The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS AND RESCISSIONS ACT OF 1995” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S3645-S3649 on March 8, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS AND RESCISSIONS ACT OF 1995
The Senate continued with the consideration of the bill.
Amendment No. 326, as Modified
Mr. MACK. Mr. President, is the pending business the Helms amendment?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.
Mr. MACK. The Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.
[[Page S3646]] Mr. MACK. Thank you, Mr. President.
Mr. President, the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act is designed to once and for all bring about the end of the Castro regime in Cuba.
Senator Dole and Senator Helms and my colleagues were forced to act quickly to bring this measure to the Senate floor last night because word had seeped out of the Clinton administration that administration officials have recommended that the President move to lift certain sanctions on the Castro regime and hold out a list of steps leading to bilateral talks between the United States and Cuba.
The introduction of this bill in Congress is a message to the President: Just do not do it. Just do not do it.
In fact, people are saying that what has happened is there is a trial balloon that is being floated out there to see how it might sell, how it might fly. Well, I would suggest that the President of the United States himself ought to pop that balloon. This is not the time to be talking about opening a discussion with Fidel Castro and entering into normal relations.
What possible justification could the administration have for removing even the slightest pressure from the Castro regime? How can anyone argue that the way to end repression in Cuba is to end the regime's isolation when Cuba will not even allow the visit of one man? That one man is an individual by the name of Carl-Johan Groth, the U.N. special rapporteur assigned to investigate Cuba's human rights records.
Let me put that in perspective. The United Nations has assigned an individual as a result of a series of resolutions that were passed in Geneva condemning Fidel Castro and Cuba for its human rights violations. For years they have been trying to get someone into Cuba to investigate these human rights violations and Cuba has denied entrance, access, to Cuba of this U.N. special rapporteur.
Groth, though denied an entry visa, has made a--I am quoting now from an editorial in the Miami Herald of 4 days ago--``harrowing compilation of violations of political and civil rights, arbitrary arrests, intimidation of the opposition and political prisoners kept in woeful conditions.''
His report describes the July sinking of a tugboat full of refugees fleeing Cuba. The tug, attacked off the Cuban coast, sank. Most aboard, including men, women, and children drowned.
I think my colleagues will remember that we discussed this issue on the floor of the Senate last year.
Fidel Castro puts his faith in the tirelessness of some policymakers who, not living in the hell Castro has created, search for new avenues for negotiation, dialog, and compromise with a dictator who has outlasted administration after administration. I say to those who want to find those new avenues, when will they ever learn?
I put my faith in the Cuban people who continue to struggle and hope that we here in the United States will not forget them.
On a personal note, I want to build on that last comment. I have the opportunity from time to time to speak with refugees or defectors from Cuba. And one of the questions that I always ask them is, ``Should the United States maintain this embargo? Should the United States still attempt to isolate Fidel Castro because some people say there is a hardship that we are creating on the people of Cuba?''
Every single one that I have spoken to says, you cannot back away. You cannot lift that embargo because, if you do, the message you are sending to us is you have abandoned us. And in fact, it is the message that comes with the result of the embargo that is beginning to embolden us that gives us hope that maybe there is an opportunity that we can change things.
So the worst possible thing that we could do would be what is being suggested by those in the administration that now it is time to lift some of the embargo, that now is the time to begin to open a dialog, a terrible, terrible mistake.
I also remind my colleagues that last year--in fact, I believe it was the last day of the last Congress--there was a hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a hearing that was designed to deliver the message that now is the time to lift the embargo, open up dialog, move to normalization.
The amazing thing, as I sat there at that hearing and I testified, was that it was the day after President Mandela had addressed a joint session of the Congress of the United States and told us if it had not been for the commitment of the United States, and specifically, he said, the United States Congress, to the isolation of the regime in South Africa, his people and he would not be free. And for the people who supported that to turn around today and say, ``Oh, we can't follow the same approach with Cuba and Fidel Castro,'' makes absolutely, positively no sense.
So as I say, in my opinion, the President of the United States ought to embrace the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act and he ought to pop the balloon that has been floated by those in the administration.
This is not the time for us to weaken our resolve. We need to continue to send that message to the people of Cuba--that we have not forgotten them, that we will not forget them, and that this country is united behind the idea of freedom and democracy returning to that tiny little island south of Florida.
I yield the floor.
Mr. COVERDELL addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Georgia.
Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, first I want to commend my colleague from Florida, who has perhaps more personal knowledge regarding Cuba and its effect on our country than many of the other Members here in this body. I appreciate his remarks.
I would like to elaborate on the comments that he has made as they relate to certain suggestions from the administration that we should enter into a new era with Cuba, one in which we ease and/or normalize relations.
I would like to read from The Washington Post, March 7. It says:
President Clinton's foreign policy advisers are recommending he take steps toward easing relations with Cuba by revoking some economic sanctions adopted against the nation in August.
The time has come, some U.S. officials believe, to test whether Castro is willing to make deep economic and political reforms, a senior administration official said.
Mr. President, my colleague from Florida has, I think, made a very good case that indeed this is not the time--not the time--to ease sanctions.
In Fidel Castro, we have a dictator; in Fidel Castro, we have empirical evidence of continued human rights violations, torture, murder, extended imprisonment.
Mr. President, in Fidel Castro, we have an avowed enemy of the United States of America, a man who has proliferated hostility throughout the hemisphere to the country, a man who has made no suggestion to us that, given new resources, they, too, would not be turned against the United States of America, a man whose history is riddled with attacks on this country and whose history, in contemporary terms, has been avowed hostility to the United States.
Mr. President, there has to be some sense of linkage or continuity in the way in which we engage this hemisphere.
If we could just step back for a moment, in very recent terms, we have just imposed the harshest of sanctions possible on a little country in the same region that offered no threat to the United States--Haiti; massive sanctions on the little country of Haiti. Now, Cuba is a threat. We could never argue that Haiti was. But the sanctions were harsh and strict and with effect.
Mr. President, in addition, we had an alleged dictatorship in Haiti, and so we sent an invasion to Haiti. We have landed on Haiti's soil with United States troops and personnel to remove the dictatorship and to impose or reimpose a democracy.
I may be missing something here, but I cannot get the connection with sanctions on Haiti, an invasion in Haiti, the expenditure of millions on preserving a new democracy and, in the same breath, I am reading in the Washington Post that, with Cuba, we should relieve the sanctions and engage in a dialog, as if we had a partner off our shores.
You know, we are the only world power. We are the dominant figure in this hemisphere. There has to be a logic and a connection about the way
[[Page S3647]] we communicate to our own hemisphere and the world. There is no logic at this time to follow the suggestions that have been floated by this administration to alleviate the sanctions on Cuba.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
Mr. HOLLINGS addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Carolina.
Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, let me join in the remarks of the distinguished Senator from Georgia and the distinguished Senator from Florida, and commend my colleague from North Carolina, Senator Helms.
I have heard, I do not know where, stated that ``The sands of history bleach the bones of countless thousands who, on the eve of victory, hesitated and, having hesitated, died.'' Such is the case with Cuba. The sanctions are working.
Now is not the time to get fanciful ideas of world policy and peace on Earth. Now is the time to look at the realities of this particular situation.
If Castro would renounce communism and replace it with perestroika in Cuba, as Gorbachev did in Russia, it would be a different thing. But instead, Castro says, ``Oh, no; I have let tourists in, let the farmers sell to keep the Communist system afloat.''
Mr. President, I just do not believe in financing the opposition. I almost am tempted to digress on the subject of Mexico, but I will attest to that tomorrow before the distinguished Banking Committee.
Enough on that particular point, Mr. President. I see the distinguished chairman of the Appropriations Committee is ready to move along on this subject.
BUDGET CRISIS
Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, before yielding the floor, I cannot let pass two particular items that occurred here this morning.
One was made by my friend, the distinguished chairman of the Budget Committee. He claimed that the President had ``taken a walk'' with respect to budgetary matters.
Now, Mr. President, let's set the record straight. In the last 12 years, we have seen the ills of our reckless fiscal policies manifested in exorbitant, extravagant, obsessive budget deficits. But, when Members talk about who it was who ``took a walk,'' certainly it was not President Clinton. He was not even here.
Talk about taking a walk, when the current President came to town and inherited a financial basket case of a nation, it was he who had the courage and willingness--not walking, but working--to put in a $500 billion deficit reduction package that included taxes.
It was not unfair. It was really making things more fair by proposing the cuts and revenues needed to reduce the deficit. As part of that plan, he put in motion a program that is over half complete of reducing 272,000 employees from the Federal work force. When complete will have the smallest Federal work force since the Kennedy administration, and for what? To balance the budget, not walk.
