[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 206 (Thursday, December 21, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H15558]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




FRESHMAN REPUBLICANS DEDICATE THEMSELVES TO GETTING AMERICA'S FINANCIAL 
                             HOUSE IN ORDER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Shays] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, it is one of the greatest privileges in the 
world to serve in Congress and represent constituents who have sent you 
to Washington. I have had the pleasure as well to represent a smaller 
constituency in the State House in Hartford, and it never ceased to 
amaze me, as a State legislator, how I as a State legislator had to 
make sure that our State had its financial house in order, and yet the 
Federal Government could deficit spend. I often wondered how those men 
and women in Congress could do such a terrible thing to our country, to 
burden future generations with horrific debt, on which we have to pay 
annual interest payments which are in excess of over $235 billion 
annually.
  Mr. Speaker, when I got down to Washington I vowed that getting our 
financial house in order would be my first and highest priority, making 
sure that we balanced our Federal budget. I have seen during the past 8 
years that there has been here a greater awareness that we needed to do 
this and more and more Members willing to put their, candidly, 
political lives on the line to do that.
  I pay special salute to the freshman class that have joined us this 
year, because this number of 73 Members has given us the opportunity to 
lead. We have not had an opportunity as a Republican conference to lead 
in 40 years. What we have done in that short period of time, Mr. 
Speaker, I think is extraordinary. We passed major reforms in the first 
day of the session by reducing the size of Congress, reducing the 
number of committees, reducing the staff on committees, requiring or no 
longer allowing proxy votes, requiring all committee meetings to be 
open to the public, requiring that Congress live under all the laws we 
impose on everyone else. I want to say that again; to require Congress 
to live by all the laws that we impose on everyone else.
  Mr. Speaker, we not only voted during the beginning of the year for a 
balanced budget amendment, but we did something obviously more 
important, we voted to balance the budget. That is what I want to 
address at this point.
  Mr. Speaker, we are going to get our financial house in order and 
balance our Federal budget. At the same time we are going to save our 
trust funds, particularly Medicare, from insolvency and then ultimately 
bankruptcy. Our Medicare fund will go bankrupt if we do not take 
corrective action to restore funds in the Medicare Part A fund, which 
will go bankrupt in 7 years. We are looking to transform our caretaking 
social and corporate welfare state into a caring opportunity society. 
We are set to do all three of these objectives, and we are working hard 
to accomplish that task.

  Mr. Speaker, Prime Minister Rabin, who was the former prime minister 
in Israel, made it very clear that he viewed his responsibility this 
way. He said he was elected by adults to represent the children. That 
is what I think Members in Congress have to do. We are talking about 
not having a horrific debt that mortgages our country's future.
  We have a plan. The plan is very simple: We balance the budget in 7 
years. Admittedly, we have a tax cut. What do we do? We balance it in 7 
years. I could forego a tax cut if we balance the budget in 6 years, 
but I will be darned if I am going to reduce the tax cuts and then take 
what we had saved to allow for tax cuts and just spend more money. We 
are allowing this Government to grow. In the past 7 years we spent $9 
billion. We are going to spend $12 billion. The issue is should we 
spend $13 billion in the next 7 years. We say no. The other issue is we 
say it should be balanced by the seventh year.
  Mr. Speaker, I constantly hear about Republican cuts to the budget. 
They are just not true. At least they are not true when they refer to 
the earned income tax credit, a very important program to provide 
proactive financial assistance to individuals who do not pay taxes, but 
work. The earned income tax credit grows from $19.9 to $25.4 billion. 
The school lunch program under our plan grows from $5.1 to $6.8 
billion. The student loan program grows from $24.5 to $36 billion. That 
is a 50-percent increase.
  Only in this place when you spend 50 percent more do people call it a 
cut; Medicaid, growing from $9 billion to $127 billion, Medicare from 
$178 billion in the seventh year to $289 billion. That clearly is an 
increase in spending.
  Mr. Speaker, we are cutting some programs, and maybe some we should 
not, but we had to make choices. Now it is up to the President. We have 
spent a whole year working on our budget. We have closed it and 
advertised it, and have proclaimed it to our constituency and the 
entire United States. Now it is time for the President to say where his 
priorities are.

  A member of our conference pointed out that we have been authors and 
the President has been a critic. It is important now that the President 
be an author of what he favors and show us what he wants, and then 
compare the two options. I think we can have an agreement on 24 hours, 
as soon as the President and the leaders in the Democratic side of the 
aisle, the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Gephardt] and the gentleman 
from South Dakota [Mr. Daschle], determine that the American people 
want to balance the budget in 7 years and get our financial House in 
order. We are not asking that they agree to what we are doing with 
Medicare and Medicaid or the tax program or our discretionary spending. 
We are asking them to present their plan, see where we agree and, where 
we agree, case closed. Where we disagree, then iron out our 
differences.
  Ultimately, the President is the President of the United States. He 
is going to have to pass judgment on what we do. There will have to be 
an agreement. But rather than compromise, we are looking to find common 
ground and save this country from bankruptcy. We are determined to get 
our financial House in order and balance the Federal budget. We are 
determined to save our trust funds, particularly Medicare, from 
bankruptcy. We are determined to transform this social and corporate 
welfare state into an opportunity society and end this cycle of 12-
year-olds having babies, 14-year-olds selling drugs, 15-year-olds 
killing each other, 18-year-olds who cannot read their diplomas, 24-
year-olds who have never had a job, and 30-year-old grandparents. That 
has to end.
  We need to transform this society into truly what is an opportunity 
society. I look forward to doing that, and working with colleagues on 
both sides of the aisle to accomplish that task. Mr. Speaker, I would 
just conclude by saying I am proud to serve in this incredible 
opportunity as a Member of Congress, and to represent the people of the 
United States.

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