[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 29 (Wednesday, March 7, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H654]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                TAX CUTS

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, unlike the Soviet Union or the old kings of 
Europe, this country has always believed in limited government; but 
some here in Washington, D.C. seem to have changed their minds about 
that. Over the next 10 years we are going to collect more than $5.5 
trillion more than we need. That is almost an unbelievable amount of 
money. It is more than we need to pay off our public debt, shore up 
Social Security, fix Medicare, implement the President's education 
plan, and cover just about every other reasonable expense we have. Even 
then we will have more than $2.5 trillion left over.
  It is almost unbelievable that some in this body think we should keep 
that money in the Treasury until we can find something else to spend it 
on. This money is not the government's money. We are not supposed to 
take more than we need. We are supposed to be legislators, not thieves. 
We need to give this money back to the taxpayers who paid it. We need 
to pass the President's tax cut plan, and we should do it quickly.

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