[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 37 (Thursday, March 20, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S2726]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                TAX CUTS

  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, the Speaker of the other body made a 
remarkable statement earlier this week. He argued that Congress should 
wait on cutting taxes, and instead make balancing the budget our 
highest priority. This is a significant and extremely positive 
development in the fight for a balanced Federal budget, and I 
congratulate the Speaker for making that statement in the face of 
significant opposition within his own party.
  Mr. President, the Speaker's comments are indeed welcome. They follow 
the comments made this weekend by the chairman of the Senate Budget 
Committee [Mr. Domenici], who informally offered a no-tax cut, no new 
spending programs outline of a possible budget agreement. Mr. 
President, I cannot emphasize enough how important the comments of the 
chairman were. They came after several days of highly partisan comments 
on the budget, from both parties and in both houses. Often, without 
leadership, it is the nature of some to retreat to the security of 
partisan politics--an easy path that leads us further and further 
apart. To his great credit, Chairman Domenici rejected the considerable 
forces of partisanship, and offered an alternative path. Mr. President, 
his path offers us a real chance for a bipartisan budget agreement, and 
I want to take this occasion to commend my chairman for his courage. I 
am pleased to serve on the Budget Committee, and deeply honored to 
serve with the senior Senator from New Mexico.
  Mr. President, the Speaker is of course absolutely right on the mark. 
As dearly as many of us would like to support tax cuts, our first 
priority must be to balance the budget. This is a position I took when 
I first ran for the Senate, and one I hold today.
  Major tax cuts undercut our ability to craft a politically 
sustainable balanced budget plan, as was so clearly demonstrated during 
the 104th Congress. As I have noted before, both parties are at fault. 
We cannot afford either the President's tax cuts or the Congressional 
Republican tax cuts.
  In November of 1994, I faulted the so-called Contract With America 
tax cuts--called the crown jewel of the Contract With America at the 
time. A month later, the day after the President proposed his own set 
of tax cuts, I took his proposal to task as well.
  Mr. President, we dodged a bullet during the 104th Congress. Despite 
formal support for a tax cut in some form from both the White House and 
the majority party in Congress, we escaped without doing serious damage 
to the progress we made in reducing the deficit. Regretfully, we did 
not build significantly on the work accomplished in the 103d Congress 
to reduce the deficit. Though we made some modest strides, the bulk of 
the work that remained at the end of 1994 must still be done.
  Mr. President, major tax cuts make the difficult task of enacting a 
balanced budget impossible. Most obviously, major tax cuts dig the hole 
even deeper before we begin. But major tax cuts also pose a significant 
and very real political problem, and the Speaker's comments about how 
including tax cuts leaves a balanced budget plan open to criticism are 
absolutely correct. There is no painless solution to the deficit.
  The fundamental premise of any plan to balance the budget rests on 
the willingness of the Nation to sacrifice, but we cannot expect the 
Nation to embrace a plan which calls for some to sacrifice while 
providing tax cuts for others. Such a plan would not be sustainable, as 
was demonstrated so clearly during the 104th Congress. We can enact a 
balance budget plan if that plan is seen broadly as spreading sacrifice 
fairly. Mr. President, no partisan plan has any hope of rallying 
broadbased public support.
  The only way we will enact a balanced budget plan, and sustain it 
through the several years it will take to achieve balance, is through a 
truly bipartisan effort. Thanks to the leadership of Chairman Domenici, 
and with the support of the Speaker, we have a chance to build such a 
plan. I hope my colleagues will not squander the opportunity they have 
given us at some personal political cost to themselves.
  I look forward to working with Chairman Domenici on the Budget 
Committee to fashion the beginning of a budget agreement. As I have 
indicated to him in the committee, there are several budget issues that 
are especially important to me, but I remain flexible on all aspects of 
the budget in trying to reach a bipartisan agreement. Mr. President, I 
applaud the Speaker for change of heart, and especially commend 
Chairman Domenici for his courage and leadership.

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