J. Exon

Mr. EXON

Mr. EXON. One more thought that maybe the Senator from Alaska or the Democratic leader indicated----

Mr. EXON. I am asking if the majority leader knew that, in addition to the other chart, on this particular chart the numbers were far, far more than either CBO or OMB had estimated? [[Page S 17120]]

Mr. EXON. May I ask this question of the Democratic leader? Was the Democratic leader aware, as a response to the question asked by the Senator from Alaska, that the reason that we are questioning these projections are that this chart showed very clearly that after the President's deficit-reduction bill, which was projected by both CBO and OMB to be in the range of $275 billion, very close, actually the deficit reduced dramatically less than that, clear down to the $175 billion level? Was the Democratic leader aware of that?

Mr. EXON. Let me further inquire of the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, with whom I have worked very long and very well over the years. I believe that the Senator from Oregon has been on the Appropriations Committee nearly all of the time he has served with great distinction in the U.S. Senate. Does the Senator from Oregon ever recall a time when we have been this far behind in passing appropriations bills, regardless of what the reason was for the delay?

Mr. EXON. The Senator from Alaska----

Mr. EXON. I thank my friend. Again, I will proceed with my remarks. I was saying, Mr. President, I was disappointed in the fact that we have delay upon delay upon delay, and we are going through charades, as we are going through today on this continuing resolution that is going to be passed, very likely, and vetoed by the President. So this is an exercise in futility, unfortunately, at a time when the Nation is wanting. I simply say, Mr. President, that in negotiations during the last few days, myself and others have been pleading, and the administration has been pleading, with the Republican majority to just give us a clean continuing resolution. By ``clean,'' I mean every extraneous measure, or thought, or condition, or concept would be thrown off, and we would just have a continuing resolution for 24 hours, or 48 hours. That was rejected. I was mystified by that because I could not understand how any reasonable group of people, regardless of their political affiliation, would not agree that it was wise to continue the normal functions of Government, at least for a short period of time, while we continued to negotiate. I now understand why we were turned down flatly on what would appear to any reasonable person as the course of action which could be taken. It was because the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and others, clearly had in their hip pocket this new, ludicrous plan that they knew it would not open up Government once again, but it might give them, on a political scale, some advantage, or an up-bump in the polls that have been quite devastating to the Speaker and others in the last few weeks. The measure before us today is a farce. It is game playing. It is not the way to do business, and it is not doing business; it is playing politics. Grown-ups know that it is a childish game to shut down the Government in order to blackmail the President into accepting extreme measures, the extreme Republican budget, and trying to make excuses for why they are doing it. The sad part is that this game has real consequences to real people. Hundreds of thousands of Federal workers do not know whether they are going to be able to pay their bills. Thousands of Americans who are entitled to sign up for Social Security are not able to do so because no one is at work to process the new legitimate claims. Thousands of veterans who should be signing up for new benefits that they have earned are not able to do so because Government is not on the job. Thousands of Federal contractors are not being paid, but the Government has agreed to pay them. According to press reports, for example, Mr. President, 39 illegal immigrants--I repeat, Mr. President, according to press reports, 39 illegal immigrants--were detained, as they should have been, and sent on their merry way, smiling and laughing on Tuesday because the Government was shut down. It left the Immigration and Naturalization Services shorthanded. Another matter, the Colorado State Police stopped a van, called INS, and was informed they would be unable to investigate because they lacked the manpower to do so because the staff had been furloughed. This is no way to run the Government. What we should do is pass a clean continuing resolution to allow the Government to serve the people, pay its bills, and do so in a timely fashion. That is our duty. The majority wants to set the terms for the coming negotiations on the deficit reduction bill. All this political posturing about how to do the big deficit reduction bill is just a transparent attempt, I suggest, to coerce the President to weakening his negotiating position before--before--negotiations even begin. The responsible thing to do, of course, would be to pass a clean continuing resolution for either a shorter or a longer number of days and allow the Republicans to get the extreme budget proposals that they are pushing out of their system, because they are not going to prevail. We should let the President go ahead and veto these bills, which is what he is going to do, and then and only then start some real serious negotiations where people of good will can sit down and say, ``We are not, any of us, going to get exactly what we want.'' Through negotiations and compromise, we can do our job as we were sent here to do. In these real negotiations, everything should be on the table. Let me repeat that, Mr. President, because that is not the mode that we are operating under now. In these real negotiations to come that I am quite prepared for at this time, and will have some recommendations to make at the proper time that I think might be an important step toward bringing us together--bringing us together--these real negotiations have to start with everything being laid on the table. Otherwise, we will not get anything done. The length of time it takes to balance should be on the table, along with everything else. The economic assumptions that we use should be on the table. What do we need to make the extreme cuts in Medicare that the Republicans advocate should be on the table, and will be on the table. At least I am pleased that the Republicans at this very late hour have taken the Medicare matter off the table temporarily. Also on the table should be whether we want to give tax breaks to the wealthiest among us. That has to be on the table. Let me tell my colleagues, I have run the numbers on this budget and I have been trying to figure out a way to get to a balanced budget. I do not agree with the White House with regard to a 7-year budget. I think we can come to agreement to balance a budget by 7 years. I believe under the proper circumstances we would be able to convince the President to sign such a measure if we can put everything on the table and if we can sit down as adults and reach a compromise. I must say, Mr. President, that if the Republicans continue to insist--I repeat this, if the Republicans continue to insist--on a $245 billion tax break for the wealthy, and if they continue to insist on using CBO assumptions only and purely, there is no way that we can get to a balance in 7 years without extreme and deep cuts in Medicare, in nursing home care, nursing homes, and in education. We hold out the hand, the offer of compromise, once again. After we get [[Page S 17106]] through with this ridiculous exercise that is going nowhere today, maybe we can get to that point tomorrow or the next day or the day after that. I am proud, and the President is right to oppose such a budget. I support him in that. Passing of the continuing resolution that has just been offered to us from the House of Representatives would tie the President's hands to such an extent that it would be almost impossible to start meaningful negotiations on a compromise. Therefore, I will strenuously oppose this continuing resolution and hope that we can move it along to a fair and honest role that can pass both Houses and receive the President's signature, and stop this charade and game playing. I yield the floor.

