[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 2 (Thursday, January 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H129]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            TALK IS EASY; BALANCING THE BUDGET IS DIFFICULT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Buyer] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BUYER. Mr. Speaker, actually, I do believe with some of the 
Members here on the floor, we could actually work out the budget deal. 
Don't you think? That is about how I feel at the moment, is to override 
that which is down below the hill so that we can get it done.
  One thing that did bother me, before I start in on this, is when I 
heard one of my colleagues mention the word ``perhaps.'' Balancing the 
budget is perhaps a laudatory thing to do. Perhaps is kind of a word 
like a maybe. Like balancing the budget may be a good thing to do. It 
does not imply any form of desirability, which, in fact, bothers me 
somewhat, and that is the problem that we have.
  It is easy to talk about let us balance the Nation's budget, but when 
we actually get down to doing it, it is very difficult. One thing that 
is bothersome is, whether it is the Republicans or whether it is 
Democrats, there is this blame game that goes on in this town. And when 
we feel the heat back home by our constituents or Federal workers or 
someone who cannot get a passport or visa, it is easy to quickly blame 
someone else. Or if, in fact, someone is working in a Veterans 
Administration and someone calls to have a need and they say, well, 
just call your Congressman. They would like to blame the Congress, and 
that is an easy thing to do.
  There is something that confronts us, though, and that is the Federal 
Government cannot sustain its current fiscal policies. I do not care 
who we are or what our background is or our partisanship, that is a 
fact. The spending commitments will far exceed the revenues available 
to meet the Federal Government's obligations. That is a fact. So we 
cannot deal on assumptions. Assumptions carry great liability.
  Facts are stubborn things. It is a condition, not a theory, which 
presently confronts us. Look at this chart here for a moment. This is 
what confronts us. We have a national debt. Look at this national debt 
and the explosion. There is a great blame game when they say this 
national debt. They blame it on the 12 years of the Reagan-Bush era, as 
if Congress did not pass spending bills. So when they cut taxes, they 
did not cut spending, and we got a mushroom in the national debt.

  I came to Congress in 1992. I am not interested in a blame game here. 
I know what confronts us. Fact is what confronts us.
  If my colleagues would time travel with me and we say, now in the 
year 2002 we balance the budget, well, this bothers me. I am not 
satisfied. I am not satisfied because I know the national debt will 
continue to grow from its $4.9 trillion today to around $6.8 or $6.9 
trillion. This national debt, this will take us up to about 2030 to 
2035 to bring it back into better balance. I will not even be alive.
  So people say, Steve, why are you doing this? It is very easy to come 
here to the floor and say all of these things. Oh, my gosh, we have 
Federal workers not being paid. Here are some of the impacts. Here is 
someone that needs a visa to come back to school from whatever country 
they are from. Or here is someone that needs to go overseas for a 
particular job, or whatever is going on.
  There are numerous examples, and we can go on and on and on. Do we 
give in to the moment or do we permit the eyes of our minds to see the 
greater vision? And the greater vision is saving the country. Save the 
country. Because if we permit the national debt to just mushroom and 
balloon like it is, I know what countries do whose debts become 
unmanageable. They devalue their currency.
  I will submit this to the American people. If they see Members of 
Congress leaving this institution and they are starting to buy gold, 
Americans better buy gold, because we can see what is about to happen.
  So it is easy to come here and wrap ourselves around whatever issue. 
There is no ownership on the issues of compassion. Some like to believe 
there are, but there are not. I neither believe that the milk of human 
kindness has soured, nor will I give in to the tears of vexation.
  Mr. Speaker, I look at this chart and I think what a luxury President 
John Kennedy must have had when he came to this town in the early 
1960's. Because at that time he had 70 percent of the budget that was 
discretionary spending. Seventy percent. Twenty-three percent was 
entitlement, 7 percent was interest on the debt. By 2002, the 
discretionary spending will have gone from the 70 percent all the way 
to only 28 percent.

                              {time}  1445

  So when we subtract 16 percent of the 28 percent for the military 
budget, we are not arguing over much anymore, because the mandatory 
spending side, entitlements and interest, they overtake itself. It is 
wrong and we have to balance the budget. Let us not give in to the 
rhetoric today.

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