[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 109 (Tuesday, July 29, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8211-S8213]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          SANTA CLAUS IN JULY

  Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, pending the approach to this Chamber of 
our distinguished chairman and the original sponsors of some 
amendments, including the Senator from Minnesota, let me note the 
environment of Santa Claus in July.
  It seems a lot of us are not here this morning. Instead, they are out 
selling their homes so they can make that $500,000 and go back home and 
live comfortably. We have the so-called agreement for a balanced 
budget. What a wonderful instrument. Everyone with a home can make up 
to $500,000 from this agreement. Couples in the $110,000 bracket and 
below would get $600. And,

[[Page S8212]]

of course, the rich will all get richer with the capital gains tax 
reduction.
  My comment is to bring a note of reality. It is somewhat like when 
you are up to your neck in the swamp with the alligators and the 
original intent was to drain the swamp. Here, the original intent, of 
course, is to balance the budget and get us out of the red and into the 
black. And, of course, let's see exactly where we are at the present 
time. I ask unanimous consent that the CBO estimates be included in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                           HOLLINGS' BUDGET REALITIES
                                            [In billions of dollars]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                        Annual
                                                                Unified       Actual                  increases
          Pres. and year            U.S. budget    Borrowed     deficit      deficit      National   in spending
                                                 trust funds   with trust    without        debt         for
                                                                 funds     trust funds                 interest
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Truman:
  1945............................         92.7          5.4        -47.6  ...........        260.1  ...........
  1946............................         55.2         -5.0        -15.9        -10.9        271.0  ...........
  1947............................         34.5         -9.9          4.0        +13.9        257.1  ...........
  1948............................         29.8          6.7         11.8         +5.1        252.0  ...........
  1949............................         38.8          1.2          0.6         -0.6        252.6  ...........
  1950............................         42.6          1.2         -3.1         -4.3        256.9  ...........
  1951............................         45.5          4.5          6.1         +1.6        255.3  ...........
  1952............................         67.7          2.3         -1.5         -3.8        259.1  ...........
  1953............................         76.1          0.4         -6.5         -6.9        266.0  ...........
Eisenhower:
  1954............................         70.9          3.6         -1.2         -4.8        270.8  ...........
  1955............................         68.4          0.6         -3.0         -3.6        274.4  ...........
  1956............................         70.6          2.2          3.9         +1.7        272.7  ...........
  1957............................         76.6          3.0          3.4         +0.4        272.3  ...........
  1958............................         82.4          4.6         -2.8         -7.4        279.7  ...........
  1959............................         92.1         -5.0        -12.8         -7.8        287.5  ...........
  1960............................         92.2          3.3          0.3         -3.0        290.5  ...........
  1961............................         97.7         -1.2         -3.3         -2.1        292.6  ...........
Kennedy:
  1962............................        106.8          3.2         -7.1        -10.3        302.9          9.1
  1963............................        111.3          2.6         -4.8         -7.4        310.3          9.9
Johnson:
  1964............................        118.5         -0.1         -5.9         -5.8        316.1         10.7
  1965............................        118.2          4.8         -1.4         -6.2        322.3         11.3
  1966............................        134.5          2.5         -3.7         -6.2        328.5         12.0
  1967............................        157.5          3.3         -8.6        -11.9        340.4         13.4
  1968............................        178.1          3.1        -25.2        -28.3        368.7         14.6
  1969............................        183.6          0.3          3.2         +2.9        365.8         16.6
Nixon:
  1970............................        195.6         12.3         -2.8        -15.1        380.9         19.3
  1971............................        210.2          4.3        -23.0        -27.3        408.2         21.0
  1972............................        230.7          4.3        -23.4        -27.7        435.9         21.8
  1973............................        245.7         15.5        -14.9        -30.4        466.3         24.2
  1974............................        269.4         11.5         -6.1        -17.6        483.9         29.3
Ford:
  1975............................        332.3          4.8        -53.2        -58.0        541.9         32.7
  1976............................        371.8         13.4        -73.7        -87.1        629.0         37.1
Carter:
  1977............................        409.2         23.7        -53.7        -77.4        706.4         41.9
  1978............................        458.7         11.0        -59.2        -70.2        776.6         48.7
  1979............................        503.5         12.2        -40.7        -52.9        829.5         59.9
  1980............................        590.9          5.8        -73.8        -79.6        909.1         74.8
Reagan:
  1981............................        678.2          6.7        -79.0        -85.7        994.8         95.5
  1982............................        745.8         14.5       -128.0       -142.5      1,137.3        117.2
  1983............................        808.4         26.6       -207.8       -234.4      1,371.7        128.7
  1984............................        851.8          7.6       -185.4       -193.0      1,564.7        153.9
  1985............................        946.4         40.5       -212.3       -252.8      1,817.5        178.9
  1986............................        990.3         81.9       -221.2       -303.1      2,120.6        190.3
  1987............................      1,003.9         75.7       -149.8       -225.5      2,346.1        195.3
  1988............................      1,064.1        100.0       -155.2       -255.2      2,601.3        214.1
Bush:
  1989............................      1,143.2        114.2       -152.5       -266.7      2,868.3        240.9
  1990............................      1,252.7        117.4       -221.2       -338.6      3,206.6        264.7
  1991............................      1,323.8        122.5       -269.4       -391.9      3,598.5        285.5
  1992............................      1,380.9        113.2       -290.4       -403.6      4,002.1        292.3
Clinton:
  1993............................      1,408.2         94.3       -255.0       -349.3      4,351.4        292.5
  1994............................      1,460.6         89.2       -203.1       -292.3      4,643.7        296.3
  1995............................      1,514.6        113.4       -163.9       -277.3      4,921.0        332.4
  1996............................      1,560.0        154.0       -107.0       -261.0      5,182.0        344.0
  1997............................      1,622.0        110.0        -70.0       -180.0      5,362.0        359.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Historical Tables, Budget of the US Government FY 1998, Beginning in 1962 CBO's 1997 Economic and Budget
  Outlook, May 19, 1997.

  Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, it was projected on May 19 by the 
Congressional Budget Office that the actual deficit for this fiscal 
year would be $180 billion. Now, I hasten to add that the picture has 
improved. We find that the revenues are coming in even better than what 
was originally anticipated. So the actual deficit, if it stays on 
course, would be down to $140 billion and, if it continues, let's say 
it would be right at $100 billion next year. That is what I was told 
this morning by those at the Congressional Budget Office.
  Now, the unified deficit that everyone refers to is down to under $40 
billion and could be balanced next year. The term ``unified'' is, of 
course, just a shibboleth for, ``don't bother, we are just running 
around spending all the pension funds, which we made illegal in 1990.'' 
We are spending the pension funds to allocate against the deficit 
itself.
  So what is really happening is that we are on the course, under the 
unified deficit, toward getting into the black. But it is not on 
account of passing anything here this week in the midst of this 
wonderful jubilation atmosphere that everybody won this morning with 
the agreement last night. The truth of the matter is that we are on 
course as a result of the 1993 budget plan, whereby we on this side of 
the aisle, without a single vote on the other side of the aisle, voted 
for real deficit reduction that worked. I emphasize the fact that it 
was this side of the aisle, because we were told that if we increased 
the Social Security tax, they would be hunting us down like dogs in the 
street and shooting us. I am one of the dogs to be shot in the street. 
They said that we were going to have a catastrophe and a depression, 
not just a recession, and all sorts of other things, which were totally 
off-base.
  Without a single vote on the other side, we cut some $255 billion in 
spending, increased taxes $241 billion. We increased taxes on the 
highest income tax bracket. We increased gasoline taxes. We increased 
Social Security taxes. We eliminated over 250,000 Federal jobs and 
reduced the size of the Government itself, and it is working. I guess, 
by way of emphasis, the point is that the thrust here today and last

[[Page S8213]]

night is to stop the bickering and to show that we can get together. 
This Senator would say, in the extreme, of course, let's continue the 
bickering because, with the bickering, we are bound to get, under a 
unified budget, the Government back into the black. Stay the course.
  In fact, I offered an amendment earlier this year to not cut any 
taxes and not increase any spending. Now, what has been done in this 
particular agreement? Well everybody admits we are spending more than 
$100 billion more than we are taking in. If that's the case, what you 
want to do is cut spending and increase your revenues. Instead, we 
increased spending some $52 billion, under this agreement last night, 
and we cut the revenues--instead of $85 billion, we cut the revenues 
some $90 billion.
  So, as a result of the 1993 budget agreement and enactment, we are 
momentarily on course, having reduced the deficit each year for 5 
years. Yet you are hearing shouts in the halls that, ``this is the 
first tax cut since 1981.'' We ought to say we got the first tax cut 
since the disaster of 1981, because the result of 1981, of Reaganomics, 
is that we are still spending over $100 billion more than we are taking 
in. So we are still in the red. The debt increases, the interest costs 
increase. So, under this so-called balanced budget agreement, the debt 
continues to grow, and our Government continues to borrow more and more 
money.
  We are talking now about how we helped families with the child credit 
and by cutting taxes, but, in actuality, we have increased the taxes 
for children because we, the senior citizens, are going to move right 
along and leave them with the bill.
  My distinguished chairman is here. I will be able to elaborate, Mr. 
President, in a more appropriate fashion at an appropriate time. I 
think there ought to be a note of sobriety with the ``Santa Claus in 
July'' that we are now experiencing here this morning that everybody 
won. The truth of the matter is that we have changed course, once 
again, to cutting taxes and increasing spending. Under a budget of that 
kind, there is no way for us to get really into the black and start 
reducing that debt and the carrying charges that are some $285 billion 
more than back in 1981. We are spending $285 billion more in interest 
costs than we were in 1981 for absolutely nothing.
  As the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, the distinguished 
Presiding Officer, would realize, if we had that $285 billion, we could 
satisfy every subcommittee chairman on the 602(b) allocation, we could 
build many bridges, we could do all the research at NIH we need, we 
could double the President's request on education; we could have better 
housing, highways, and everything else of that kind. So that is not the 
case. I think what we ought to do is look at the reality.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________