[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 26 (Wednesday, February 12, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H429-H430]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE PRESIDENT'S BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pearce). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity 
to speak. I very much want to thank the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. 
Berry) for what he had to say. I too heard the President of the United 
States just a couple of weeks ago stand

[[Page H430]]

in this well and tell the American people we would not pass our 
problems on to the next generation. Maybe the President does not read 
his own budget. I would hope he does. He signs it before he sends it to 
us. Maybe the President is not aware that since the passage of his 
budget and his tax cuts that our Nation's debt has increased by 
$758,108,651,628.89. The first $2 trillion budget in American history 
incidentally was not submitted by a guy named Dukakis or a wild-eyed 
liberal named McGovern. It was submitted by George W. Bush. The first 
$2.25 trillion budget in American history was not submitted by a wild-
eyed liberal. It was submitted by George Bush.
  Mr. Speaker, I would hope someone in this body would explain to me 
that when the tax cuts take place with great fanfare, they take place 
during the middle of the day or during prime time TV. But when my 
Republican colleagues want to raise the debt limit and burden the next 
generation with these bills, that vote takes place about 3 or 4 in the 
morning. You will notice there will not be a reporter up there. Most of 
our constituents will be asleep. If they are proud of raising the debt 
and seeing to it that an even larger percentage of our Nation's budget 
is squandered on interest and we are squandering a billion a day, that 
is a thousand times a thousand times a thousand, then why will you 
schedule a vote to raise the debt at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning? Why 
will you change the House rules so that now, by just the adoption of 
the President's budget, we automatically raise the debt if you are 
proud of that?
  Mr. Speaker, please explain to me and explain to the American people 
why a group of people is elected to govern this country who promised to 
balance the budget, who promised to be fiscally responsible, yet in the 
over 1,400 days that Speaker Hastert has been Speaker of this House of 
Representatives, he will not even schedule one vote on a balanced 
budget amendment to the United States Constitution. We vote to condemn 
people across the world. We vote to commend people across the world. We 
have cast 25 votes since this session started. The way I figure it, 
thus far Congress is being paid $1,000 per vote this year. But you 
cannot find time, Mr. Speaker, to schedule a vote on the most important 
thing of all, which is balancing the American budget so that this 
generation does not ask the next generation to pay our bills.
  Mr. Speaker, answer back. Would you go out and buy a car, go out and 
buy a Lexus and say, I don't care what it costs, I don't care what the 
interest payments are because my grandkid is going to pay for it? Would 
you go buy a house? The same deal. I want the most expensive house in 
town; I don't care what the interest payments are because my kid is 
going to pay for it. That is the way you are running this country.
  What is particularly sad is that you promised the American people you 
would not do that. That is how you got in the majority. And then you 
flat turned around and did just the opposite. You will not let us vote 
on the balanced budget amendment, you are running up $300 billion a 
year deficits, and your only answer to that is more debt and more tax 
cuts.
  I will remind you, Mr. Speaker, in every other conflict in American 
history, when we asked our young people to put their lives on the line, 
the rest of Americans were asked to pay the bill, right then and there. 
And quite frankly, the wealthiest Americans were asked to pay the most. 
The inheritance tax was a wartime tax. The luxury taxes were all 
wartime taxes. The folks who got to stay home and enjoy the benefits of 
America paid while someone else did the fighting. But at least they 
paid.
  What do you say now, Mr. Speaker? You say those who have the most 
should pay even less and, by the way, the kids from across town, the 
kids from across the tracks, let them go get shot in Afghanistan, let 
them go get shot in Colombia protecting a pipeline owned by Occidental 
Petroleum. Let that kid get shot in Iraq and, by the way, send him the 
bill for this war when he gets home.
  Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of good people in this body. A majority 
of people in this body came to this body saying they were going to be 
fiscally responsible. Where are they now? Where are they going to be 
tomorrow when we vote on a $300 billion bill that not one Member has 
read, that no one has any idea what sort of stuff is buried in it? Mr. 
Speaker, where are they going to be tomorrow? Because if those people 
care about their country, they will let us vote on a balanced budget 
amendment. If they care about their country, they will vote down this 
bill tomorrow until they have had a chance to read it. If they care 
about our country, they will quit sticking our kids with their bills.

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