[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 16 (Tuesday, February 10, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H418]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE PERFECT STORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Berry) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, it is a sad day when we have to come to the 
well of this House and talk about the credibility gap of the President 
of the United States. It is the most disappointing thing to have the 
President issue a budget that is just simply fantasy. He just simply 
made up numbers.
  Mr. Speaker, there is no funding in the budget for Iraq and 
Afghanistan, and we know that that is going to have to be done. It 
fails to address the repeal of the AMT, which we know is going to have 
to happen if there is going to be any fairness left in the Tax Code. 
Then, he puts out an economic report on this Nation and talks about how 
good it is to outsource jobs, to shift our jobs overseas. Where is the 
credibility?

                              {time}  2000

  Over and over and over again, we are presented with a report or a 
request or a budget or appropriations bills that just simply do not 
have any credibility.
  Our Nation is facing the perfect economic storm in a very short 
period of time. We just saw the charts. The deficit is in a nose dive, 
and nobody knows what to do about it. The cost of the interest that 
each family will have to pay in this country in the next 10 years is 
going to reach over $10,000 per family, a tax that cannot be repealed. 
We have the President's own economists talking about what a good thing 
it is that we are outsourcing high-tech jobs from this country.
  Where is the credibility? None of this makes any sense.
  The President just the other day in New Hampshire made a speech and 
said the Federal Government's got plenty of money. We do not need any 
more money. We have got plenty of money.
  Where is the credibility? If we have got so much money, if the 
economy is doing so well, why are we broke? Why are we losing jobs? Why 
are the prospects for the next generation so dismal?
  When this generation came into office, the Blue Dog Coalition that I 
am a member of met with the Vice President first. And we said, Mr. Vice 
President, we want to work with you. If you want to cut taxes, let us 
talk about it. Let us figure out a way to cut spending so we can make 
this work and we do not get back in the deficit ditch, because many of 
the people in that room at that time had dealt with this before, and 
they knew how tough it was. And he said, You do not understand. We have 
the majority. We do not need you. We think you are nice people, but we 
just do not need you. And we are going to do what we want to do, and 
what we want to do is have massive tax cuts and let somebody else worry 
about the deficit.
  This is the same man that said in a meeting in the White House with 
the President, Deficits do not matter.
  Well, tell that to these families that are going to have to come up 
with $10,000 to pay the interest on the national debt as their part. 
But, again, where is the credibility? Over and over we see this.
  Then the Blue Dogs met with Mitch Daniels, the head of the Office of 
Management and Budget, and he explained it another way. Also, again, we 
did not understand. We had these massive surpluses. There was money 
flowing in the street, and he said this to us, You do not understand. 
We are going to have so much money, and after we cut taxes we are going 
to have even more. We are going to have so much money that we are going 
to pay off all of the national debt, and there will not be a safe place 
to invest your money. There will not be a U.S. Treasury bond anymore.
  I remember him saying that so well. I wish Mr. Daniels was here 
tonight to face this perfect economic storm that we are about to pass 
on to our children and grandchildren because I think it is a terrible, 
terrible thing; and I think it is time that there be some credibility 
introduced into the national debate, and it needs to be brought to the 
table by the President.

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