[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 26 (Thursday, February 29, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1402-S1403]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        AGENDA FOR THE NEW YEAR

  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I want to talk more specifically about 
this coming year, and, frankly, some about the past year, this coming 
year in terms of the agenda that is set for this country, the agenda 
that is set for this Congress, more specifically for the Senate, the 
agenda that is set for the American people and the things that need to 
be a priority for us as we move forward in this important, important 
year.
  Last year, we talked about a number of things. We talked about a 
number of issues, largely as a result of, I think, what the voters had 
said to us in 1994. They said the Federal Government is too large, it 
costs too much, and we are overregulated. Obviously, that is a 
simplistic analysis, but I think it is true. I just spent 2 weeks in my 
State of Wyoming, as you have, Mr. President, and I think that message 
continues to resonate.
  We are talking about doing things that are important for American 
families. We are talking about doing things that will help bring up the 
wages and the level of living of Americans, which has slowed. We are 
talking about balancing the budget, because balancing the budget is the 
moral and fiscal thing to do, it is the responsible thing to do, but it 
also has results. It lowers interest rates. It helps create jobs, so it 
has an impact on each of us.
  We are talking about reducing spending. Certainly, most everyone 
would agree that this Government has expanded far beyond what we ever 
thought it would. We celebrated Abraham Lincoln's birthday over the 
last several weeks. One of the things that President Lincoln said is 
that the Federal Government ought to do for the people those things 
they cannot better do for themselves in their own communities, and that 
is still true. We need to evaluate what we do and see if we have gotten 
away from that concept.
  We need to talk about regulatory reform. The Senator from North 
Dakota was talking about the difficulty of competing in the world. Part 
of that is because we have made doing business so very expensive. It is 
not that we want to do away with regulatory protection--we can do 
that--but we can do it much more efficiently and do it in less costly 
ways.
  We need to talk about welfare reform, partly because of the costs, 
partly because all of us want to help people who need help, but we want 
to help them help themselves and do it in the most efficient way that 
we can.
  So, Mr. President, I guess what I am saying is that those concepts 
still 

[[Page S1403]]
exist, and we need to continue to push to do that. We have not been 
able to bring to closure some of these things that we have tried to do 
over the past year, largely because most of them have been vetoed by 
the White House. Many of them have been opposed by our friends on the 
other side of the aisle.
  Balancing the budget: We came within one vote of getting a 
constitutional amendment to ensure that the budget would be balanced. 
We need to continue to do that. I think that is a critical item for our 
future, for our kids and for our grandkids.
  We have made some progress in reducing spending, but we need to tie 
that in to the future so that through the changing of entitlements that 
will continue. If we do not do it, it will be right back up.
  Regulatory reform passed this Senate. We have not been able to get it 
past the White House.
  So the results, Mr. President, have been that we have had slower 
growth. Unfortunately, we hear these reports in the State of the Union 
that this is the best economy in 30 years. Sorry, but when you examine 
it, it is not very good. We had 1.9 percent growth last year. In the 
last quarter, we had a .9 percent growth.
  If I had charts like the Senator from North Dakota, I could show you 
the earlier years, in the eighties and prior to that, growth was more 
commonly in the neighborhood of 3.5 to 4 percent. That reflects in the 
ability of families to earn a living, a living with which they can 
support their families.
  Mr. President, I hope that we can establish a priority, an agenda for 
this year, and I hope that we can spend our time on that; that we can 
move forward.
  I am not discouraged by the fact that we did not come to closure last 
year. On the contrary, I am encouraged with the fact that we are now 
talking about a balanced budget. Two years ago, we were talking about a 
budget that had a $200 billion deficit, as far out as you could see. We 
have not talked about regulatory reform before. We are now talking 
about that.
  So we have changed the discussion in this body, and I think we need 
to pursue that. I think we need to do it for economic growth. We need 
to do it so that people in this country and wage earners can enjoy the 
same kind of prosperity that we have had in years past. We do that, I 
think, by some tax relief, capital gains tax relief that encourages 
investment and encourages the economy to grow. We need to do it by 
regulatory relief so that businesses will have more money to pay. There 
will be more jobs and more competition, which causes wages to go up. We 
need to have a balanced budget so we are not only fiscally responsible 
but so we can bring and keep interest rates down so there will be 
encouragement for investment.
  After all, the real role of economics in this country is for the 
Federal Government to establish an environment in which the private 
sector can function. That should be our priority for this year.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Ashcroft). The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________