[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Page 22212]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           THE BUDGET SURPLUS

  Mr. NELSON of Florida. I compliment our chairman of the Budget 
Committee for the leadership he has given us and how steadfast he has 
been to be conservative in his outlook and his projections on what we 
should do with the projected budgetary surplus. It was the Senator from 
North Dakota, our chairman, who kept saying earlier this year: Watch 
out. These budget projections are too rosy. The budget, as projected 
over the next 10 years, is going to be considerably less.
  Isn't it astounding that before September 11 the debate was over the 
use of the surplus and whether to pay down or pay off the national debt 
over a 10-year period. Now we find ourselves in a shrunken surplus with 
a wartime condition.
  I also extend my compliments to the ranking member, our dear friend, 
the Senator from New Mexico.
  The point I want to make is how quickly the landscape shifts--that 
before September 11, if the Senate had taken the advice of the chairman 
of the Budget Committee, what we would have done would have been very 
conservative in our approach as to how we were going to use the 
projected surplus. We wouldn't have frittered a lot of it away.
  As the Senator from North Dakota has pointed out, that surplus was 
very likely to, if not disappear, be reduced. With the events of 
September 11, which put us on a wartime footing with new expenditures 
we had not planned on, combined with the diminished surplus--we were 
planning back in the summer to use the surplus to pay off the national 
debt. That is not even in the cards. Indeed, what is happening is the 
surplus that is left--the surplus in the Social Security trust fund--is 
going to be used up for other things to the point that we are facing 
the prospects of deficit financing, which is spending more than we have 
coming in in tax revenue in any one given year. That, of course, adds 
to the national debt.
  How sad it is that we did not take the advice of the chairman and be 
conservative in the way that we were going to plan our spending and our 
tax cuts for the next decade so that we would have a greater cushion 
when the emergency came, as surely as it was going to come, only it 
came sooner than we thought; it came on September 11.
  I thank the chairman for his leadership and for his knowledge about 
what this Nation is facing fiscally.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. CONRAD. I thank the Senator from Florida, who is a very valued 
member of the Senate Budget Committee and also throughout his career 
has been dedicated to fiscal discipline.
  We did make some mistakes earlier this year, unfortunately, 
collectively, in going too far, I believe, on the tax cut package in 
the face of a very optimistic set of forecasts but a set of forecasts 
over a 10-year period that I think almost anybody could have 
anticipated was unlikely to ever come true. We tried to warn our 
colleagues repeatedly that it was unlikely to come true; that you could 
not trust a 10-year forecast, that it was filled with risks, that it 
was filled with uncertainty, and we ought to be cautious.
  Unfortunately, caution was thrown to the wind, and as a result we now 
face a circumstance where we will have budget deficits in this fiscal 
year, and perhaps for several years thereafter, and for the next 10 
years we will see all of the Medicare trust fund money being used to 
fund the other operations of Government and a very substantial portion 
of the Social Security trust fund being used to fund the other 
operations of Government. That should not be done. That is a mistake.
  We will regret it when the baby boomers start retiring in 10 years 
because, unfortunately, we had a budget in place before September 11 
that did not add up, and now it is even further off in the red because 
of the tragic events of September 11 and the aftermath.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Clinton). The Senator from Florida.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Madam President, I would like to address the 
Senate on another subject in addition to the budget. It is my 
understanding we are in a period of morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Madam President, may I be recognized?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida is recognized.

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