April 25, 1979
Page 8647
Mr. BRADLEY. Mr. President, I do not intend to take a great deal of the time of the Senate, but it seems to me that the consideration of the first concurrent budget resolution this year should not conclude without one comment. At times during the debate on this resolution, I sense that we may have gotten a little ahead of ourselves in the budget process, as I have come to understand how it works in my admittedly short time in the Senate.
It seems to me that the debate on this resolution and on many of the amendments would be better suited to an appropriations bill, or at least to the second concurrent resolution. We are not setting spending limits now, nor are we appropriating any funds. The first concurrent resolution merely sets budgetary goals that are not binding on the Congress and that have in fact been modified every year, as Congress has progressed through the various steps of the budget process.
The goals set in this resolution are extremely restrictive; they are over $11 billion lower than even the administration's tight budget for fiscal year 1980. A lean Federal budget does have some symbolic value in helping to fight inflation, but many experts agree that it provides little additional help beyond that. To the extent that the budget goals proposed in the first resolution remain unchanged later in the year, Federal fiscal policy will force those in our society who are least able to absorb financial sacrifice to bear the heaviest burden in our symbolic effort to fight inflation. This would be bad enough if we could look forward to a healthy economic future.
Unfortunately, the situation is the reverse. Current predictions are for an economic slowdown and increasing unemployment over the next year. I do not need to elaborate how unemployment disproportionately affects various economic and racial groups. It will be our poor, our minorities, our youth, and our unskilled, low-wage workers who will experience the hardships in far greater numbers than the rest of us. If by some chance Congress does ultimately enact a budget in 1980 that comes close to the proposed first concurrent resolution as reported from the Senate Budget Committee, and if this occurs in the context of rising unemployment and continued inflation, the results will be very harsh and quite unjust. In my view, the budget goals proposed in the resolution now under consideration will indeed need to be modified as we move through the budget process later this year.
As chairman of the Subcommittee on Revenue Sharing, Intergovernmental Revenue Impact, and Economic Problems, I have some responsibility to see to it that legislation reported to Chairman LONG, the full committee and the Senate will seek to alleviate the worst aspects of economic stagnation and unemployment through well thought out legislation on targeted fiscal assistance and countercyclical and general revenue sharing. I intend to do that, and I do not regard the first concurrent resolution, as reported, to be binding on the Finance Committee or the full Senate as it moves to the consideration of this legislation.
There can be no argument that the first concurrent resolution in any way precludes consideration of revenue sharing legislation that does not exceed the budget totals finally set in the second concurrent resolution. Moreover, these legal requirements should be reemphasized in the context of the politics of the moment, when it seems that the fever is so irresistible for cutting programs without much regard for either their merits or the human needs they meet. I can only hope that a more serious effort is made to address these very real and serious problems by the time that we begin consideration of the second concurrent resolution and the number of fiscal year 1980 appropriations bills.
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, the Senator from New Jersey is correct that the spending targets in the first budget resolution for fiscal year 1980 represent recommendations to the Congress. We expect, however, that once they are adopted by the Congress, the Congress will do its best to live within them.
The Senator is also correct that the Finance Committee has the leeway to recommend its own desired mix of legislation, which can include countercyclical and targeted fiscal assistance, so long as it stays within the given spending targets. The most important element of the budget resolution is the overall and functional targets. It is well recognized and understood by all that changing conditions may dictate a need for a different mix of spending legislation than was contemplated at the time the first budget resolution was enacted.