Date: 1982-07-19
Speaker: ROBERT C. BYRD (democrat)
Chamber: S

Just recently. for example. we passed a budget resolution which provides for $104 bil. lion deficit in fiscal year 1983. a combined total of $248 billion in deficits for the next 3 years. a public debt amounting to $1.3 trillion in 1983. $1.4 trillion in 1984. and $1.5 trillion in 1985. I voted against that resolutionfor several reasons. one being that it called for $98 billion in new taxes. So after the President saw that he could not indeed bring about and he could not hope to achieve a balanced budget in fiscal year 1983. he iubmitted a budget which called for $91.5 billion in deficits. He later revised that upward to $101.9 billion. So what we have. in short. is the submission to this Congress by this President of the highest budget deficits in the history of this country. The highest deficit to occur to date was under the Ford administration. It was a $66 billion deficit. Now we have the highest deficits for the next 3 years that the country will have ever faced and that will make the budget deficit of $66 billion which occurred under President Ford pale in comparison. So now we find the President urging Congress to adopt a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. That is all well and good. I may or I may not vote for that constitutional amendment. depending upon the contents of the amendment. I wish to see the budget balanced. But we must not escape the fact that we need to balance the budget now. not years away. and that a constitutional amendment requires the ratification by threefourths of the States. which may take 3 years. 5 years. or 7 years. and that does not do the country any good today. We need to balance the budget now. So I say that the President. in shifting the focus to the need for a constitutional amendment. should not distract us from the immediate need to balance the budget this year or next year. The country cannot wait years. The passage of a constitutional amendment is not going to bring interest rates down because we are talking about something in the distant future. something that will go beyond even the term of President Reagan. perhaps even if he were elected for a second term. The massive deficits that confront this country are making Wall Street and the investors of this country tremble. They are uncertain. They are unsure. They know that when the Federal Government goes out into the marketplace to borrow. it is going to have to compete with the private sector for the limited amount of credit that there is in the savings pool. And this year we are told that the Federal Government will be out there borrowing 75 percent of the net new savings pool. give or take a little bit. So the talk of passage of a constitutional amendment may for a moment divert the attention of the American people away from the administrations imme diate problem which is here and with us now. but let us not lose sight of the fact that the problem is here and now and that the present President prom. ised that by 1984 his economic plan would result in a balanced budget. He first promised -it by 1983 if not by 1982. Then it became 1984. Then. of course. it was obvious that it was not going to be balanced even then. So while it is all very well and good that we discuss a constitutional amendment here todayas I say I may very well vote for a constitutional amendmentI wish to see an effective constitutional amendment. one that would effectively bring the budget of the United States into balance. But even with that laudable goal in mind we must not take our eyes off the fact that we need to balance the budget now not a decade away. This President promised to balance the budget now. first in 1983 if not 1982. and then by Yet he sends to Congress the biggest deficits that the country has ever seen. We are confronted with historic. monumental. colossal deficits that will make the deficits under President Ford of $66 billion pale by comparison. So I say that the President shares this responsibility. He shares it with Congress and Congress shares it with him. I think there has been enough passing the buck. Let us just admit that we both share in this responsibility and it seems to me if we are going to have a constitutional amendment to balance the budget it should be made indubitably clear in that constitutional amendment that the President has the responsibility of submitting to Congress a balanced budget. Congress does not have the tools and Congress does not have the facilities to go out here and have the field operations of the various executive agencies conduct studies. conduct the hearings. and mediate between agencies and the departments and the departments and OMB and the OMB and the President. Congress does not have those facilities and those tools. All of those tools and those facilities are in the hands of the executive branch. And as I say that cycle begins 9 months prior to the submission of the budget for a given fiscal year by the President. So let us not have any of this business that it is the responsibility of Congress to balance the budget and stop there. It is the dual responsibility of Congress and the President to balance the budget. if it can be balanced. We are simply attempting to ignore a fact if we do not recognize that that budget cycle begins in the executive branch and begins 18 months in advance of a fiscal year at the very field levels. at the local levels. down at the grassroots. That is where it begins. and it is in the executive branch. not the congressional branch. where the grassroots field operations begin that process. So. if we are going to talk about a balanced budget. then let us start where it should startat the beginning. at the local level and the field operations and up through the executive agencies and up through departments and up through the Office of Management and Budget. and so on. and then let the President bear the responsibility of submitting to Congress a balanced budget. If after having done all that. if there have to be changes. if the budget cannot be balanced. then let us share that responsibility. So I say that the distinguished Senator from Kentucky is eminently correct and has acted appropriately in highlighting this issue in the context of the amendment that he has offered. There must be a willingness on the part of the President. not just to travel to the other end of the avenue and stand on the steps of the Capitol on this Hill. There must also be a willingness on the part of the President to share this responsibility from its inciplency. He sets the pace. The budget process traditionally begins with submission of the budget to Congress by the President. but it begins long before that. 9 months prior to the submission of that printed document which comes up here and is brought in this door and turned over to the committees. It begins 9 months before that. and within the executive branch. The President sets the pace. He leads the way. Some say that the process set forth in this amdendment is implicit in the constitutional amendment. Why not make it explicit? It is implicit that the President is the Commander in Chief. but it Is also explicit that he is the Commander in Chief. So I support the pending amendment by the distinguished Senator from Kentucky. I hope that it will be voted up or down and that there will not be a tabling motion. This is not to say that any Senator does not have the right to move to table. I have talked with the distinguished majority leader and with the distinguished Senator from South Carolina in the interest of having an up or down vote. I know it is perfectly agreeable with the majority leader. and I have an impression it is agreeable with the Senator from South Carolina but I would not want to make a definite statement to that end because I cannot presume to be absolutely sure about that. But I would hope we would have an upordown vote on the amendment. I think it is a good amendment. and I compliment the Senator from Kentucky for proposing it. and I hope it will be adopted.