[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 29 (Monday, March 10, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2054-S2055]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE NEED FOR LEADERSHIP ON THE BUDGET

  Mr. HAGEL. Mr. President, I ran for the Senate because I wanted to 
help strengthen America's future. I, like my colleagues here, want to 
help solve problems. America is reaching out for leadership to put our 
fiscal house in order.
  When we debate the budget, we are debating America's future, the 
future we leave for our children and our grandchildren--the 
opportunities they will have, the burdens in debt they will inherit, 
the America they will know.
  Balancing the budget must be our top priority, not because we have 
some abstract fascination with accounting but because the future of 
every man, woman, and child hangs in the balance. The future of our 
very liberty is at stake.
  That is why I strongly supported the proposed balanced budget 
amendment to the Constitution, an amendment that would have forced 
Congress to make the hard choices and set priorities, priorities that 
we have for too long avoided. Despite the support of all my Republican 
and 11 of my Democratic colleagues, the Senate last week defeated the 
balanced budget amendment. We lost by one vote.
  President Kennedy told us three decades ago that real leaders ``are 
not here to curse the darkness but to light a candle.'' Without the 
balanced budget amendment, we are still looking for a candle to guide 
us to a balanced budget. Now more than ever we need leadership for 
America's future.
  However, when I read the President's budget, I do not like the future 
I see. This budget offers a future that continues to pile up more and 
more and more debt. The President's proposal keeps running deficits for 
as far as the eye can see. Next year, the President's budget actually 
increases the deficit by more than $25 billion. That is not acceptable.
  Three weeks ago, I, along with 23 of my colleagues, sent a letter to 
the majority leader. As we told the leader, ``A path to a balanced 
budget should be just that--a path on which the deficit decreases every 
year in as near equal amounts as possible until the year 2002,'' the 
year of a balanced budget.
  The President has chosen another path. At the end of his path, there 
is still a pool of red ink. The Congressional Budget Office says the 
budget that the President has submitted is still $70 billion in the red 
in the year 2002. That is $70 billion, Mr. President, in the red in the 
year 2002. That is a far cry from responsible, balanced fiscal policy. 
That is a far cry from the balanced budget the President promised us. 
And it gets worse.
  The President's budget offers a future where we put off tough choices 
until ``tomorrow.'' We all know that in the world of the Federal budget 
``tomorrow'' never comes. Our $5.3 trillion debt is proof enough of 
that fact. We have to act today if we are to balance the budget and 
save programs like Social Security and Medicare for years to come.
  We need to act today if we are to save programs that protect 
education and the environment. We need to act today if we want to 
maintain a strong national defense that will preserve our children's 
freedom as it has preserved ours. We need to act today if we care about 
tomorrow.
  The President's budget does not act today. The truth is it does not 
act at all; it is a fraud, and the people need to know it is a fraud. 
Mr. President, 98.5 percent of the deficit reduction in the President's 
budget comes in the last 2 years of his 7-year plan--98.5 percent. 
Those are not my figures. Those numbers come from the nonpartisan 
Congressional Budget Office. Does anybody here remember the President's 
first State of the Union Address when he promised to rely on CBO's 
figures? Well, the CBO has spoken. It says the President's numbers just 
do not add up.
  The President's plan is very clear. He plans to put off the tough and 
painful choices until he is out of office and somebody else will have 
to make them. That is not leadership. That is business as usual. That 
is disaster.
  But even that is not all. The President's budget offers a future 
where taxes go up and families must work harder to have less. The 
President may put off real deficit reduction until later, but he does 
not procrastinate when it comes to raising taxes, for example. Despite 
the President's claim that he will cut taxes, the Joint Committee on 
Taxation reports that the budget the President has submitted will 
result in a net increase in taxes of $23 billion over the next 10 
years. There is no tax cut. This budget includes at least 39 specific 
tax increases, and they are permanent. By contrast, those tax cuts that 
the President proposes expire by the year 2002. The bottom line is 
simple: The President's tax cuts are temporary and conditional, but his 
new tax increases are permanent. That is fraudulent. That is wrong.
  Last week, 13 of my colleagues joined me in a second letter to the 
majority leader. We made it very clear to the leader that we will not 
vote for any budget plan that increases taxes. Any solution to our 
budget problems that relies on tax increases is really no solution at 
all; it is just more debt.
  Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan testified recently before the 
Senate Banking Committee that ``Ultimately, you cannot solve long-term 
deficits from the receipt side.'' He added, ``It's got to be from the 
expenditure side.'' That means cut spending.
  That is why we are here. I came to Washington, as did many of my 
colleagues, to cut spending, cut taxes and cut Government. We came to 
take power and authority away from the Federal Government and return it 
to

[[Page S2055]]

the States and to the people. We did not come to destroy. We came to 
renew, to renew the American dream for future generations of Americans, 
to renew the freedom that made this Nation great and kept it strong.
  The President's budget does none of this. It increases spending. It 
increases taxes. It increases the power of the Federal Government.
  This body must be about the work of the future, not the past. It is 
immoral for us to mortgage our children's and grandchildren's future. 
The truth is the future begins now. It is in our hands. It is time for 
us to lead. We must balance the budget with a real balanced budget.
  Mr. President, I thank the Chair. I yield back my time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, the Senator from Vermont and I were going 
to speak. I know he has a time limitation, so I yield to him.

                          ____________________