[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 543]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       THE BUDGET AND THE DEFICIT

  Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, I couldn't help but listen to the words 
of my friend from Alabama regarding the debt and deficit, and then to 
be reminded that we did balance the budget not too long ago. In fact, 
in 1993, we passed a tax bill here in the Senate and in the House--it 
was signed into law by President Clinton--which set us on a course to 
reduce the deficit. In fact, by the years 1999 and 2000, we balanced 
the budget. We had a surplus. Can you imagine that? We had a surplus 
for 3 years in a row. The Congressional Budget Office and OMB said that 
if we had continued on that pathway, we would have fully paid off the 
national debt by 2010.
  When I hear my friends on the Republican side talk about reducing the 
deficit and the debt, we did that. When the Democrats were in charge of 
the Senate and the House and we had the Presidency, I would also point 
out that not one Republican on that side of the aisle voted for that 
bill in 1993. I can remember standing here and debating with my friend 
from Texas at that time on this bill, and there were all kinds of dire 
warnings that if this bill passed, we were going to have depressions 
and recessions; the business community would stop, and it would be the 
worst thing that ever happened to this country if we passed the Clinton 
tax proposal. Well, we passed it, but without one Republican vote.
  And what happened? We had the largest spurt of economic growth this 
country had seen almost since the 1950s and 1960s. This was to the 
point to where, as I said, by the end of the 1990s we had a balanced 
budget and we had a surplus.
  Then President Bush comes into office, and we had surpluses, enough 
to retire the entire national debt by the year 2010. So what did 
President Bush say? Well, now we are going to give tax cuts. They 
pushed through this big tax cut bill for which this Senator did not 
vote.
  That tax cut bill gave a lot away to corporations and to the wealthy 
of this country, so that they didn't have to pay their fair share. 
Also, there were two wars we didn't pay for, plus a recession, and now 
we are in this huge deficit.
  We know how to get ourselves out of this fix. We did it in 1993. It 
was by having the people in this country pay their fair share of taxes, 
to make sure that corporations, to make sure that those who enjoy the 
benefits of living in this free and productive society, pay their fair 
share. This is for all of us to raise the revenues necessary to meet 
our obligations in education, health, infrastructure building, the 
security of our Nation, and also to raise enough revenues so we can 
reduce the deficit.
  But it can only be done with fairness and with fair sharing by all, 
and that is what President Obama has spoken about. He spoke about that 
in his inaugural address. That is what we have been talking about here 
for a long time; that is, shared sacrifice on behalf of all, and to 
make sure that all pay their fair share of taxes in this country so we 
can once again do what we did in 1993. We can do it again if only my 
friends on the Republican side will join with us in making sure we 
raise the necessary revenues to get us out of this hole.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Baldwin). The Senator from Missouri.

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