[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 10 (Thursday, January 30, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S839-S840]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO BALANCE THE BUDGET

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, we are going to have a vote on a 
constitutional amendment to balance the budget very soon. Some 
discussion on the floor of the Senate in the last day or so said that 
those of us who believe that when we put a provision in the 
Constitution requiring a balanced budget, we ought not enshrine in the 
Constitution the requirement to use the Social Security trust funds to 
balance the budget, because we think it is dishonest budgeting. They 
say, those of us who believe that, that is an accounting gimmick; just 
an accounting gimmick, they say.
  There are two to three dozen folks over in the House of 
Representatives now, I am pleased to say, on the Republican side who 
are saying exactly what some of us have been saying for some long 
while, that it is not honest budgeting to collect money from paychecks 
of workers, call it Social Security taxes, tell them we promise we will 
put it in a trust fund, and then use it as an offset for other revenue 
so you can claim the budget is in balance when it isn't.

  To those who say this is an accounting gimmick, I ask one question: 
Why is it that when those who want to use this device of misusing 
Social Security trust funds to balance the budget, why is it when their 
budget is balanced, the Federal Government will still borrow $130 
billion more that year? Why, if your budget is in balance, is the 
Federal debt still growing?
  The answer: The debt is still growing when those who advocate this 
practice claim the budget is in balance because the budget is not in 
balance. It is a ruse. It is a charade. More than that, it is misusing 
money that if you did it in the private sector, you would be on your 
way to some minimum security installation, because you can't do it in 
the private sector.
  If you run a business and say to your employees, ``I will put money 
away in a pension program for you, but, by the way, I had a loss in my 
business this year so I am going to take your pension money and offset 
it against my loss so I can say to people that I haven't lost any 
money,'' what happens to you isn't very pretty, because that is against 
the law.
  That is exactly what is proposed we enshrine in the Constitution, by 
saying that we should take the Social Security trust funds and declare 
them revenue with all other revenue and then declare that we have 
balanced the budget.
  In the same year when we declare we have balanced the budget, we will 
have to increase the debt limit because the debt is still increasing. 
And when the folks in North Dakota or Wyoming or New Mexico or 
elsewhere ask us the question, ``If you have balanced the budget, why 
did you have to increase the debt limit?'' I want to be around for the 
answer, because the answer is, the budget was not balanced.
  I think fiscal discipline is a pretty good thing. I come from a small 
town, a small school, a small State. We believe in fiscal discipline. I 
am pleased I have been one of those who cast votes to reduce the 
Federal budget. The deficit is down 60 percent in the last 4 years. The 
last 4 years in a row it has been down. I cast tough votes to do that.
  I will continue to do that. I will cast a vote in the coming weeks to 
support a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. But I will 
not cast a vote

[[Page S840]]

that puts something in the Constitution that is wrong. And it is 
fundamentally wrong to suggest that we take that balance of trust funds 
every year and use it to balance the budget.
  In 1983, I was on the House Ways and Means Committee. Mr. Greenspan, 
at that point, headed a commission to make recommendations on Social 
Security funding. The commission recommended that we begin to 
accumulate a pool of savings so that when the baby boomers retire, 
there will be some money in the Social Security system to pay for their 
retirement. That is going to be the maximum strain on the Social 
Security system.
  So we began to accumulate a surplus this year. We will collect $70 
billion more in Social Security than we spend from that same system. 
Why? Because we designed to save that.
  I will ask any of my colleagues on the floor whether double-entry 
bookkeeping means you can spend it twice. Can you claim you are saving 
it when in fact you use it over here with ordinary revenue and claim 
you use it to balance the budget? The answer is ``no''. There is no 
study, no set of studies in this country, that allows you to make that 
claim.
  That is why, when we have a vote on a constitutional amendment to 
balance the budget, we will vote on two of them. One I will vote for 
and offer along with colleagues, and one I will oppose. That is the one 
that says, let us enshrine in the Constitution a practice that I think 
is fundamentally dishonest budgeting.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for 1 additional minute.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DORGAN. I wanted to visit some other issues today. I shall not do 
that and will wait until next week.

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