[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 29 (Tuesday, March 17, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H1174]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      CONGRESS MUST NOT RETURN TO THE FAILED POLICIES OF THE PAST

  (Mr. GUTKNECHT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, for the first time in a generation, 
Congress will spend less than it takes in this year. We should take 
this good news with a dose of caution. I am afraid that President 
Clinton has a different opinion. With surpluses in sight, he has 
decided that the era of saying ``the era of big government is over'' is 
over.
  In his budget, the President proposes 85 new government initiatives 
costing $150 billion over the next 5 years. He pays for these programs 
with $129 billion in new taxes and user fees, raising taxes to their 
highest level since 1945. Even worse than that, the Clinton budget 
falls out of balance next year and breaks the spending caps of last 
summer's balanced budget agreement by $69 billion.
  The President's budget is built with higher taxes, deficit spending, 
bigger government and broken promises. My grandmother used to say, ``If 
you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you 
have always got.''
  In 3 short years we have cut taxes, eliminated deficits and kept our 
promises. We must not now return to the failed policies of the past.

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