[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 135 (Thursday, October 1, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H9190]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             BUDGET SURPLUS

  (Mr. GIBBONS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, Will Rogers once said that you have to be 
an optimist to be a Democrat and you have got to be a humorist to stay 
one.
  Yesterday the President must have thought that he was using humor 
when he said that the creation of the surplus is due to the fiscal 
restraint and leadership of his administration. I believe the only 
thing that the President left out of his speech was a line from the 
Wizard of Oz, Toto, ``I do not think we are in Kansas anymore,'' 
because this make-believe yellow brick road theory that his 
administration is responsible for the surplus is nothing but simple 
pure comedy.
  I think of myself as a person who recognizes and appreciates humor. I 
certainly did not mind laughing at the President's stand-up comedy 
routine yesterday. But we have thrown back the curtain and we have seen 
that the voice behind the curtain is a very same voice whose only 
budget proposal projected a $241 billion deficit for this year.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time to get back to reality. It is the Republican 
Congress and Republican leadership that deserves the credit for this 
surplus. It was their commitment in 1995 to get this country on the 
right track back toward fiscal responsibility and fiscal stability.

                          ____________________