[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 6 (Wednesday, January 10, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S131-S132]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        THE BUDGET NEGOTIATIONS

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I would like to join others in expressing my 
appreciation to those that have been negotiating in this historic 
effort to move toward a balanced budget and reduce the size and scope 
of Washington in our lives. I know that they have met, as I understand 
it, some 50 hours with the President, the Vice President, and others 
from the administration, the majority leader and the minority leader in 
the Senate, and the majority leader and minority leader from the House 
of Representatives, the Speaker.
  They certainly have made a supreme effort to close the differences in 
trying to reach an agreement. It has been a monumental undertaking. It 
is historic. I emphasize again this is not an insignificant event. You 
are talking about a lot of the taxpayers' money being at stake. You are 
talking about fundamental change in the way that Washington spends 
money and the efforts to reduce that level of increased spending in the 
future and an effort to allow the taxpayers to retain some of their 
hard-earned money, trying to get some fundamental reform in the so-
called entitlements area.
  It is a major effort to accomplish this. So I think they have made a 
good-faith effort. I understand they have made some progress. There has 
been some movement on both sides. You can characterize which one has 
moved the most. Obviously, I think that the majority from Congress has 
made the greatest movement. But the fact is, they both have changed 
some.
  I think that probably this recess was unavoidable and perhaps even 
good at this point. There have been shifts in positions. Listening to 
the majority leader and the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and 
the House Budget Committee, they felt last night the last offer that 
had been made by the majority was as far as they could go in a number 
of areas.
  I think maybe now they can take this time to take a breath, look at 
what has been proposed, and the administration, the President, can look 
at what has been proposed and see if he cannot make some additional 
changes, because I do know that the majority made changes in Medicare, 
Medicaid, welfare, in the earned income tax credit, and even a proposal 
to bring down the tax cuts from what I believe had been $203 billion 
down to $177 billion. So a lot of changes have been made.
  There is good reason to get this agreement. There is a lot to be 
gained for all involved. First of all, the most important thing is if 
we get a budget agreement America will benefit. Then there will be 
benefit for all those that have been involved, including the 
administration and the Congress, both parties. So we should do it.
  What is to be gained? Clearly, the experts say if we get an agreement 
you will see a further decline in interest rates which will help us 
all--those who want to buy a home, buy an automobile, pay for college. 
Lower interest rates is something we really want to achieve. That would 
be a benefit if we could get this balanced budget in 7 years, if we get 
real numbers agreed to. That would mean more jobs, lower interest 
rates, selling more refrigerators, automobiles. It will create jobs. I 
understand it would lead to lower trade deficits, and also it would 
lower the national debt in the future.

  If we do not get this agreement, then this almost $5 trillion debt we 
have will continue to go up. And to try to control the rate of growth 
of that debt is certainly a supreme accomplishment that we should work 
on. I understand that it has been estimated the average benefit per 
family per year from this agreement would be about $1,000 per family, 
not an insignificant amount, a minimum of $7,000 just from the benefit 
of getting the balanced budget, not to mention what we might do in the 
tax cut area.
  What is to be lost if we do not get an agreement? First of all, I 
think our institutions will suffer because we will have not been able 
to reach an agreement. We do not want that to happen. I have never seen 
a negotiation go on this long and to this extent or to this level. In 
the past usually there has been, you know, debate back and forth 
between the parties, between the bodies of the Congress, and briefly 
between the White House and the Congress. But never before, in an 
effort to get the size and scope of Washington under control, has it 
led to these negotiations at the Presidential and Speaker and majority 
leader level, for hours upon hours.
  But if we do not get this done, I think all involved will pay a 
price. We will see higher interest rates almost assuredly. I think the 
head of the Fed, Alan Greenspan, has indicated that would probably be a 
result. We would see more--more--ever-increasing Washington spending 
and Washington control.
  Probably we would see a falling stock market. Just in the last 36 
hours the stock market has tumbled more than 100 points; 67 points 
yesterday, 36 points this morning. And it was not because of the 
blizzard of 1996. It was because of their perception that maybe these 
talks were not going to be agreed to, their concern that we were not 
going to control the rate of increase of Federal spending, and that we 
were not going to have tax policies that would lead to economic growth 
and job creation. 

[[Page S132]]

  The stock market is not something I profess to understand. But when 
it drops precipitously, I start saying, well, what could possibly be 
the reason? I think most people would say they are worried now, that 
this is troublesome news.
  It is described as a recess. But is it really a recess or is it the 
beginning of the end of the budget negotiations? And they are beginning 
to say, well, after weeks, months of believing and acting on the 
assumption that we were going to get a balanced budget agreement, and 
in fact tax cuts for individuals that deserve it--it is, after all, the 
people's money that we are talking about allowing them to keep.
  The idea now that these talks have taken at least a break is 
troublesome. They are worried that we will not get these commitments 
agreed to that we worked on all year long. So I think we should be very 
conscious of that. I hope we will see a return to the negotiations, 
that the President will move toward the majority's position in 
Congress.
  I think we have been very responsible in the positions we have taken. 
In fact, we have offered not one, not two, not three, but four budgets 
in effect, three since the one that passed the Congress. So there has 
been a significant shift to try to get the job done, but to do it in 
such a way that a bipartisan Congress could support it.
  I hope that they will get back together and there will be additional 
improvements in trying to control the Washington growth that we are 
battling against. And failing in that, certainly we will look to the 
appropriation process to keep the Government operating, but to control 
spending as much as we can through that process.

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