[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 67 (Tuesday, May 20, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H2935-H2936]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            ATTEMPT TO OFFER A TRUE BALANCED BUDGET DEFEATED

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, this was to be the year of tough decisions 
in Congress, as they planned for a balanced budget, decisions between 
tax cuts, increases in military spending, stability for Medicare and 
Social Security, investment in transportation or education. It is 
incredibly difficult for Congress and the President to decide between 
these competing priorities and constituencies. We cannot have it all, 
as we learned in the early 1980's.
  So after months of wrangling and hand-wringing, Congress and the 
President did the predictable: They decided they did want it all and 
they wanted a balanced budget; big increases for the Pentagon, big tax 
cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and even a nod toward transportation 
and education.
  It is too good to be true. Guess what, it is not. The budget 
negotiators simply assumed an additional $225 billion of income; no new 
CBO baseline forecast, no new economic forecast. Let us assume our way 
out of this problem, $225 billion that does not exist and will not 
exist, and I am not being allowed to offer a budget that does not 
assume that today.

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