Date: 1996-09-11
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

I thank the gentleman for yielding. I appreciate the opportunity to visit with the gentleman tonight and talk about this $548 billion tax cut that has become a political issue around the country. In fact I know the gentleman mentioned that Senator Dole was here today talking to the Republican leadership. and during that time I heard that he had mentioned that this whole campaign is about trust. I thought it was appropriate in that trust is important. whether you are running for the White House or Members of Congress or whatever elected office you have. But I noticed he wants us to believe that the $548 billion tax cut will not lead to higher budget deficits and increased interest rates. The gentleman mentioned earlier that the tax cuts will not work without getting into social programs like Medicare and maybe Social Security. But let us look at history. The gentleman mentioned the $245 billion tax cut last year where Medicare was on the table to be cut. This year. at least this fall. nobody is talking about it on the Republican side because they want to wait until after the election before they come back and put that on the chopping block. But since Senator Dole talked about it. this campaign is about trust. It is really kind of hard. with what you have said. to talk about trust when you see what happened last year with the $245 billion tax cuts and the $270 billion. even using their terminology. the $270 billion cut in growth in Medicare spending. But again let us talk about that growth in Medicare spending. If you have 10 million. for example. people receiving Medicare today. and 5 years from now you have 25 million that may be expected. these are numbers we pick out of the air. and we are not planning for that growth. then it is a cut. I know it is sometimes hard to explain that to folks. But let me mention today I saw in the New York Times the architect of the Reagan tax cut plan in the early 1980s. Murray Weidenbaum. said of Senator Doles proposed tax cuts: Cutting income taxes alone is not going to energize the economy sufficiently to prevent a rise in the budget deficit. This last Sunday on "Meet the Press." another architect or budget adviser. Richard Darman. who worked under both Presidents Reagan and Bush. reminded us that Reagan had to raise taxes five times after enacting the very popular 1981 tax cuts to make up for that lost revenue. and we still had our debt and deficit mushroom in the 1980s. even after five tax increases. after 1981. If my colleagues are building a campaign on trust. then let us look back at the past decade or two decades and see where that trust would be. I think the gentleman mentioned it. Senator DAMATO mentioned that under the Dole plan. funding for such programs like Medicare would definitely be affected. In fact his quote is. he went so far as to say: "Im not running this year so I can say it and tell the truth." I do not think that is what people in America want when they talk about trust. when they talk about all of us want a tax cut but we also want to balance the budget. Let me even quote another former U.S. Senator. Senator Warren Rudman from New Hampshire agrees when he says. "Unless you are willing to do some major reforms in entitlements. there is no way you can do this." What is an entitlement? That is a word in Washington we use but in our districts. entitlements are Social Security. they are Medicare. they are programs that people depend on to make sure they can have the quality of life that they should have. My concern is why is Senator Dole not telling the American people that that is what he wants to do for $540 billion in tax cuts. when they got burned last year by trying to do $245 billion. so they doubled it almost? And they are still going to attack Medicare. education. student loans. If you are building a campaign on trust. let us talk about that. Let us talk about it before November 5. instead of waiting until after a new Congress comes in. and then making those cuts.