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.
“THE FISCAL AFFAIRS OF THE UNITED STATES” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Commerce was published in the Senate section on pages S15164-S15165 on Oct. 13, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE FISCAL AFFAIRS OF THE UNITED STATES
Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, I also appreciate your accepting the duty of presiding so that I might make a comment or two about a number of the speeches that have been made as amendments and commentary at the time of discussing your bill that had nothing whatsoever to do with your bill.
From the other side of the aisle, we have heard repeatedly criticism of the efforts of the new majority to take charge of the fiscal affairs of the United States, even though the vast majority of the American people sent this new majority here to do just that. They have rejected the status quo. They have rejected the concept of spending money we do not have. They have rejected the prospect of robbing the future of its opportunity because there are no resources left. They have rejected the idea that this Nation not stumble into the next century 5 years from now. Yet, all we hear is the same song sheet--leave everything the way it is, and reject the pleas of the American people to take charge of our own financial house.
I tell you. It is mind-boggling.
We have said there are four things that must happen. We must balance our budgets. Eighty-eight percent of the American people say we must balance our budget. Are we deaf? They want the budget balanced, and for good reason. They have to balance their own checkbooks. They have to balance the checkbooks of their businesses. And they know nations have to do the same thing.
I was reading in the bipartisan entitlement commission report just the other day where it said--and it ought to be a loud wake-up call for every American, and certainly for the President and for every American policymaker. It says this: It says that within 10 years--that is a snap of a finger--within 10 years all U.S. resources will be exhausted by just five programs. Just five--Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Federal retirement, and the interest on our debt. And there is nothing left. We will not be debating a B-2 bomber. There will not be one, nor anything else to defend the Nation, nor a school lunch program nor a Transportation Department nor a Commerce Department nor any of them. No American, no Member of this Senate, not a person who has abused their financial affairs can carry out their mission--not a person, not a family, not a business, not a community and yes, Mr. President, not even nations. No generation of Americans has ever given the future a country crippled. But we are perilously close to doing just that.
Mr. President, we have said we must balance our budgets so that we quit adding debt. We have said we want to save Medicare because the trustees have said it is going bankrupt, and we want to protect it and preserve it. And we want to save $270 billion, not for a tax increase, but by law to keep it in the Medicare Trust Fund so that its solvency is pushed out years from now so that it does not go bankrupt, so that the current beneficiaries will not have the program closed, and, importantly, so the beneficiaries to come will have it in place.
We said welfare as it is known must come to an end. You would be hard pressed to find a single citizen in this country that would not agree with that--balance the budget, protect Medicare, alter welfare, and, Mr. President, the fourth item is lower taxes.
You would think that was a travesty from what we have heard on the floor; that it is an absolute sin to talk about lowering taxes on the American working family.
When Ozzie and Harriet were the preeminent American family, Ozzie sent 2 percent of his paycheck to this town. If Ozzie was here today, first of all his family would be completely different and not look a bit like what it was then, mainly because he would be sending 25 percent of every dime he earned to this town. Would it be any wonder that Harriet would not be in the house? She would have to be working.
Balance our budget--America wants that done; protect Medicare--
America wants that done; change welfare--America wants that done; lower the financial burden on middle America so that it can do the job it is supposed to do with its own family and without a Washington caretaker--
America wants that done.
Boy, you would never think that from what we have heard the last 2 days. I tell you. Where America is and where those speeches are is totally different.
A couple more things, and then I will allow the Presiding Officer to get on with his business of the day.
One, where has the President been in this debate? First, during the campaign, he said he was going to balance the budget in 5 years. I do not know what happened to that promise. He was going to balance the budget in 5 years. Then we offered a balanced budget, and he said, I am not offering any budget.
That is real leadership. That did not play very well in America.
So he says, OK, I am going to offer a budget. I will balance it in 10 years, and it will be easier to do. He has gone all over the country saying that. There is only one problem. That budget never balances, ever--not in 7 years, not in 5 years, not in 7, not in 10; never.
How do I know that? Because the Congressional Budget Office, which he told a joint session of Congress is the numbers we should use, says it will not. The only thing that says it will is the President and his own budget makers.
Mr. President, your budget does not balance, and that is not leadership, and it is not what America is asking for.
The last thing I am going to say is this, Mr. President. That is a sober message, that all our money would be gone for five things in less than 10 years; that Medicare is going bankrupt. We have to really get tough on managing our financial affairs.
That is a tough message, but America needs to know that at the end of the day, if we take charge of our business, if we run this country the way our forefathers would have us do it, the way those who went to Europe to defend it would have us do it, we will send America into the next century with more hope and more opportunity than is even describable. We will lower interest rates. That will affect everybody who buys a car or a refrigerator or a home or has to borrow money to send kids to school. We will lower the economic pressure on those families. We will leave more money for them to manage their education, their housing, their retirement. We will create millions of new jobs--
millions of new jobs. We will be strong. We will be the only superpower, and we will have the muscle to defend it.
This happens very quickly if we just start taking charge of our business. If nothing else would motivate you to do it, the kinds of results that come from managing our affairs ought to make every American be calling their Congressman, their Senator, and, yes, the President and say: Get on with this. Do this for me. Do this for my family. And, yes, do this for our country.
Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coverdell). Without objection, it is so ordered.
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