[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 13 (Wednesday, February 5, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S985-S988]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  Mr. THOMAS. We are going to talk about the budget--not a new idea, 
but, I suspect, the most important issue that we have to talk about, 
because everything else, everything else that is discussed here, 
everything else that is decided here will be a function of doing 
something with the budget.
  The Senator from New Hampshire, who just finished, talked about 
education and special education, which happens to be something that I 
am very interested in, but it is budgetary; it has to do with the 
budget.
  The budget has to do with more than just arithmetic, more than just a 
balance sheet; it has to do with priorities, it has to do with fiscal 
responsibility for our kids, and our grandkids, it has to do with 
deciding what our direction will be in this country in terms of the 
Federal Government.
  So, Mr. President, we want to talk about that this morning. I will be 
joined by several of my associates in the freshman and sophomore class 
who have come together to put a focus on events, and particularly a 
focus to try to talk about how what we do here with regard to the 
budget in this instance has to do with where we live, has to do with 
you and me in terms of our families, has to do with how we have the 
resources to send our kids to school and pay our bills. There is a 
direct relationship.
  So let me yield 10 minutes to my friend, the new Senator from 
Arkansas, Senator Hutchinson.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arkansas is recognized.
  Mr. HUTCHINSON. I thank the Senator. Mr. President, I rise today to 
voice my support for the balanced budget amendment to the U.S. 
Constitution, Senate Joint Resolution 1. I speak not only for myself, 
but I think I speak for thousands and thousands of Arkansas voters and 
their families who sent me to Washington with a primary goal of 
balancing the Federal budget and getting our books in order.
  Arkansans, like most Americans, are hard-working, decent people with 
jobs and families facing constant pressure to make ends meet. Gathered 
around the kitchen table, these families, like so many others, pay 
their bills, attempt to budget for future expenses, and say no to the 
things they cannot afford. They act responsibly. Also, they act with 
the fear that a prolonged illness or unexpected job loss could push 
them over the edge, robbing them of financial security and destroying 
everything that they have worked for and saved. America's families have 
been forced to live within these limits. My question to the U.S. Senate 
is, can we ask any less of the Federal Government?
  My colleagues, we carry a heavy burden. That burden is both the 
annual deficit that we caused and the debt that we have created. As of 
February 3 of this year, our national debt stood at over $5 trillion. 
Whenever I hear these numbers I have to ask myself, what does that 
number mean, what does it mean to me, or better yet, how can we 
visualize numbers of this magnitude? Author David Schwartz has written 
a book entitled ``How Much Is a Million?'' It is a book to help parents 
explain large numbers to their children. Maybe it will help us as well. 
One of his examples says, ``If a billion kids were to stand on each 
other to make a human tower, they would stand up past the moon. * * * 
If you stood a trillion kids on top of each other, they would pass 
beyond Mars and Jupiter * * * and almost as far as Saturn's rings.'' In 
another case he says, ``If you wanted to count from one to one trillion 
* * * it would take you about 200,000 years.''
  Let me take a moment to put this kind of massive debt into 
perspective for those slightly older: $5 trillion of debt translates 
into over $19,000 for every man, every woman, and every child in 
America. That is practically equal to having an additional midsized car 
payment without having a vehicle. The debt of an average family is more 
than $72,000. That could be the equivalent of owning a second residence 
without being able to stay there. For a family or person who owns a 
home, it amounts to an additional $37,000 on average tacked on to their 
mortgage, without raising the value of their home. For many young 
adults who are taking advantage of student loans to obtain a better 
education, the national debt can ring up $2,200 in additional costs on 
that loan. This significantly impacts the paycheck of the recent young 
college graduate who must make larger than anticipated loan payments at 
an entry-level salary. For those persons trying to afford a new car, 
the national debt means the price of that car will go up another 
$1,000.
  At the conclusion of 1 hour of debate, the 60 minutes that Senator 
Thomas has reserved, 1 hour of debate on this resolution, our country 
will owe roughly $29 million more than it did when we started the 
debate.
  Last night, the President advocated that we change the Constitution 
to protect victims rights, but he rejected and condemned the notion 
that we should amend the Constitution to ensure that our Government 
lives within its means. As if we were rewriting the Constitution to 
ensure a balanced budget, saying that is not a requirement, we should 
not do that. We have the authority; all we have to have is the 
discipline. I will sign it; you pass it. And yet in the same speech 
advocating that we change the Constitution to protect victims rights.
  There are those who have said that a balanced budget amendment would 
wreck the economy. Well, business probably more than any other part of 
our economy has felt the effects of our huge national debt. Government 
has siphoned billions of dollars in investment capital, which, in turn, 
restricts our economy from reaching a higher growth potential. Deficits 
make businesses compete with Government for money, causing interest 
rates to be higher than they should be. With interest rates higher than 
necessary and private capital formation being stifled, it is quite 
possible to foresee lower living standards in the future, even in this 
time of slow growth we have experienced.
  National growth rates of 2 to 3 percent simply are inadequate for 
America. Balancing the budget can mean an additional $88.2 billion of 
capital investment in the first 7 years that we have a balanced budget. 
The less money being taken by Government, the more money that is 
available for economic development and job growth. Even more important, 
we have seen evidence that our debt and annual deficits have restrained 
the ability to make a better life for all of us.
  The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that deficits have kept 
our standard of living down by 5 percent. However, if we decide to make 
the choice to balance the budget by the year 2001, the General 
Accounting Office has stated it would lead to a 35-percent increase in 
the standard of living. Just think what that would mean in spending 
power to middle-class Americans. A balanced budget amendment will 
propel Congress to do what legislative remedies, with such words as 
``firewalls,'' ``spending ceilings,'' and ``lock boxes,'' what all of 
those statutory techniques have failed to accomplish since 1968. This 
measure will give the impetus to set goals and make priorities without 
budget gimmicks which have characterized the process over the

