[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 154 (Thursday, November 4, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H11487-H11488]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONESTY IN BUDGET NUMBERS

  (Mr. SANDLIN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SANDLIN. Mr. Speaker, it is time for responsible budgeting in 
this country. It is time to pay the country's debt. It is time to take 
Social Security completely off budget. Mr. Speaker, we have heard a lot 
of bragging from the other side of the aisle about stopping the raid on 
Social Security. The only problem is that the facts just do not back up 
the bragging.
  The Republicans would like us to believe that the Congressional 
Budget Office has said that their budget would

[[Page H11488]]

protect the Social Security surplus. What they forget to mention is it 
is only true when the Republican leadership tells CBO to change their 
numbers. How convenient.
  When the Republicans wave around the CBO certification that they are 
protecting Social Security, they conveniently forget to mention the 
footnote that says that the estimate includes, ``reductions applied to 
CBO's estimates for congressional scorekeeping purposes.'' In other 
words, the Republican leadership had to tell CBO to change their 
estimates to reduce the estimates of spending to make their numbers 
work. They use these estimates when they are convenient; but when they 
do not like it, they use other estimates. It is time for responsible 
budgeting.

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