Gene Taylor

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, let me begin by thanking the ranking Democrat, the gentleman from California [Mr. Dellums], for the opportunity to manage this bill. The gentleman in his time as chairman of the Committee on National Security did a magnificent job of looking after the interests of our Nation's shipbuilders and all of our maritime interests, and I think to a very large extent the bipartisan cooperation we are seeing today is an extension of what has been going on for the past 2 years when he was the chairman. Mr. Chairman, on the day that I was born, the United States was the world's undisputed maritime power. Today, we still have the world's largest and most capable Navy. However, our Nation's merchant fleet is one of the smallest and our ships are some of the oldest in the world. And to be honest, there is not enough commercial shipbuilding on order to maintain the American merchant fleet for another decade. On Saturday, the U.S. Navy will commission our Nation's newest Nimitz class nuclear aircraft carrier CVN-74, the John C. Stennis. This carrier is named in honor of a great Mississippian and American who served as the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee. All Mississippians take great pride in having this magnificent ship named in honor of one of our State's most distinguished citizens. Unfortunately, the John C. Stennis is one of only a handful of ships that were built in our Nation this year. And everyone of those ships were built for the Department of Defense. Not one large oceangoing ship was built in this country last year. By contrast, the Japanese built 28 percent of all the merchant ship tonnage this year. The South Koreans built 35 percent of the merchant ship tonnage. The six largest shipbuilders in the United States did not even make the list--together they did not deliver a single merchant ship. I wish that I could tell you that things are better with regard to the U.S. flag merchant fleet. Unfortunately, I cannot. Our Nation's privately owned U.S. flagged merchant fleet is old, small, and shrinking. In 1985, the U.S. flag merchant fleet consisted of 477 tankers and dry cargo vessels. By 1995 that number had dropped 363. It is estimated that in the year 2000--5 years from now--there will be only 130 merchant ships in the U.S. fleet. Economically, that means that we are losing jobs for our merchant mariners, shipbuilders, steelworkers, and the tens of thousands of Americans who work in related industries. Militarily, it means that the world's finest soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen have to depend on foreign ships and crews for their supplies. Over 90 percent of everything that was shipped to support our troops during desert shield and desert storm was delivered by sea. Yet, in a nearly flawless war, when not a single American supply ship was damaged or sunk by our enemy--our great Nation had to charter over 80 foreign flag ships to supply our troops. Not because we wanted to, but because there simply were not enough American ships to supply and arm our Nation's Armed Forces. And, without the assistance of these foreign ships, the world's greatest fighting force would have been helpless for the lack of fuel, food, weapons, and ammunition. I'd like to be able to tell you that the measure before us today solves all of these problems. Unfortunately, it doesn't fix any of them. It does, however, buy us some time. It helps to keep what is left of the U.S. flag merchant fleet in service for another year. It continues the Title 11 Shipbuilding Loan Program for another year. It gives our Nation's merchant mariners who are recalled to man our Nation's ships in times of national emergencies the same re-employment rights as our national guardsmen and Armed Forces reservists. Mr. Chairman, on a personal note, I hope that next year the chairman of our panel, the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Bateman], and I can stand before this body with a much more ambitious bill. I think it is very safe to say that Mr. Bateman had to learn the job of being in the majority and we Democrats had to learn the job of being in the minority. But I hope that having had a year of experience in these positions, and having had a number of very prominent Members of this body speak on behalf of the American Merchant Marine, I hope that Mr. Johnson was taking names, and I hope Mr. Braver and Mr. Peranich were taking names, because I think we would be very smart in the next few weeks to hunt these people down and get them to cosponsor the very ambitious shipbuilding and ship operating bill for the United States of America for next year. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the bill and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. I yield to the gentleman from Virginia.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. If I may say to the gentleman, it is $2.3 million for the first year, $2.1 million for each remaining, but keep in mind I come from shipbuilding country. We simply cannot build ships for the same price as we can go out and charter 50 American ships, and we are building some ships to fill the need, but what those ships that are being built, or solely for the Navy, will be dedicated for prepositioning, but will not fill the entire need that this country will need in times of war.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members be granted 5 legislative days to insert their remarks into the Record and to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, the previous speaker, my friend from Maryland, said the American people want to know the truth about the Balanced Budget Act of 1995. I think they deserve it. The Balanced Budget Act of 1995 will borrow $296 billion for the next fiscal year budget. It will borrow $118 billion from trust funds such as the Social Security trust fund that is supposed to be set aside to protect senior citizens Social Security payments in the future. The Balanced Budget Act of 1995 will go on to borrow $75 billion and give most of that money away in tax breaks for America's wealthiest 12 percent. I am glad my friend from Maryland wants to know the truth, and I have just given it to him. I hope the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Kasich], and I hope all the Members of this body will correct the things that I just brought to our attention, because that is certainly not a balanced budget by anyone's scoring.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Jones] for his compliment. His dad meant a lot to me, as he did to every Member of this body. I must confess I was not smart enough to remember what the preacher said, but I was smart enough to ask the preacher for his notes that day, and they actually came from one of the two ministers who presided over your father's funeral. I was always very much impressed with your father's desire to serve the public. I really noticed at your father's funeral that everyone I spoke to there always mentioned that your dad was there to serve his fellow citizens; in this day of cynicism and skepticism, where people run for Congress based on saying how terrible a place it is and that they are the only good one, that so many people felt so strongly and so positively about your dad, and I am glad we did not have to wait the full 5 years to see to it that your father is honored. I want to compliment the sponsor of this bill, and above all, I want to compliment your dad for being a great American, and hope that you turn to be every bit as great as your father.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. I thank the gentleman from Hawaii for his courtesy. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to point out to my friend from Georgia, and I do consider him my friend, that what the coalition and what I hope every Member of this body is asking for is honesty in budgeting. I did some checking yesterday from the Congressional Budget Office, and even the Republican budget for 1996 would run up a $296 billion annual operating deficit; $118 billion of that would be taken from trust funds. I have continually heard that bill being referred to on the floor of the House of Representatives as the Balanced Budget Act of 1995. Sir, that is not a balanced budget. I think the gentleman knows that, and I know that, I think the people of America ought to know that.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, it came as quite a surprise to me yesterday in researching the Republican budget plan that was much touted on the floor of this House as being the balanced budget plan of 1995, said repeatedly, that the annual operating deficit for this Nation will actually increase by $33 billion in fiscal year 1996 over this year. I think people need to know that. The budget deficit will increase from $263 billion on an annual operating basis to $296 billion on an annual operating basis. Part of this, Mr. Speaker, will come from the trust funds that the gentleman from Hawaii [Mr. Abercrombie] just mentioned: The $118 billion that people paid into things like the Social Security trust fund will be used to disguise the true nature of this debt. The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Kasich] is for a balanced budget. I am for a balanced budget. Let us be honest with the American people. Let us not tell them we can spend more in spending, we can receive less in taxes, that we are already $5 trillion in debt, paying $1 million in interest payments every 2 minutes, 2 minutes, and somehow all of this is magically going to work without pain. The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Kasich] is my friend, but let us be honest with this. Let us be honest with the American people. This morning you told me you were willing to borrow $75 billion so you could give people a minuscule tax break. They have to pay that back. That is not a gift. That is just loan sharking. You are taking money from them, you are giving them a little bit back, and they are going to have to pay back a whole heck of a lot more of the time they pay the interest. Let us be honest with the American people. The second thing I want to mention, Mr. Speaker, is I have had a number of calls from home. I want to assure the people of south Mississippi that I was one of the first members of this body to be against putting American troops on the ground when President Bush asked me to do it, and I will remain opposed to that when President Clinton asks me to do it. I traveled to that part of the world a few weeks ago, traveled up to the border posts in Macedonia, had the privilege with having lunch with some fellow Mississippians, a young man from Tupelo in particular, and from four-star officers to sergeant majors. Every one of them privately told me we should not get involved there. That is not our fight. These people have been fighting each other for 700 years. The only peace they have known recently was the 45 or so years when Tito was in charge there, using the iron fist of communism, and he got the Bosnians to quit killing Muslims and the Muslims to quit killing Serbs and the Croatians to quit killing the others. As soon as the iron fist of communism was gone, they went back to killing each other. Mr. Speaker, I want to close by saying that they told me that the smart weapons that worked so well in Desert Storm will not work in the cold, wet fog of Bosnia. We are going to send those kids on the ground, a bunch of them are going to die, and nothing good will come of it.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, a few minutes ago, the gentleman from Hawaii [Mr. Abercrombie] extended me the courtesy of giving me one of his minutes. I would like to return that courtesy.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, how many additional people are there on the list, sir?