[[Page S986]]

last 30 years. It will make the budget process look more like what 
happens with our families than the current situation.

  For most of the history of our country, the budget was balanced. 
Permanent deficits were viewed as intolerable. Permanent deficits were 
viewed as something that was wrong. Chronic deficits were unacceptable 
not because of the constitutional prohibition, but because of a deeply 
embedded moral belief that permanent deficits were simply wrong, a 
principle held by politicians and the general public alike. With the 
creation of entitlement programs in the 1960's, the proclivity of 
politicians to expand these popular and expensive entitlement programs 
have gone virtually unchecked. The intolerable increase in spending has 
had the inevitable result of persistent deficits and an ever expanding 
national debt.
  James Buchanan, a professor of economics at George Mason who 
testified in 1995 before the Senate Judiciary Committee, said, ``The 
immorality of the intergenerational transfer that deficit financing 
represents cries out for correction.'' He is so right. He calls it the 
``immorality of the intergenerational transfer of deficit spending.'' 
What he calls the ``immorality of intergeneration transfer'' is nothing 
less than one generation stealing from another generation. The 
fundamental moral code of our Judeo-Christian tradition says ``thou 
shall not steal.'' That sets the standard. Every time we as a 
Government spend one dollar that we do not have, we are stealing from 
our children.
  From the establishment of the Republic, our Founders saw public debt 
not only as immoral but as the principal threat to the survival of our 
representative democracy. James Madison said, ``I go on the principle 
that a public debt is a public curse and in a republican government, a 
greater curse than any other.'' George Washington, in his farewell 
address, called the accumulation of debt ``ungenerously throwing upon 
posterity the burden of which we ourselves ought to bear.''
  Indeed, the War of Independence was fought over the principle of 
taxation without representation. The Founders also knew that deficit 
spending would impose exorbitant tax rates on coming generations to pay 
for the debt accumulated by our own conspicuous consumption.
  My colleagues, this is the ultimate taxation without representation. 
When we immorally steal from our children, from our grandchildren, 
ensuring that they are going to face ever increasing levels of taxation 
without the right to have any say about it today, Mr. President, the 
time has come for us to stop stealing from our children and stop the 
chronic deficit spending by the adoption of a balanced budget amendment 
to the Constitution, sending it to the States for ratification. We must 
do it now.
  I thank Senator Thomas for yielding.
  (Disturbance in the visitors' galleries.)
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The gallery is reminded not to display 
expression of approval or disapproval.
  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Arkansas.
  It seems to me that is a very important aspect of this business of 
balancing the budget. It is not only a mechanical matter, it is not 
only a fiscal matter, it is a moral matter, and whether or not we have 
the responsibility to balance the budget and pass on to our kids 
something that is as good as we had.
  Certainly the economics of it are very important, the economics in 
terms of the amount of interest we pay and all those things.
  But it is a moral imperative that we be responsible for what we are 
doing. If we are going to buy it, we have to pay for it. That is a 
great concept. I thank the Senator from Arkansas.
  Let me now yield 10 minutes to the Senator from Ohio, Senator DeWine.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Enzi). The Senator from Ohio is 
recognized.
  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I thank my colleague and friend from 
Wyoming.
  I rise today also to support the balanced budget amendment to the 
Constitution. There is no doubt about the need for a balanced budget. 
We all agree on the huge benefits that will accrue to America if we put 
our fiscal house in order.
  To begin with, it would stave off a horrible catastrophe. Mr. 
President, if we do not establish a balanced budget and if we choose 
instead to continue on our present course, by the year 2012, the whole 
budget is going to be eaten up by entitlements and by interest on the 
national debt. There will be absolutely no money in the domestic 
discretionary budget for investment in the future of our children--no 
money, zero. No money for Pell grants, no money for student loans, no 
money for National Institutes of Health research, none of the things 
that really are an investment in our children, our grandchildren, and 
