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[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 86 (Tuesday, May 23, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7236-S7237]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                       A MOST CONSEQUENTIAL VOTE

  Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, this Senate is now less than 24 hours from 
one of the most consequential votes it has taken literally in decades. 
Sometime late tomorrow, it will have the opportunity for the first time 
in more than 25 years to vote for a budget resolution which will very 
clearly and very decisively put this country on a path to a balanced 
budget. Already, we have seen the positive impact of the very fact that 
this debate has begun. We have seen it in an increase once again in the 
value of the dollar, a value that collapsed on the occasion of the 
failure of the balanced budget amendment. We have seen it in lower 
interest rates, lower interest rates that mean that more and more 
Americans now can purchase the home of their dreams, can borrow money 
to begin or to expand a small business, can begin those businesses 
which will provide opportunities for others.
  This has taken place just because for the first time the people of 
the United States believe that this new Congress, the House and the 
Senate, are serious about terminating a state of affairs in which each 
year we add $200, $250, and $300 billion to the burdens imposed upon 
our children and grandchildren for spending for programs we are 
unwilling to pay for.
  And yet, in spite of the lip service given by almost all Members to 
the abstract desirability of a balanced budget, resistance will 
continue in a rear guard action, in close votes on the floor of this 
body, from those who are absolutely dedicated to the status quo, who 
feel that while maybe it might be a good idea someday to have a 
balanced budget, not, O Lord, in our time, not with our votes. Or, if 
it is desirable to do it now, always in a different way than that 
proposed by what I confidently expect to be a majority of this body 
tomorrow evening.
  Now, Mr. President, I do not think it appropriate for us to disguise 
the fact that there will be programs reduced, cut, the growth slowed in 
programs that provide desirable dollars for a wide range of interest 
groups in this country, and they will let their views be heard. They 
are represented eloquently by Members of this body who can see the 
trees or perhaps the leaves on the trees but not the forest itself, for 
whom a balanced budget, fiscal responsibility, the exercise of a moral 
responsibility to our children and grandchildren not further to subject 
them to debt is less important than a particular group or a particular 
program.
  And so this contest which began at the beginning of this Congress and 
will reach one of its climactic votes tomorrow is a contrast between 
those who believe in, who speak for, who demand a different and more 
responsible direction for this country and those who, like the 
President of the United States, simply believe that the status quo is 
perfectly all right. Their view is the single worst thing we could 
possibly do would be to return a single dollar now being taken in the 
form of taxes from any group in the American people to the pockets of 
those American people even if that dollar came from a fiscal dividend 
resulting from a balanced [[Page S7237]] budget, came because we will 
pay less in interest on the national debt as interest rates decline, 
came because the economy grew and more people were at work at better 
jobs as a result of what we do.
  It is ironic that the President's chief economic adviser, Laura 
Tyson, is quoted as having said recently,

       Any effort to reduce Government spending takes a dollar out 
     of the economy which means a dollar in reduction in demand in 
     the economy so it increases the contractionary risks on the 
     economy.

  Mr. President, I think that states all too well the views of this 
administration and of those who oppose this budget resolution. Their 
view is that the only real prosperity comes from dollars spent by the 
Federal Government. In fact, that statement by Ms. Tyson is so 
extraordinary that one would expect her to suggest to us that we 
perhaps spend another $100 billion during the course of this year 
borrowed from whoever would lend it to us because obviously that is the 
road to prosperity. If we cannot subtract $1 billion because it will 
have a contractionary effect, presumably we add $1 billion or $10 
billion or $100 billion so we can spend our way into prosperity. But 
that is exactly what this administration has been doing, and it does 
not work.
  Not only will this budget benefit the economy, not only will it mean 
more dollars in the pockets of individuals as they look to purchase 
their homes or start or expand their businesses or look for new 
opportunities, it will also mean a discipline on the Government itself. 
Perhaps we will not end up having 163 different and competing job 
training programs. Perhaps we will not have dozens or more of competing 
specific kinds of educational programs or subsidies for one business or 
group or another. Perhaps--and I am convinced this will be the case--we 
will use this budget to reform the Medicare health insurance fund so 
that it will actually be there in 7 years for the people who need that 
hospital insurance. Certainly this administration has ignored 
completely the voices of its own trustees of the Medicare hospital 
insurance fund who have told us and the administration that something 
must be done or that insurance fund will go bankrupt.
 But that is later; that is in the time of another President, another 
Congress; they can worry about it.

  That seems to be the status-quo view which we are fighting so 
diligently to change.
  So, Mr. President, it is well worth our while, well worth the while 
of those Senators who have chosen to be here this evening to take one 
last opportunity to speak to their colleagues and to the country about 
the radical change in direction that we propose, a direction of fiscal 
responsibility, a direction of exercising our responsibilities to 
future generations, a direction which can lead us to prosperity, a 
direction which can benefit every citizen in this country. That, on the 
one hand, and, on the other hand, a passionate defense of the status 
quo: Nothing is wrong with this Government; all of the programs it has 
ought to be continued; we cannot do anything; we should go on automatic 
pilot.
  That is a disappointing set of criticisms of our society today, Mr. 
President. It is not what last fall's election was about. I hope that 
with the help of the majority of my colleagues that tomorrow a majority 
in this U.S. Senate will put this country on a different path, a path 
that it has not trod for many years, a path to a better America.
  Mr. ASHCROFT addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.

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