[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 33 (Wednesday, March 3, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H894]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   PRESIDENT'S BUDGET DOES NOT ADD UP

  (Mr. SCHAFFER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SCHAFFER. Mr. Speaker, the Congressional Budget Office, or the 
CBO, has issued a report confirming what everyone in Washington has 
known for 1 month now. The President's budget does not add up.
  The nonpartisan CBO has carefully documented exactly why the 
President's budget does not do what it says it does. The numbers in his 
budget are not even close. The spending caps are busted. Social 
Security is endangered. The surpluses are not what they appear to be.
  The administration has no response to this nonpartisan report. 
Through slick accounting and deception, the budget looks wonderful on 
paper. The problem is that there is not an economist to be found who 
can defend it. The double counting of imaginary money and the shifting 
of funds make a mockery of the budget promises signed into law just 2 
years ago in the bipartisan balanced budget agreement. That agreement 
was supposed to prevent exactly the kind of budgetary chicanery that is 
contained in the President's budget.
  The American people deserve better, Mr. Speaker.

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