[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 24783-24784]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                              THE DEFICIT

  Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, I have been following the debate between 
the two Presidential candidates and notice that the Vice President 
wants to take full credit for paying down the deficit. At the time that 
the legislation went through the Congress, the President's proposal was 
a tax increase, and it was a proposal to increase spending in 1993.
  I served on the Budget Committee in the House and I expressed at that 
time in reality this was not a tax to cut the deficit; it was a tax to 
increase spending. As members of the House Budget Committee, we had 
pointed out at that time that it was going to create a $2 billion 
deficit as far as the mind's eye could see.
  So now we have the Vice President on the campaign trail taking credit 
for having eliminated the deficit. In reality, what it was, it was the 
Republican Congress. In 1993, when this was passed, Democrats 
controlled the Senate, Democrats controlled the House, and Democrats 
were in control of the Presidency. This passed by a very narrow margin 
in the House. Not one Republican voted for it. It came over to the 
Senate and would not have passed the Senate if at that time the Vice 
President, Al Gore, had not voted for the budget proposal which, in 
effect, was going to maintain the deficit at $200 billion.
  So I wanted to bring some facts to the floor in that regard. I 
thought it was important I do that.
  This year, in July, just before we were ready to adjourn, the 
assistant minority leader pointed out that I made a comment at one time 
and my comment was, about the President's plan in 1992, which we were 
voting on:

       In summary, the plan has a fatal flaw--it does not reduce 
     the deficit.

  Today I am standing up on the Senate floor to stand by my remarks 
because, if we look historically, that plan did not reduce the deficit. 
In fact, I repeat, Al Gore's record is that of a tax hike because he is 
the one who voted for this--his vote alone. Al Gore would like to have 
you believe that actually what he was doing was putting in place a plan 
to eliminate the deficit.
  I point out there is no document in the Clinton-Gore administration 
that exists that shows the largest tax hike--and that is what this 
was--the largest

[[Page 24784]]

tax hike in American history did, or would have, or could ever have 
balanced the budget--not one document.
  I have here before me ``A Vision of Change For America.'' This is 
dated February 17, 1993. This is the President's plan on how he was 
going to eliminate the deficit. If we look at that, on page 22 of that 
document, we see the projected deficit 5 years out, from 1993, is $241 
billion, despite all the rhetoric and how it is going to pay down the 
deficit with the tax increase.
  Then, in September of the same year, in 1993, if we look on page 34 
of the ``Mid-Session Review'' of the 1994 budget, we see the projected 
deficit out to 1998 is $181 billion.
  Then, if we look at the budget of the U.S. Government proposed for 
1995, proposed in 1994, again, on page 13 of that particular document 
we see the projected deficit, 5 years out from the date of that 
document, is $181 billion again. It is flat-lining out at approximately 
$200 billion a year.
  Then we have another document that was published in 1994, the ``Mid-
Session Review'' of the 1995 budget. On page 3 of that document, it 
shows that the deficit, 5 years out from that date, is projected to be 
$207 billion. This is deficit spending. This is where you are going in, 
on any one fiscal year, and you are spending more than what you bring 
in, in revenues.
  Then, following out through the first couple of years since his 
proposal, we look at the document, ``The Budget Of The U.S. Government, 
Fiscal Year 1996.'' If we look on page 2 of that particular document, 
we see the projected deficit for the year 2000, 5 years out, was $194 
billion.
  Then, in the Mid-Session Review on that particular budget, Mid-
Session Review of the 1996 budget, we see the projected deficit 5 years 
out on that document is $235 billion in 2005.
  If you recall, in 1996 we had the Republican Congress elected. Under 
pressure from the Republicans in the Congress, the President finally 
admitted that his plan was not going to eliminate the deficit. So, in 
working with the Republican Congress, a new plan was beginning to be 
put in place. That is what this chart reflects. It reflects two things. 
The red part is this projected deficit that was passed by the President 
and the Congress and put into law. As we can see, it is about $200 
billion deficit spending. This is a tax increase, the largest tax 
increase in the history of this country.
  Then we see the Republicans come into power in 1996, and what 
happens, which is reflected by this black line, is that the deficits 
dramatically are reduced, and then we find, a little past 1997, 
actually we are beginning to get some surpluses until where we are at 
2000, where we have the huge surpluses we are dealing with today.
  I think the wrong person is taking credit for this. It is the 
Republican Congress that made a difference on deficit spending. It was 
not the largest tax increase in the history of this country which was 
passed in the Senate, here, by the Vice President. So this is a summary 
of what happened 2 years after the largest tax hike in history. 
Finally, Clinton and Gore admitted America was still 10 years away and 
almost $1 trillion short of a balanced budget.
  It is not just their documents I demonstrated with on the floor of 
the Senate. In their own words, they verify this. During the signing 
ceremony on the largest tax hike in history, not a word was uttered by 
President Clinton about balancing the budget or saving Social Security 
or paying off the national debt. At that time, the Republican plan was 
we really needed to have dramatic changes if we were going to make a 
difference in saving Social Security, eliminating the deficit, and 
paying down the debt. But all the plan we got out of Al Gore and the 
administration was that we increased taxes and we would eliminate the 
deficit, and it was not working because they also increased spending.
  If we look at the President's comments at the signing of the Omnibus 
Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, on August 10 of 1993--this is from a 
book entitled ``Public Papers of the President, William J. Clinton,'' 
1993, volume 2, page 1355. If you read through his comments and examine 
his remarks, not once was a word uttered about balancing the budget, 
saving Social Security, or even paying off the national debt. Thus, Al 
Gore's tax hike was actually no act of heroism. What it really was, was 
a tax-and-spend vote instead of a tax to end the deficit.
  So I wanted to address that issue here on the floor of the Senate.
  In summation, Mr. President, no Clinton-Gore budget document from 
February 13, 1993, through July 28, 1995, ever shows a balanced budget 
resulting from Mr. Gore's record tax hike. No Clinton-Gore budget 
document from February 13, 1993, through July 28, 1995, ever shows a 
Social Security surplus being saved from Mr. Gore's record tax hike. 
And no Clinton-Gore budget document from February 13, 1993, through 
July 28, 1995, ever shows debt reduction or elimination resulting from 
Mr. Gore's record tax hike. Yet Al Gore now claims and lectures as if 
he actually created this surplus.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana is recognized.

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