our great grandchildren. This alone is good enough reason to balance 
the budget--to avoid a social and fiscal disaster.
  Mr. President, there will also be a huge positive benefit from a 
balanced budget. According to the latest estimates from the 
Congressional Budget Office, a permanently balanced budget could make 
our country 25 percent richer by the year 2030. That is outstanding 
news. That's why so many Americans are very happy to see the signals 
coming out of the budget process that we may be getting close to an 
agreement on a balanced budget. That would mean a better future for 
America. It's that simple. We all agree on this.
  But the question we have to ask ourselves now is: Do we need to write 
this practice of budget balancing into the Constitution of the United 
States? Some might contend that our recent success at reducing the 
deficit proves that a constitutional amendment is unnecessary. Some may 
say and may tell us that if it's not broken, we don't need to fix it.
  Mr. President, that may seem to make sense on the surface, but that 
argument flies in the face of history. It doesn't make sense when we 
consider the fact that it has taken the Congress 27 years to make the 
limited progress we are seeing today--27 years. It took 27 years, Mr. 
President. The last time the Federal budget was balanced was in 1969. 
My wife Fran and I were graduating from Miami University in Ohio in 
1969.
  So of all the arguments against the constitutional amendment, the 
argument that it's easy enough to balance the budget is certainly one 
of the weakest. No, Mr. President, our decision on the balanced budget 
amendment has to be based on a much more fundamental criteria. Indeed, 
on a matter of conscience.
  The question all of us have to ask ourselves is simply this: How 
important is a balanced budget? Does it rise to the level of a 
constitutional principle? In other words, is it a fundamental component 
of what we want to be as a nation? This is a question we all have to 
answer for ourselves, reflecting on our own deepest values, as well as 
those of the people who sent us here to make the decisions.
  My decision is based on the America I want my children and my 
grandchildren to inherit a nation bound by its fundamental law to pay 
its bills on time, to avoid pulverizing future generations with a 
towering national debt; in simple terms, Mr. President, an America that 
says no longer are we going to borrow from our children and 
grandchildren so we can live better today.
  In my view, Mr. President, that is as close to a bedrock principle as 
we can find in political life. I believe it must be in the 
Constitution. I believe history tells us that it has to be in the 
Constitution. That is why I believe, for my family, for the people of 
the State of Ohio and future generations, as well as the present 
generation, we must pass the constitutional amendment and send it out 
to the States.
  Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Ohio. You hear 
these arguments, and almost no one would disagree with the notion that 
we need to pay the bills. Few would argue with the idea that it is 
irresponsible for us to leave it for someone else to pay later. Yet, it 
has been 1969 since we have had a balanced budget. There is a 
legitimate argument to be addressed that we must be flexible if there 
is a war or a disaster. There has to be some movement, as there is in 
your family. But the fact is that we haven't done it.

[[Page S987]]

 We have not done it. So we need to make some difference. You can't 
expect to change things if you continue to follow the same course. That 
is precisely what has gone on here.
  So we have an opportunity now, for the first time in some time, to do 
what I think most people believe ought to be done. You might ask why 
are the freshmen and sophomores particularly doing this this morning, 
and doing it as a focus on issues throughout the year? I think it is 
because we are the ones who have most recently gone through the 
elections, who have most recently been to Greybull, WY, and small towns 
in Ohio. We know that people want to balance the budget. We know that 
the folks where we come from say, ``Look, we have to be fiscally 
responsible, and our State has a balanced budget amendment. We have to 
do that stuff, and it works.'' Furthermore, we want some control of the 
growth in Federal Government. We don't want it to grow exponentially. 
We want it to be under control. Everyone in this place says, ``Yes, I 
am for a balanced budget, but I don't want to do anything that would 
cause us to have to do that. I don't want any discipline applied.'' I 
think that is the issue that we are coming upon, the issue we will deal 
with. Do you want a balanced budget? Yes. How do we get there? Just do 
it. Well, that doesn't work, and it hasn't worked for some time.

