[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 26 (Friday, February 12, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H648]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 USING BUDGET SURPLUS FOR SAVING SOCIAL SECURITY, NOT FOR RECKLESS TAX 
                                  CUTS

  (Mr. SHOWS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SHOWS. Mr. Speaker, having been a farmer in Mississippi, I know 
firsthand that you are not always going to have good weather come 
planting and harvest time. No matter what the forecasters say, 
sometimes it rains when they are predicting sunshine, and sometimes a 
simple shower becomes a storm, and before you know it your fields are 
flooded and your crops are ruined.
  Mr. Speaker, one tax cut plan that has been proposed attempts to 
predict the future of the American economy, but some Members insist on 
squandering away America's budget surplus today on a poorly planned 
across-the-board tax cut, when the responsible thing to do is use our 
budget surplus to save Social Security first and reduce the national 
debt.
  Saving Social Security should be our top priority for today's and 
tomorrow's seniors, and we must reduce the national debt and continue 
on the path of fiscal discipline because we have no idea what tomorrow 
will bring. We cannot predict our economic future any better than 
weather forecasters can predict the weather. We should call their 
sunshine promises what they really are: A strong chance of 
thunderstorms that will rain on America's seniors and let the Social 
Security Trust Fund go down the drain.

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