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I have a unanimous-consent request. I would like to extend the gentleman's time by 3 minutes so that he [[Page H 13767]] could yield to me so that I could have the opportunity to answer the question that he asked of me.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me. Mr. Speaker, people may be quick to forget that the first President who tried to get us involved in Bosnia was President Bush. When he did that, I was against it. I was against it because of a conversation I had with then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Colin Powell, when I asked him repeatedly whether or not we should send ground troops into Yugoslavia. He being a good soldier said, ``That is not my decision to make. I am going to do what I am told.'' Only after I cornered him and only after I asked him the question 5 or 10 times he said, ``No, we should not put ground troops in Yugoslavia. If you recall, I said that in front of Secretary Baker, and then-Secretary of Defense Cheney, in the meeting at the time when President Bush was trying to get us involved broke up.'' Folks, it did not make sense then. It does not make sense now. There is something worse than the sight of dead Yugoslavs. It is the sight of dead young Americans who were sent someplace with no clear-cut missions, who cannot tell the good guys from the bad guys, and who die in a needless cause.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, when I was a Mississippi State Senator, our secretary of the senate was a former Congressman by the name of Charlie Griffin who served up here during the Vietnam years. And I remember asking Charlie, how could you serve up there during the whole Vietnam war and there was never an effort made to declare it a war? How can you send kids off to what you know will be a war and not vote on war? Charlie's in heaven. And Charlie, I want you to know that I remember that conversation. I want you to know that we are getting ready to send kids into what is clearly a war. I am going to demand that we vote on it, because that is our job. Read the Constitution. It is not the President's. It is our job. We cannot run away from it. If you think we ought to do it, vote for it. I think we should not do it. I am going to vote against it.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, in comment to my last two Republican colleagues, No. 1, the coalition did have a plan to balance the budget with less debt than the Republican plan. Unfortunately, under the rules of debate today, approved by the majority, you did not allow it to be considered.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I would inquire of the gentleman, would it not be just as easy to buy them lunch?

