[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 146 (Wednesday, October 14, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12477-S12478]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                THE WHITE HOUSE IS SPENDING THE SURPLUS

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, last night there was an interesting 
discussion on CNN. It went something like this:
  The White House is now spending the surplus--the surplus that the 
President, a few months ago, said had to be guaranteed for only Social 
Security. I am told that the White House immediately responded by 
saying: Oh, no, no, no, the White House isn't spending the surplus. 
Surpluses don't exist until after you have had all of the emergency 
spending you need.
  In other words, the White House has now come to the Hill to ask for 
upwards of $20 billion worth of surplus

[[Page S12478]]

spending that is now emergency spending, that isn't called surplus and, 
therefore, doesn't count against application to the trust funds of 
Social Security.
  Now, while the President's legions are up here in negotiations over 
in Speaker Newt Gingrich's office, the President is still out on the 
stump accusing Republicans of wanting to spend the surplus. The 
President has effectively, by Democrat action here on the floor, denied 
the taxpayers a reasonable tax cut this year. And while there are some 
necessary moneys to be spent in surplus spending for emergencies--such 
as disaster-related emergencies, the emergency of the commodity price 
crises in agriculture--nobody has denied that that wasn't surplus money 
and that in fact we are spending a little bit of that surplus, a very 
small amount of that surplus, to address some very real national needs. 
But no Republican has even tried to suggest that the surplus isn't the 
surplus until we have spent all of it, or a portion of it, and that 
what is left over becomes the surplus.

  Mr. President, this is a doublespeak of yours that we are somehow, as 
a Nation, getting used to: Is ``is''? No; the surplus is the surplus. 
That is the money that remains unappropriated at the end of a fiscal 
year. That is the money that, collectively, the budget process of 
Congress, the appropriating process of Congress, says is not needed; it 
is not necessary to spend that money.
  So now we are attempting something uniquely different. Now we are 
attempting to once again redefine, at least in the eyes of the 
President and this administration, what a surplus is. I think we will 
let the American people decide what that is. You see, we know what 
``is'' is. And ``is,'' in this case, is the money that the budget 
process suggests is not appropriated beyond its normal channels, and 
that we have determined can be upward of $60 billion worth of surplus 
this year, that the President in his budget message to Congress 
emphatically said had to be spent on Social Security, and that this 
Congress, in a very real and bipartisan way, said, yes, it is a good 
idea and should be done, because most of us agree that we are in a 
unique time--if not a historically opportune time--in our country, and 
that is to use our surplus, to use the surplus that was produced by a 
balanced budget that we worked so hard to accomplish--can be used to 
make major changes, not only in our tax law and tax policy, but now the 
unique opportunity to reform Social Security, not only to save it, 
secure it, and maintain it for those who become the immediate 
recipients of it, but so that our children and our grandchildren will 
be investing in a Social Security system that is worth investing in, so 
that they are not denied real return on their investment--25 cents on 
the dollar, as will be the case for our grandchildren today if we don't 
reform Social Security. We want them to get $1.50 or $2 back on their 
investment, as they should be allowed to do.
  So what is ``is,'' Mr. President, and what is surplus doesn't allow 
your definition. It isn't what is left over when you get through 
spending on all of the additional social programs that you want to 
spend it on.
  Just a few moments ago, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle 
held a very interesting press conference. They called it a ``do-nothing 
Congress.'' They denied that we had spent the money necessary to fund 
all of the social programs. Mr. President, in 1994 the American people 
spoke most profoundly when they changed Congress and said they wanted a 
new agenda, they wanted a balanced budget, they wanted us to reform 
Social Security, and they wanted the influence and the impact of the 
Federal Government on our lives and on our pocketbooks lessened. That 
is exactly what this Congress has been doing. Yet, of course, now that 
we have accomplished those goals, now that our economy and our lessened 
Government spent less of the money and our economy generates more money 
and we have a unique opportunity of surplus, the President now sees 
that opportunity--sees it or seizes it, I am not sure at this moment.
  Let me suggest, Mr. President, that what is is. Surplus is surplus. 
It isn't what is left over after you get through spending. That is 
exactly what the President and the White House tried to engage in last 
night, a whole new definition. We have watched this President try to 
redefine a lot of things over the last good number of months--from the 
word ``is,'' now to the word ``surplus.'' Mr. President, surplus is 
surplus. It is when the Congress works the budget process, and that is 
concluded in a bipartisan fashion, that we determine what surplus is. 
So I think it is terribly important that we finalize our work here. 
Those negotiations are now underway. Yes, some surplus money will be 
spent in emergency. What is left over at the end will be surplus. But 
you don't start the game by redefining the fact. That is how we deal 
with it. That is how we must deal with it. And it is very important 
that we stay with that.

  I am proud of the record of the Republican Congress--a balanced 
budget, welfare reform--major changes--and new dollars into education, 
education controlled at the local and State level and not new, grand 
programs here at the national level. Those are the issues about which 
we are talking. Those are the issues with which we must deal.
  I hope we can conclude those quickly, adjourn this Congress, and be 
able to announce to the American taxpayer that they can rest assured 
that our effort is to control Government spending, the size of 
Government, and the impact it has on their pocketbook.
  With those comments, I yield the floor.

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