[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 171 (Wednesday, November 1, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H11591]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          KEEPING OUR PROMISES

  (Mr. HOKE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, apparently the previous speaker does not 
understand the difference between the debt and the deficit. We are not 
talking about paying off a debt that it has taken some 40 years to run 
up. We are talking about balancing the budget and bringing the deficit 
from $200 billion down to zero.
  No question about it, when you have a $5 trillion debt, it would be 
very difficult to pay that off in a 7-year period. Unfortunately, this 
budget does not do that. It does not, in fact, pay off any of it, but 
what it does do is it gets us down to zero in terms of deficit.
  Last week we did pass a balanced budget bill for the first time in 25 
years. In doing that, we kept our promise. We kept our promise.
  The President made a promise 3 years ago he was going to balance the 
budget in a 5-year period. He did not keep that promise.
  In fact, he gave us a bad budget agreement in 1993 that showed $250 
billion deficits as far as the eye can see.
  We made the promise to balance the budget. We kept that promise, and 
that is probably the most important promise that we could have kept.
  Because what does it mean? It means lower interest rates. It means 
more prosperity. It means more jobs. It means we are not going to be 
taxing our children for our own profligacy.

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