[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 2 (Thursday, January 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H153-H154]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1830
 TELLING HORROR STORIES AND BLAMING REPUBLICANS WILL NOT SOLVE BUDGET 
                                PROBLEMS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Ehlers] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. EHLERS. Mr. Speaker, this evening we are hearing a litany of 
comments about various problems that have arisen with the Government 
shutdown. I am afraid the other side of the aisle is trying to confuse 
the issue by citing all these examples.
  There is no question about it. The Government shutdown is causing 
problems, but that is simply confusing the issue, as I said. Talking 
about ad hominem stories, in other words Government by anecdote, does 
not really solve the problem. Telling horror stories about some things 
that are not being done or services that are not being provided does 
not solve the problem. Just standing there and blaming the Republicans 
for the problem, does not solve the problem.
  I think we have to go back and look at the real issues involved here, 
and the real issue is the incredible size of the national debt and the 
size of the budget deficit every year, and the amount of money that we 
put into paying interest every year.
  Mr. Speaker, we have a national debt approaching $5 trillion. That 
calculates out to about $19,000 for every man, women and child in these 
United States. And when we consider the number who are working and are 
able to repay this debt, that balloons to approximately $30,000 per 
capita.
  We pay interest at the rate of $1,000 per year on the national debt 
for every man, woman and child in the United States; $1,000 per capita. 
And, once again, if one translates that into the taxpaying citizens, on 
average each taxpaying citizen is spending well over $1,500 or $1,600 
just to pay the interest on the national debt each and every year.
  The budget deficits continue, which means the debt gets bigger every 
year and the interest payments get bigger every year. We simply cannot 
continue. And that is a fact. That is the real issue here. It is not 
the horror stories about the Government being shut down, the issue is 
our national debt.
  We have proposed, Mr. Speaker, that we achieve a balanced budget in 7 
years 

[[Page H154]]
using honest numbers. That is a very modest goal, but that is something 
that the Republicans have proposed, and that is something that the 
Congress has passed and sent to the President.
  In November, the President promised that within 30 days he would 
present a balanced budget that met those criteria, balanced in 7 years 
using honest numbers. December 15, when his proposal was supposed to be 
unveiled, it did not balance. it was out of balance by a large amount, 
according to the Congressional Budget Office, which analyzes these 
things.
  In the meantime, the House and the Senate passed the Balanced Budget 
Act of 1995. It passed on October 26. The President vetoed it. I can 
understand his philosophical problems with some of the issues, but I do 
believe he has an obligation to negotiate seriously and to present to 
the negotiators his version of a balanced budget. That has not come 
forth even up to this point.
  As a result, the Government has shut down in an attempt to force the 
issue. It simply has not worked. He has still not presented a balanced 
budget. I am reaching the conclusion that the President does not want 
to balance the budget and he is not going to present his version of a 
balanced budget. I believe that is tragic given the enormity of the 
problem. He will not sign our balanced budget, he will not present one 
of his own, what do we then do?
  Now, Mr. Speaker, this is a very serious problem for this Nation, and 
it is a very serious problem for this Congress. We are trying to 
address it, and perhaps we have to take another track if the President 
simply will not respond and will not present a balanced budget of his 
own. After all, the House is the body that initiates the legislation 
dealing with appropriations. That is prescribed in the Constitution.
  Perhaps what we have to do is present to the President bite-sized 
budgets. Maybe we should call them mini budgets, dealing with one issue 
at a time and saying, Mr. President, this is all we can afford to spend 
on this particular item in this fiscal year and ask him to sign each of 
these, almost a line-item budget, if we like. And maybe if we put it in 
bite-sized chunks, he will be able to understand the problem, we will 
be able to deal with it, and we can achieve a balanced budget in that 
fashion.
  In any event, we have to take another approach, something that he 
will understand given the fact that he simply will present a balanced 
budget to us and will not sign the one that we have prepared.
  So I urge all of us to look at this afresh, and I especially urge the 
President to work with us and negotiate in good faith as we try to 
solve this enormous national problem.

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