[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 44 (Tuesday, April 15, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3159-S3160]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           TRUTH IN BUDGETING

  Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I rise this morning to discuss truth in 
budgeting. Let me emphasize ``truth in budgeting.'' We do not 
appreciate, Mr. President, the reality. The reality is that we are 
giving billions and billions more in Government than we are willing to 
pay for.
  In fact, Mr. President, from the year 1945 when President Truman was 
in office until 1980, when President Reagan came in, the deficits were 
an average of $20 billion. Whereas for the last 16 years, the average 
has been $277 billion. So for the last 16 years everybody is running 
around and pointing fingers as to the blame, while we have been giving 
$277 billion more in Government than we are willing to pay for.
  Now, a couple of years ago, my distinguished colleagues on the other 
side of the aisle kept saying, ``If you want to change the Congress you 
have to change the Congressman. If you want to change the Senate, you 
have to change the Senator,'' and the American people said ``fine, that 
is what we will do.'' But instead of getting change, instead of getting 
a proposed budget where we pay up here for the Government we are 
giving, we get into this big folderol about leadership and everything 
else.

  Under the Constitution, the Congress legislates, the President 
executes. It is our responsibility to legislate. In fact, the 
concurrent resolution for a budget is not even signed by the President. 
Yet, this weekend I had to listen to the distinguished chairman of the 
Budget Committee on the House side, Mr. Kasich, say, ``If the President 
could only show leadership and step up to the plate.'' They have all 
the jargon and litany--``if he can only show some responsibility,'' and 
``if he only had the courage.'' Well, he has put up a budget. He 
maintains that his budget is balanced by the year 2002. There is a 
serious question about that, obviously. But at least he put up a 
budget. Now, from January to June, we are still hearing the chairmen of 
the Budget Committees on both sides of the Capitol asking for 
leadership and courage and everything else, when that is what they 
asked the American people for and received. We have a Republican 
Congress; where is the Republican budget? It is just totally out of 
whole cloth around here; we can't get the truth about where we are.
  Now, going right to the point about their being derelict as to their 
responsibility. All of us have been derelict as to the reality of the 
deficit. All you need do is the simple arithmetic to find out how much 
the debt increases each year and to determine your deficit, not this 
unified Mickey Mouse thing which uses borrowed funds. The unified 
deficit is the one that was used all of last year during the campaign, 
and it was used the day before yesterday on the Sunday morning talk 
shows. David Broder used it in his column, and all the responsible 
writers use it. The number they use is $107 billion. Totally false. 
Totally false.
  To get the actual deficit, you just subtract the increase from one 
year to the next, and you can find that the actual deficit was $261 
billion. How do they get to the $107 billion? Well, Mr. President, they 
borrow $154 billion. You borrow $154 billion from Social Security, from 
Medicare, from the civil service retirement, from military retirement, 
and you go right on down the list until you get to $107 billion. Why 
not borrow that $107 billion and say the budget is balanced?
  What kind of gamesmanship are we playing? When are we going to get 
the truth out of the free press in America and quit quoting a silly 
figure that doesn't reflect the reality. The reality, Mr. President, is 
when that deficit grows to $261 billion this year, and you add that 
amount to the debt and the existing interest costs, this conduct, along 
with Mr. Greenspan's, causes your interest costs to go through the 
roof. In fact, right now, interest costs are estimated at $360 billion 
for 1997. That was the CBO figure before the increase in interest 
rates. So the figure is now around $1 billion a day--$365 billion, or 
even more.
  Mr. President, today is April 15. Today, everyone is required to pay 
their income tax. I just got this table from CBO which says the total 
amount paid in individual income tax is estimated to be $676 billion. 
We are already 6\1/2\ months into our fiscal year. Therefore, when I 
say a billion dollars a day in interest costs, what I am saying is that 
the people of America worked from October of last year up until today, 
income tax day, April 15, for what? To pay for the wasteful interest 
costs in Government, and this charade that continues. Half of our 
Nation's income taxes go to pay for interest costs on the national 
debt. Even if we get a little bit of savings from the CPI, a little bit 
from Medicare, we are still way off. I will be joining with the Blue 
Dogs; we are working out the figures right now for a budget freeze--no 
increase in taxes, no cut in taxes, no back-end loading. And even then, 
without the borrowings, it is going to take you 5 more years, until 
2007 rather than 2002, for a true balanced budget.
  The American people should understand that we are playing a game up 
here to buy the vote, so we can all get reelected again next year. We 
have been doing that for the past 16 years with this silly Reaganomics 
and the litany of growth, growth. One fellow, Stevie Forbes, wrote 
``hope, growth, and opportunity.'' You turn on all the programs, and 
the discussions are all about inheritance taxes and the capital gains 
tax. ``Just do away with the IRS and the income tax,'' they say. We are 
talking out of whole cloth. We act like that is reality. We cannot 
afford tax cuts. Look at the figures. The domestic budget is $266 
billion. The defense budget is $267 billion. Look on page 36 of your 
budget book. Entitlement spending is $859 billion. That comes, Mr. 
President, to $1.382 trillion. Then you add interest costs of $360 
billion, and that is $1.742 trillion. To get down to CBO's projected 
revenues of $1.632 trillion, we have to cut $110 billion.

