[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 130 (Thursday, September 30, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H9028]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IT IS TIME TO GROW UP, SIT DOWN, AND COME UP WITH A BUDGET
(Mr. GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to address the
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, for days I have stood here on the
floor also sitting and watching on C-SPAN my Republican colleagues
attack the President's budget and attack Democrats for spending Social
Security dollars, and I knew they were playing fast and loose with
their own spending plans.
First, they declare the census to be an emergency so it does not come
under the budget. Then they pass a tax cut bill that they promised but
they cannot deliver on over the next 10 years. Then they float the idea
that, well, we cannot do it so let us add a 13th month; some of the
most ludicrous things we have ever heard. Now they finally are finding
out that what they have been saying and the height of cynicism for our
government is that they are spending the Social Security surplus, $18
billion. It is reported in today's Washington Post and we can see it
here but I am sure it will be in all of our local newspapers. It is
just in the national media and our local media, $18 billion in Social
Security trust funds they are going to use. Yet they have been accusing
the President and the Democrats of doing it.
Why do my colleagues not grow up, and we will sit down and work this
out between us instead of trying to make hype out of it? Why do we not
just pass a bill that will take the trust funds out of the unified
Federal budget?
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