[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 46 (Thursday, April 23, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H2241]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             PAY-GO MUST GO

  (Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about another 
ridiculous Washington budget rule called pay-go. This rule promotes big 
government spending while Americans pay taxes, higher taxes, as a 
matter of fact. Under pay-go, if we eliminated every welfare big 
government program, we could not give any of those savings back to the 
American people in the form of tax relief because of our own rules. It 
means we have to raise taxes to lower taxes. We have to change our 
rules.
  Yesterday the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. J.D. Hayworth) and I 
introduced a bill just to do that. We must be able to cut big 
government spending, get Washington out of Americans' lives, and give 
the money back to the American people. After all, it is your dollars.
  It is wrong that we cannot, for example, cut a $3 million TV 
documentary on infrastructure awareness and use that same money to 
eliminate the marriage penalty tax. Do Members not think families are 
more important than welfare government programs?
  Pay-go is a stumbling block to good government. It must go.

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