Harold Volkmer: “I wish to commend the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Buyer], who just spoke, for his steadfastness for an effort to balance…”

“I wish to commend the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Buyer], who just spoke, for his steadfastness for an effort to balance the budget, but I must disagree with him to the extent as far as he will go by saying that we must have a vision, and the vision is that we balance the budget in 7 years, and in the meantime, we make people suffer unendlessly. Those people who are suffering are innocent victims, not only Federal employees but contractors, private businesses, et cetera, in order to reach that goal, and it is not necessary. Mr. Speaker, I tell the gentleman from Indiana, he and others on his side had an opportunity to vote for the coalition balanced budget amendment that many of us supported, and they did not, for the sole reason that it did not include a big tax cut for the wealthy. That is the only reason. So, it tells me that what they really want is a big tax cut for the wealthy at the same time they want to cut back on Medicare, et cetera. But that is not really why I want to take the 5 minutes. I just want to emphasize that I, too, support a balanced budget in 7 years, but I do not want to give the tax cut and cut Medicare and all those other things at same time.”