[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16949-16950]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                                TAX CUTS

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, on the floor of the Senate today, 
yesterday in a press conference at the White House, today in a press 
conference, and this afternoon, the President of the United States will 
end about 48 hours of White House attack on tax cut proposals that 
Republicans have put forth. We are very grateful, however, that some 
Democrats are now espousing the same --in particular, in the Senate. 
The whole idea of the attack is, we don't have enough surplus to give 
the American people a tax break.
  I hope the American people understand the contentions made by the 
President, by the Secretary of the Treasury, by those on the floor 
today from the other side who debated it. I hope they understand that 
this is an attack that should be called ``anything but taxes.'' That is 
the philosophy of those who are attacking what we are trying to do--
anything but taxes.
  For those who think we don't have enough resources, I will take some 
time today, both on the floor and in other places here at the Capitol, 
to explain that, indeed, it is a prudent plan. Indeed, there are 
sufficient resources, and there are sufficient resources in the 
broadest sense, to take care of our commitment to Social Security. We 
have done that. We want a lockbox, and we can't get it passed in this 
Senate. There is ample money for reform of the Medicare system to 
include prescription drugs.
  We will also today let the American people know that the 
Congressional Budget Office believes the President's prescription drugs 
are not going to cost only $48 billion in new money; their estimate is 
they could cost $118 billion--a very important difference, more than 
double the amount. The point of all this is the contention that we 
can't take care of the rest of government if we have a tax cut.
  I will just use a round number here. My recollection is that the 
surplus is $3.9 trillion--people can't even fathom $3.9 trillion--over 
the next decade. To put it in perspective, the entire budget of the 
United States on an annual basis, including Social Security payments, 
Medicare payments, all of the appropriated accounts, is about $1.8 to 
$1.9 trillion. Almost twice the total expenditures of the Federal 
Government in a given year is the surplus accumulating, according to 
the best estimators and best economists we can put on this issue--
experts at both the Office of Management and Budget and Congressional 
Budget Office.
  I quickly penned some figures. If we have $3.9 trillion in surplus 
and we want a tax cut over a 10-year period of $782 billion, that is 20 
percent of the surplus that would be given back to the American people 
by way of tax cuts and tax changes. That will make for better economic 
sense in the future.
  That is a rough number. That is a gross number. However, it puts it 
in perspective. We ask the question, Where is the rest of it going? We 
will share in detail what we say it is going for and what the 
Congressional Budget Office says the President's budget is going to be 
used for. It will be an interesting comparison.
  For those on the other side and those in the White House--including 
the Secretary of the Treasury--who think they will have free rein 
making their case, which in my opinion is extremely partisan, it is 
Democrats in the White House, including the Secretary of the Treasury, 
who are saying, ``We are not for tax cuts,'' and making every kind of 
excuse in the world to avoid it.
  We will make sure that our side of this is understood. We believe if 
we don't have a significant tax cut adopted now for the next decade, 
all that surplus will be spent. We can already see it in plans coming 
from the White House. We can already see it in the current budget of 
the President extended over a decade as estimated by the Congressional 
Budget Office.
  I thank the Senate for giving me a little bit of time this morning. I 
clearly did not today present our case in its totality. I want 
everybody to know there is another side to the partisan antitax fever 
that will be coming out of the White House the next couple of weeks. 
That is what it is. It is a ferocious attack on anyone who wants to 
give back taxes to the American people, using all kinds of arguments, 
even if they are totally partisan, one-sided exaggerations.
  We won't get as much news because the President's press conference 
will be heralded everywhere. Before we are finished, we will have a few 
spokesmen tell the American people what this is about. I wish we had an 
opportunity to present what we are going to present today to the House. 
I wish we could do

[[Page 16950]]

it in a joint meeting to the public. The concern that there is not 
enough money for discretionary appropriations in defense is wrong. The 
notion that there is not enough money for Medicare--be it the 
President's $48 billion or the $118 billion that the CBO says a plan 
such as the President's would cost--is not so.
  In these 5 minutes, that is the best I can do. I don't have charts. 
They prepared their charts for use today and hereafter. We will use 
them. Frankly, attacks on the budget resolution by the White House 
should get thrown in the wastebasket. If Members want to attack a 
budget, attack the President's budget and see what he did with all this 
surplus. See what the Congressional Budget Office says he will do with 
all this surplus. We know what we will do. We will lock up $1.9 
trillion for Social Security. That leaves a very large amount for 
defense, education, and other areas--indeed, a very significant amount 
for Medicare, if we choose to reform it, and a tax cut about the size 
proposed in the budget resolution approved here.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative assistant proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. KYL. Mr. 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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