  So that's what it's all about and where we are. We are talking about 
a process to cause us to do the things that almost unanimously we would 
choose to do. Mr. President, I am glad to be joined by the Senator from 
Kansas to talk a bit about the balanced budget.
  I yield 10 minutes to the Senator from Kansas.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the senior Senator from 
Kansas.
  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Wyoming for 
recognizing me for this opportunity. This is my first opportunity to 
speak, as well, on the U.S. Senate floor. It is a tremendous honor, 
privilege, and responsibility to do so. I am delighted to be speaking 
on the U.S. Senate floor for the first time about balancing the budget 
and about the balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, which I 
feel is basically very important and critical for future generations. 
Now is the time for us to act and to address not just the financial 
health of our country, but also the freedom of our children and 
grandchildren, by passing the balanced budget constitutional amendment.
  The U.S. Constitution is not only the foundation of our country, but 
also the standard bearer of our worth as a principled nation. The 
Constitution has guaranteed and defended the freedom of the American 
people. The balanced budget amendment is necessary to protect and 
defend that freedom for future generations.
  But we must act now to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution 
by giving it the strength it will need to continue protecting and 
defending the American people. The balanced budget constitutional 
amendment will protect our families, our children--my children, Abby, 
Andy, and Liz--and our future from the excesses of a government which, 
for much of this century, has shown its contempt for the integrity of 
our people by equivocations and false assurances. Deficit spending must 
stop, and the budget must be balanced. Right now, as I speak and as we 
have heard several speakers just before me speak on the U.S. Senate 
floor, our Federal debt is at an astounding $5.3 trillion, which means 
that every American--every man, woman, and child--in this country owes 
today over $19,000 per person. They can't just pay that off and say, 
``I am done with my share of the Federal debt.'' It keeps growing and 
growing. This is wrong. It is immoral and must stop.

  Opponents of the balanced budget amendment will try, and have tried, 
to frame this debate in terms of fear. The Keynesian apostles will tell 
that you the economy will collapse in tough times. But the debate over 
the balanced budget constitutional amendment should not and must not be 
a debate framed in fear and falsehoods. It is really a debate about 
hope and about the future, and ultimately about the American dream.
  That is why I believe that good Government is not sustained by the 
politics of cynicism and fear. Quite to the contrary, it is sustained 
rather by the honest desire of each individual to work for that which 
he believes to be right and just. The balanced budget is both right and 
just.
  It is right because it means an end to the days of reckless 
Government spending when politicians made pork barrel promises that 
added too little to the public good and too much to the public debt.
  The balanced budget amendment is just because it helps our families 
and protects our children by curbing the practice of tax and spend. It 
is just because it means an end to the hidden tax that our Government 
levies every year when it fails to balance its budget and pay down its 
debt.
  It is a moral imperative, as some of my colleagues have spoken to, 
that we balance the budget and that we give ourselves the tools we need 
to balance the budget. How will future generations judge us if we have 
not the moral wherewithal to abolish the shameful practice of enslaving 
our children to the reckless desires of our bloated Federal Government? 
The system of burdening our children with the full cost of our present 
consumption is a great crime. We must not hesitate to bring it to an 
end.
  One of the most insidious aspects of the budget deficit is that it 
amounts to a hidden tax on our income and on our children's future 
income. This hidden tax is felt by everyone who has taken out a loan to 
pay for school, buy a car, or purchase a home. Higher interest rates 
are the taxes levied by a government that has not the courage to live 
responsibly, or even honestly. By balancing the budget, we will pay 
down the debt and we will free future generations from the shackles of 
Government debt. But we will do much more than free future generations.
  A balanced budget will draw down interest rates, spurring new 
investment decisions, and increasing our gross domestic product. Lower 
unemployment and higher productivity is not the empty promise of a 
campaign season, it is the real promise of a constitutional amendment 
to balance the budget.
  Yet, the ivory tower has railed against the balanced budget 
constitutional amendment because it would mean the end to unlimited 
Government deficit spending. The effects of a balanced budget promise a 
brighter future not only for our children and grandchildren but for 
ourselves as well. By eliminating the hidden tax on our American 
families, a family could easily save over $1,500 per year. A balanced 
budget will produce that savings. Estimates by the Joint Economic 
Committee indicate that yearly savings on an $80,000 home mortgage 
would be over $1,200, and a student fresh out of school paying back a 
college loan would save about $180 per year because of the resultant 
lower interest rates. American families and children are already taxed 
too much. They are taxed to the max. They, more than anyone else, 
deserve a break.
  The balanced budget amendment is right in principle and in practice. 
In fact, it was Jefferson in 1816 who acknowledged, ``Public debt is 
the greatest of the dangers to be feared.''
  As I said frequently during my campaign for the U.S. Senate, which 
was just completed and which placed me in this body with the gracious 
will of the people of Kansas, I believe that we are each placed on this 
Earth for a reason and for a short season. I believe that the task of 
our generation is to renew the American culture and to restore 
responsible Government and the promise of the American dream to the 
people.
  We must act now. And in this matter of balancing the budget, we must 
act now and pass the balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. THOMAS addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the senior Senator from 
Wyoming.
  Mr. THOMAS. I thank my friend from Kansas and welcome him in his 
initial visit to the floor. I am sure he will be back many times, and I 
hope that is the case.
  Mr. President, we have now an opportunity. I am optimistic about it. 
We all heard the President's State of the Union Message last night. He 
listed a great many things that he is interested in. Certainly most of 
them are positive