  Now, that's the job that we have at hand--not capital gains, not 
inheritance taxes, not getting rid of the IRS and income taxes. Yes, 
taxes are too much. Why are they too much? Because of the interest 
costs on the national debt. If you go back to 1980, it was $74.8 
billion. We have literally added just about $300 billion in interest 
costs on the national debt that must be paid up first. It is just like 
taxes. You might call them an increase in taxes each day of $1 billion. 
We are running around here cutting taxes while we are increasing their 
taxes $1 billion a day. But if you had that $300 billion, Mr. 
President, we could balance the budget, we could get improve 
technology, we could pave the highways, repair the bridges, give more 
student loans, and

[[Page S3160]]

we could have double the research at NIH. We could do all these things. 
Taxes are too high. But why are they high? For the silly charade. There 
is no better word for this off-Broadway show that goes on out here, 
without the reality, without the truth in budgeting. These people act 
as if we have the luxury of cutting taxes because they are too high.
  You have to cut the interest costs on the debt. You have to start 
paying for the Government we have. They have been meeting since January 
to decide how can we get both sides to go along with a fraud; one grand 
fraud is what this is. You know it, and I know it. We will get my 
budget realities chart up here later on, and I will be glad to give 
people copies of it.
  There is no question in my mind that this fraud has to be exposed 
because these interest costs, which are really taxes, are eating us 
alive. By cutting taxes, we are really saying ``let's increase the 
deficit, the debt, and interest costs.'' If the people don't understand 
that, every one of these writers should tell you that. It is not 
complicated at all. All you have to do is go from year to year. And we 
are still going to borrow from the Social Security, which is illegal. 
We passed a law of the Budget Act, section 13301, that said thou shalt 
not use Social Security trust funds in order to lower the deficit or in 
reporting it. Yet they violate it.
  They are running around wanting to know who slept in the Lincoln 
bedroom or who flew on the Air Force One plane. Come on, when are we 
going to get to work on the real problem? That is why the American 
people have no confidence in this institution up here. We don't tell 
the truth. I remember my friend, Bill Proxmire, who got up here every 
day on a certain treaty. Finally, after about 6 or 7 years, he got some 
attention. I don't know whether people would give me that much time, 
but I am going to have to start taking time every morning hour to show 
the reality of what we are doing. No, you can't balance the budget and 
pay for the Government this next year, but you can put us on a truth 
course. If you saw that chart my distinguished colleague Mr. Conrad 
had, you will find that the deficit went way down in 1985 and 1986. In 
1985 and 1986 was during Gramm-Rudman-Hollings, and this was when we 
really cut the deficit.
  I appreciate the indulgence of the Chair. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. We are now into the time reserved by the 
Senator from Wyoming.
  The Senator from Kansas [Mr. Brownback] is recognized.
  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I ask for 5 minutes of the time 
reserved by the Senator from Wyoming to speak on the issue of taxes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has that right.

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