[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 8 (Wednesday, February 6, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E101]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


TIME FOR BUSH ADMINISTRATION AND CONGRESS TO DEAL WITH BUDGET NEEDS IN 
                          RESPONSIBLE FASHION

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EARL BLUMENAUER

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 6, 2002

  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, last year, President Bush presented and 
Congress passed his tax cut predicted on Americans paying down the 
deficit in the next ten years. There were unrealistic assumptions about 
Federal spending, claiming to protect Social Security and Medicare, 
with a trillion dollars left over for contingencies. Today, $4 trillion 
of those assumptions have disappeared. The White House has sent a 
budget to Congress that will never be presented for a vote because even 
the Republican leadership knows it would fail.
  It is time for the Bush administration and Congress to step back and 
deal with our critical budget needs in a reasonable fashion. The tax 
changes that were all scheduled to expire in less than 10 years should 
be reassessed in light of our stated priorities. We should not 
dramatically increase our debt, borrow against Social Security and 
Medicare, and abandon priorities for senior citizens and veterans that 
were clear and important commitments to American voters.
  There should be a careful reexamination of the proposed military 
budget to eliminate unnecessary weapons system that will not help us in 
our war on terrorism and that will not even be helpful fighting 
conventional wars. We should commit to reforming agricultural spending 
so it does not waste huge sums of taxpayers money while hurting the 
environment and consumers, not even benefiting most states and 
taxpayers.
  Last year I made it clear that the budget resolution did not have a 
pretense of reality and that the tax cut was based on seriously flawed 
premises. The events of this last year have revealed with a vengeance 
the accuracy of these predictions. Oregonians expect their political 
leaders to keep their commitments to reduce our multi-trillion dollar 
national debt, protect Social Security and Medicare, avoid reckless and 
irresponsible spending, and reform existing programs to give more value 
while saving money. Today's vote is a political charade that does not 
advance any of these objectives. The fact that it is brought forward as 
a suspension bill with no meaningful debate underscore the fact that 
even the Republican leadership is not serious about it. I hope that we 
can stop these meaningless political exercises and get on with the hard 
and serious work of budgeting for this year and America's future.

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