[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 6 (Wednesday, January 10, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S123-S124]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE BUDGET IMPASSE

  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I would like to also comment on the 
budget negotiations.

[[Page S124]]

  Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the state of current budget 
negotiations. First, I would like to thank Senator Dole and Senator 
Domenici for their leadership and fortitude in pursuing a balanced 
budget in the next 7 years. They have been working hard during this 
past year at finding common ground with the President to reach a budget 
agreement.
  Further, I am pleased that the President has recently agreed to 
balance the budget during the next 7 years using CBO scoring. I 
understand the importance that this step has in reaching a final 
agreement. With this in mind, I remain hopeful that an agreement can be 
reached quickly.
  Mr. President, however, I look on with regret as the current 
negotiations are under suspension. It is vitally important that both 
sides quickly resume discussions.
  Like many of my colleagues, I am committed to balancing the Federal 
budget. I have been working with several Senate Members for the past 
few weeks from both parties to forge a compromise budget that balances 
in 7 years and uses CBO for scoring. We have recently offered this 
bipartisan plan to our congressional leaders that is both reasonable 
and plausible. I was very pleased to see that the Republican budget 
negotiators have incorporated many of these suggestions from this 
bipartisan plan in their latest proposal to the President. With these 
latest proposals it now appears that Congress and the President are 
close on many items. In many cases the two sides are off by only 1 
percent in nominative terms on many budgetary items.
  Mr. President, I will continue to work with my colleagues to forge a 
compromise agreement in the near term. Finally, I believe that during 
this process of working on a budget agreement Congress and the 
President must keep the Federal Government fully operating. It is 
unnecessary and wrong to penalize Federal workers for the Congress' and 
White House's inability to reach agreement.
  I want to again commend, as others have, the majority leader, Senator 
Dole, for ensuring that we did not have a breakdown yesterday. There 
were rumors flying around this city that it was expected that one or 
the other side would just decide that we ought to end the negotiations.
  I conversed with several of my moderate companions who have been 
moving and trying to get a moderate budget proposal there for others to 
look at, and I found that such a breakdown of the negotiations would 
have been a serious, serious mistake. There are issues on both sides 
from individuals that feel that it would be politically advantageous 
for each side to have the negotiations break down. I think that would 
be a horrible mistake. It is for the good of the country. And we are 
right now in the position that we can really have a breakthrough on 
what will make the future of this country brighter, and we should work 
all we can. The same is true on welfare as well.
  I also would say that in the negotiations one of the areas of major 
consideration is Medicare. I hope and urge that both Houses resume 
negotiations on health care reform because, if we can get the 
breakthroughs which I know are there in health care reform--to get the 
cost of Medicare under control so that we do not get all the cost 
shifting with the fee-for-services system--we can make that almost a 
nonissue in the near future. If that becomes a nonissue in the sense 
that it is under control, then the budget reconciliation, budget 
problems, diminish very substantially.

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