, ``I do not want to lend you my 
ax,'' and the farmer says, ``why not?'' He says, ``I am making soup 
today.'' He says, ``making soup? What does that have to do with me 
borrowing your ax?'' He says, ``nothing, but if I do not want to do 
something, any excuse is a good one.''
  What we are seeing on issue after issue is: yes, I want to balance 
the budget, but not here, not now, not this one, not that program.
  I yield back to the gentleman from Arizona.
  Mr. HAYWORTH. I think the gentleman, and I thank the Speaker.

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