William Tauzin: “Mr. Chairman, just in quick answer to my friend, the gentleman from Massachusetts, no, the amendment does not act as…”

“Mr. Chairman, just in quick answer to my friend, the gentleman from Massachusetts, no, the amendment does not act as Gramm-Rudman did to set caps and have automatic rescissions. It simply says that the authority of the President to line item any item of the appropriations would occur when the Congress appropriated funds in excess of the glidepath numbers set by CBO to take us to that balanced budget amendment. If, for example, this Congress this year approved the budget that President Clinton just submitted yesterday, we would be approving a $200 billion deficit for the next fiscal year. Under the glidepath amendment I suggested, the President would have the authority to line item 26 billion dollars' worth of appropriations out of that bill. He certainly could look for all the wasteful spending in $26 billion. If we approved his budget for the next 5 years, in each one of those successive years his line item authority would be $45 billion in 1997, $84 billion in 1998, $129 billion in 1999, and $141 billion in the year 2000. I want Members to think for a second about what authority and how that authority might be used when the President had the authority to line item 141 billion dollars' worth of appropriations out of this Congress. This amendment I am offering, Mr. Chairman, is by no means a weakening amendment.”