[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 126 (Tuesday, October 1, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S9703]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   IMPOSING BUDGET ENFORCEMENT RULES

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, yesterday marked the end of the fiscal 
year, and, absent action by the Senate, it will also mark the end of a 
fiscal discipline system that has served this country very well for 
more than a decade.
  Earlier this year, we had a chance to pass a budget blueprint for 
2003. It was jointly co-sponsored by Senators Conrad and Domenici, the 
chair and ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee. It received 59 
votes. one vote short of passage. It would have done exactly what 
everyone in this chamber knows we should do. It would have extended the 
pay-as-you-go rules and the other points of order that have helped 
enforce at least some measure of fiscal discipline around here since 
1990.
  When we voted in the spring, many Republicans voted ``no,'' citing 
the total amount for 2003 discretionary spending. That issue has been 
removed from the current effort to extend the budget enforcement rules, 
and there is no longer any plausible reason to oppose a simple 
extension of the points of order.
  Prior to the time President George H.W. Bush signed the budget act 
into law in 1990, there were no procedural barriers to the most 
irresponsible fiscal propositions. Spending proposals could be offered 
without any consideration for offsetting their budgetary affects. Tax 
cuts could be implemented without the slightest thought for their long-
term consequences. Enormous fiscal damage could be inflicted with a 
simple majority vote.
  The 1990 Budget Act ended the bad old days, and it did so with 
overwhelming bipartisan support. It has subsequently been extended each 
time it expired whether the Senate was in Democratic or Republican 
hands.
  It should be extended here today.
  I think we all know that the budgetary trend of the last year has 
been profoundly negative. For many years, the two parties have 
disagreed vehemently about the most fundamental aspects of our 
country's spending and tax policies--and we will continue to disagree. 
But the times when we were able to restore fiscal balance, like we did 
in the 1990s, were the times when both parties agreed to retain basic 
discipline at the procedural level. We very much need to agree to that 
right now.
  Democrats will continue to press for adoption of the Conrad-Domenici 
budget enforcement resolution as soon as possible, and we urge all 
Senators to support it.

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