[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 67 (Tuesday, May 20, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4744-S4745]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                           Amendment No. 295

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will now be 2 
minutes of debate equally divided on the Hollings amendment No. 295.
  The Senator from South Carolina is recognized for 1 minute.
  Mr. HOLLINGS. I thank the Chair. Right to the point, here is the 
concurrent resolution. You will not find in this document anywhere a 
balanced budget. Everyone is running hither and yon: ``Balanced budget, 
balanced budget.'' The truth is, if you look on page 5, you have the 
fiscal year debt to the year 2001 and for the year 2002, the fiscal 
year debt there going up to $172 billion. Actual deficit, without the 
use of the trust funds, without looting all the pension funds, there is 
$172 billion.
  This increases the debt each year every year for 5 years, whereby the 
interest costs on the debt is a billion a day. We have spending on 
autopilot of $1 billion a day for absolutely nothing. Not for children. 
Not for highways. Not for research. Not for foreign aid. Not for 
defense. We have total waste.
  We have a cancer and it ought to be removed. My particular amendment 
says do away with the tax cuts in this instrument; do away with the 
spending increases, the President's initiatives. We are on course for a 
balanced budget by the fiscal year 2007. Truth in budgeting is the 
question put before us.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico has 1 minute. The 
Senate will please come to order.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, this amendment takes out all of the tax 
cuts and all of the President's initiatives. Essentially it totally 
guts the entire agreement. There would be no tax cuts and there would 
be no initiatives that we have agreed with the President on. I urge a 
no vote. I yield the remainder of my time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question occurs on the amendment No. 295. 
A rollcall has not been requested.
  Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There is a sufficient second.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Allard). The question is on agreeing to 
the amendment of the Senator from South Carolina. The yeas and nays 
have been ordered. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from Iowa [Mr. Harkin] is 
necessarily absent.
  The result was announced, yeas 8, nays 91, as follows:

[[Page S4745]]

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 74 Leg.]

                                YEAS--8

     Byrd
     Conrad
     Dorgan
     Feingold
     Hollings
     Moynihan
     Reid
     Robb

                                NAYS--91

     Abraham
     Akaka
     Allard
     Ashcroft
     Baucus
     Bennett
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Bond
     Boxer
     Breaux
     Brownback
     Bryan
     Bumpers
     Burns
     Campbell
     Chafee
     Cleland
     Coats
     Cochran
     Collins
     Coverdell
     Craig
     D'Amato
     Daschle
     DeWine
     Dodd
     Domenici
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Faircloth
     Feinstein
     Ford
     Frist
     Glenn
     Gorton
     Graham
     Gramm
     Grams
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Hatch
     Helms
     Hutchinson
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Inouye
     Jeffords
     Johnson
     Kempthorne
     Kennedy
     Kerrey
     Kerry
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lott
     Lugar
     Mack
     McCain
     McConnell
     Mikulski
     Moseley-Braun
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nickles
     Reed
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Roth
     Santorum
     Sarbanes
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Smith (NH)
     Smith (OR)
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stevens
     Thomas
     Thompson
     Thurmond
     Torricelli
     Warner
     Wellstone
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--1

       
     Harkin
       
  The amendment (No. 295) was rejected.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I rise in support of the fiscal year 1998 
balanced budget resolution.
  I congratulate the hard-working chairman of the Budget Committee for 
his leadership and dedication in bringing us to this point, as well as 
our distinguished majority leader.
  Am I especially happy to be able to use those 2 words, ``balanced 
budget.''
  This budget resolution represents a victory for the American people; 
for sound, conservative principles; for those of us who have fought for 
years for a balanced budget; for the seniors who will be protected by a 
safer, sounder Medicare system; and for the workers of today and the 
children of tomorrow, who will benefit from a healthier economy and 
better jobs.
  Some may be disappointed because this is not a ``perfect'' budget; 
but it's a big improvement over the status quo; and there's a world of 
difference between this budget and the big-government, tax-and-spend 
budgets of just a few years ago.
  Less than 2 years ago, President Clinton was saying we didn't even 
need to balance the budget; then he said, maybe we could balance by 
2005; but the new Republican majority elected in 1994, and reelected in 
1996, insisted on a plan to a balanced budget by 2002--and now we've 
got one.
  Two years ago, when the first Republican Congress in 40 years took 
office, we found a Medicare system ready to go bankrupt in 2001.
  We said it was time to fix Medicare and we tried to slow its rate of 
growth to 6 or 7 percent a year, with pro-senior citizen, pro-consumer 
reforms.
  Some from the other side tried to hit us with 30-second attack ads, 
claiming that seniors' benefits would be slashed and burned.
  But the American people didn't believe them.
  Today, finally, we have a sober, responsible, bipartisan agreement 
that says Medicare must be repaired--so that Medicare continues to be 
there for our seniors who need it.
  And yes, in this budget agreement, Medicare grows at about 6 percent 
a year.
  Under this budget, Medicare part A will be solvent for a decade.
  The details that finally emerge later this year in a budget 
reconciliation bill will probably not contain all the structural, 
market-based reforms that Medicare needs for the long term, but this 
budget should be a good start.
  Four years ago, the President asked for, and Congress unfortunately 
passed, the biggest tax increase in history.
  Today, this budget agreement includes real, pro-family, pro-growth, 
tax cuts.
  We finally begin to roll back that last, huge tax increase.
  The skeptics said you couldn't balance the budget, cut taxes, and get 
bipartisan agreement.
  But this budget will do those things.
  Let's remember: What this budget begins to do is let the people keep 
more of their own money.
  Under this budget, we will finally begin to get spending growth under 
control.
  Will the government still be too big and intrusive? Yes.
  But the Federal Government will spend $1.1 trillion less over the 
next 10 years than it would have spent under previous policies.
  Spending growth will drop from 4.4 percent a year under previous 
policies to 3.1 percent a year under this budget--just barely more than 
inflation.
  The Government will finally begin to shrink relative to the size of 
the economy.
  Spending will still go up in nominal dollars, but it will drop from 
20.8 percent to 18.9 percent of gross domestic product, by 2002.
  Of course, a lot depends on the enforcement provisions that will have 
to be part of the budget reconciliation legislation later this year.
  I'll be watching that legislation closely.
  We've learned from bitter existence in the past that permanent 
procedures are needed to keep spending from running wild.
  After all, the road to a $5.3 trillion debt was paved with good 
intentions.
  That's why we should have passed--and still need--a balanced budget 
amendment to the Constitution.
  But the budget enforcement rules called for under this budget 
resolution should help keep us on course to a balanced budget by 2002.
  A majority of the people in America have seen the budget balanced 
exactly once or never in their lifetimes.
  The last two balanced budgets were in 1960 and 1969.
  A majority of Americans alive today were born after 1960.
  It's time for that destructive trend to end.
  It's time to create a better future for all Americans.
  This budget resolution is the right beginning of that promising 
future.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the 
Senate resumes the budget resolution on Wednesday, there be an 
additional 5 hours subtracted from the overall time constraints 
provided for in the Budget Act.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I assume we have no further amendments 
tonight, but I think Senator Grassley would like to take some time, and 
I will yield that time to him at this point. How much time would the 
Senator like?
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Can I have 20 minutes?
  Mr. DOMENICI. Will the Senator mind closing the Senate after his 20 
minutes? Does the Senator from New Jersey have any objection? The 
Senator from Iowa is going to take 20 minutes, and we will let him 
close the Senate if we are finished for the evening.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. No, I certainly trust the Senator from Iowa. He is 
not going to cut taxes.
  Mr. DOMENICI. I yield the floor, Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.

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