[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 30 (Wednesday, March 18, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2209-S2210]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             BUDGET SURPLUS

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, Haley's Comet appears and disappears 
every so many decades. So do balanced budgets in Washington, DC. After 
30 years, it looks like our Budget Committee, of which I am a member, 
will have another balanced budget for the first time, as I said, in 30 
years. And it looks like after that we could have surpluses for quite a 
few years. Of course, that is a very unusual situation from a fiscal 
standpoint--for this Congress to be faced with balancing the budget 2 
or 3 years earlier than we predicted and having surpluses for quite a 
few years into the future.
  That gives us a windfall opportunity to do good. But it also is 
giving some who are willing to squander this an opportunity and to do 
it in the form of more spending or in the form of more tax cuts.
  Last year's budget deal was, of course, to the benefit of both 
political parties. We actually did something good. We did it together. 
And the good benefited our country.
  This was very different. It was a bipartisan plan. We wrapped our 
arms around each other. Both sides should, and do, take credit for 
doing this good.
  But for those who are politically motivated, when the two sides are 
locked in a policy embrace, there is no discernible difference. And 
some people just cannot stand that sort of an environment. So they do 
not like it. So there is a mad rush to declare new ideas to give away 
the money--money, incidentally, that we do not have yet, legitimately 
planning to get it as you forecast a good future, but it is not really 
in our pockets. Yet, it is just like it is burning holes in our 
pockets. We don't know what to do with it. We need to spend it. We need 
to get rid of it in some way. Thus, what was done for the good of all 
taxpayers would be sacrificed for a new round of political operations 
of picking winners and losers.
  For once, we need to take the politics out of what we do and do right 
for the country. We did that last year. All we have to do is just be 
patient, and it can evolve this year because this country is on the 
right track. This Congress' fiscal policy is on the right track.
  So, let us do a lot of good by simply doing nothing--being cool-
headed and being levelheaded in our policy, the same sort of policy 
that got us together a year ago with the signing of a bipartisan budget 
agreement to put this country on a path toward a balanced budget.
  For the first time, as our Budget Committee meets to mark up the 
budget resolution--that is this very day and yesterday as well, and we 
should have this resolved before the evening is over in our Budget 
Committee--but for the first time, as we meet to mark up the budget 
resolution, we are faced not with a growing Federal budget deficit but 
the possibility, and the very real possibility, of surplus of funds in 
the Treasury. For the first time we sit to deliberate not on how to 
corral an out-of-control beast but on how to responsibly maintain the 
ground which we have gained.
  The bipartisan Balanced Budget Act has performed its function well. 
Last year we established and agreed to live within budget caps. These 
caps have provided the discipline necessary to begin to get the Federal 
spending under control. Along with an economic boom that shows little 
signs of slowing down, the budget caps have helped to bring the Federal 
Government into a surplus situation.
  I urge my colleagues to continue to live within these caps and to 
continue to practice the spending restraints instituted 8 months ago. 
To think that the surplus is there to be spent willy-nilly is to break 
a newly developing trust with the American taxpayers. This trust is not 
easy to come by. In fact, as I speak, any poll in America asking the 
question, ``Do you feel that Congress is really serious about balancing 
the budget?''--they might even say, ``Is the President and the Congress 
serious about balancing the budget?''--three out of four people would 
respond negatively to that.
  So any thought of breaking this trust that is not easy to come by and 
is still building will send the wrong signals to our bosses, the 
taxpayers. Any thought of breaking this trust will send the wrong 
signal to the financial markets, with dire consequences, in my view.
  This budget resolution must help to address the cynicism of the 
public by continuing to show fiscal responsibility and gradually 
winning over those three out of four people who do not think, as a 
result of the bipartisan budget resolution last year, that we are 
really serious about a sound fiscal policy and continuing to balance 
the budget and to pay on the national debt.
  We have a historic opportunity then just by living by that agreement 
to do the most good for the American people, and we can continue that 
process by simply doing nothing because nothing should be done to break 
the budget caps. That is the fiscal discipline. Nothing should be done 
then to upset the financial markets. And we would do that if we were to 
not live by that agreement. Everything should be done to have the 
Federal Government live within its means, just as every American must 
do. Every family must balance their checkbook. Every small business or 
big business must show a profit, or it is soon out of business. And 
shaped with this is an old adage that at least my party has always 
lived by: ``The government that governs best governs least.'' That 
should be our bellwether as we continue the markup of this budget 
resolution in our committee. Never has this statement been more true 
than it is right now. Let us not squander the windfall opportunity that 
has been handed to us by the budget resolution of last year--the 
bipartisan budget resolution of last year. Let us not, by talking about 
giving tax decreases on the one hand or on the other hand by setting up 
eight new entitlement programs, as the President proposed, cause those 
three out of four people who do not believe we are going to be 
balancing the budget to be right by being skeptical about how Congress 
acts on these matters.
  We also have the opportunity to do what the President has asked us to 
do, and that is to strengthen the Social Security System. Until we have 
come to an agreement on how to make the Social Security System viable 
for future generations, we should not be spending this surplus. For 
now, then, doing nothing--in other words nothing new--not setting up 
eight new entitlement programs or not cutting taxes until we have 
the money in the pocket and we can plan for what we are really going to 
do--doing nothing the way things are done by paying off on the national 
debt, we will have the result then of that downpayment on the Federal 
debt for the first time since 1969.

