[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 5 (Tuesday, February 3, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H111]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PRESIDENT'S BUDGET IS BUSINESS AS USUAL
(Mr. KINGSTON asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, a year ago the President proclaimed the
era of big government is over. And then recently he said, it is now the
end of an era, meaning we have a surplus and we had a lot of ways to
spend it. So I guess the era that big government was over was only
about an 11-month period of history in the United States. Now we are
back to the government spending as usual.
The President came on like gangbusters, Santa Claus on Christmas
morning, with all kinds of high taxes, new spending programs, old
Democrat stuff, tried and true methods of buying blocs of voters one at
a time.
One thing the President forgot in his speech, he said the deficit had
11 zeros. Actually, the debt has more zeros than the deficit. I believe
the President confused the debt with the deficit, and he thinks we have
paid off the debt.
Mr. Speaker, the children of the United States of America, and all
others, are faced with over a $5 trillion debt. We have got to pay down
the debt. That should be the highest priority with the surplus.
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