[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 150 (Friday, October 31, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11537-S11538]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          REDUCING THE DEFICIT

  Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, there is a lot of talk now since the 
President has announced that the deficit this year for 1997 is, I 
believe, $22.6 billion. That is an incredible figure. In 1993, you are 
looking at a Senator who was genuinely concerned, really concerned, not 
just concerned, alarmed about where we were heading with these massive 
deficits of $290 billion a year, and

[[Page S11538]]

no one seeming to want to do something about it, either cut spending or 
raise taxes, both of which would be necessary to address the problem.
  I have said on the floor before, so far as I am concerned, regardless 
of what President Clinton does before or from now on, his legacy is 
going to be the bill in 1993 that addressed that problem in a very 
courageous way, so courageous it cost a lot of Members on my side of 
the aisle their seats. But it reduced the deficit from $290 billion a 
year, and it is reduced to this year $22.6 billion. That is an awesome, 
awesome result, and one in which the people in this country ought to 
take great pride.
  Then I hear on the House side where the Speaker said, if we have a 
surplus left next year, he would like to have it go on to defense 
spending. Completely aside from what I want to say on the subject, that 
is not where I want it to go. I want the so-called surplus to go right 
into the National Treasury, because even though the deficit this year 
is $22.6 billion, that does not include $114 billion that we are using 
in trust funds--Social Security, airport, highway trust funds--to get 
to that point.
  So while we are all patting ourselves on the back, Senator Hollings 
says giving ourselves the Good Government Award, for doing something 
about the deficit, we should not ever lose sight of the fact that the 
$22.6 billion is not the deficit. The deficit is $22.6 billion plus the 
$114 billion we are spending in trust funds by borrowing, and until we 
add $114 billion in surplus to the $22.6 billion in deficit, we will 
not have a balanced budget.
  I agree with Alan Greenspan--I don't always agree with him--but I 
agree with him on one thing. Even using the jargon of the Senate and 
assuming that $22.6 billion is the deficit, that is not the honest 
deficit, but assuming that it is, if we have anything in excess of that 
next year, I would like to see it go into the Treasury, because the 
more we pay on the national debt, the lower interest rates are going to 
go, and the lower interest rates go, the better off the economy is 
going to be.

                          ____________________