Jim Kolbe

Mr. KOLBE

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Fox], a freshman Member.

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Tiahrt].

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Shays].

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Shays].

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Walker], vice chairman of the committee.

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 30 seconds before yielding to the gentleman from New Hampshire. Mr. Chairman, the gentlewoman just talked about the cuts in research in breast cancer and other kinds of NIH research. I think it is important to note that NIH has more than doubled in the last 10 years. The cut we are talking about is less than--only 5 percent, and it is impossible that every one of the programs she listed could be in jeopardy when we are talking about a 5-percent cut. Mr. Chairman, we are making sure that the kind of research that we have been doing will be ongoing. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished freshman gentleman from New Hampshire [Mr. Bass].

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Shays].

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oklahoma [Mr. Largent], a very distinguished freshman member of the Committee on the Budget.

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Wolf], a member of the Committee on Appropriations. (Mr. WOLF asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. KOLBE. I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Shays].

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Martini], a freshman Member.

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Staten Island, NY [Ms. Molinari], a very hardworking member of the committee.

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I want to congratulate the chairman of the Committee on the Budget as well as the ranking member and particularly pay tribute to the ranking member for the decency with which he has comported himself and the members of his committee throughout this debate. It has been in the Committee on the Budget, it has been truly an outstanding debate. I appreciate that very much. Mr. Chairman, we are at a historic crossroad. This is, as the chairman of the Committee on the Budget said, an historic moment in our time. The previous speaker just talked to us about this not being the right plan, that we can do better. I think in the course of this debate in the next day and a half we are entitled to ask, what is the alternative plan? If ours is not the right plan, what is their plan? Where is the President in this budget battle? I would say, AWOL, absent without leadership. Our bottom line is fairly simple, our bottom line is shown. It is too small I guess to see here, but on page 7 of the budget report, the last year, 2002, it is a plus. It is tiny, 0.6 billion, $600 million in the scheme of a $1.8 trillion budget that year. That is tiny, but it is everything. It is the first positive number we have seen in the budget since 1969. This is another way of looking at it. All we are trying to do is get this line of what we spend here down to the red line of how much that we are taking in in revenues so that we have a balanced budget. Spending will go up. Spending will continue to increase but at a slower rate of growth. And we think that we can do that. Yes, there are tough choices here, but they are tough choices for the next generation. Not long ago I was asked to come down for a little ceremony to one of the work sites in my place, the United Parcel Service, a company I really enjoy because they are hardworking people, they are really motivated. At the end of this little ceremony where we had a presentation there, one of the delivery men came up to me and said ``Mr. Kolbe, when you go back to Washington, would you just tell them that it is my money they are spending? It is my money. I have got three kids. I am struggling. It is my money they are spending, just keep that in mind.'' Mr. Chairman, I hope in the course of the debate here the next 2 days that we will keep that simple idea in mind from one of the hardworking Americans that makes this country work, and what it is. It is their money. It is our money as taxpayers we are spending, and we ought to be remembering that in each of the parts of this debate.

Mr. KOLBE. At 9 a.m., 10 a.m. The journal vote at around 10 a.m.

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, that is correct. And we do expect a journal vote tomorrow.

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, it is the first time that the chairman of the Committee on the Budget has not had an answer. I believe we come in at 9 a.m. We do recess immediately after morning business there for the former Members. And then we will resume, I presume, around 10 a.m. And we will go immediately to the three amendments, the Gephardt amendment is first, followed by the Neumann- Solomon amendment, the Black Caucus amendment. And if, of course, the president's budget with a zero deficit is printed in the Congressional Record, it would be made in order as a fourth amendment.

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 30 seconds. I would just like to point out to the gentleman from Maine that, when we talk about these cuts on senior citizens, he is right, of course, because the Republican budget proposal with all the tax cuts that we have provided will provide $154 million to the senior citizens only of the State of Maine in tax reductions. That is savings by changing the earnings test for senior citizens and of course the reduction in the income tax on Social Security benefits. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Washington [Mr. Metcalf].

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 30 seconds. Mr. Chairman, I want to respond to something the gentleman from Oregon said. The fact of the matter is that we tried to do exactly what the gentleman was talking about. We tried it on the floor yesterday, to get some recommendations to this body as to how we should solve the problem, and by a vote that unfortunately was a majority, but it was not enough to get the two-thirds on the suspension, this body rejected the idea we should ask the trustees who have the fiduciary responsibility for the trust fund to give us some recommendations about how we save it. Mr. Chairman, I yield two minutes to the gentleman from California [Mr. Radanovich], a distinguished freshman member of the Committee on the Budget.

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Brownback], a very hardworking member of the committee. (Mr. BROWNBACK asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Regula], chairman of the Subcommittee on the Interior of the Committee on Appropriations. (Mr. REGULA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Smith], a distinguished member of the Committee on the Budget and chairman of one of our task forces.

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding. We have been looking at pictures here, and I just want to show this picture here. This is Ari Cowen. His father is one of our budget staff people. Ari is a 3-year-old. This to me is what this is all about. This is the young generation we are talking about saving America for and being sure that they have a balanced budget. And just before we resumed this part of the debate I was back in the back talking to the pages, and I think of the young people like Abby Moon from Ohio and Vanessa Ruggles, Nick Ryan, Tammy Brewer, Nancy Brim from my own hometown, this is the young generation that we are talking about. This is what we are talking about saving America for. Let us not forget that.

Mr. KOLBE

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on the concurrent budget resolution for fiscal year 1996, and to insert extraneous material thereon.