[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 206 (Thursday, December 21, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H15552]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               REPUBLICANS TO HANG FIRM TO BALANCE BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Tiahrt). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Buyer] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. BUYER. Mr. Speaker, it is with a strong heart I come here. I am 
really surprised that Members would even take the well and somehow try 
to claim ownership to issues of children and demagoguery. It is 
completely unfortunate, and to say that somehow because I am a 
Republican in this body that I do not care about children is incredibly 
insulting.
  Let me also say that even to say words about assault upon children 
shows poor judgment. We get that kind of language here on the floor. I 
do enjoy and I am one who advocates the opening up, and I love the 
dialog that happens in this body, but perhaps because we are moving 
into the Christmas season and many of us are upset that we still have 
to be in this town, we get some of those words come about.
  I have no regrets being here in this town at this moment. I have no 
regrets, because the Reserve unit which I went to the gulf war with has 
been called up and is on their way to Bosnia. So when I think of them, 
I remember what that deployment was like, and I think of them now being 
in the snow of the mountains of Bosnia away from their families.
  But I also view that, yes, what they face, the cowardly acts of 
terror and the threats to the force, we also have the same cowardly 
acts of terror that face those of us who seek to balance the budget. 
The acts of terror come in the form of words. You see, I am one who 
believes that words have meaning. So when you say, ``Oh, I want to 
balance the budget,'' then you ought to really mean you want to balance 
the budget. Do not say, ``I want to balance the budget, oh, sometime in 
the future but I am unwilling to make tough choices.''
  Let me share that when I returned from the gulf, I was one that was 
extraordinarily upset with regard to the direction of our country. When 
you are touched by the experience of war, you begin to understand that 
there are many people throughout our society who have sacrificed, 
sacrificed for future generations and recognized the obligations that 
we have to take care of our parents and our grandparents, at the same 
time our obligation to see that our children have it better than what 
we had.
  My fear when I look at our children is, are they going to have it 
better than what we have had? When I look at economic stagnation and 
the effects upon the wages, there are a lot of issues out there. But 
when I look at the national debt, I look at that and say that is the 
greatest threat to our security.
  Serving on the Committee on National Security, we have briefings all 
the time about threats abroad to national security. But what about the 
threat from within? The threat from within when we have Members of 
Congress who are unwilling to act responsibly, and only want to reach 
into their wallets and pull out the credit card and keep stealing from 
future generations so they can continue to come back here. Then they 
wrap themselves in the cloak as if they are compassionate and they have 
ownership of sincerity, and that if you want to act responsibly, then 
you are cold, callous and uncaring.
  That is wrong. That is wrong. But that is kind of the words that are 
used in this body and it is extraordinarily unfortunate. What it does 
is, it seeks to divide this body instead of unite the body.
  So you have the far left and you have the far right and they seek to 
pull, and those in the middle when we seek to bridge an agreement, we 
scratch our heads and say, ``What is going on?'' When I go back home to 
Indiana, they scratch their heads and say, ``Jeez, put Newt and Bob 
Dole and Bill Clinton in the same room so they can solve it.'' Come on.
  Coming to this body and saying that the national debt is the greatest 
threat to this country, and then finally to be able to do something 
about it. You see, for the longest time conservatives, we advocated 
freezing the budget. Then when we got control of the Congress, we no 
longer advocated freezing the budget, because now we have an 
opportunity to change systems. So when over the years we work hard to 
change systems, streamline and make government more effective, we get 
attacked.
  Well, we are going to hang firm and balance the Nation's budget 
because this is about the future of the country.

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