[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 5 (Tuesday, February 3, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H222-H223]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         DISAPPOINTMENT WITH THE PRESIDENT'S BUDGET SUBMISSION

  (Mr. MILLER of Florida asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, today the Committee on the Budget 
began the process of reviewing the 1999 budget submission of the 
President. It was very disappointing for a Member who is a very 
fiscally conservative Member to see a proposal that has more smoke and 
mirrors of how to spend more money.
  We had a budget agreement that we agreed to last year, and I had the 
pleasure of being at the South Lawn of the White House when the 
President signed that document in August. Less than 6 months later, we 
have $150 billion more in spending. I know they have a lot of neat 
little gimmicks of how to disguise the spending, but the bottom line is 
it is not in the spirit of the budget agreement that was signed last 
year and in the reconciliation bill that was signed into law by the 
President. That was not the intent of the agreement that we worked on 
last year.
  For those of us who went along with that agreement, knowing that we 
would have to have tight spending controls this coming year, we feel 
very, very disappointed; and I feel it is not right to try to get us to 
move ahead with more spending programs at this time.
  One of the ways to justify it is this tobacco settlement. I am not a 
pro-tobacco Congressman. I would be classified as an anti-tobacco 
Congressman. But the point is, we should not begin spending money until 
we have it in our hands.
  We do not know what kind of agreement will be reached. The 
administration claims they are going to send one up in a few weeks, but 
we do not have a plan before us right now. So how are we going to have 
this money and why are we spending it before we have it in

[[Page H223]]

our hands? I think it is very risky and irresponsible to try to spend 
that money.
  I also am very concerned that what is going to drive a tobacco 
settlement is that we want to spend money. We need to spend more money 
on day care, so I will settle any type of tobacco agreement. That will 
be very risky and dangerous. The tobacco settlement should stand on its 
own.
  Yes, there are going to be some revenues there; and, yes, we are 
going to share some of that with the States. We have to address the 
whole liability issue, which is a great concern to all of us. There are 
a lot of legal fees involved that are going to be questioned.
  It is going to be a complicated process. It is going to be worked on 
in a bipartisan fashion, and we need to move forward on that. But let 
us not spend that money now. It is not part of the budget. We do not 
have the money in our hands. So to try to say this is the reason we 
want to have a budget agreement so we can spend money on these new 
programs is just plain wrong.
  So I am very disappointed that this administration sent up a budget 
that, because of smoke and mirrors, they classify things as mandatory 
spending. They are using waste and fraud as a way to save money, and we 
will spend it even though we do not have it in our hands. Let us stop 
playing tricks with the American people and let us talk straight with 
them.
  Let us live with the agreement that we agreed to last year. Let us 
live within the spending caps. Let us wait and see if we have a 
surplus. And when we have the surplus, my opinion personally is that we 
need to address the debt problem, start applying it to the debt. We do 
have a Social Security problem and a transition cost as we reform 
Social Security. And, number three, we should give tax cuts to the 
American people.
  So I think we should address that once we have the surplus in hand. 
Until we have that surplus in hand, there is no way that we can 
continue doing that.

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