[[Page S988]]

kinds of things that, in one way or another, we want to work with as 
well.

  So we listened to the President. We listened to the voters. We 
listened to the American people. And now we are ready to work on some 
solutions toward really all of America.
  There is a plan soon for the congressional leadership to visit with 
the President, to sit down and talk about a number of things. Balancing 
the budget is one. Improving education, certainly, to move more and 
more education toward local communities and parental involvement; to 
provide some permanent tax relief so that we can increase investments, 
so that we can increase jobs, and so that we can increase the ability 
of families to prepare for themselves. Much of that is affected by what 
we do. What we do about interest rates that have a direct impact on the 
budget has much to do with what we do with this debt, a debt of $5.5 
trillion, the interest upon which will become, if not this year, soon, 
the largest single line-item in the budget--$275 billion in interest, 
none of which is used for education, none of which is used to fight 
drugs, and none of which is used for investment--interest on the debt 
that we accumulate.
  Mr. President, I am excited that the President of the United States 
said to us last year that the ``era of big Government is over.'' He 
said that the Government is not the answer to everything, that we need 
to be responsible, that we need to be responsible to ourselves as 
individuals and citizens. Certainly, that is true. We need to be 
responsible as a Government, and we need to be responsible as people 
who have been sent here to deal with the budget--about physical 
matters.
  So that is what we are dealing with, two things: One is balancing the 
budget and being responsible; and then having the ability, which we 
have not had for 28 or 29 years, of doing it, and how do we change 
things to cause that to happen? We believe that it is the balanced 
budget amendment to the Constitution, which provides, as it does in 
Wyoming, Mr. President--as you well know just coming from the 
legislature there--a requirement as a legislature and the Governor not 
to spend beyond its revenues. It works. Many other States have the same 
kind of thing.
  So we have heard for some time from our voters and our constituents 
that they want smaller Government, a Government that is more efficient, 
and a budget that is balanced. We have heard from the President that he 
is ready for a smaller Government, that the era of big Government is 
over.
  We will see his budget, I think, tomorrow, and that will be when the 
rubber really hits the road. It is not just talking about it, but doing 
it. We will be sharing that responsibility with the President to do 
that.
  There will be all kinds of suggestions as to how a balanced budget 
ought to be changed. There will be some scare tactics saying it is 
going to ruin Social Security. If you want to protect Social Security, 
you need to balance the budget. I am one who believes that we ought to 
have a Social Security net for the elderly. I want to continue it. I do 
not want to see it run out. The same is true with Medicare. The best 
way to do that is to balance the budget. If we do not do that, we will 
not have money to do any of those kinds of things.
  So we will hear a lot about it. We need a budget that is honest. We 
need one that is out there not one that is backloaded, where it looks 
good for a couple of years and all of a sudden for somebody else it is 
piled up at a very high rate. We need one that is honest and 
forthright. We do not need gimmicks. We do not need to move things from 
one place to another. We do not need to trigger it so that it takes 
over in a certain way. We do not need budgets that have tax relief in 
it for a little while and then they go away. We need some real honest 
budgeting so that everyone is confident in understanding that that is 
where we are.
  I hope each of us remembers the impact it has on everyone at home. 
Interest rates could be lower. Debt for kids to go to school could be 
less. Borrowing on our homes, borrowing on our cars, these are all 
related. This is not an abstract thing that belongs in somebody's 
accounting book. This is not for accountants and CPAs only. They affect 
each of us where we live. Families pay $1,500 a year easily on mortgage 
payments. So these are the kinds of things that we are doing.
  So I think all of my associates welcome the President's commitment to 
a balanced budget. We certainly look forward to his ideas and to how 
that budget will work as he releases it tomorrow. But most of all, I 
think we need to take the responsibility to make the changes that have 
to be made, and now is the time.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to proceed in 
morning business for as much time as I consume.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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