Mr. President, I remember to December 18, 1994, when the distinguished Senator from New Mexico and his House counterpart, Congressman Kasich were on ``Meet the Press.'' At that time they were crowing. They were going have three budgets in January, ready, willing, and able to go with the understanding that we would put the spending cuts in the bank to pay for tax cuts. But we did not get those spending cuts in January. We did not get those spending cuts in February. And March is marching by.
Mr. President, before they talk about the wonderful record that President Clinton made year before last without a single Republican vote in the Senate or the House of Representatives, we should straighten the history about who is walking and who is talking. Where is the budget?
I remember my friend, former Senator Hart from Colorado, wanting to know, ``where's the beef?'' It's high time we asked, ``Where's the budget?'' I outlined one in January to show the hard task ahead.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that it be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
Hollings Releases Realities on Truth in Budgeting
Reality No. 1: $1.2 trillion in spending cuts is necessary.
Reality No. 2: There aren't enough savings in entitlements. Have welfare reform, but a jobs program will cost; savings are questionable. Health reform can and should save some, but slowing growth from 10 to 5 percent doesn't offer enough savings. Social Security won't be cut and will be off-budget again.
Reality No. 3: We should hold the line on the budget on Defense; that would be no savings.
Reality No. 4: Savings must come from freezes and cuts in domestic discretionary spending but that's not enough to stop hemorrhaging interest costs.
Reality No. 5: Taxes are necessary to stop hemorrhage in interest costs.
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1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
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Deficit CBO Jan. 1995 (using trust funds)................................. 207 224 225 253 284 297 322
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Freeze discretionary outlays after 1998. 0 0 0 -19 -38 -58 -78 Spending cuts........................... -37 -74 -111 -128 -146 -163 -180 Interest savings........................ -1 -5 -11 -20 -32 -46 -64
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Total savings ($1.2 trillion)....... -38 -79 -122 -167 -216 -267 -322
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Remaining deficit using trust funds..... 169 145 103 86 68 30 0 Remaining deficit excluding trust funds. 287 264 222 202 185 149 121 5 percent VAT........................... 96 155 172 184 190 196 200 Net deficit excluding trust funds....... 187 97 27 (17) (54) (111) (159)
Gross debt.............................. 5,142 5,257 5,300 5,305 5,272 5,200 5,091 Average interest rate on debt (percent). 7.0 7.1 6.9 6.8 6.7 6.7 6.7 Interest cost on the debt............... 367 370 368 368 366 360 354
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Note.--Figures are in billions. Figures don't include the billions necessary for a middle-class tax cut.
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Nondefense discretionary spending cuts 1996 1997
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Space station........................................... 2.1 2.1 Eliminate CDBG.......................................... 2.0 2.0 Eliminate low-income home energy assistance............. 1.4 1.5 Eliminate arts funding.................................. 1.0 1.0 Eliminate funding for campus based aid.................. 1.4 1.4 Eliminate funding for impact aid........................ 1.0 1.0 Reduce law enforcement funding to control drugs......... 1.5 1.8 Eliminate Federal wastewater grants..................... 0.8 1.6 Eliminate SBA loans..................................... 0.21 0.282
Reduce Federal aid for mass transit..................... 0.5 0.1 Eliminate EDA........................................... 0.02 0.1 Reduce Federal rent subsidies........................... 0.1 0.2 Reduce overhead for university research................. 0.2 0.3 Repeal Davis-Bacon...................................... 0.2 0.5 Reduce State Dept. funding and end misc. activities..... 0.1 0.2 End P.L. 480 title I and III sales...................... 0.4 0.6 Eliminate overseas broadcasting......................... 0.458 0.570
Eliminate the Bureau of Mines........................... 0.1 0.2 Eliminate expansion of rural housing assistance......... 0.1 0.2 Eliminate USTTA......................................... 0.012 0.16 Eliminate ATP........................................... 0.1 0.2 Eliminate airport grant in aids......................... 0.3 1.0 Eliminate Federal highway demonstration projects........ 0.1 0.3 Eliminate Amtrak subsidies.............................. 0.4 0.4 Eliminate RDA loan guarantees........................... 0.0 0.1 Eliminate Appalachian Regional Commission............... 0.0 0.1 Eliminate untargeted funds for math and science......... 0.1 0.2 Cut Federal salaries by 4 percent....................... 4.0 4.0 Charge Federal employees commercial rates for parking... 0.1 0.1 Reduce agricultural research extension activities....... 0.2 0.2 Cancel advanced solid rocket motor...................... 0.3 0.4 Eliminate legal services................................ 0.4 0.4 Reduce Federal travel by 30 percent..................... 0.4 0.4 Reduce energy funding for Energy Technology Develop..... 0.2 0.5 Reduce Superfund cleanup costs.......................... 0.2 0.4 Reduce REA subsidies.................................... 0.1 0.1 Eliminate postal subsidies for nonprofits............... 0.1 0.1 Reduce NIH funding...................................... 0.5 1.1 Eliminate Federal Crop Insurance Program................ 