[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 2 (Thursday, January 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H158-H159]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   REPUBLICANS WANT A BALANCED BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bartlett of Maryland). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentlewoman from Wyoming [Mrs. Cubin] is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. CUBIN. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Maryland who just 
preceded me said that this impasse has occurred because of the 
Republican Party, the majority in Congress, wants to give tax breaks to 
the wealthy. That is simply not the truth.
  The truth is this impasse has occurred because the majority of this 
Congress, both the House and the Senate, want a balanced budget in 7 
years. 

[[Page H159]]
The President signed Public Law 104-56, and I would like to read that.
  It says, ``The President and the Congress shall enact legislation in 
the first session of the 104th Congress to achieve a balanced budget 
not later than the fiscal year 2002 as estimated by the Congressional 
Budget Office.''
  The fact is the President does not want a balanced budget. The 
President's extremist liberal agenda and the extremist liberal agenda 
of Democrats on this side of the aisle simply cannot go forward with a 
balanced budget, because their agenda costs more than the money that we 
have coming into the Congress.

  That would leave us with two alternatives. We would have to increase 
taxes to support that agenda that the President insists upon, and 
continue to go deeper and deeper into debt, thus mortgaging our 
children's future, selling our children out. We have all heard the 
saying, ``Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.''
  The President has introduced four budgets. None of them have been 
balanced. The most nearly balanced was $87 billion in the red. Two of 
those unbalanced budgets came after he signed into law that he would 
balance the budget. His actions show that he is not a man that can be 
taken at his word. Character counts. When you say something, and then 
go on and sign into law something that you say you will do and then act 
in bad faith in these negotiations by refusing any attempt to reach a 
compromise, then that is character.
  We are described, all of the Republican freshman, as extremist 
radicals. The fact is all we are asking for is a balanced budget in 7 
years based on CBO numbers. That is all we are asking for. That is why 
that impasse is here. That is why the Government is not open. 
Everything else is open for negotiation. Everything. The level of tax 
cuts is open. Medicare is open. Welfare reform. Everything is open for 
negotiation. The only thing where we will not compromise is on 
balancing the budget, because we are committed to the future of this 
country. We are committed to our children and our grandchildren, and we 
want them to be able to have at least as good a life as we have had.
  The President said he vetoed our appropriations bill because we cut 
Medicare too much. Let me take you back in history about 18 months ago 
when Hillary Clinton was proposing health care reform.
  What was stated between Hillary Clinton and the President at that 
time was, ``My opponents will say that I am cutting Medicare, but 
that's not true. All we want to do is to slow the growth in Medicare 
from 11 percent to between 6 and 7 percent.''
  That is what Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton said 18 months ago. Our 
proposal is higher and spends more money on Medicare than their 
proposal said only 18 months ago.
  This is a transparent excuse to have vetoed the bill. This is pure 
and simple not wanting to balance the budget.
  We have to face that, and we have to get the President to tell the 
truth about what his intentions are. At least he has to put something 
on the table so that we will have a point to negotiate from.
  I urge all Members to continue on insisting on a balanced budget and, 
remember, everything else is up for negotiation once the President will 
give us a balanced budget to work from.

                          ____________________