[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 69 (Thursday, May 16, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S5149]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET

  The Senate continued with the consideration of the concurrent 
resolution.


                           Amendment No. 3971

  Mr. EXON. Mr. President, how much time is remaining on each side of 
the amendment offered by the Senator from Missouri?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nebraska is advised each side 
has approximately 8 minutes remaining.
  Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I yield 4 minutes to the Senator from 
California.
  Mrs. BOXER. I thank my friend for yielding.
  Mr. President, I have a heavy heart about this amendment, because I 
think if we do anything on this floor we should cross party lines and 
honor the children of this country.
  What this amendment will do is hurt the children of this country and 
hurt them badly. We know that right now one in five children in America 
lives in poverty. Yet, this amendment would turn these children against 
the veterans in this country. That is not what we should be doing.
  The fact is, we are talking here about assistance to disabled 
children. We ought to think about what I mean when I say a disabled 
child. We are talking about a child with cerebral palsy. We are talking 
about a child with spina bifida. We are talking about a child with 
heart problems. We are talking about children who are so vulnerable 
they cannot even get up in the morning without assistance. And we are 
going to cut from their sustenance? I do not know how we do that.
  The irony about this amendment, it does not increase the caps on 
discretionary spending. So even if we vote for this, the chances that 
veterans will get more are not very good.
  I think I really have to say there is something that I think my 
friend from Missouri is missing in his amendment. Maybe he does not 
realize that half a million veterans are on welfare. Half a million 
veterans are on welfare. So when he cuts welfare to give to veterans, 
he forgets that half a million veterans are going to get hurt by this. 
We know who they are-- veterans who just cannot make it back, who were 
suffering from disabling diseases, be they physical or mental, half a 
million of whom are on welfare, some form of welfare. So we cut this. 
We are saying we are cutting it in order to help veterans, yet we are 
cutting 500,000 of the most vulnerable veterans.
  I really believe there are other ways we can help the veterans. I 
would like to cut corporate loopholes. I would like to cut corporate 
welfare. That is what I am going to vote to do. We have a lot of 
corporate loopholes out there that need to be closed, businesses that 
get favorable tax treatment if they leave the country, people escaping 
taxation who were very wealthy. We should go after corporate welfare, 
not go after the disabled children, the disabled veterans. Then, we 
should spend it on the veterans.
  I think we, on the Democratic side, will have an opportunity to honor 
our veterans by increasing what we spend on them by taking the money 
out of corporate loopholes, corporate tax loopholes. I think everyone 
can get behind that. However, we should not hurt the most vulnerable 
children, the most vulnerable veterans.

  I really do believe that my ranking member is going to have an 
excellent amendment, instead of this one, which turns our veterans 
against the most severely disabled children and the most severely 
disabled veterans.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. COHEN. I ask unanimous consent to proceed for a few minutes as in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________