  This country generally--but specifically the financial markets--has a 
great deal of confidence in a person

[[Page S2210]]

called Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the Fed. He strongly urged our 
Budget Committee when he appeared before it, and the Congress 
generally, to take this rare opportunity to pay down on the Federal 
debt. I think we should follow his very good advice. Paying down the 
debt will open up markets for private investors. That will help to 
reduce interest rates, which helps all of us, and particularly capital-
intensive industries like the small industries. Until the public and 
policymakers reach a much needed consensus on the future of the Social 
Security System, paying down the debt is the best way to protect Social 
Security and to maintain it for the baby-boom generation, and to put 
that system in a sound position as our population grows older--the 
longevity of our population, as well as the biggest demographic shift 
in the population of our country that is going to take place when the 
baby-boom generation retires in the year 2010.
  It has been somewhat amazing to me to have seen in the last several 
weeks the number of people with proposals to spend money that we don't 
have in our pockets yet. I am not only talking about the budget surplus 
but what to do with revenue--and we don't even know how much will come 
in--by the proposed tobacco settlement. Everyone wants a piece of the 
pie before it has even been baked. We don't even know how big the pie 
will ultimately be or if there will even be a pie to covet.
  It is irresponsible to spend money that is not in the bank. We ought 
to cool it and just wait and see if it is there. And, if it is there, 
then we can. Even if there is something to be done with it and you know 
exactly what it is and you can make wiser decisions of creating a new 
program or a wiser decision of how to reform taxes and to cut taxes, 
whether it is a surplus or the tobacco money--but particularly in the 
case of the tobacco money--using the proposed tobacco money to pay for 
specific programs before the money is in hand is the old smoke-and-
mirrors game. We must be responsible and wait to spend any tobacco 
money and not spend it until it is in the bank.
  In general, I think that Senator Domenici, the chairman of the Budget 
Committee, has put together a very good mark in regard to the 
possibility of doing something with taxes. He is not spending the 
surplus on any tax provisions of this budget. The Finance Committee, if 
it wants to change some taxes, has to find new money to pay for that. 
That is a responsible way to approach taxes. So the chairman's mark is 
a very good mark. If we have an opportunity on taxes, then we need to 
push for tax fairness.
  However, I strongly disagree with those who advocate large tax cuts 
that dig into the surplus that we don't even have in our pocket yet, 
and to do it at this point in time. The time for a large tax cut is 
after we have retired some of our national debt, giving the three out 
of four people in this country who do not believe that we are serious 
about balancing the budget an opportunity to know that we are. And the 
surest way to do that would be to pay down the national debt. This is 
how we can best serve all taxpayers.
  So let us not squander this chance to ease the debt burden. Let us 
use this windfall opportunity to provide a better future for our 
children. Like us, our children must also have the opportunity to 
realize their dreams and goals. And this budget should help to restore 
the American dream.
  The fiscal discipline which I talk about, which I think the Budget 
Committee will exercise this very day as we vote out the budget 
document, will have a lasting positive influence on our children's and 
grandchildren's future.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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