[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 130 (Friday, September 25, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H8840]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2000
            CUT TAXES ONLY AFTER TRULY BALANCING THE BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Snowbarger). Under a previous order of 
the House, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Minge) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. MINGE. Mr. Speaker, I share with the previous Member the 
commitment to finding a way to reduce taxes. Really the question is, 
however, not do we have a commitment to reduce taxes and believe that 
the bill that has been brought up or will be brought up tomorrow is a 
fair bill in that respect. The question is the timing.
  The previous speaker I think laid out quite clearly the issue, and 
that is to what extent are we selling a phony package to the American 
people by saying to them we have a surplus and we can balance the 
budget and go through a tax cut, without somehow compromising our 
commitment to stay the course and not add to our Nation's debt and not 
make it more difficult to solve the Social Security problems in the 
future?
  The simple answer is, we do not have a balanced budget. We are 
borrowing this year approximately $104 billion from the Social Security 
trust fund. This money is going into the general fund and supporting 
Federal programs.
  We are going to have a deficit of approximately $70 billion this 
year, an on-budget deficit of $70 billion.
  What does this mean? It means that we have not adequately planned for 
the future. We have not adequately planned for 1998, and we are 
proposing a tax cut when we have not balanced the budget. I think this 
is tragic.
  It also points up the fact that we do not yet even have a budget for 
the next fiscal year, and this too is tragic. Here we are, we are five 
months and 24 days past the deadline for having a budget agreement in 
Congress, and we do not yet have one. The House and the Senate have not 
agreed. No budget resolution.
  We do not have guidance for the Committee on Appropriations, we do 
not have guidance for the Committee on Ways and Means. The committees 
are free-lancing it. The Committee on Ways and Means has come out with 
a tax cut package. They do not know how it fits into a budget, because 
we do not have a budget. And here we are in this chamber saying to 
state and local government, act responsibly. Act fiscally responsibly, 
so when we grant you money, we know and you know that you are properly 
budgeting for your operations.
  We say to the United Nations, act fiscally responsibly; prepare a 
budget. We do not have a budget.
  We say to nonprofit entities and others that apply for Federal 
grants, have a budget. Show us your budget. We do not have a budget.
  This is a very, very unfortunate situation. The leadership in this 
body and on the other end of the building have not even appointed 
conferees to agree on what a budget resolution should look like and 
bring it back to each chamber for a vote. We have a failure of 
leadership. We need to address the question of what is the Federal 
budget to be for 1999, and we are only six days away from the beginning 
of the next fiscal year. No budget.
  I submit that the tax cut package, as attractive as it is and as much 
as we all would like to vote on it and go back home and beat our chest 
and say what wonderful Members of Congress we are, the tax cut package 
ought to be deferred in terms of its implementation until the 
leadership in this body has developed a budget for the next fiscal year 
and until we know that we have eliminated the scourge of the deficit 
spending that has haunted this government.
  We cannot afford to add to the deficit. We cannot afford to add to 
the debt. I know from talking to my friends and neighbors at home that 
they are all for tax cuts, but they also recognize that we have to act 
responsibly, and they want us to make sure we balance the budget first, 
and they want us to make sure we stop borrowing from Social Security.
  We are continuing to do that, and this is going to handicap our 
ability to fix the Social Security program, because all of that 
borrowing goes right into the U.S. Treasury and we are postponing the 
day of reckoning.

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