[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 21197-21198]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                       REDUCING THE FEDERAL DEBT

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I know the Senator from Maine is waiting 
to speak on the floor. Let me just take 2 or 3 minutes. I will be 
mercifully brief. I wanted to make a couple of comments, however, 
before we discontinue this session for the week, especially in light of 
the comments that were just made by my distinguished colleague from 
Texas.
  We have returned from an August recess in which most of us spent a 
great deal of time in our home States around America talking to our 
constituents about their hopes and their dreams and their aspirations.
  One of the things I found in North Dakota is that people believe very 
strongly that if this country is blessed with better economic times--
and we certainly have had good economic times in recent years--that 
produce a budget surplus, we ought to as a country decide to use a 
significant part of that surplus to reduce the Federal debt. If during 
bad economic times you increase the Federal debt, during good economic 
times you ought to reduce the Federal debt.
  We have a $5.7 trillion Federal debt. We have been very fortunate to 
eliminate the yearly Federal budget deficit, but we still have this 
debt that we have run up as a country over many years. It seems to me 
that one of the best thing for America's future to use some of the 
expected future surplus to reduce this debt.
  But it is important in the context of a discussion of the type we 
just heard about tax cuts to understand the following: There is not yet 
a surplus. There are only economists who estimate in the next 10 years 
we will have a surplus. These are economists who don't know what will 
happen in the future. They do not have the foggiest notion. They are 
giving us an educated guess.
  Prior to the last recession in America, 35 of the 40 leading 
economists said in the next year we will have sustained economic 
growth. In fact, almost all of the leading economists were wrong. The 
next year we had a recession.
  A friend of my mine described the field of economics as psychology 
pumped up with a little helium. That is probably a pretty good 
description. I, in fact, taught economics for a couple of years. 
Economists are telling us that we will have 10 years of economic good 
times and therefore very large budget surpluses. On that basis, we have 
people in this Congress who say: Well, if that is the case, let us 
enact a very sizable tax cut.
  So the Congress enacted a $792 billion tax cut over 10 years, this 
despite the fact that we don't yet have a budget surplus, we only have 
projections of budget surpluses.
  I voted against the $792 billion proposed tax cut. It is, in my 
judgment, unwise to cut taxes and therefore decrease revenues when we 
don't have actual surpluses, only projections. There is plenty of time 
in the future to deal with surpluses, if in fact they exist. And if we 
can't agree on how to deal with them and the best of all worlds will 
occur, it will mean that the Federal debt is reduced because Congress 
doesn't decide what else to do with the surplus.
  It is interesting that with all of this discussion in August back 
home around the country, I think most Members of the Senate discovered 
that their constituents believed that to rush to propose a very sizable 
tax cut with only an economic projection over the next 10 years was not 
a very thoughtful or appropriate way to deal with this country's fiscal 
policy.

[[Page 21198]]

  We have had good fiscal policy in this country that has given some 
people the confidence that we are doing the right things. Almost 7 
years ago, we had an enormous annual Federal budget deficit. It was 
$290 billion, and it was growing. Now it is gone. Why? Because this 
Congress had the courage to say we are not going to put up with that 
anymore. We are going to change direction and strategy. And we did. We 
had a vote. By one vote in the Senate, we changed this country's fiscal 
policy. It was a tough vote and a political vote. An easy vote would 
have been to say: Don't count me in on that. It actually raised taxes 
on income for some folks. Don't count me in on that. That is unpopular. 
Well, count me in. I voted for it. I am proud that I did. It was the 
right thing. This country was on the wrong track.
  We changed the approach to fiscal policy and said to the American 
people that we were willing to do tough things. We were willing to make 
tough decisions. Guess what happened. The American people, I think as a 
result, have more confidence in the future. This entire economy rests 
on the mattress of confidence. If they are confident, they do certain 
things. If they are confident, they buy a car, they buy a home, they 
take a vacation, and do the kind of things that move this economy 
along. If they are not confident about the future, they decide not to 
make those decisions, they decide to withhold this purchase, or that 
purchase, and it affects the economy.
  What we did about 7 years ago dramatically changed the fiscal policy 
of this country. This country has had unprecedented economic expansion, 
and a huge and growing Federal budget deficit is now eliminated.
  What remains is the Federal debt that occurred from all of those 
years of spending. The question is, What should we do about that? The 
answer for many in this Senate who voted to pass a tax cut was to say 
what we should do about that is essentially ignore that; let's provide 
a very large tax cut right now just based on projections by economists 
who often cannot even remember their home address. That is not good 
policy. I am pleased that I voted against it.
  I think most Americans believe that the right approach for this 
Congress is to continue on this path we are on of good solid fiscal 
policy, believing that if and when we have true, good economic times 
and significant budget surpluses, a major part of that ought to be used 
to reduce the Federal debt. What greater gift can we give to America's 
children than to eliminate the Federal debt of $5.7 trillion?
  Let me thank my colleague from Maine. She has been most patient. I 
yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
  (The remarks of Ms. Collins pertaining to the introduction of S. 1576 
are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, seeing no one seeking recognition, I 
suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Vermont.

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