[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 10, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H573-H574]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     THE NEW DEMOCRATIC COALITION STANDS FOR FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, the new Democratic coalition, several of my 
colleagues along with myself, have come to the floor to speak in favor 
of fiscal responsibility. We are faced with a philosophical and fiscal 
choice this year, and it is a wonderful choice to make. It is a choice 
on how we deal with a surplus.
  I was a member of the Committee on the Budget, and in 1997 we came up 
with a plan to make sure that we eliminated the Federal deficit by the 
year 2002. Many scoffed that that plan, although it was adopted by this 
House, could not possibly achieve the objective by 2002. It is with 
some pride and some great hope that we are now, not in 2002 but 1999, 
wondering what to do with the Federal surplus. I believe we should 
continue the same fiscal policies that got us the surplus.
  The choice before us is major across-the-board tax cuts that we 
cannot afford, or major Federal spending programs of tens of billions 
of dollars that we cannot afford, or alternatively, modest tax cuts and 
saving the lion's share of the surplus. It is that latter course, the 
course of fiscal responsibility, that is better not only for social 
security and Medicare but also for the business community, for middle-
class families, and for the poor.
  As a Democrat, many of my years were spent, and I got active in 
politics relatively early, focused on programs like the Great Society, 
programs designed to help the poor and the dispossessed, and make sure 
that we are brought together as one Nation.
  But when I got to Congress we all focused on fiscal responsibility, 
not new government programs, as a way of achieving a great society. We 
were right to do so, because the greatest possible program for the poor 
is a national economy that is creating new jobs. What more proof do we 
need than just 2 days ago the announcement that Hispanic unemployment 
and African American unemployment reached the lowest levels in the 
history of those statistics being kept in America?
  Lyndon Johnson would be proud, perhaps, that we achieved a goal that 
was always out of sight for the Great Society, but now is in sight for 
a fiscally responsible society. The best thing we can do for the poor 
is not necessarily a new Federal program, but it is keeping this 
Federal expansion going. Likewise, it is the best thing we can do for 
the business community and for middle-class families.
  Yes, the business community likes and deserves and wants a tax cut. 
But today's market of, or nearly, a thousand on the Dow was not 
achieved in the 1980s when we had huge tax cuts, most of them focused 
on the rich and the business community and the corporate sector.
  We have achieved near record levels and record levels on Wall Street 
not because of the lowest possible taxes, but because of the most 
responsible Federal government we have seen in modern history. While 
Europe, each country in Europe, tends to run a deficit of

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two or three percent of its GDP, we in the United States have shown 
that democracy can go hand-in-hand with fiscal responsibility.
  As for middle-class families, middle-class families deserve and need 
a tax cut. We voted for one in 1997, and I hope to provide targeted tax 
cuts for middle-class families and be part of providing that today.
  As this chart illustrates, middle-class families will benefit just as 
much or more from a reduction in interest rates as they will from the 
tax cuts that are being proposed. This chart demonstrates that even 
with an average-priced home, and they are twice as expensive in my 
district, the savings is $1,860 from a fiscally responsible budget.

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