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I say to the gentleman from California [Mr. Bilbray] that this is not a balanced budget. Our colleagues are borrowing more money because they are not balancing the budget. Now I love going home just as much as my colleague loves going home, but I think it is more important to stay here and balance the budget than to borrow more money. When I was in the gentleman's shoes exactly 6 years ago right now, I got a call from the Bush White House, and they asked me to vote for a one-time extension to the debt, and I honored then President Bush's request. Dog bit me once, dog's fault. Dog bites me twice, it is my fault. I will not vote again to raise the debt limit because this is not a balanced budget. If it was balanced, we would not be borrowing more money.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. I yield to the gentleman from California.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I wish my friend from New Mexico was right because the House, as my colleagues know, has not scheduled a vote on Bosnia. Mr. Speaker, a week and 1 day ago I was visiting the troops in what was Yugoslavia and what now is Macedonia. They expressed concern over the introduction of ground forces into Bosnia. In addition to all the other reasons not to put ground forces into Bosnia, it seems that from about December 1 until April 1, from 10 o'clock at night until 6 in the morning, the fog is so bad that smart weapons do not work. So we are putting troops in harm's way with no clear-cut purpose where there are three serial killers, one who has killed 15, one who has killed 10, and one who has killed 5. That is a waste of American lives. Mr. Speaker, it is our job to vote on this issue. Give this Congress the vote. Let us fulfill our constitutional responsibilities.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. But it is not in this bill?

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. I am sorry.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Chairman, I would like to point out to my colleague that just spoke that the chairman of the Committee on the Budget, Mr. Kasich just informed this body that the $500 tax credit is not in this bill. Mr. de la GARZA. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from North Dakota [Mr. Pomeroy].

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I would like to remind my friend from Pennsylvania that the chairman of the Committee on the Budget has informed this body that the $500 per child tax cut is not in his bill.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. As usual, my friend, the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. KASICH], is right. We do take the best parts of their plan, and we make it better. As far as our Nation's veterans, the coalition budget makes $1.5 billion less in spending cuts for veterans' programs. The leadership plan would extend the prescription drug co-payment and raise it by $1. The Coalition plan does not. But, most importantly, the coalition plan enacts the text of H.R. 580, a bill that has over 220 cosponsors, and provides much-needed military subvention, allows our military retirees to take their Medicare payments to a military hospital. This is a plan that has been endorsed by the Coalition of Military and Veterans Associations, the Retired Officers Association, the Fleet Reserve Association, the Air Force Association, the Army Association, the Marine Corps League, the Marine Corps Officers Association, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, the National Association of Uniformed Services and 30 other veterans' groups want to see this plan become law. We have a chance to do that by passing the coalition budget.