0.3 0.3 Reduce Justice State-local assistance grants............ 0.1 0.2 Reduce export-import direct loans....................... 0.1 0.2 Eliminate library programs.............................. 0.1 0.1 Modify Service Contract Act............................. 0.2 0.2 Eliminate HUD special purpose grants.................... 0.2 0.3 Reduce housing programs................................. 0.4 1.0 Eliminate Community Investment Program.................. 0.1 0.4 Reduce Strategic Petroleum Program...................... 0.1 0.1 Eliminate Senior Community Service Program.............. 0.1 0.4 Reduce USDA spending for export marketing............... 0.02 0.02 Reduce maternal and child health grants................. 0.2 0.4 Close veterans hospitals................................ 0.1 0.2 Reduce number of political employees.................... 0.1 0.1 Reduce management costs for VA health care.............. 0.2 0.4 Reduce PMA subsidy...................................... 0.0 1.2 Reduce below cost timber sales.......................... 0.0 0.1 Reduce the legislative branch 15 percent................ 0.3 0.3 Eliminate Small Business Development Centers............ 0.056 0.074
Eliminate minority assistance score, small business interstate and other technical assistance programs, women's business assistance, international trade assistance, empowerment zones.......................... 0.033 0.046
Eliminate new State Department construction projects.... 0.010 0.023
Eliminate Int'l Boundaries and Water Commission......... 0.013 0.02 Eliminate Asia Foundation............................... 0.013 0.015
Eliminate International Fisheries Commission............ 0.015 0.015
Eliminate Arms Control Disarmament Agency............... 0.041 0.054
Eliminate NED........................................... 0.014 0.034
Eliminate Fulbright and other international exchanges... 0.119 0.207
Eliminate North-South Center............................ 0.002 0.004
Eliminate U.S. contribution to WHO, OAS, and other international organizations including the United
Nations................................................ 0.873 0.873
Eliminate participation in U.N. peacekeeping............ 0.533 0.533
Eliminate Byrne grant................................... 0.112 0.306
Eliminate Community Policing Program.................... 0.286 0.780
[[Page S3648]]
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Nondefense discretionary spending cuts 1996 1997
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Moratorium on new Federal prison construction........... 0.208 0.140
Reduce coast guard 10 percent........................... 0.208 0.260
Eliminate Manufacturing Extension Program............... 0.03 0.06 Eliminate coastal zone management....................... 0.03 0.06 Eliminate national Marine sanctuaries................... 0.007 0.012
Eliminate climate and global change research............ 0.047 0.078
Eliminate national sea grant............................ 0.032 0.054
Eliminate State weather modification grant.............. 0.002 0.003
Cut weather service operations 10 percent............... 0.031 0.051
Eliminate regional climate centers...................... 0.002 0.003
Eliminate Minority Business Development Agency.......... 0.022 0.044
Eliminate Public Telecommunications Facilities Program grant.................................................. 0.003 0.016
Eliminate children's educational television............. 0.0 0.002
Eliminate national information infrastructure grant..... 0.001 0.032
Cut Pell grants 20 percent.............................. 0.250 1.24 Eliminate education research............................ 0.042 0.283
Cut Head Start 50 percent............................... 0.840 1.8 Eliminate meals and services for the elderly............ 0.335 0.473
Eliminate title II social service block grant........... 2.7 2.8 Eliminate community services block grant................ 0.317 0.470
Eliminate rehabilitation services....................... 1.85 2.30 Eliminate vocational education.......................... 0.176 1.2 Eliminate chapter 1 20 percent.......................... 0.173 1.16 Reduce special education 20 percent..................... 0.072 0.480
Eliminate bilingual education........................... 0.029 0.196
Eliminate JTPA.......................................... 0.250 4.5 Eliminate child welfare services........................ 0.240 0.289
Eliminate CDC Breast Cancer Program..................... 0.048 0.089
Eliminate CDC AIDS Control Program...................... 0.283 0.525
Eliminate Ryan White AIDS Program....................... 0.228 0.468
Eliminate maternal and child health..................... 0.246 0.506
Eliminate Family Planning Program....................... 0.069 0.143
Eliminate CDC Immunization Program...................... 0.168 0.345
Eliminate Tuberculosis Program.......................... 0.042 0.087
Eliminate agricultural research service................. 0.546 0.656
Reduce WIC 50 percent................................... 1.579 1.735
Eliminate TEFAP:
Administrative...................................... 0.024 0.040
Commodities......................................... 0.025 0.025
Reduce cooperative State research service 20 percent.... 0.044 0.070
Reduce animal plant health inspection service 10 percent 0.036 0.044
Reduce food safety inspection service 10 percent........ 0.047 0.052
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Total............................................... 36.942 58.407
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Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, when Members talk of taking walks and waving white flags, what they are really angry about is that a large part of their budget plan has disappeared. I will ask unanimous consent at this time that the GOP alternative deficit reduction and tax relief plan of the year before last be included in the Record.
