[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 63 (Wednesday, May 8, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4877-S4878]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              THE DEFICIT

  Mr. BENNETT. Mr. President, I want to touch on a few issues quickly, 
some which the Senator from Kentucky referred to and some that we are 
talking about generally.
  First, on the deficit being close to $300 billion in 1992; it is half 
that now.

[[Page S4878]]

 When I campaigned in 1992 for election, I said that the deficit will 
come down regardless of what happens, and every politician in 
Washington will take credit for it coming down. One of the major 
reasons it will come down, having nothing whatever to do with any 
politician in Washington, is that we will finish paying for the savings 
and loan bailout. That is moving through the system like a pig in a 
python, and once it finally is digested and taken care of, you will go 
back down to the same level of deficit you had before we had the 
bailout of the savings and loan. A lot of us will look at each other 
and say, ``Aren't we heroes? Look. It has come down.'' When in fact all 
that really happened is that we are paying off a one-time obligation, 
and that was completed.
  The other reason it comes down is because the cold war is over and we 
have had substantial downsizing in the Defense Department. The 
President talks about 270,000-and-some civilian employees no longer on 
the payroll. Yes, and over 200,000 of those are in the Defense 
Department having to do with base closures and other downsizing 
activities in the Defense Department.

  The structural deficit is as persistent and pernicious as it ever 
was, and the size of the civilian work force unrelated to the cold war 
is as big and as obtrusive as it ever was, and we are kidding ourselves 
with these short-term numbers to think that something serious and long 
term is taking place.

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