[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 7 (Wednesday, February 2, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H169]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                THE IMPORTANCE OF FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

  (Mr. SHERMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I join with my colleagues in the New 
Democratic Coalition in addressing the House today on the importance of 
fiscal responsibility. There is huge pressure on us. Pressure to adopt 
the huge tax cuts proposed by George W. Bush, the governor of Texas; 
pressure to adopt hundreds of new government programs. With today's 
surplus, we can afford some responsible tax cuts and we can afford some 
additional efforts to deal with intractable social programs.

                              {time}  1015

  But we should remember that the economic expansion that we are in now 
has already done more for the poor than 100 Great Society programs and 
has already done more for business than every tax gismo put into the 
1981 tax bill that was designed to use the Tax Code and tax cuts to 
incentivize business expansion.
  Mr. Speaker, we need fiscal responsibility and to pay down the debt 
for our seniors to keep Social Security solvent; for our children, so 
that we do not leave them a mountain of debt. But even perhaps, more 
importantly, we need fiscal responsibility. We need to be paying down 
the national debt in order to continue this unprecedented economic 
expansion.

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