There being no objection, the plan was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
GOP Alternative: Deficit Reduction and Tax Relief--Slashing the
Deficit, Cutting Middle Class Taxes
The Republican alternative budget will reduce the deficit
$318 billion over the next five years--$287 billion in policy savings and $31 billion from interest savings. This is $322 billion more in deficit reduction than the President proposes and $303 billion more in deficit reduction than the House-passed resolution contains.
Moreover, the GOP alternative budget helps President Clinton achieve two of his most important campaign promises--to cut the deficit in half in four years and provide a middle-class tax cut. The GOP plan:
Reduces the deficit to $99 billion in 1999. This is $106 billion less than the 1999 deficit projected under the Clinton budget.
Even under this budget federal spending will continue to grow.
Total spending would increase from $1.48 trillion in FY 1995 to more than $1.7 trillion in FY 1999.
Medicare would grow by 7.8-percent a year rather than the projected 10.6-percent. Medicaid's growth would slow to 8.1-percent annually rather than the projected 12-percent a year growth.
It increases funding for President Clinton's defense request by the $20 billion shortfall acknowledged by the Pentagon.
Provides promised tax relief to American families and small business:
Provides tax relief to middle-class families by providing a
$500 tax credit for each child in the household. The provision grants needed tax relief to the families of 52 million American children. The tax credit provides a typical family of four $80 every month for family expenses and savings.
Restores deductibility for interest on student loans.
Indexes capital gains for inflation and allows for capital loss on principal residence.
Creates new incentives for family savings and investments through new IRA proposals that would allow penalty free withdrawals for first time homebuyers, educational and medical expenses.
Establishes new Individual Retirement Account for homemakers.
Extends R&E tax credit for one-year and provides for a one-year exclusion of employer provided educational assistance.
Adjusts depreciation schedules for inflation (neutral cost recovery).
Tax provisions result in total tax cut of $88 billion over five years.
Fully funds the Senate Crime Bill Trust Fund, providing $22 billion for anti-crime measures over the next five years. The Clinton budget does not. The House-passed budget does not. The Chairman's mark does not.
Accepts the President's proposed $113 billion level in nondefense discretionary spending reductions and then secures additional savings by freezing aggregate nondefense spending for five years.
Accepts the President's proposed reductions in the medicare program and indexes the current $100 annual Part ``B'' deductible for inflation. Total medicare savings would reach
$80 billion over the next five years.
Achieves $64 billion in medicaid savings over the next five years, by capping medicaid payments, reducing and freezing Disproportionate Share Hospital payments at their 1994 level.
Achieves additional savings through reform of our welfare system totaling $33 billion over the next five years.
Repeals Davis-Bacon, reduces the number of political appointees, reduces overhead expenditures for university research, and achieves savings from a cap on civilian FTE's.
Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I read:
Accepts the President's proposed reductions in the Medicare program and indexes the current $100 billion part ``B'' deductible for inflation. Total Medicare savings would reach
$80 billion over the next 5 years.
Now, with respect to that $80 billion, the President struggled to find budget savings within the context of health care reform. For that effort, he and the First Lady got ridiculed. If I was his lawyer, this year I would say, for Heaven's sake, do not do it this year. Let them come up with it. You tried and lost Democratic seats in November as a result. Let them try. You did it. So let's not talk about taking a walk.