Mr. EXON. The Senator from Alaska's question was a very good one, and this chart answers it directly. I am confident that the Senator from Alaska did not know about this. He seems to think that the projections of both CBO and OMB are infallible. This chart indicates the opposite and indicates and answers the question of what has happened to projections. You will note on this particular chart that President Clinton delivers on deficit reduction. When we passed----

Mr. EXON. Would you kindly direct the Senator from Pennsylvania to follow the rules?

Mr. EXON. Would the chairman of the committee please restate the request.

Mr. EXON. There are no time restraints. It is open season, so to speak. I believe the Senator from North Dakota was very, very early, but it is up to the Chair.

Mr. EXON. Will the Senator yield?

Mr. EXON. The Senator from--

Mr. EXON. There are some amendments that we want to offer. I simply inquire--we could not agree to that without further consideration. The floor is open to amendments at any time.

Mr. EXON. Yes.

Mr. EXON. I appreciate the explanation by my friend. Another way of saying that is that you were hopeful that in the next few hours, or in the next few days at least, that seven of the 13, or roughly half of the appropriations bills, will have been completed and, hopefully, signed by the President.

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Oregon for his opening remarks, and I am pleased that we are at least getting to this so-called continuing resolution. I hope that we can move on it in an expeditious fashion, because after we move on it and after it passes the Senate, as it is foreordained that it will given the commitment that the majority in the House and Senate have expressed, everyone knows it is going to the President. Everyone knows when it gets to the President, he is going to veto it. So we continue the charade that we have been going through now for entirely too long. This is the third day of the Government shutdown. Tomorrow will be the fourth day and the day after that will be the fifth. Mr. President, it seems to me it is time we begin to get serious about this and stop the charades, but nevertheless, under the process, we must go through it. The real issue, I suggest, before us today is whether the Congress of the United States wants to stop acting like a bunch of spoiled children and start acting like adults. On the way in this morning, I was treated to a radio program that was unbelievable. It said that the Speaker of the House of Representatives said that he was very upset, piqued by not being treated properly by the President en route to the funeral in Israel. Someone suggested that probably that was not a proper way to act, and I believe the words by the Speaker were something like, ``Well, it may be petty, but it's human.'' That is a sad commentary, indeed, but probably sums up much better than I could in any words how ridiculous this whole process is. We have this continuing resolution which was just explained by the leader of the Appropriations Committee. I simply say to my friend that regardless of how well-intentioned this continuing resolution is--and as yet I have not even seen the numbers, but as I understand it, it is a continuing resolution to continue the Government of the United States and get people back to work until sometime in December; is that correct?

Mr. EXON. Now, another way of saying that is that we only finished approximately half of the 13 key appropriations bills and presented them to the President, is that correct? Or we will in the next day or so?

Mr. EXON. I have been advised, for the record, on the 5th of December.

Mr. EXON. Let me correct the Senator, so that we keep the record straight. [[Page S 17105]]

Mr. EXON. To advise and correct the Record, this Senator has, I think, been generally along the same line with the Senator from Oregon. I am a pro-life Senator, not a pro-choice Senator. Let us correct the Record.

Mr. EXON

Mr. EXON. If I understand the amendment, then, offered by the Democratic leader, that we just talked about, it provides for balancing the budget by the year 2002; and then second and equally important it says that, if we have a tax cut, that tax cut would be limited to only American families making less than $100,000 a year? So if you made over $100,000 a year you would not get any tax cut, if we have one. If we do have a tax cut all of it goes to those making $100,000 or less, is that correct?

Mr. EXON. Then the Republican charge that I have heard over and over and over again, that the Democrats simply do not want to balance the budget in 7 years, is blown pretty much sky high with the amendment that you have offered on behalf of the minority?

Mr. EXON. I want to ask a question, too, of our Democratic leader. First, we have been hearing on television and here on the floor that the Democrats do not want to balance the budget in 7 years. I have looked--and I do not think we have emphasized that the very first part of the amendment you have offered says the President and the Congress shall enact legislation in the [[Page S 17173]] 104th Congress to achieve a unified balance of the budget no later than fiscal year 2002. As I understand and interpret that--but I want to hear it from the lips of my leader--here is a case where we are proposing to balance a budget by the year 2002; is that correct?

Mr. EXON

Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I yield myself 10 minutes under the unanimous-consent agreement just agreed to.

Mr. EXON. Reserving the right to object, and I will not object, I would just correct that to say that I believe the intent is it would be under the control of Senator Exon or his designee. Is that correct?