[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 82 (Thursday, June 6, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5921-S5922]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT VOTES

  Mr. FORD. Mr. President, we probably all have been guilty at one time 
or another of getting a little carried away on the Senate floor when we 
are trying to present our position on an issue. I think we saw a little 
bit of that yesterday by those of us who want to protect Social 
Security, and I would like to take a minute to respond to some of 
those, I think, inflammatory remarks.
  I think the junior Senator from Oklahoma was right on the edge when 
he was talking about the 33 Senators that had previously voted in 
opposition to a balanced budget which included the use of Social 
Security. It has been said that to treat your facts with imagination is 
one thing, but to imagine your facts is another. We saw just how big 
some people's imaginations were yesterday.
  I was 1 of those 33. The junior Senator from Oklahoma accused me of 
coming to Washington and voting one way and going back to my State and 
talking another. I am sure he does not know how I talk in Kentucky. I 
am sure he does not follow me around. I am sure he does not take the 
paper clips from my newspapers to see how I am quoted in my local 
paper.
  Mr. President, I thought we were beyond the pony express era. I 
thought that we were on C-SPAN and 60 million people could immediately 
see how you vote and what you say and they would know that before you 
get home. I have represented my State, now, for almost 22 years here in 
the Senate. I have been fortunate to have been reelected by a large 
percentage. I think when I vote and I explain my vote to my people some 
may not like it but they understand the reason for it.
  Mr. President, I voted for a balanced budget amendment until this 
time. Then we were labeled, yesterday, as BBA 6. So I am one of the BBA 
6's now. I do not know exactly what that means, except when the 
leadership on the Republican side sat down in the Democratic Cloakroom, 
and with a fountain pen wrote how much money they would be taking from 
Social Security each of the next 7 years, how much they would be taking 
from Social Security to balance the budget, that is when I reneged. 
That is when I said if you want my vote, put a firewall in as it 
relates to Social Security. Now I have that piece of paper, Mr. 
President. It is in my file and I will keep it. It is the handwriting 
of some of the leadership on the Republican side, how many billions of 
dollars, and as I recall the last 2 years, roughly $147 billion they 
were going to take out of Social Security trust fund.
  Now, when the junior Senator from Oklahoma says those of us who voted 
``no'' last time, the 33, did not want a balanced budget, I just 
disagree with that. How can he say I do not want a balanced budget 
amendment? All I say is build a firewall for Social Security. You could 
have 70-odd votes if you do that. It would be easy to pass. But, no, 
the Republicans want an issue. They want an issue. They do not want it 
passed. They lost a vote today for one reason and one reason only. You 
are talking about star wars, and you have one of the greatest minds as 
it relates to defense in this country in the Senate in Sam Nunn, the 
Senator from Georgia, who was vehemently opposed. He said you are 
mandating that we put it in to spend $60 billion and you do not know 
whether it will work. Let us research it for another 3 years. You are 
not going to get it up any faster. Then in 3 years you will know it 
will work, and then let us do it. No, we were forced into the vote on 
the basis that we shall do it whether we know if it will work or not, 
and at a cost of $60 billion, and that is right behind that attempted 
$700 billion tax break--in one day. And the next day, they holler, 
``The sky is falling.'' So you have turned at least one Senator off as 
it relates to the political tactics being used on the Senate floor.

  Now, we have 10 fictitious reasons for voting against the balanced 
budget amendment. There is only one reason, in my mind. We have heard a 
lot about a contract. We have heard a lot about a contract now for 
almost 2 years. Well, we had a contract with the farmers called the 
Freedom to Farm Act. Signed it, passed it. A contract. Within

[[Page S5922]]

7 weeks, you are breaking that contract. The House Agriculture 
Appropriations Committee was eliminating almost $100 million out of the 
payments to the farmers that they thought they had signed up for next 
year. You are reducing WIC by having it frozen. You are reducing 
nutrition programs by $300 million on the House side. Contracts are 
being broken. I thought both sides had agreed to a contract. Both sides 
were committed to it. Therefore, we find that we are already breaking 
contracts.
  When you are going to use Social Security funding, then I think we 
are breaking a contract with those who are expecting that. Sure, we are 
having a bump in the road on Medicare. We all understand that. The 
President has submitted two budgets reducing part A. Now, everybody 
talks about Medicare and paints it with a broad brush. It is part A 
that is short, not part B. Part A is the hospital and part B is the 
doctor, if you want to put it into categories. So part A is the part 
having problems. Part B still has a surplus. Part B will have a surplus 
from now on, the way things are going.
  So we have one part of Medicare to be fixed. Even now, there is a 
$100 billion surplus in part A, as I understand it. If you continue to 
use it, over a period of time, that will be reduced to zero. You need 
to keep it at a level where it will not be reduced and where the level 
will stay the same over the next 7 years.
  Mr. President, if Social Security were protected, we could pass the 
balanced budget amendment and get on with actually passing our spending 
bills. We hear a lot about how bad things have been. I have been here 
22 years now. I did not see any vetoes, under the Republican 
administration, as it related to tax increases and spending increases. 
I did not see those vetoes. We did not have enough votes to override 
them, if the Republicans would have stayed together. But, no, we went 
from a $900 billion deficit to $5 trillion in 12 years under Republican 
leadership. During that time, Republicans had 6 years of control here 
in the Senate Chamber. Could you have supported a veto? Absolutely, you 
could have sustained a veto.
  Now, Mr. President, I do not mind debating the issues, but I 
certainly hate to be singled out and it becomes a personal issue. As I 
say, the junior Senator from Oklahoma came very close to the edge of 
being challenged under the rules of the Senate yesterday. So I just 
hope that, as we debate the issues, we eliminate the personalities and 
the personal attacks. It is nice to have a picture of your grandson 
here on the Senate floor. I have five grandchildren. I enjoy 
grandchildren. But do you know something? It is hard for me to believe, 
as a grandfather, that if I watched my daughter give birth to a son, my 
grandson--as I read the Record and listened to him yesterday, in his 
first breath, it was handed to him and the first thing he thought about 
is that this poor child owes $18,000 in back taxes, or he has that debt 
on him. I would have thanked the Lord for my daughter coming through 
the delivery healthy. I would thank the Lord for being given a healthy 
baby before worrying about how much tax load or debt load that newborn 
baby had. Nevertheless, I am sure the taxpayers had something to do 
with paying for the picture of that grandson that was here on the 
Senate floor.

  So here we are getting personal again, and I do not like it. The only 
way I know how to say to my colleagues that think the debate is about 
who supports a balanced budget--this is a debate about who wants to 
save Medicare. This is a debate about who wants to raid Medicare, who 
wants to cut the deficit, and that sort of thing. Those issues are 
fine. But when I am accused of voting one way here and going home and 
saying another thing--the day of the Pony Express is over. It is 
instantaneous what I say and do here, and it is getting to my 
constituents.
  So while people are predicting doom and gloom again today, the BB-6 
can point to a record of deficit reduction and a commitment to balance 
the budget, while protecting the pact we made with citizens to protect 
Social Security. So we passed a bill in 1990, under a Republican 
President, signed by him, not to include the Social Security trust 
fund.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, are we proceeding as in morning business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct, for a period of up to 10 
minutes.

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