Mr. President, it is clear to me that Republicans want to come back and accept the President's cut so that they can run around with demonstrations in front of the Capitol and say that it was the President that cut Medicare. Do they think we were born yesterday? They talk about walking all they like, but where is the budget?
During the debate on the constitutional amendment I asked, ``Where is the budget?'' I said rather than showing us 7 years, just give me 1 year. That is my request this morning. Where's the budget? It is the middle of March, and under the rules we are suppose to complete the hearings and complete conference by April 15.
Are we just going to come in with a fixed vote and say, ``All right, no use offering amendments; we have to report it out now. No use to hear from you, you can be heard on the floor.'' That is not the way to run things; that is terrible government.
Now, with respect to the other matter, that the balanced budget constitutional amendment failed by one vote. Mr. President, in the next 10 minutes, they could get five votes. The five votes were offered to them time and time again if only they would do what they said they wanted done--namely, protect Social Security.
I notice my friend, James Glassman, on the front of the business page of the Washington Post, wrote an article which was the truth, but it was not the whole truth. Section 13301 of the Congressional Budget Act, signed by President George Bush on November 5, 1990, says that Social Security shall be protected. Unless we honor that law, we will continue to move the deficit, not eliminate it.
That is the game, not to eliminate the deficit, but to move it from the Federal Government to the Social Security trust fund. If they violate section 13301, Mr. President, they can move $636 billion in the next 7 years from the deficit over to the trust fund.
And who flip-flopped? It is really at best ironic to see Senators meet in front of a placard, and I laugh because I got calls on it, that says I am in a rogues' gallery for keeping my word. They claimed that there were six Senators who flip-flopped. Could it be that I could cast the same stone at those who voted in 1990 for section 13301, and then for the balanced budget amendment to repeal section 13301?
Should I get the pictures of all those Senators and go in the front of the Capitol and holler, ``Flip-flop, flip-flop, they broke the trust with Social Security''?
Under the rules, as the distinguished former President pro tempore knows, we are supposed to have the courtesy and decency to call each other distinguished. But 10 minutes later, they have me in a rogue's gallery. It is wonderful serving up here now. The devil take the hindmost and forget about the truth.
The truth is that the majority leader wanted to protect his troops. The truth is that while saying that they were going to protect Social Security, the Republicans were running around saying: ``We cannot do it without Social Security funds.'' I can tell you--you cannot do it with Social Security funds, because all you do is you move the deficit over from the Government over to the trust funds. You are not paying anything. You are taking credit and misleading the people. And with that, the creativity is just starting.
[[Page S3649]] Those who say all they need is $1.2 trillion in the 7 years are acknowledging that they are going to use Social Security trust funds. If we take Social Security out, it should be $1.7 trillion. Today's creativity is to get rid of the Department of Commerce, get rid of the Department of Education, get rid of the Department of Energy. Send welfare, send food stamps, send everybody else back to the States; give them the deficit. Give it to Social Security to the tune of $636 billion. In addition, they say, ``We will not raise taxes and we will not cut Social Security benefits, but we are going to recompute the CPI.'' But check the fine print. Changing the CPI will force many Americans to pay higher taxes and will cut Social Security COLA's for retirees. They are meeting themselves coming around the corner.
But with a lower CPI, they can pick up another $150 billion. Next, they can go to dynamic scorekeeping and pick up another $150 billion. If they need more money, they can start selling assets, like the electric power grid, or move to a capital budget.
Oh, we know all the tricks. We ought to get our friend Stockman, who wrote about Dunkirk, and let him come and write about duplicity. There is no discipline coming to this tricky crowd who will not take five votes, or more. All they have to do to get my vote is to let me keep my word, keep section 13301, and keep it there for the next generation.
My crowd--Senator Thurmond and I--are getting our money. It amazes me, but at 72 years of age, you have to take it. But be that as it may, the next generation is going to pay more. When it comes their time to retire, Mr. Parliamentarian, they are going to raise your taxes.
Now, that is what is happening. That is what is happening, and it ought to stop. They ought to quit running around making these silly statements. The distinguished majority leader was on ``Face the Nation'' Sunday, and I saw him categorically say we are going to protect Social Security. If he really means it, accept this little amendment. You accepted an amendment on the courts. You accepted an exception for borrowed funds. Just except Social Security trust funds rather than repeal section 13301. That is all you have to do to pass a balanced budget to the Constitution.
But do not go around moaning and groaning all over Washington that all we need is to get one vote, get one vote, get one vote. He can walk out here this afternoon and pick up five.
I yield the floor.
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