[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 2 (Thursday, January 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H95-H96]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   WHAT IS RADICAL OR EXTREME ABOUT BALANCING THE BUDGET IN 7 YEARS?

  (Mr. DUNCAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, today some in the national media and some 
for partisan political purposes are accusing House Republicans of being 
extremists or radicals.
  If ever there was an inside the beltway line, this has to be it.
  Out in the country, the overwhelming majority of the people do not 
see anything radical or extreme about trying to balance the budget in 7 
years.
  Most people wonder why we cannot do it sooner than that.
  Most families have to balance their budgets every year.
  And then there are the so-called cuts. James K. Glassman, the 
Washington Post columnist who is not partial to either party, has 
called the Republican budget the ``No-Cut Budget.''

[[Page H96]]

  Federal spending has almost tripled in the last 15 years.
  One agency that we have supposedly gutted is the EPA, yet their 
spending has doubled in the last 10 years.
  Very few people out in the country, in the private sector, have had 
their salaries doubled or tripled in the last 10 or 15 years.
  So when people hear these crocodile tears coming out of Washington, 
or they read some misleading report about a cut, they should ask what 
that agency was getting 10 years ago, all years of very low inflation.
  And they should remember that Federal spending goes way up every year 
under the 7-year budget passed by the House.

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