[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 211 (Friday, December 29, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S19304-S19305]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I listened with interest at the discussion 
moments ago on the floor about the issue of the shutdown and the budget 
negotiations. I have been involved with Senator Exon on the Democratic 
side in those negotiations for a number of weeks. We have regrettably 
not solved the problem. We have not resolved a budget that represents a 
compromise on both sides. It is probably safe for everyone to say that 
we have, at the end of this year, a real mess here in Washington, DC, 
and in the Congress.
  It is tempting to just blame, and it seems to me there are plenty of 
targets, but it seems to me what is causing this deadlock and this 
impasse is a circumstance where a large number of Members of Congress 
have come to town to say, ``The way we negotiate is to say to you, `It 
is our way or no way. You agree with us or we create deadlock. We won't 
accept compromise.' ''
  The Senator from Vermont talked about the press conference yesterday 
by some on the other side of the Capitol who said, ``Let's lock the 
room. Let's have the President and the majority leader of the Senate 
and the Speaker of the House put in a room and lock the room and not 
have them come out until there is an agreement on a balanced budget.''
  The Senator from Vermont appropriately asked the question: Why would 
they not have asked themselves to remain here last week?
  I stood on the floor of this Senate late last week when we were told 
that the other side had decided they were leaving at 2:30 in the 
afternoon, and late that afternoon I asked on the floor of the Senate, 
what about this shutdown? What about the 270,000 people who are 
prevented from going to work? What about the taxpayers who are told 
they are going to pay people who are prevented from doing their work?
  What about the other half-million people who are working and not 
getting paid, working a full pay period and getting half a paycheck? 
That has not been discussed on the floor. I ask, what leverage does it 
give anyone to poke the eye of the taxpayer by saying to the taxpayers 
of this country, ``You are going to pay 270,000 people who are 
prevented from coming to work and dangling Federal workers out as pawns 
in this budget debate"? What possible leverage could anyone receive 
from this chaos and this mess? This is not leverage, this is 
foolishness, and it ought to end.
  They say this is about principle. It is about balancing the budget in 
principle. I ask this question: What principle is involved in a 
proposal to balance the budget that says, ``By the way, let us change 
the alternative minimum tax so that 2,000 corporations, the biggest 
corporations in America, each get a $7 million tax cut from this little 
adjustment in something called the AMT? Two thousand companies, $7 
million each in a new tax break, to balance the budget?

[[Page S19305]]

  What principle is involved in changing something that no one 
understands called section 956(a) of the Tax Code, that says, ``Let us 
make it easier, and let us provide a better incentive for people to 
close their manufacturing plants in America and move the jobs 
overseas''? What possible principle is involved in making that 
adjustment for those few recipients, the largest corporations in the 
country, to be rewarded in something that is called a balanced budget?
  I also note the story today in the newspaper that says, ``Furloughs 
Fail To Ground Overseas Trips by Congress.'' I think those who are 
responsible for shutting down the Government and who now plan to leave 
on a congressional foreign trip should think better of it. Some of 
their constituents might see their actions of shutting down the 
Government and then leaving the country as leaving the scene of an 
accident. We ought not be talking about foreign trips. We ought to be 
talking about getting this Government up and running and reaching a 
budget agreement.
  The Republicans are right. I have said it before and I will say it 
this afternoon, the Republicans are right for pushing for a balanced 
budget. I compliment them for it. They have energy and strength to say 
we ought to balance the budget. They are right about that. We ought to 
do it in 7 years. They are right about that. The Democrats are right in 
saying let us do it the right way, by protecting the priorities in this 
country. Let us not pull the rug out from under Medicare. Let us make 
sure we invest in education. The Republicans are right and the 
Democrats are right. Let us take the best of what both have to offer, 
rather than get the worst of what each party has to offer this country.

  My hope is that, by the end of today or tomorrow, working together, 
all of us, we will find a way to end this Government shutdown, put 
people back to work, develop a plan to balance the Federal budget, do 
it in 7 years, and do it with the right priorities that still will make 
this a better country in the future and especially do it in a way that 
is sensitive to the needs of some of the most vulnerable people in our 
country.
  The American people, it seems to me, at the end of 1995, deserve a 
government that offers some measure of confidence, not chaos. We find 
ourselves in this circumstance, at the end of this year, for a lot of 
reasons. This Congress did not pass its appropriations bills on time. 
It did not pass its reconciliation bill on time. It did not pass any 
appropriations bills on time. The fact is, we end the year in chaos.
  We can, it seems to me, even by the end of this week--tomorrow, 
Saturday, Sunday, Monday--still make some measure of progress in doing 
the right thing. And the right thing would be to restore to those 
Federal workers the opportunity to come back to their jobs, to restore, 
for the taxpayers, some sense of confidence that we are doing the right 
thing, and to provide for this country a budget that is balanced--yes, 
in 7 years; and, yes, in the right way.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Oklahoma is 
recognized.

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