[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 105 (Wednesday, July 17, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H7763-H7764]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            DEFICIT HAS FALLEN AS A RESULT OF THIS CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas [Mr. Bonilla] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Speaker, tonight I rise to commend my colleagues who 
have succeeded in cutting spending. Cutting spending, Mr. Speaker, that 
is something that has not occurred in this body for 40 years. The news 
is out, the deficit has fallen as a result of this Congress' historic 
and unprecedented budget restraint.
  According to yesterday's Congressional Budget Office mid-season 
review, this country's deficit has been cut nearly in half, and that is 
wonderful news for all Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, making cuts is not easy. Just like making cuts and 
restraining ourselves from spending in our very own homes is not easy, 
but it is necessary to preserve the opportunity for our children's 
future.
  Last year, here in the Capitol I had my two young children, Alicia, 
who is 11 and my son, Austin, who is 7, here in the Capitol watching 
what I do at work and it struck me how profound the decisions are that 
we make in this chamber and how critical sometimes the votes that we 
cast are to their future.
  Mr. Speaker, we are here today for the future of our children. We 
possess,

[[Page H7764]]

each one of us in this Chamber, a voting card that is ironically just 
about the same size as a credit card, a Visa or Mastercard, that most 
Americans carry in their pockets. This credit card for 40 years has run 
up the deficit, a trillion-dollar deficit that we have now, bills that 
we are going to be paying in the future even if we were to cut spending 
drastically for years to come now.
  We have a lot of catching up to do, Mr. Speaker. This voting card 
that we have has been put in the electronic voting card slots here for 
many years running up deficits that our children, as I looked at my 
children's faces last week, I felt very sad for the fact that we have 
so many years of catching up to do to cut spending so that we can 
preserve their future, Mr. Speaker, so that when they grow up, they 
still have the same opportunities that we have in this country now to 
live the American dream, as I did.
  I come from a neighborhood, low-income neighborhood, primarily 
Spanish-speaking, on the south side of San Antonio, and I had no 
special privilege when I grew up. All I had was opportunity guaranteed 
by this wonderful country of ours. But at the time I was not saddled 
with the tremendous deficit that the Congress had left behind; 
therefore, as I grew up, and my father often had to work two jobs to 
send us to school, he was not faced with looming mega interest rates 
and deficits in his future that we are going to saddle our ability as a 
family to prosper.

  That opportunity could be threatened, Mr. Speaker, in the future 
because if we keep running up the charges with these credit cards that 
we vote with, we are going to threaten the future for our children. My 
constituents understand this as well, Mr. Speaker. They know, I 
represent one of the poorest districts in the Nation, they understand 
how difficult it is to live on a budget.
  These are tough choices that we must make and must continue to make. 
When we cut the deficit and we have a balanced budget, we are going to 
have lower interest rates for our children as well in the future. When 
they want to buy a car, when they want to borrow money to go to school, 
to go to college, when they want to buy, make that first purchase to 
buy a stereo or books for college or anything that they need to sustain 
themselves, they are going to have lower interest rates as we continue, 
as this Congress has done, in cutting spending to cut the deficit and 
balance the budget.
  It is with our children's hearts in mind, Mr. Speaker, that I am 
going to continue working to cut spending in this Congress, because I 
know that is what the American people want.
  I came from the private sector, never ever having held public office 
before being elected in 1992, and I remember what it is like to be in 
the private sector making tough decisions to balance the budget at your 
business, in your homes, at the dining room table each night having to 
decide what you have to do to make the future of your family sustain 
itself and not with a deficit but with a promising future because you 
are paying your bills as you are going along.
  I promise, Mr. Speaker, that as long as I am here serving in this 
wonderful Congress, I am going to use this credit card wisely and 
continue to cut spending for the future of our children in this country 
because, Mr. Speaker, I ask if we are not here to do this for the 
future of our children, I ask what are we doing here, what are we here 
for in the first place?

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